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Why am I hearing Bones in my head with this one? Dammit ATX, I'm a tax preparer, not a ....

Just wait till your client list gets bigger... The "boop" sound is new. However, when working on tax returns, I keep the volume down very low or muted. Also, the sound is not unlike other sounds for e-mails, messages on facebook etc... I will work on a .wav file for everyone to put in their computers for that tone. That is a WONDERFUL idea. I might just add the file to my next e-mail to tech support as well...

Jack, irs.gov under minimum essential coverage lists Medicare Part A.

Seen it before. Either knowingly, unknowingly, or because of bad advice or naivete, an improper method IMO. Should have been added to taxable wages on their paychecks. If the employer is only "renting" computers from their employees, then the employee relationship triggers the "rent", so I can see no way to consider it separate from the employment relationship. The employee is in a bad spot. Convincing the employer to handle it the proper way is not likely to happen as the employer will give the old "we have always done it this way and have never had an issue" reply. How it is handled on this return is one thing (I guess Line 21 might make me comfortable enough for a one time deal), but I would probably spend the time with the employee to enlighten them.

Was working on one of my workstations and got the server error in the middle of a return. Just pressed enter and everything was fine. This is just a cheap (<$500) ASUS I bought as an input workstation. We use online backup and remote access, both inbound and outbound, a lot, so we have a ton of network traffic, and do experience traffic jams where web pages won't load, but I checked with my power users and they have not had the server error once. But I just wanted to report that I have seen the error. There was a loud 'boop' when it happened, so it wouldn't matter if it had popped under, I still knew something had occurred. Maybe you can find out which window sound is played when this error occurs and change it to a recording of Jack yelling "DAMMIT ATX!" I know, it's not funny, but if there was a distinct sound, preparers would know what has happened even if they don't see the error.

Terry, There is a quirk in the CA Community Property Laws that you need to know about when splitting income. The community ends on the day the couple split with no intention of reconciling. It is a facts and circumstances test. So, if they split in May, you would only have 5 months of community income, regardless of when the divorce is final. Tom Newark, CA

STATEMENT OF WAIVER OF CLAIM OF SUPPORT.pdf

In Return Manager, click on the Forms tab, then choose Customize Master Forms. Add the 1040EF form. Go to the checkbox to decline and check it, then save the return. This will cause it to always be checked on any returns you open in the future. This feature can be used on any form where you choose or input exactly the same thing every time. I use it extensively.

With all the chaos surrounding Forms 1095, do you REALLY think the IRS will be willing, or able, to crosscheck this information? Why do you think they keep making extension of time to file for all the parties involved, and said that if the taxpayer gets a 1095 that does not agree with what was filed, amendment is not required? There are a couple of old military terms that fit the ACA/1095 debacle. Since this is a public site, I will not use them.

This is a minor irritant, but nonetheless, WTH does form 8965 print ahead of Form 1040 when it's Attachment Sequence No. 75??? Just why? I hate stuff like that. And the font on the letters. Well, everything about the letters. Alrighty, thanks, just wanted to get that out.

This practice has a very long history with lots of court cases. For example, Auto Mechanics receiving "Tool Rental" for use of their personal tools. Also, Timber Fallers receiving "Saw Rental" for the use of their own Chain Saw. There are actually firms that market this approach as a way of reducing employment taxes. The employee will have to report on Schedule C - EZ and pay the SE Taxes. The IRS has always taken the position that the rental of personal property is SE Income and IRS has always prevailed in the numerous court cases in this area.

Exactly. My reading of the IRS rules is that if one employee met the test, you owe on all. (Plus we had the whole issue of she would have been easily over the $1900 had she not been out sick for two weeks.)

Lets address the earnings issue. Is the $1900.00 rule per employee. So that if one was over and the other one not over we only owe SS and MT on the one that is over. But lets look at b giving that one may meet the $1000 rule. So does this mean that we owe everything on everybody?

Look at pages 12-13 of the pub. Under when to report gains or losses, there are various scenarios but all say to deduct a loss or declare a gain when the amount is determinable, i.e., reimbursed. You can safely ignore the insurance proceeds at this point in time. I think you are letting the disaster area designation confuse you--that allows people to deduct losses in a prior year so they get some money to rebuild sooner. You don't know if you have a gain or loss, so wait until you do. I had a case where a 20+ unit (retail and residential) building burned to the ground. The insurance paid some but didn't want to honor the replacement cost part of the policy (that the clients had paid for for 40+ years). The parties went back and forth for over two years until they finally settled. This was the partnership's only asset, which was now gone, but I had to keep the entity open for 3 tax years until they got their final insurance payment. It was a huge gain too, and the partners found it on their K-1s three years after they essentially went out of business.

I think you guys are reading too much into the law. What the author above is saying is that you can have a 105 MERP that is in conjunction with a Minimum Essential Coverage Health plan. The key is that you have the MECHP in place. If you do that, you can wrap the MERP around it and still be in compliance with the ACA. This is what I have understood and I think that is all the author is saying. just my 2 cents Tom Newark, CA

The nice thing is, if you do this, it will be checked as you want it, but it can still be changed in any return by unchecking it in that return. Effectively, you are setting a 'default', but are still able to adjust if there is a special situation.

Yep, many of them do come back, and if they do you can then raise their fees, or decline to take them back if you choose.

Amen!

Mini Update: I've emailed the Policy Division explaining my concern about the credit for taxes paid in other states and was told they respond within 3 days. I expect to hear something soon as my email was sent Sunday evening. In the interim, however, I reviewed RS 47:33 and feel more comfortable than before as the requirements stated in RS 47:33 (A) (4) has the word "or" between each requirement rather than the word "and" which makes a HUGE difference in the meaning of the law. RS 47:33 (A) (4) reads the following: (4) The credit shall be allowed only if the other state provides a similar credit for Louisiana income taxes paid on income derived from property located in, OR from services rendered in, OR from business transacted in Louisiana. NOTE: I emphasized the word "OR" above by capitalizing and underscoring it myself. From the little bit I have learned about laws is that there is a big difference, of course, in the meaning of "or" and "and" when used alone (rather than and/or). I paniced as I initially read it to mean in order to take the credit on taxes paid to another state (such as from work performed in that other state), ALL of the requirements had to be met. From reading it again, I now interpret it to mean that if a taxpayer takes a credit paid to another state from work performed in that state, then that other state must allow their residents to do the same when they (their residents) work in Louisiana. The credit for taxes paid to another state based on income derived from property in that other state is a moot case as that part of the original act expired in the year of 2000. My initial concern was based on the instructions for Schedule G - Nonrefundable Credits in regard to Credits for Taxes Paid to Other States. After reviewing the instructions again, I'm not going to kick myself this time as the way the instructions are written, it can be taken to mean what I had originally thought. Who knows how the LDR would have interpreted it in processing returns.... Again, I'll update when I hear directly from the Policy Division. Hopefully, they will provide us with a list of those states that are approved for Louisiana taxpayers to receive the credit. In a telephone conversation yesterday with a lady with the Policy Division, I was told no list exists. OK....so how do they know if they can accept the credits paid to another state on a Louisiana tax return???

Betcha they could make a dent in the national debt just by auditing all DIY returns. It doesn't take a genius to get audited, right?

I thought so, but boy it sure is nice to bounce a question like that out here on this forum just to be sure . Thank you!!!!!!

Yes. Support isn't taken into consideration for determining whether a person is a qualifying child for the EIC. It's the residency, relationship, age, and joint tests that are used for the EIC. In your client's case, the child is under 24 yrs of age at the end of the tax year and is considered a full-time student for that year if he or she was a full-time student for at least 5 months of the tax year. The child also meets the residency test because that requires the child live in the home more than 1/2 the tax year.

I think this has more to do with the announcements Microsoft made at CES about the work they've done to improve efficiency and performance with new generations of Intel processors. It sounds to me that they're saying that they won't back port those advancements to Windows 7 from Windows 10, but that shouldn't be a surprise. My guess is that Windows 7 will continue to work on the new chipsets, but you won't get all of the fancy optimization that come baked into the latest version. Intel provides the drivers for their chipsets, and it's up to Intel which operating systems they want to support, not Microsoft.

Form 2120

I have found that the toggling to "View" mode is lightning-fast and not nearly the botheration I had originally worried about before I switched, several years ago. In general, data entry and return progress evaluation are significantly faster for my office than ATX ever was. Their tech support - on those rare occasions I have needed it - is unsurpassed. Phone gets answered in a couple of rings by people who know the software AND taxes. They make the refund policy very clear - IF you read it. The interface is - in my opinion - clear and reasonably intuitive. Yes, some areas (and especially their CWU program) still feel a little "DOS-y" but I worked with DOS for years so that is not an issue for me. Moral of the story: I switched to Drake and only regret that I had not done it years earlier. YMMV. Please don't use a broad brush to bad-mouth Drake, though -- because I could do an equal job of bad-mouthing ProSeries, starting with their ownership by Intuit (which company I detest with a deep loathing for many reasons) and continuing through one of the worst interfaces I have ever encountered. People have different opinions and ways of working. You didn't like Drake. You didn't read the refund policy before trying. OK. Fine. Warnings to others - no problem. Berating a solid vendor for not being what you wanted them to be - seems unprofessional to me.