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Something has gone right this year; standings for our weekly pistol competition league are in for the year. I had the third-highest average in the league for the year (of people who met the other criteria for awards; two with higher averages only shot in a couple of matches so were not qualified)! GBPL Standings 2015-2016

Maybe this would be a good place to mention and to celebrate the birthday of this forum. According to the membership list from way back, Eric "joined" on 4/9 and the next earliest was KC on 4/11 along with many others of you. So, the official birthday when it opened to everyone might be tomorrow when this forum will be 9 years old! Happy Birthday everyone, and many thanks to Eric. I hope to enjoy many more happy years here with you all! to the Community and love to everyone that makes this place the best.

She may be now.

.... I'm glad Rita's not in a pistol club... just sayin' is all...

Gal who told me her doctor boss provided her health insurance (ok sounds reasonable) just came in with a letter from IRS: “Where’s your Form 8962, you got the PTC, so give your beautiful tax preparer your Form 1095-A and quit being liar." ISTG that’s what the letter says. Pretty much. And you know what'll happen? She'll probably get EVEN MORE PTC...

Thank you for all your help and helpful posts over these many years. Best wishes for happiness and excellent health. Terry

That last one is one reason Catherine and I have Smith and Wesson. Just kidding.

The last one is one reason I have Square.

Note to self: try to stay on Catherine's 'nice' list.

Congratulations! See, there is more to life than taxes. Sell, retire and enjoy other pursuits that make you happy and at which you clearly are talented.

"I broke even on my business." "I am doing this for a business, not as a hobby." "I'll be in tomorrow to pay my bill." My favorite - "I forgot my checkbook."

Right. The SE loss reduces earned income. No credit.

The initials are more important because your clients and acquaintance-level colleagues respect them. They are meaningless without the actual knowledge and skills to back them up. I got the EA over a decade ago to represent clients coming to me with prior-year problems. My degree is in earth & materials sciences but I put myself through college doing bookkeeping and accounting. Worked for an agency and got to work in so many different fields and that has been really useful. I've seen know-nothing bookkeepers make a muck of things. I've seen know-too-much bookkeepers make a muck of things (including on purpose, by theft). I've seen know-it-all CPA's make a very impressive muck of things. I've seen CEO's make a muck of things (the one I'm thinking of, by embezzlement) and the CPA in charge of financial statements to the board most definitely did NOT want to follow up on my very leading questions. I've found errors in audited financial statements prepared by a high-end chartered accountancy firm, brought in by a client with interests in a foreign company. I resolved issues in a month that led a guy with a Master's in Accounting a merry chase for three years. I always figure, there are no differential equations involved, so how hard can accounting be? The answer: not terribly IF you are willing to look with an open mind, dig into and DO the messy grunt work, and not muck with things-as-they-stand until you understand what already works and what does not. The big issue with EA's and corporations is that it's really hard to do anything but tiny corporations as a one-person shop, and still serve other clients. That's where a CPA firm comes in handy - they tend to be larger. They also tend to work with companies big enough to have a competent in-house accounting staff. The alphabet salad means nothing if you can't back it up. Lack of alphabet salad means (or should mean) nothing if you can produce the results. And the alphabet salad I like best is on my Constitution teaching cards; "Catherine G White, CLFBM." Came from the first big presentation I did, years ago. Lady who had hired me to talk to her group (and was very surprised at my lack of height; had expected me to be much taller) told me the next day that I was a "cute little fire-breathing munchkin" and I just loved that.

Do you both fertilize the back yard the same way?

Pacun. I will not charge them, I want nothing to do with their return. What makes me mad is to many people want their tax prepare to "Use the numbers from last year". Well I'm not putting down $11,000 in med expenses unless they tell me they actually had $11,000 in medical expenses. They want us to not only make things up for them but they want us to do it for less money then anyone else. I SICK OF PEOPLE, that's all

Well, you could shoot it... or Rita could give it a hug... It's a bad time for printer problems, I know!

OK, JJ, we can't "like" your post with the last sentence there. I still love your hair, though.

You have no idea how long it took me to grow it like that

4) My yard sale crap is worth thousands. 5) Tuition is killing me. (Made 3k in excess scholarships. I wish I could get killed like that.)

No expense for fertilizer, that's why you have a profit.

Repeat lies: 1) It's the same as last year. 2) That can't be right. I didn't make any money. 3) I use it 100% for business purposes.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, KC! I hope you have a fabulous day.

.........................................

Happy Birthday, KC.

Instructions for Form 2441 say you have to have earned income. A loss would prohibit earned income, would it not? "https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i2441/ar01.html#d0e189 And, I'm not with you on the part where if you have 3K in expenses "the computer will correctly use only 1K when calculating the credit". Does your computer know something that mine doesn't?

Anyone who wants a walk-through of MA can call me at 781-899-2200 x1.

I like your final word. I think Bob Farmer (not his real name) and I are the only farmers in this town who make money at farming. Heck, we should both have rentals. We'd show em how to make money at that, too.

That is amazing! We've been colleagues - and friends - for so long and many of us go back to 1997-98 with Saber and William and barbecue and many fond memories. Well, a few grumbles along the way but how wonderful we've been there all this time to support and cheer each other, celebrate and mourn, smile and cry, gripe and groan and know that every day others are out there/here who truly understand and only want to help. Celebrate and share the love, indeed!

Thanks to all of you on this board. I learn so much here, plus laugh my butt off many times a day. I have been struggling with the self-employed health insurance deduction for a client that has ACA coverage with APTC and declined employer health insurance (which was outrageous, so it was OK). The worksheets in the Pubs and Rev Proce, just made me nuts. I found an awesome thread from 2015 with Bulldog Tom and Judy, among others that helped me in plain English and made me not feel so stupid. I guess I must try to make things too hard, but when so much affects everything else, I just get so frustrated. The numbers are so easily manipulated and there is EIC on this too, so I go over it with a fine-toothed comb, because I don't want my neck on the line for preparer penalties. Bonnie

They say a fool and his money are soon parted. The rest of us wait until April 15. Oh. That’s soon, isn’t it? Hmmm.

Come here, little printer, let me love you...

I hope!

Nope, they can't take the credit if the one looking for a job is unsuccessful in gainful employment. From the instructions: 2. The care was provided so you (and your spouse if filing jointly) could work or look for work. However, if you did not find a job and have no earned income for the year, you cannot take the credit or the exclusion. But if you or your spouse was a full-time student or disabled, see the instructions for lines 4 and 5, later.

I am glad you didn't prepare her taxes otherwise you would have to deal with it. Good advice though.

Happy Birthday, KC! When I grow up I want to be just like you!

~waves to say Hi~ I saw you on here! I worked until midnight, took a nap, gave dog meds, and was just going to bed when you were getting started! We sure are bunch with some crazy hours!

Happy Birthday! I hope you have a good one.

*Singing to you, my friend!*

The grass is green on both sides of my fence!

The service never batted an eye because the service never took a close look at it. It was either electronically filed or inputted by a data entry clerk whose job description does not include examining tax returns. Just last week I was talking to a "small farmer" who has been using turbo tax for 5 years. Her comment was "I must be doing it right since I have never heard back from the IRS." (note: eye roll emoticon goes here).

I agree with the above!

Your first line says it all for me too. And the rest....I'm right there with you Bonnie. One week to go and we can turn up the music. Bill

No, you don't get to write off the remaining undepreciated amount simply because the person stops farming. It is retired and out of service, and transferred to personal use if they kept it. The only time depreciation continues is if the property is temporarily idle due to a lack of market for the farm's product, otherwise depreciation stops at the time the equipment is no longer in service. When the person sells the asset, they have basis to offset the selling price and will receive the benefit of that remaining amount you are currently trying to deduct. At the time of sale, it will result in higher basis, lower gain or more of a loss.

Preclude. That's the word. Yes, I have been thinking about it this whole time.

He had $5,000 in box 10 which I entered. He spent over $12,000 for a full-time preschool program while both parents worked. But, one spouse was self-employed and had a loss for 2015 (profit in 2014, so it hadn't come up last year). Add back the $5,000 to wages, computer does that for me. Just hoping there was some help for the SE spouse with no taxable income -- but, I hadn't found any myself. Thank you all for confirming.

Pacun, 3K is the max per child, but the $5K might be for more than one child. Best practice is to enter correct W2 information, correct expense information BY CHILD, and then double-check the calculation. I think I see what you are saying, but you are assuming 1 child. Also, I'm not sure why you would ever enter $3k if $5k was the actual expense, unless for some reason you were using some type of software that did not factor in the maximum per child. I think the best approach is to always go with the actual numbers and then double-check yourself against the tax rules to make sure the calculation is accurate.

DISAGREE! Ethics and morals do NOT change with time. In my opinion, adopting this philosophies of "...everybody else is doing it, so it must be ok..." "...do whatever you need to do to make the extra dollar..." are a major reason for the decline of respect, morals, ethics and self-reliance in our society to the point that those traits are rapidly becoming extinct.

I could vouch for that as I know exactly what you mean. Been doing them for the last 20 years and I still have to think about it, especially that line 14 is correct. You get prompted to open the R/NR form, sometimes it's appropriate, sometimes not. But what I've done, to remember year over year, is make a note in my state instructions file to help for next time. I hope you do the same, so if they come back to bite you next year, you'll be happy you noted it and that 45 minutes will become 5. Catherine could probably fight them with one arm tied behind her back!