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Just using Abby's post to share some information. At one point this was true --- today, due to many changes in the governments need to get more money from us, many sales tax departments have started (and more are starting) to use "nexus" descriptions that require more and more "sales tax" regardless of where, how, when products are shipped/delivered, etc.. MY BELIEF is eventually sales tax will be always, etc.. Just as DOL (department of labor) guidelines are now being used (revised again in July 2016) in place of the time tested IRS determinations of "independent contractor" (IC) vs. employee because it places more and more "IC's" out and causes them to be employees so tax is automatically taken by employer; the states win and government might get more money. The big thing here is mostly economical determinations instead of the "old" IRS descriptions. COMMERCIAL: no not really but a decent source to be updated is the CPAacademy.com webinars. All free and yes, put on as somewhat a sales lead-in BUT with a lot of good information and sources to help us keep abreast. ATX is a pain with the shipping fee, etc. because supposedly being a "leader" in tax prep. software, they show a lagging understanding in delivery of services by insisting on calling the fee "shipping". The explanation fro last year that, yes BUT it helps offset the computer time, etc. to service the customers (us poor practitioners) is poor marketing. BUT we are stuck with it and as many have said ---- if we do not like the overall price or service ---MOVE ELSEWHERE --- Still an ATX person because it still fulfills my needs and I am only in it for a few more decades (God willing, government still willing to tax, clients keep coming).

You have a right to be suspicious. Whom did the letter come from? You said the phone goes to the "return preparer office." What is that? Everyone on this board has a "return preparer office." SSA has no interest in your professional status as far as I know. I'd give them a call (using a public number you can find on the internet). This might be a new scam and they should be alerted. Professional status can be verified through any number of professional organizations. If you're an EA, the IRS has that info. CPAs are licensed by state boards of accountancy, attorneys by state bar associations. Anyone who really needed to know would contact those organizations and not rely on some certificate from you that can easily be faked. It's becoming a scary world out there--even those of us who are trusting by nature are becoming suspicious of everyone and everything (not a peaceful way to live.) We hardly ever answer our phone at home anymore: nothing but calls from 800 numbers that never leave a message, or from "unavailable" or "private." Even the IRS said recently it will no longer notify taxpayers of in-person audits by phone. They usually call to set up an appointment, but with the number of scammers pretending to be the IRS they decided to send letters instead and then follow up by phone. And now it appears that even letters are being faked. Whom do you trust?

Just something I want to share. I still can't get over my response to a return that was brought to me today after a family member's brother picked it up from another preparer. Long story short: In-law (who didn't want to bother me during tax season...I told her what the results of the return should be...0 taxes owed) had brother bring to me a copy of the return necessary to be filed because the estate had sold a piece of property for $100,000 in 2015 under the estate's name of their father who had died. Father's assets before liabilities were approx $300,000. The value of the property was $100,000 at time of death (at least). In-law called me and said brother had picked up the return his preparer had filed for the estate, and the family owed right at $100,000. I immediately told her to have the preparer put a hold on e-filing the return and prayed that it had not been e-filed and asked to see a copy of the return. When her brother got to my office and laid down upon my desk a copy of a completed Form 706, I cried....I literally cried! Thoughts running through my head were "OMG, how many other families paid these kind of taxes needlessly, etc...?" I showed him the first line of the Form 706 in which it stated to list the "Total gross estate less exclusion,,,". "What exclusion?", he asked me. "Not important at all....just the $5,300,000 exclusion of assets for a U. S. Estate Tax Return", I replied!!! I then prepared and e-filed a Form 1041, and it has been accepted by IRS...all within an hour. And, of course, as there was no gain on the property sold and the estate had no other income in 2015, no taxes are due. Thank God, Form 706 can't be e-filed! OK...so who thinks I'm nuts for having cried? I have seen my share (more than my share really) of returns prepared incorrectly by other preparers, but this one absolutely topped the cake!

Don't be so sure. I purchased my HP 2035 several years ago when it first came out and got it at a bargain price. Last year I started looking for a replacement of same model for backup just because I have a supply of toner cartridges for this machine; and also really like it. I had to pay as much for a new one today as I did back then. In any case, have insurance sitting on the shelf in my storage room. When the busy season hits is no time to be shopping for a printer.

Yes, you are correct about allocating the debt and its related interest expense based on how the debt proceeds are used. It's in the interest tracing rules, and a general explanation can be found in Pub 535, chapter 4. It's been a few years but I've had to deal with the interest tracing rules in the past. My client actually had multiple properties that the proceeds were used for: an active rental, 2 separate pieces of raw land that remained undeveloped and were held as investments until sold, and there might have been a small amount of proceeds used personally, I don't remember. I had a spreadsheet to track it all, but luckily for me, this particular client hates to have any kind of debt, so he paid off the loan as soon as he was able and I didn't have your complication when he finally sold those pieces of raw land. What I think you should be looking at are the rules in Reg 1.163-8T. Start at the beginning, obviously, but I think your answers are specifically in paragraphs (j)(2) for the rules of reallocation that then reference back to paragraph (c)(4). Please also see example #2 under paragraph (j). (That's a lowercase J). If I'm interpreting paragraph (j) correctly (a big IF) it seems like you should have reallocated the remaining debt at the time of the second rental's sale in proportion to however its sale proceeds were used, and possibly some of that interest might have been deductible after all, IF the client used it for another rental property, or an investment...anything but personal. Read it and see what you make of it. I'd like to hear how you interpret it and how you'll handle it on the return. (the added link to reg is safe, goes to law.cornell.edu) If you want to read Notice 88-99, I googled that and found that it is a part of the Cumulative Bulletin 1988-2 that can be downloaded as a pdf at the U.S Govt Publishing Office at this website: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/granule/GOVPUB-T22-620cc5a588d849c91ff319f0315765f9/GOVPUB-T22-620cc5a588d849c91ff319f0315765f9-2/content-detail.html . That appears to be something to do with the Unicap rules. That would probably have been in reference to your statement about if the interest is "if building", and by that meaning "constructing" or construction period interest. I don't think that would be relevant unless that second rental had some element where the interest was capitalized for a period of time. Pub 535, ch 4 has a more generalized explanation the interest tracing rules, if you want to look at that. Also, in searching for "tracing" on this forum, I found this conversation between you and Jainen that might jog your memory of why you handled the interest in a particular manner. I hope some of my rambling is helpful.

Shipping includes the Master Tax Guide. What if there was just a single price including shipping and you did not see the breakdown? Would it change how you felt about the price? No, you would complain about not seeing a breakdown. Get a grip. Consider the total cost, then choose to buy or not to buy. So much drama over a simple business decision.

This is really cool. Never knew it was there either. I guess I am one of the few, the proud, the uninformed.... Tom Newark, CA

I have at least a dozen on my screens right now. If you want to make sure they're backed up the path is: C:\Users\[your name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes