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They call it "John Wayne TP". It is rough, tough, and it don't take crap off of nobody. Tom Modesto, CA

I never have and I never will file a return that I do not believe is reasonably accurate - since that is what I am attesting to when I sign the return. So the "other extension" is not an option in my office. I tell my clients that I will go out of my way to help them if they are willing to help themselves, but I will never cross the forbidden line for or with them.

Been there, done that. Never again. I did this for a partnership last year because I wanted to avoid the $195 penalty per partner X 3 partners X 6 months= $3500+ fine. (If you miss the extension deadline, penalty applies back to original due date.) A million emails and phone calls later, I finally got most of the data (not all) and amended. By this time the guy had gotten threatening letters from IRS and state because he owed so much on the original, but with the amendments he still owed but not as much. He's on extension again this year. I've contacted him a few times, even talked with his dad who is also a client and used to be a partner, and still have NOTHING. I will not care more than he does, and I will not spend hours writing up the line changes for the amendment. Let him pay the fine. A few years ago I had another partnership that filed a few weeks after the amended deadline. I wrote the penalty waiver request, which I knew wouldn't be accepted because he had been late before, and it wasn't but at least it looked like I was trying to help. He paid the huge penalty and the following year brought his books in a month early for the first time in his life!

So when they get the penalty letter for $195 per month, per partner, who gets to deal with that? It takes time to prepare the penalty abatement letter. Who is going to prepare that? Who is going to pay for it? The other partners should be made aware that a big penalty is coming and they should have the opportunity to pay your fee so the return is filed on time. Let Mr. Cheapskate owe them instead of you, and sidestep the involvement of the IRS.

If you are looking for someone to tell you not to file the return, here I am. Don't file the return - and tell the client he has until noon today to get the payment to you (full payment, this return prep and any outstanding balance). After noon, the return will go delinquent. You should have had this conversation yesterday, or even two or three days ago with the noon deadline being on that day. In my office, we hardly ever file returns on the deadline. In fact, I am not even going to be in the office today.

If the organization wishes to become a tax exempt, then I suggest as BHoffman states apply for a 501(c)(7) status by filing Form 1024 and submit the appropriate application fee - Form 8918. However, donations to non 501(c)(3) entities (charities) don't qualify as charitable donations to donors.

Exclusions of income are generally better than deductions from income because the AGI is lowered (think ACA PTC, Education Credits, etc) and the Payroll Tax is not withheld. Just like everything in tax, it all depends. This is more akin to giving your RMD to charity and getting an exclusion from the income rather than taking the RMD and giving it to charity and taking a Sch. A deduction. For some it works better. This is not a loser to the employee, especially for moderately high income taxpayers or people without enough deductions to itemize who want to be generous in this situation. Tom Modesto, CA

It could be very helpful for those not able to itemize charitable contributions. It gets the full wage amount to charities without an employee getting a lesser amount after taxes and then donating that lesser amount. The employee chooses this if he wants to give (lose something, in your words) as a way to give more than his after-tax wages.

This was covered in the other linked topic too. Below is how to handle the assets, and please DON"T added the old and new basis together and start over. You have to allow the program to calculation the depreciation through the DOD and then take it out of service. Then divide the cost and accumulated depreciation in half to arrive at the husband's original share of cost and a/d to be reentered because that will continue on at half value of the original cost and half the a/d already taken. THEN, also enter one-half of the "stepped" FMV that was inherited from the spouse as the basis without any accum depreciation to start, use the DOD as the starting date because depreciation starts over on the portion that husband inheritied. In other words, for this year the depreciation schedule will have the original depreciable assets through DOD AND 2 components for the time after DOD on the depreciation schedule for each asset that was owned. As an example, let's assume a house with a cost of $160, a/d at BOY of $55, current deprec of $1 calc'd through DOD, a/d at DOD of $56, and a FMV of $350. Your depreciation schedule will show these lines: House, cost $160, a/d BOY $55, current deprec $1 (allow system to calc the partial year deprec), a/d at DOD $56 - out of service at DOD (or disposed with no gain, however ATX handles that) House (for H's orig. share), USE ORIG DATE IN SERVICE, cost $80, a/d (at DOD) $28, current depreciation calculated for portion of year after DOD and you will have to override this to report the proper partial year amount House (for stepped up inherited portion), use DOD as date in service, basis $175, a/d -0-, allow system to calc depreciation for current year that will be from DOD through year-end IF he happens to sell the house within one year, you will have to override that gain to tell the system that the gain on the stepped up portion is also long-term because inherited assets get long-term treatment, but after one year, that won't be an issue any more.

Or this one:

Use this script: https://youtu.be/IDSEEzaJXEQ

Yardley, this is a real PIA to calculate, so charge accordingly. You have to delete all the assets and enter his back in, 1/2 original basis, l/2 depreciation already taken, same acquisition date. For her basis, use FMV at date of death, and start depreciation all over again. Be careful though with any improvements that have been done over the years.. Husband gets half of those and continues depreciating as usual. For the wife's share, these additions are now included in the date of death value, so you don't include her half at all. With appliances and carpeting, the amount of write off is usually minimal so I just continue depreciating as usual or delete them altogether. I'll go back and read that thread to see what others do, but this is the practice I've adopted.

I always believed the paper should go over the top, not under, but that's just my preference.