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I went to a retirement party last night for a friend who retired from the fire department as a deputy chief. I was really proud of him because he was one of my rookies (probie) when he got to my firehouse. He is also a CPA and has a tax practice where he says he does close to 500 returns. I always found that amazing as there are only so many hours in a day. He claims by using Ultra Tax it is easily done because the program is so good. I know his wife is his assistant. So last night I meet his wife for the first time and I asked if he pays her. Said, No! Last year he made me take the HRB course and now he has me doing input. Now I can’t wait to get home to tell my wife, wish me luck.

Schedule A deductions subject to the 2% floor are gone. All employees are urged to negotiate with their employers for a salary reduction combined with accountable plan reimbursements

do you use ATX? if so, check page 2 of the 6251. I have some returns that page 2 is not populating and thus AMT is calculated. Page 2 is where it adjusts for capital gains and qualified dividends. Once the figures from page 2 are entered, the there is no more AMT. This is not the case on all of my returns, but i have a handful with this issue. I figure that it will resolved eventually with a forms update. This may not be your issue, but it is worth giving it a look.

I understand that HELOC interest is deductible under the new law only if used for acquisition or home improvement. The chances are overwhelming that a HELOC was not used for acquisition, but it could be used for home improvement or anything else. Since 1987, taxpayers have consistently been deducting HELOC interest for any usage imaginable, so long as the bank felt it safe enough to make the loan with the real estate as collateral. Most clients are going to continue to try this, not being knowledgeable about the change in the law. The preparer's due diligence is to determine what the proceeds were used for. Once they find out they can't deduct it for their trip to Monaco, they will fashion reasons to tell us it was used to finance the indoor swimming pool. How will we know the difference? The 1098 will not tell us.

Hot ON the presses: Cards are at the printer. Fingertip Tax Facts owners expect to ship 16 January. Also, last year's customers will receive an email this week.

Just thought I would let everyone know there is a virus that is called "Premiere Opinion" this can also be label with the words "voice5". This is adware that will come piggy backed onto some other website. It will try to get you to answer surveys that literally go no where. I don't know all the ins and outs but some how it got into my machine and tied to take over all of my browsers. I recognized this is non-responsive, can reach website's etc. At one time, I saw a survey with the name premiere opinion and didn't know what it was. Anyway, this is easy to remove. Go to control panel and add and remove programs to uninstall it. Yes, I have byte fence and windows defender but it did get by them.

They need to go to a not for profit debt counselor. Or they can call their card companies direct and negotiate with them.

I grew up next to a fire station, and the guys would always be playing horse shoe, basketball, washing their cars or just having cookouts on down time. When they could be preparing tax returns, talk about killing two birds with one stone.

You can easily verify this by inviting yourself to their next pool party. But seriously, I’ve found this to be a big problem in the past with a few clients that are serial refinancers and always taking out more cash along with a HELOC that is over 100K. They never want to accept my explanation as how the limit works. I know they need the cash, but the law is the law.

I bet that is the hardest part of your job, being the first line of sanity (client's desire versus allowable). It is the toughest part of mine! I was asked, more than a dozen times today, how to do something which is not allowed... and of course, I am a donkey for not allowing it.

(now UN)Common sense rarely prevails... Interesting how a broker can require an agent to work mandatory floor time, in person, during designated hours, and not be an employee (at least for those hours), and the broker has operational control and shares profit with their employees agents.

The increase in cap gains may or may not trigger the AMT. The AMT calcs still carve out the cap gains that are taxed at the cap gain rates. As some background of how it worked: Before the new law was enacted, cap gains had the potential to affect the AMT because, although those gains were still taxed at the cap gain rates, those gains were included in the calculation of AMTI, and the AMTI is used for the calculation of phasing out the AMT exemption. So, even those gains were taxed at the cap gain rate, the effect was that they had the potential to make more of the other income subject to the AMT rate because of the interplay with the AMT exemption phase-out. The JCTA has increased the AMT exemptions and with a very large increase in the amount at which the phase-out begins that I put in a quote box below. Because the phase-out of AMT exemption starts at a much higher level, this may mitigate or even eliminate the tax effect of including cap gains in AMTI that I described above. As far as how the AMT credit works, it's a nonrefundable credit that is carried forward and is only able to be used in a year when that taxpayer isn't subject to the AMT. Most of my clients that are subject to AMT pay it every year and have not been able to use the credit. With your client's situation, it may be possible for him or her to utilize some of that though.

Those are scam companies. Send them to an actual debt counselor like suggested by Deb. Otherwise, they stand to lose a lot of money and increase the level problems they are having.

It has long been advantageous taxwise for companies to institute an accountable plan instead of just plopping a stipend onto the taxable income of their employees. The only mechanics available to employees was the 2106 and the loss of 2% on itemized deductions. Additional loss of deductions could occur via the threshold to itemize. Employers, especially small employers don't want the administrative bungling involved with an accountable plan. Most of them don't even know what it is. But now, suddenly, there has never been more importance than to institute an accountable plan, and it may be as much as a year or two before they even know anything has happened. I have 7-8 salesmen who legitimately (I think) drive their vehicles up to 50,000 miles annually to sell for their employer, and receive a stipend rather than having an accountable plan. Now they get absolutely no deduction whatsoever.

I was curious, so I checked online. This is what is called an "adware" program which collects info from your computer then forwards it to a website where the information is used to target your computer with lots of spam and unwanted ads. Supposedly this program has been around a number of years. I have ended with several of these on my computer in past years. While they can be very annoying they are not as dangerous as a virus or a trojan.

As someone said in the past on this forum, we only have 6 percent of the population as clients and they are not the brightest 6 percent. That fact will not change. Even postcard filing will be a challenge for that 6 percent. BUT you are right, some preparers who do a lot of schedule As should reconsider their business plans for future years. The few Sch As I prepared are for people who pay a lot on Mortgage interest and they might still continue to file sch A even "for a few more dollars" in tax savings.

How much do you want to bet we start seeing those entertainment expenses show up as "advertising and promotion" in the expense accounts of our clients? Code section 162 (ordinary and necessary) is going to be the argument. Probably will take 3 years for the first case to get to tax court, 5 years before we get an appeals ruling, and 6-7 years before we get a final answer. Tom Modesto, CA

Imagine if they required for real estate agents to become employees?

If a worker at a trade or business is an independent contractor, and the independent contractor swipes payment cards on behalf of the trade or business in the normal course of business (in other words, the trade or business, not the independent contractor, receives the proceeds), should the trade or business report payments to the worker on Form 1099-K or Form 1099-MISC? In this situation, the trade or business should continue to report payments made to independent contractors on Form 1099-MISC as they have done in the past. However, the business will receive a Form 1099-K for these payment card transactions from the payment settlement entity. https://www.irs.gov/payments/general-faqs-on-new-payment-card-reporting-requirements

Eset antivirus plus Comodo free firewall has always served me well.

I like the first solution.... don't click on any survey.

Good questions, Judy. I think any answers hinge on why the house wasn't sold for five years. Was a family member living there? If so, no deductions. Were the heirs fighting over their fair share or contesting the will? Was the title in limbo and had to be litigated? Those reasons might work. Taxman will have to research whether the 266 election can be made late. Please share your findings.

Pacun, it seems like most of your clients will no longer itemize after 2017 so you better start looking for new clients. I think this coming tax season will be extremely busy because people will have heard so much about tax reform they'll be confused, even if most changes won't affect their 2017 filing. Next tax season should also be super busy because even if folks try DIY they won't believe the results and will seek professional help. Once they get that they won't be itemizing, business should drop off for former Sch A clients. This prediction of course hinges on how IRS defines children and certain non-children now that we have no more exemptions. Will we still have dependents? (Category useful only for claiming certain credits, etc.) For all of us February should be insane when people start getting their paychecks with the new withholding amounts and want to know if enough is being withheld. I am already dreading the phone calls, knowing by then I'll be buried in tax returns.

Congress will likely not give IRS any increase in staff. They will claim they have "simplified" the law, thus IRS does not need any additional staff. Their view of "simplification" is really inane. One of the things they blatantly tout being "simpler" is to reduce tax brackets from 9 to 5. Yeah Boy, that one is really going to spare the IRS thousands of employees, right?

Deduction of meals for the convenience of the employer was not totally repealed but changed from its former 100% deduction to a 50% deduction as of 1/1/18.

I don't see how the constitutional argument will fly, and I am not even a lawyer. The 16th Amendment gives Congress the authority to levy an income tax, period. Section 61 of US Code 16 tells us that income is taxable "from whatever source derived." Any income not taxed is an exception granted by the "grace of Congress." The Constitution does not anywhere state that SALT taxes can be deducted from gross income. The only reason they have been deductible is that Congress has graced us with the privilege, an action that has now been partially rescinded. Although some will argue that taxing income given over to SALT is double taxation, I don't see that either. I make $100k a year and hand over $20k to the IRS. My state taxes me on my gross $100k too. How come no one complained that the state was double taxing me on my IRS payment? It will be interesting to see how various tax rules will be enforced now that there are no more exemptions. Will there be no more qualifying child/relative? How then do you qualify for HOH, or take a "dependent's" education expenses for AOC, or take dependent care expenses? Congress better give IRS a whole pile of money to hire attorneys and staff to rewrite almost every single form, instructions and pub (and people to explain it to us). This could take years....

I always trust my psychic.

What I'm I supposed to do with my yatch I especially bought to entertain clients lol. I was in tax update seminar today there were a couple of WHAT screams when the presenter broke the news.

Broker needs a hug. That infuriates me. If you have till 4/15 to contribute, you have till 4/15 to undo what you did. OMG. http://fairmark.com/retirement/roth-accounts/contributions-to-roth-accounts/excess-contributions-to-roth-iras/