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Adobe Acrobat can be purchased very inexpensively if you go to ebay and buy a new, registerable, version that is a couple of revisions out of date. I did that some years ago and still use that program on two machines. I have Nuance Power PDF for the third machine. They all do password protection and encryption.

I bought an older version (1.0) of Nuance Power PDF Standard for $30 on ebay. It is marketed as a lower cost alternative to AdobePro. I also use it to add headers and page number to organizers, and to make the organizers fillable.

I listened to an explanation and discussion of Bitcoin on PBS for an hour and I still don't get it. Although I understand the principles, I just don't get the why of the whole thing. What's wrong with a credit card and why get involved with something that reminds me of a certain bubble in 1637.

I use pdfFactory, $50/yr. Very satisfied and no issues with any client complaints.

Use Practitioner Pin than you do not need AGI.

There will still be plenty of people who are too busy or who detest the job enough that they want it done for them. However, if there are fewer clients with Sch A, I can give them a lower price and spend more time teasing out the stock options and bitcoin type transactions.

I always ask for the closing statements. Sometimes you’ll see a payout to ford auto finance or student loans. But when it’s simply cash out? Hard to tell.

I have had a firefighter as a client for nearly 20 years who trusts me implicitly (after bailing her out of deep doo doo with a business misadventure). I had to prove to her with documentation about the disallowed deductions she had been taking and 'all the other guys take them' stories. I just told her, I wouldn't take them no matter what the others did or didn't do. She reluctantly agreed and no longer even tries that now.

Most of my career was in busy houses in Brooklyn and the South Bronx. But I remember many a night when it was quiet in the winter that after about 3am I would manually prepare one of the guy's returns. Talk about on the job training, I wouldn't give that up for the world. And I must tell you, there were plenty of imaginative deductions these guys would come up with or maybe it was the $ amounts, I guess things haven't changed. When I think of charging $20 for a basic return in the 70s and 80s (of course these guys were like brothers to me) I am amazed how far that $20 went the next day. I don't miss getting up for fires in the middle of the night, now I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

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.

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

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.

Check to see if your email or your tax software has a simple portal available. My FileShare that comes with my SiteBuilder web site emails a link to a client to download their documents from me; they set their own password. Or, as has been explained above, get an affordable .pdf program that will encrypt for you. Do check your state laws re what type of encryption is required in your state.

I'll never forget when many a firefighter or police officer decided they would become ministers and had their church in the living room with their kids as their communicants. One of the guys asked me to accompany him on an audit. We sat down and the big burly auditor with hair growing out of his ears and nose just shook his head and said, "I wish you never got into this." My friend said nothing and I just asked if anything could be done about the penalty and interest. Everyone was happy at that point. I'm sure IRS went after all the fire eating preachers that year.

I think it's $315,000 MFJ and $157,500 for everyone else.

Thank you Judy for that great explanation. With tax reform, I think it's possible that a lot of people will be able to use those AMT credits because so few taxpayers will be subject to AMT (at least I think so, there are so many moving parts). Some exclusion items that are added back to arrive at AMTI are gone anyway--exemptions, misc itemized deductions, non-acquisition mortgage interest, limited SALT. All that will have to be added back is SALT, private activity bond interest and the standard deduction. Raising the phase-out limits will excuse a lot of people from AMT, and people who make above those limits usually don't pay AMT because their regular tax rate is higher. To me it looks like Congress just eliminated the AMT without calling it that.

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.

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.

It’s probably a good idea to ask our clients if they dabble in bitcoins: http://fortune.com/2017/11/29/irs-coinbase/

Personally, I would not worry about what any other person or service calculated. What matters is what you prepare needs to be accurate. (If you are entering last year's after the fact, then no calculation matters, you are stuck entering whatever was done, correct or not.) FWH for 2018, so far, is the same calculation as 2017. Same for MO, since MO is waiting for FWH to be published before publishing theirs. You do not have to interpret any employee intent on their MO W4 type form, you just have to take the employee's information, and use it. The form and calculations work together. http://dor.mo.gov/forms/Withholding Formula_2017.pdf P.S. Most tax agencies also allow an employer to use their own calculation/formula, as long as it calculates with a certain range of the published methods. FWH, for instance, allows a WIDE latitude. CT, as another example, states there is no formula or calculation possible (has to be done through charts and steps), but every payroll software provider has likely done what I did many years ago, and built a formula which exactly matches the charts/steps...

I use Adobe Pro and encrypt at 256-bit level with a password with some parts known only between the recipient and me. This has worked for about 4-5 years now. I send an email ahead stating "(d)to advanced encryption required by IRS, you must now have Adobe Reader 10 or above. If you need to download a free version of Adobe Reader 10, 11 or DC go here <https://get.adobe.com/reader/> There are other pdf readers but you must have one compatible with 256-bit encryption. The files are password protected and the password is XXXXXX" My reading of IRS requirements tells me this meets the standard.

For my part I will shed no tears for it's demise.

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.

The simple solution is for each stylist to get a Square account.

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.

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.

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.

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.