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A camera can be in a ceiling/wall/wall corner. Covers the whole room. A sign on the door announcing the surveillance for safety (or whatever is required in your state). At the least, it will likely create a more civilized environment. At best, it can protect you and yours from (or help you deal with) something untoward. If this were not a public forum, I could share more, which would explain why I use all available protections and deterrents, even in settings which most people would not worry.

You can call PPS (or collections) while the client is in the office and the IRS will ask them certain questions to verify who they are. You do not need to submit any form. If the client is not there, you can submit the 2848 (or 8821) after you phone the IRS. They will provide the fax number and they will wait while it is faxed. You can also ask them to forward the form to the CAF unit. It takes 2 weeks , or so, for the form to be entered in the system. Once in the system, you can use Eservices TDS (Transmission Delivery System.).

All of this socalled documentation does nothing more than provide circumstantial evidence. None of it actually provides direct proof !

A 3rd party designee will not get you into eservices transcripts. You must have a 2848 or 8821 (I've never used this form).

i prepared the return.. i was just testing how it works. looks like it was written in the says of cobalt and fortran I am surprised i was not asked to input punch cards

Unless you prepared the return in question they want a 2848 or 8821 on file b4 hand. This has been my experience.

The 10% brackets remained the same, just adjusted for inflation.

Yes.

More on how the new law helps large RE investors. Architects are excluded from the selected service businesses subject to the limitations on the 20% exclusion. (They were always grouped with drs, attorneys, accountants, etc before.) The W-2 limitation piece of the exclusion doesn't affect big real estate holdings because most employ management companies and have few W-2 wages. I believe some rental property will now qualify for Sect 179. The mom and pops may reap some benefit if rentals are ultimately determined to be a trade or business eligible for the 20% exclusion. I tried to calculate the exclusion for a client who makes enough to be subject to the phase-out. WHAT A CONVOLUTED MAZE! Being over the $315k means calculating the phase-out, then applying the W-2 and capital limitations that phase IN, then looking at taxable income minus capital gains, and the exclusion can't be more than 20% of that figure. Everyone got that? I'd rather calculate AMT by hand, or do the five lump-sum Soc Sec worksheets with a pencil. Just calculating the income tax is impossible at this time. The new rates that apply to each bracket of income have changed. The chunk of income that used to be taxed at 10% is now taxed at 12%, the amount at 15% is now 12%, and so on. There is not yet a calculator to do this. The media is full of calculators but I wouldn't trust them. If the IRS and professional groups have not yet released one, how did the media act so fast? My hunch is they are designed to capture your personal info like income and filing status for the sole purpose of adding these tidbits to the dossier they already keep on each of us like browsing history, purchases, pets, and other lucrative details.

rfassett, you didn't actually try to open the link did you?!!! Thank your security software for keeping you out of harm's way. The whole point of these scams is to get you to open a link, which opens your computer system to an invasion of malware. From there, they can steal all your client data. NEVER EVER click any links, especially from strangers but even strange emails from clients. (Several times a year I get odd emails from clients, like just a link, or a movie recommendation. I tell them their account has been hacked and to change their password.) I got two emails just this week from "new clients" wanting me to prepare their taxes. I didn't open either but forwarded both to [email protected]. Please don't try that again. Just delete.

Be careful with DocuSign. I am currently in the middle of a real estate sale whereby my agent has sent me documents to sign, (Not thru DocuSign) and just yesterday I go an email from her stating she wanted to share a document with me, to open the document they wanted me to give my email account credentials, very similar to my last year problem with drop box. I will never again sign in using my email credentials. If it is legitimate you should not have to sign in with anything or if you have an account at least with that account credentials.

Maybe you can send him to Roni Deutsch?

Hopefully everybody who owns 1319.621 admiral shares of Vanguard REIT Index.

Refundable Child Tax Credit. My first thought was, "Hmmmm. They managed to cut taxes on people who don't pay [income] taxes." I ain't gonna tell y'all what I think about refundable credits. I'm too busy working up in here.

I think they are getting my email from PTIN sources.. this one came in this morning.. terrible written as far as scam emails go Good morning, Attaching my last year return of my Tax. can you please suggest if paying up might benefit. Could you still help us file our taxes? Please advise. Mellisa Schranner, websterherald

Attended a CPE class night and one of the speakers was from NY Tax Department. Good news for those of us in NY; you have to enter only the first three characters of the driver's license document number this year! First i heard of it.

Hoo-boy. There would be some interesting responses to having a microphone on my desk recording client's answers.

In general, I don't believe real estate rentals will qualify unless the taxpayer can rise to the level of a real estate professional. Otherwise they do not meet the trade or business requirement of section 199A. Since "trade of business" is not further defined by TCJA or 199A, case law will prevail in definition. On the other hand, in regards to the business interest limitation, both the TCJA and revised code 163(j) specifically refer to section 469(c)(7)(C) in defining real estate professionals who are exempt from the limitation as a trade or business. So it appears to me that any rental activity that can clear the 469(c)(7)(C) hurdle gets the 199A deduction.

You can't bulk sale different kinds of property. Well, apparently you can but you really should not.

Best thing I've found is a report card from whatever school they're going to. Many schools will list the kid's full pedigree: name, address, age, DOB, grade they're in (and grades), phone number, school year enrolled for, parents' name, address, and related information. So anyway, if you've got that then you're ready to roll. Unfortunately, some schools don't list the home address (although T/P may have kept the envelope it was mailed in). Other stuff of course (next best) is medical records, then day care bills (sometimes pretty sketchy), social security and/or insurance cards (I know, I know - those two generally don't have anything except the name but it's something). Next year -- DNA

The bulk sale disposition worksheet in AX will do the allocations for you....Just saying. Tom Modesto, CA

Yes, the land and building are separate dispositions. First you have to decide how much of the sales price was for the land. Then prorate the closing costs by the same percentage. We use the most recent assessment to ballpark how much is land vs. building. We do the same when a building is purchased.

It’s also a good idea to have an excel spreadsheet to do the calculations, I use one that allocates the sales price (pro-rate) amongst building, lands, improvements etc...., then I tie it to the tax program.

Patrick, If you are using ATX, the disposition worksheets in the Fixed Asset tab will do a great deal of the work for you. It is clunky to work with when you go into the disposition tab, but it does a good job of getting everything where it needs to go on the tax return. Tom Modesto, CA

Seems like a given. What seems like a good idea still has to be formatted somehow.

I mentioned this situation to another support agent via a chat. I forgot how to enable invoice numbers so I had to ask. Anyway that agent did escalate my concern and I did get a return phone call. She also said she would have someone look into the poor support I received. So, I guess you're right they either get up to speed or else. I worked for a company a few years back that would discipline for not answering the phone properly. Customer service/support will either make or break a company.

LOL

I opted out of the PTIN directory. Maybe that's why I'm not getting these.

We know for sure that the REITs and Large Real Estate Investors are going to get the benefit because they are usually Trusts, Estates, Partnerships or S-Corps. What we don't know is if a Schedule E meets the definition. Very few practitioners are willing to make that call quite yet, but most seem to believe it will apply to Schedule E as well. This is the most anticipated guidance from the IRS about the new tax law. Tom Modesto, CA

QB has released the payroll tax update, it requires a manual update, see below: Intuit has released Payroll Update 21804, with revised tax tables. Several forms updates are included for Standard and Enhanced Payroll customers. This email also provides the following: Federal E-File and Pay Updates New Federal Withholding Tables To confirm that you have received the update, open QuickBooks and choose Employees > Get Payroll Updates. If you don't see a message that says, "You are using tax table version: 21804," click Update. Get complete instructions. To turn on the automatic updates feature in QuickBooks so that you automatically receive payroll updates when they are released, choose Help > Update QuickBooks. On the Options tab, select Yes for Automatic Update and check the Mark All box to ensure that you receive all updates. Get the Payroll Update The Payroll Update ensures that you will be in compliance with legislation that affects your payroll. For details on the contents of this update, go to Employees > Get Payroll Updates > Payroll Update Info. Federal E-File and Pay Updates Form 940 E-filings E-file for Annual Form 940/Schedule A, for Reporting Agents (available for Enhanced Payroll for Accountants subscribers only), Employer's Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return, has been updated. Form 944 E-filings E-file for Annual Form 944 for Reporting Agents (available for Enhanced Payroll for Accountants subscribers only), Employer's Annual Federal Tax Return, has been updated. New Federal Withholding Tables This update also includes new Federal withholding tables and new Non-resident Alien withholding tables for 2018. Note: These new Federal withholding tables use current W4s, however we expect the IRS to update the W4s and provide an updated online calculator to better determine withholdings. For more information regarding the Tax Reform Bill, click here.

This was in my inbox at 5:31 this morning: Good day, A friend of mine referred me to you. I want you to help us file our tax return this year as our previous CPA/account passed in October. How much will this cost us ? We would appreciate your soonest response This is my response: I am so sorry to hear about your previous CPA. We are here to help any way we can. However, without knowing more about your tax situation, I am unable to quote a fee. I would suggest, however, that our fee structure is in line with the smaller CPA practices in the area and lower than the bigger practices. I would be happy to give you a better idea if you could supply some details. And here is the response I got: See attached of my prior employer W-2 along with Health Coverage, Mortgage Interest and IRA statement upload via secure DocuSign. Let me know what would be the filling fees. My security settings would not allow the DocuSign to open without input. I emailed back and asked for the name of the friend referral and the emailer's phone number. The first dialog took place over just a couple of minutes. Since my last request nearly three hours ago, I have heard nothing. The scammers are out there in force Be diligent!

well since I was commenting on how terribly written it was I meant to say terribly written, not terrible written.. can posts be edited here? I did not see an edit button.. thank you.

To offer certain efile options with the IRS, one must provide personal information, even if the software creating and sending the file has zero responsibility for the information being reported. They want to be able to dun the messenger.

Hahahahaha my buddy Abby knows I'm playing. I do love you all immensely. ((((Real nice hugs only)))

Yeah, we should be saying 'real estate investors' who had REITs added to the 20% QBI deduction at the 11th hour.

Let me just toss a wrench into the works. With the state and local taxes capped at $10K, I do NOT see how this new law "favors real estate owners." Unless you are specifically talking about owning rental properties, where the mortgage interest and real estate taxes go on Sch E, not Sch A, and where the taxes are not capped. Around my area, real estate taxes alone (ignoring state income taxes) are *commonly* over $10K. Not having those as a deduction certainly does NOT favor real estate ownership. Ditto in NH; the town real estate taxes tend to be very high, to make up for the lack of income tax receipts since NH has no state income tax on individuals.

I personally think 20% is high enough. For anybody. Seriously, I do.

I don't think it is politics to state the obvious facts. The republicans needed to ensure that one of its senators voted for the bill, and they added language at the last minute to the bill, and after that language was inserted, the senator in question signaled his support. That is just how the sausage is made in DC. And it is apparent that the insertion at the last minute made the interpretation of the section hard, as the change to the bill is not harmonious with the rest of the sections. If this was inserted earlier in the process, legislative staff probably would have had more time to integrate it more properly in the bill and signaled a more clear intent of the impact to Sch E rental properties. No comments about whether this is good or bad, or who it favors...just a statement of the facts as we know them to have happened in the legislative process. This is no different than the last minute changes to the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit. However, that change was just a number change, and not a change to the structure of the credit which was already written into the bill. After that change, two other senators signaled their support. And the sausage had a slightly higher content of one ingredient. Tom Modesto, CA

The refundable portion only increased by $300 over previous law. The real people getting screwed are those who were in the 28% bracket but are now in the 32% bracket, with high SALT and high investment fees or employee business expenses. I have a pilot whose taxable income is going to increase by around 30k, due to losing deductions and personal exemptions.