Leaderboard

I do remember reading a Tax Court Case where the employee was required by his employer to keep parts and supplies in his garage so that his first customer service call did not require him to go to the employer's shop. In this case the taxpayer prevailed and it was not commuting, so make sure you ask questions and make sure you have all the facts.

I was talking about the federal AMT with the adjustment for SALT flowing from Sch A. Because most of the Sch A deductions for the client I was referring to comes from the SALT deduction and with this couple being higher income, they are always in the AMT so the Sch A never benefits as much as they think. Because of the SALT cap, it is most likely that the standard deduction + over 65 allowances will exceed the Sch A, and it will be interesting to see how much effect all of this has once I have his information and run the planner.

File according to the IRS regulations, or don't file at all. Your neck is on the line too. Not worth it!!

ProSeries will do a tax plan for federal but not for state. On clients that itemize normally, but will not with the new, improved standard deduction on the federal, the federal taxes might go up or down by less than $1,000 either way. However, in Virginia if you don't itemize federal you can't itemize state, so changing to the same old standard deduction on Virginia might result in several dollars of tax. I don't have time for this now - but this is the only time I see most of these people!

I want to see Rita B's back 40....

so do you feel like you are in limbo waiting to see if the forms are going to be revised??!! I have a number now that need to be amended -- grr

File an extension. Our efiled 990/990EZ extensions went through fine.

The standard deduction is completely disallowed for AMT. With itemized you at least get partial.

I'm just telling them to wait. No one has protested yet. I'll revisit this in 3 weeks.

I have a bunch that the TP's said wait and see about the extenders bill.

I disagree. The first and last trip of the day are specifically referred to as commuting miles in the code. This is why we need to be so careful to document home office usage, so that the first trip of the day is from our home, to our home office, and then when we are done traveling for the day, we come back to our home office, check our email, and then go from our home office to our home on the other side of the wall from our home office. Tom Modesto, CA

I don't even know how to begin to adjust the withholding. I am just guessing at how much they will cut. I am not going to do w4s for everyone right now.

I agree with Yardley, FDNY, and Abby--definitely commuting.

I believe it is a commute as well. Considering his main office is further than the job site, I don't see how he would justify going to the job site as a deductible. Anything after the office stop would be considered for deduction, but going to the job site before the office is commute in my book and not deductible.

Unless it qualifies under the transportation or 'no regular place of work' rules. https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463#en_US_2017_publink100033913

I agree. If he stopped at main office first, the distance to the job site and back to office is deductible.

Thanks for posting this. I'm now one of the newer members.

WHERE ARE THE HANDCUFFS?!?! If any of us had a data breach and hid the evidence while doing nothing to stop the carnage, we would be in orange jumpsuits right now. So should the Equifax "executives" who did just that.

It almost sounds like the money was left in your client's name rather than in an estate or trust. If that's the case, there would be gift tax implications to just give the entire $35K to each son this year. It might be best to give the money out over a couple of years to avoid the need for gift tax returns. He does not say how old the sons are. If they are adults, my advice would be to confer with the sons and see what they want - cash or stock. As long as each gets what he wants, and everyone knows the choices presented and what was made by each, there *should* not (ah, note use of the conditional!) be hard feelings down the line if one takes all cash and the other gets higher (or lower) value stock.

Sometimes that's the best we can do. On another forum, a long-time practitioner said something about always trying to present the "most-defensible" tax return he could. There are times when that is all we can come up with, when the situation is convoluted and especially when prior (well-intentioned but in over their heads) practitioners have made a hash of returns and supporting documentation - or supplied NO supporting documentation, so we've no idea where the numbers came from.

Maybe we should map the point that results in the shortest distance for most of us and see if any of us are near that point. Going to Dollywood is not really my thing, although with this group of wackos, it could be a very memorable experience!

What a nightmare! Today we went through the list of completed returns and flagged those that could be affected by this change. Someone will have to go through each one (not until May) to determine if it is worthwhile amending, and we have to determine if/how much to charge for those paper returns. As for incoming returns, and the deluge is just starting, we will have to put hundreds on hold to await software updates and approval. We had only efiled about 80 returns as of 9AM today, with another dozen or so complete but not yet signed for, so the task will be daunting but not nearly as great as those big practices and chains that are at "peak" and have already filed zillions of returns. I remember years when congress passed tax law changes after Christmas and IRS miraculously managed to get the most common items reprogrammed in no time. One year we had to wait until mid Feb for education credits and a bit later for AMT. But NEVER do I recall congress changing the rules when tax season was already underway. Do those fools know what they did? Do they even know what was in the bill or what "tax extender" means?? I guess the POTUS, who "knows more about taxes than any CPA" (his words, not mine), didn't read it either because any no-nothing CPA would have said "don't do it." Not being political here, I am disgusted with all of them, administration, congress, red, blue alike. As I was moaning about the extra work and delays this is going to cause us, I got a message from IRS that made my heart go out to them. It said that they were reviewing the task ahead and will give us some guidance as soon as possible. Thinking about it, they have to reprogram their computers, accept software companies' tests, rewrite forms and instructions and zillions of linked pages and FAQs on their website, all while in the height of tax filing season.

If you request a wage and income transcript it includes the details of the information returns, and that should give you the employers' names. You son will then have the list of employers he worked for and can contact each of them for a copy of his W-2s.

Ohio does not receive copies of W-2 forms. Your process does not work here. The State sends a notice asking for a copy of the W-2. It is the same for School District and Municipal taxes. Here in Ohio, you gotta have the W-2 or you lose.

When it is just one state (for example, mine) I make my best guess and file - they correct and send a bill or refund. But I like the idea of using zero and letting the state figure it out. You could append an explanatory letter stating the amount of withheld tax is unknown because...

I was able to fix the problem by removing the child, saving the return, adding the child back in and retransmitting. Weird..... Tom Newark, CA

According to the Wall Street Journal, Equifax is still in a CYA mode: "However, Atlanta-based Equifax Inc. recently disclosed in a document submitted to the Senate Banking Committee, that a forensic investigation found criminals accessed other information from company records. According to the document, provided to The Associated Press by Sen. Elizabeth Warren's office, that included tax identification numbers, email addresses and phone numbers. Finer details, such as the expiration dates for credit cards or issuing states for driver's licenses, were also included in the list.