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Kook of the week nominee..... Get a call from a Texas number. Guy leaves a message. Referral from another client. I call him back and he starts telling me how he has this little problem with the IRS. Apparently, he has not paid his taxes from 2013 and 2014. Says he has been disabled and he can't seem to get through to anyone at the IRS because they keep getting disconnected while he is on the line. The penalties and interest are really piling up. But the last person at IRS he talked to said if he would fill out a "Form 22 something" he could get all the penalties and interest wiped out. So I start asking questions. Do you have your tax returns from 2013 forward? "Well, I moved and I don't know where they are". Did you prepare your returns or did you have someone do them? "Well, my daughter did the returns". Can you get the returns from her? "Well, we aren't speaking right now". His next statement "I only have disability this year, but I need my taxes filed and that 22 something form filled out. Can you do that?" My response..."Yes, I can do your tax return. The representation is at $XXX per hour, and will include taking a power of attorney, getting copies of your transcripts for the years in question, communicating with the IRS and you, and then coming to some resolution that allows you to pay back what you owe, or put you in the Currently Not Collectible status until such time as you can start making payments. I estimate a minimum of 10 hours, and I require a 50% retainer before I start working on your case." His response..."Well, let me look for my returns and I will get back to you." Tom Modesto, CA

Etax, have a little empathy. Do you realize how much work this entails? IRS has to rewrite software, forms, instructions, and pubs. They have to change a zillion linked pages on their website, FAQs, etc. This was thrown in their lap one week ago. They have reduced staff due to budget cuts and are sort of busy administering 2017 filing season right now. I would be amazed if they could pull it off in one month. We won't be doing any amendments until after tax season anyway--too busy with first runs. New returns that are affected by the extenders can be entered, checked, and put on hold until the time comes. Tell any impatient clients to complain to their congress members (and remember their names come November).

Any temperature ABOVE my age is HOT!!!

As for me, any temperature below my age is COLD!!!

Quite possibly: Unfortunately, some persons deed away their homes without reserving a life estate. Arguably, the federal estate tax inclusion ends up being lost by such a maneuver, but the literal language of Section 2036 quoted above can salvage the step-up in basis: note that the word “retained” is used. The Internal Revenue Service has successfully argued in the past that a right can be retained without having been reserved, and that the continued occupancy of the home after the transfer of title, without paying fair market rent, is evidence of an implicit agreement, understanding or assumption of the parties of the transaction. (See Estate of Linderme v. Commissioner, 52 T.C. 305 (1969).)

Did they do a title with a reserved life estate or just stupidly gift the house? If the latter, they're screwed and will pay taxes. This is why you consult a pro every time the amount of any transaction is over a couple thousand dollars. The small fee you pay can save you thousands of dollars in taxes.

Wimp..... I love all seasons. Give me a cup of cocoa on a cold day, a cold beer on a hot day, and some time on the patio watching the sunrises and sunsets in the fall and spring. Bring it on, I will take it. Tom Modesto, CA

...make me wilt. Guess I'll be rubbing ice on the back of my neck all day!

I would just put it on the return in his name (since he received the money and all that) and tell him he needs to submit a new W-9 to the royalty company so the problem does not resurface next year. If the property was truly in her name alone, he may have to send the royalty company some kind of evidence that the property ownership passed to him. But for the current year, I would do as I suggested in the first sentence and move on.

There is a step up on half when father died. If in a community property state full step up when father died.

Could be a huge problem here, because basis is that of the donor. What was the mother's basis in the house? My family sold a large, 3 story home , near Boston, in 1951, for $6000. If the basis were something like that, basis would be $2000/child. Since it is unlikely that any records still exist, the basis could be Zero.

The two receiving the cash would have gain based on Mother's basis - unless they ponied up money at the time of transfer from Mother.

The 1040 is only a preliminary document when applying for a loan. Returns are verified from the IRS transcript. That is why form 4506-T is submitted with the loan application.

OK folks, here goes. Let's break up the drudgery, have some fun on the forum, and put yourself or another member in the running to earn the new and prestigious "Tax Aficionado" gold star to be awarded weekly. For those of you that missed the conversation of how this idea evolved, it is in the topic called "How Many Times Per Day." This is rather loose and fluid at this point and may be further refined. We'll see how it goes and how many participate. What to post - Post something about your week, a particular kooky client, a wacky situation, something that happened in your office, whatever you want to share with us here that brought smiles, laughs, exasperation, or appreciation and gratitude from those around you. If you already posted something in another topic that you would like to have considered, please make mention of it here by directing us to that post, link to it, or quote it here. Nominate other members that were particularly helpful or enthusiastic during the week. Make mention of the post, link to it, or post a quote within this topic. Make this clear enough so that other readers will know what you are referring to. I'd suggest that you also tag that member by using the "@" function. As an example, to tag me, you would type @jklcpa somewhere in the post. How it works - Each week will have a pinned post running from Saturday morning through the following Friday until 11:59pm. Voting will continue through the next day so that posts made on that ending Friday will still have a chance to earn votes. This week's pinned post will start now and run through 2/23 with voting through 11:59pm eastern time on 2/24/18. Vote for your favorite Tax Kook/Aficionado by clicking one of the positive emoticons of "like", "thanks" or "haha" within this topic. If referring to posts in other topics, the reactions made there are NOT counted. Thumbs down and angry face won't be included in the count. The topic will be locked at the end of the week to disable the voting. The winner will be the member that earns the highest number of positive reactions for any one post within this topic. For members having multiple posts in one week, the posts will be considered as stand-alone entries; votes not tallied across the multiple posts. The star will be placed in the winner's signature line over the weekend after votes are tallied. The star is also easily removed by editing your own signature line to delete it. And who knows, maybe at the end of the season I'll spring for some treats like those banana splits someone is always mentioning . . . or replace the crystal ball that is broken. just kidding about the ball.

If you are referring to 2018 estimated payments, I believe several users have said they are printing the 2018 estimated payments coupons and then deleting them from the return so that they can efile.

Also, when you install a new printer, ignore the warnings to not connect the data cable. Printer companies want all this crap software running on your computer. Just connect it and when windows detects it, it will install a driver for you, or you can browse the CD that came with the printer and find the driver file there. Although you need to be a bit tech saavy to know which folder on the CD to use. But the windows driver will normally be fine, and most likely come from the printer manufacturer anyway.

Windows 10 updates is a problem that you can find volumes about on the web. It's one of the main reasons I refuse to upgrade. So I haven't needed to inform myself about that yet, sorry.

Windows only lets you see a few programs that autorun when windows starts. In task manager, there is a startup tab where you can disable/enable these programs from autostarting. Autoruns is a Microsoft sanctioned program that lets you see everything that starts automatically. You can search for things like Adobe or Intuit to turn off all the crap you don't need running constantly. Your computer will start faster and have fewer conflicts. If you don't what it is, you should probably leave it alone or search the web for it to help you decide if you need it running or not. There is a windows startup folder at: C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup which is useful for pasting shortcuts into for programs you want to run at startup, that don't have a setting for that. Rabbit hole warning: I run a very old program that still works on Win8.1 called StartupMonitor, that's only available on the Wayback Machine and a few other download sites. It runs automatically at startup and prompts you to allow or disallow anything a program (I'm looking at you Intuit.) tries to make run automatically without asking you (How rude!).

Sorry, I did word that a bit confusingly. It's in Preferences, Print. Check 'Mask sensitive info on Client Copy'. Beats me why they didn't say 'mask Social Security numbers'.

Yes - computer completely shuts down. My tech suggested trying to uninstall HP Velocity, which I did yesterday. No problems since uninstalling it. Waiting to see if that's a permanent fix or if the problem will come back.

knowing these clients, though...and their habit of doing things without any expert advice or guidance, I doubt they established any type of estate and simply deeded the home to the three kids.

This is my first year suppressing the information on the Client Copy and the client feedback has been most positive. Hope everyone is having a smooth tax season!

I wish ATX would change two things: Allow us to suppress ID#s on every print packet. Put a checkbox in the print dialog so we can turn it on or off as printing. I've gotten new clients where all the ID#s were suppressed on tax documents and returns, so I had to ask what the ID#s were.

If a client asks for a copy for their bank, I send it to the CLIENT as masked. If they request one with the numbers showing, I would send that to the client. My software does print the last four digits of SSNs, bank accounts, EINs, etc., so I don't think anyone has requested a new copy with all digits showing.

I print numbers on government copies only. Numbers are on my file .pdf copies. Client copies have numbers masked. (I remember years ago at HRB, some preparer's client put their folder on top of their car and drove off. Never did find it.)

@Abby Normal - there's a line between thawing and melting....

I would think you'd be ready to thaw out! I'm in the mid-latitudes and by late February, early March, I'm weary of being cold.