Leaderboard

Hooray....The ...Last ... Day....---Hope You all had a peaceful and successful tax season. Now You can dance... IN THE OFFICE: OUT OF THE OFFICE: OR - ON THE WAY HOME - TODAY:

So of course no one is watching to see if folders are running low.. so two of us go in the back to look see - there must be more! I am looking in the little storage room and see the sticky trap on the floor halfway under the shelf and say - I bet I find a dried up old mouse there! _We do live in the country! I say yep I was right! C out in the office yells back you found them? I said no - she doesn't hear so she comes barreling around the corner. The lady in back with me, (H) says show her! I hold out the trap - it was not that old, and highly recognizable but not smelly anymore - thank goodness - right!! C starts screaming and screaming and turns around and flips up her legs and runs the other way into the other back room about 15 feet away. Talk about cruel - I did not know H had such a cruel streak in her - she seems so quiet and nice - she knew C was terrified of mice!! My husband comes down to see who is dying of bloody murder - we are mortified but laughing hysterically, including C of course who is laughing by now, in between screams as I am putting it in a plastic bag to give to my husband - C saying don't put it in my wastebasket!! Well that was good for about 30 minutes of laughs! C said she always sneaks into the bathroom to make sure there is not a mouse on the trap by the toilet - guess I should get rid of my mouse method! Now what to do to H to get back at her!! She hates snakes.. or a wet seat? It was hilarious and oh so mean. But C is fine.

After all the mind-churning problems that have come rolling down the pike this year, I think maybe next year I'll just go to the nearest J-H box company and apply for the lowest peon position they've got. They tell me (maybe some of you know better) that they put the newbies on "interview mode" and let 'em ask/answer "yes" or "no" to the computer and, voila, a tax return is born. I've always sneered at those modes since with ATX you actually have to know something about taxes to get anything of difficulty to work, but lately the easiest path seems the most attractive to me. While I once had a "Cadillac" program that would do everything except make breakfast, inflation pushed me into ATX and I've been stuck there ever since - I've been trying to remember who it was who posted here (pre-Obamacare) that he/she wasn't worried about the health insurance dealie coming up 'cause they'd just plug it into the computer and everything would fall into place. That remark prompted a reply from somebody saying they'd experienced the similar "Romneycare" and while survivable, it was "no walk in the park". Anyway, it's been an exhausting season (just one opinion - you're welcome to yours or to pop the champagne if it suits you).

Just what we need on the last day! Adventure! Drama! The Perilous Plight of Sleep-deprived Preparers (now live in offices near you!) *That's the caffeine speaking.

In the spirit of providing assistance to confused taxpayers and preparers, on Friday the IRS released a revised Form 1040 and instructions I did notice that the 110 % rule remains unchanged. In order to maintain my mental equilibrium, I have chosen to ignore the other 12 pages :-)

I came home an hour ago. Everyone is on extension. We're officially closed tomorrow.

Because you knew from experience.. You were our canary in the mine!

That was probably me, here in the home of Romneycare.

Are accountants/experienced tax preparers the only that get upset when someone's says "I just input the numbers and the software does everything"? I get pretty upset if a client tells me that (just input the numbers), honest truth.

amen

When I ran Boston in 1979, the weather was almost identical to yesterday, just not so much wind. I was, however, way back in the pack finishing in 3:35 hypothermic. I needed 2 iv's to recover. Back then there was no Gatorade, no Gu, etc., just water and oranges. That was my last marathon until I turned 60 in 2006. It was amazing how different things were and are. So I've run 8 more since then but May 6 will be my last. The left knee is telling me so. Kind of like this tax season telling me 'the end is near...' So proud of American women and all who continue to work on fitness at any level! Think of that 104 year old woman in the 100 meters! The mind boggles!

They should add one additional page - one with concentric circles displaying varying amounts of money, suitable for hanging on a dartboard. Take the average of four consecutive throws and you have the correct amount of estimated tax to pay each quarter.

Thanks, FDNY. I really hate the elliptical but probably because I resent having to use it! I'm just hoping I can get back to maybe run/walk shorter distances. I have a half marathon in October that is a must do as I am a 'streaker' in it, 5 years. And I've been fortunate to always be within the top 3 of my age (old lady) group. That's been the same for the Cincinnati Flying Pig (next and last), too so I have some really nice jackets. But none say "Finisher' which apparently is the newerish big thing. This is the Pig's 20th year so they are doing jackets. Then I am finished. Ahh, no more 5am Saturday mornings during the winter training season- Yippee!

Almost all of the detailed reports that I see, bill the next term's tuition at the end of the previous term. Then they post the payments ( Scholarships, loans etc ) when the term actually begins. So you have a timing problem, where you can't see the whole picture unless you can look at the detailed reports showing prior year, current year, & next year. It's a real mess and I suspect what is actually reported on most tax returns is usually not completely accurate.

The IRS says they are going to do a hard reboot, shut down the entire system and start it up again. That's some amazing tech support they've got over there. (my state collects the return from the IRS so unlinking won't help)

ATX does have that worksheet, and is is accurate.

3:35, wow! I am impressed Margaret. Take care of that knee. I've gone elliptical and no more knee pain. Keeping the quadriceps strong ended my buckling problem.

I would say taxable if the student recieved a refund, no if its to be used for next school year.

ATX's annoucement said " We recommend sending state returns (if the state allows it) unlinked from the federal return to ensure they are also timely filed. " So I thought it would help to submit State returns now. But I forgot to unlink them, just released them... Now they are all stuck at "Transmitted" for God knows how long...

It's been an interesting year calculating estimates for people who also have withholding.

Desiree Linden, she'll be on the Wheaties Box if not already. I forgot she was in the London and Rio Olympics. I was so choked up because she is the first American woman to win Boston (a tough run) since 1985, I didn't even know her name until the last half hour while I was finishing up some extensions and watching in awe that she could win. This was huge. And of course so many other Americans finished up there in the top five. What a day, with weather like this it makes you say to yourself, anything is possible.

My postage receipt is marked 4:57. This is the most last minute I have ever been. Had a guy with a NYS corp that owed a franchise fee and because he has a history with NY I wanted to pay by money order and not give NY any banking info. this day has been crazy! I can't believe how many last minute people have been in!!

Headed home shortly and taking tomorrow off. Hope everyone else on here was done hours ago!

The latest from Drake is that the IRS is allowing LIMITED e-files currently. So my guess is that the various software companies have been given quotas and data rates to stay within as they test the system, and that those will be increased slowly until lifted (assuming no further problems).

None of us are filing with the IRS. Maybe you Drake users are, but us ATX'ers are filing with CCH when we hit send, and they in turn, warehouse and then forward to the IRS and States. Rich

And in driving wind and rain, what a rush! Women all over America should be proud. Way to go girl!

I had a school teacher (Kentucky) who qualified for this due to teaching in a certain area. Backed it out of income on Line 26 with the explanation "section 108(f)(1)" and it was never questioned for 10+ years.

Never mind. His AGI is 126K. High threshold income limitation is 119K for married filing jointly, so ATX disallowed. Thanks to all who responded.

I think the information is usually supplied to the employee by the employer, i.e. Medical professionals working in VA or BIA hospitals .

This saves us a lot of time: In Customize Master forms: Open 1040, 1040 EF, Comparison & 4868 Enter an amount on Comparison line 63 Total tax Prior Year column Link line 63 prior year to 4868 tab 1 line 4. Enter 0 on 4868 line 7. Check box Lock amounts and carry Restore line 63 on Comparison Efile Info-Check Practitioner PIN Efile Info-Link taxpayer & spouse PIN to 1040 EF Efile Info-Check ERO entered checkbox for taxpayer Efile Info-Link ERO entered checkbox for spouse to 1040 EF checkbox Efile Info-link Date Signed to 1040 date Efile Info-Enter ERO PIN Payment-Check Paper check Do this before you add the 4868, and we it's better just to add the 4868 when you go in because it takes hours for ATX to add extensions in bulk. And we don't usually need the state extension forms added end end up having to discard them. Caveat: You have to have the prior year comparison form in every return, which we always do.

Just clarify my post is about the estimated payment Form 1040 ES and instructions.

The investment advisor is wrong. The RMD is calculated based on the December 31st balance of the immediate preceding year, and that is adjusted to include any outstanding rollovers or recharacterized Roth IRA conversions that were not in any traditional IRA during the year. That information is taken from directly from each of the worksheets provided by the IRS to calculate RMDs.

I would send 1099's. You say the art is *created* by the consignors, so they are likely (or even just possibly) in an activity engaged in for profit (else they'd give paintings away). There are penalties for NOT sending 1099's, but no penalties for sending ones that are not needed.

The Internal Revenue Service late Tuesday extended its tax-filing deadline for one day, after a glitch knocked out the IRS website for much of the day, the Wall Street Journal reported. Acting IRS Commissioner David Kautner apologized for the outage late Tuesday. The problem was apparently a hardware failure, and not a cyberattack, officials said. Earlier in the day, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said those who were blocked from the IRS site would get tax extensions.

MeF is down, nonoperational at this time. They're working on it. Here's the IRS page to check its status. This outage has also taken down : Where's My Refund, Direct Pay, and Get Transcripts.

2013 was the latest I've filed, Abby, but I'll dust off my brain -- and recharge it -- by Monday. Hope I can contribute some fraction of the enormous help you've lent this board.

That would be a legal question of whether it is appointed to the other beneficiaries and or your own beneficiaries. The only time I've seen it done was with an only child and their kids were next in line. On trusts it isn't staying in the trust, someone is getting it.

That makes sense to me and I suspect that all of the spring 2017 tuition was billed and included on the 2016 1098T. No education credits were claimed in 2016; mom's a doctor with income that well exceeded the limit anyway. I guess this wouldn't be a problem if the spring 2018 was included on the 2017 1098T, but the kid moved to Australia this year for school. Now I will need to find out if the school this young woman is attending is one that is one the list of int'l schools that participate in our federal student aid program and how much tuition she paid, if any, before the end of 2017, right? I hope there isn't some sort of scholarship that is taxable there for 2017 too. Is there any reconciling or matching of the tuition and scholarship that would allow this (timing) difference to not be taxable?

I know about exclusions on debt forgiveness, including insolvency, bankruptcy, etc.. what about this exception:. has anyone used this exception? seems vague.. cannot find specifics on who qualifies Currently, the U.S. tax code provides that discharges of loans can be excluded from income if the discharge was subject to a requirement that the borrower work in a certain field for a certain amount of time.

I don't use ATX any more so can't say if this is still true, but ATX used to have a worksheet that would calculate any limitation in these cases. If the worksheet is still in the program, make sure you are using it. That's all I can offer.

All I can say is if you are using ATX, the way the worksheets and Form 3800 work together is almost incomprehensible.

(IRA Phaseouts if you are covered by a retirement plan at work from irs.gov) If Your Filing Status Is... And Your Modified AGI Is... Then You Can Take... single or head of household $62,000 or less a full deduction up to the amount of your contribution limit. more than $62,000 but less than $72,000 a partial deduction. $72,000 or more no deduction. married filing jointly or qualifying widow(er) $99,000 or less a full deduction up to the amount of your contribution limit. more than $99,000 but less than $119,000 a partial deduction. $119,000 or more no deduction. married filing separately less than $10,000 a partial deduction. $10,000 or more no deduction. If you file separately and did not live with your spouse at any time during the year, your IRA deduction is determined under the "Single" filing status

Why would you expect this to be deductible? If covered (or coverable, even if he does not participate) by a work plan, that's it. No deduction. The client has the option of making a traditional NON-deductible contribution, or a Roth contribution (if within income limitations).

My TP just went to the social security office, and they told him he wasn't dead (which I had already figured out). Seriously, I got a reject that SS has locked his SSN because he is deceased, but SS office does not show that. They were willing to give the letter saying he wasn't dead, so I will send that with a paper file. Any thoughts on what is going on? Thanks.

Starting at our cutoff - we tell folks coming in after that a number of things. First, no guarantee that the return will be done. Second, where can I reach you at a number or numbers that will be answered during the day, evenings and weekends. Third, if you fail to answer our call, we will assume you do not want your return finished. Fourth, we will not leave a voice mail - refer back to number 3. We will go a long, long way to help those that want to help themselves - but won't move much off center for the other camp. BTW - we have very few issues like the one described - maybe two out of all of the returns we did this year.

Yes... I hate that. And, if you are not sure that you have the right number, you don't know if you got the right person as well. Rich

I decided to have client mail in an Extension with payment and instructed her to watch to see if it is cashed. She will try rectifying this with SSA by phone as she is a busy professional. May take awhile for her to get down to the SSA office. She thinks this is really funny as we've had some back and forth banter (I've been calling her Casper and after I tried resubmitting I offered condolences). I also told her what you guys said and she will use Mark Twain's quote, she loved that. She doesn't think we have a sick sense of humor, she's a Psycho Analyst and has heard worse. She did say there is a famous Freudian psychiatrist who summed up death pretty well, he said "You're alive until you're dead." I think I learned that is Psych 101. My curiosity now is if she gets her SS check, 3rd Wednesday every month, we'll soon find out. If not I predict she will find the time to get down to the office.

This one hit yesterday evening. Doctor; spouse is a doctor. Spouse has a W-2 job but t/p is self-employed. NEVER makes estimated payments and owes big time. We had his return finalized in a rush after getting the last tidbits from him because he was agitating for finishing. He came and picked up, brought signatures back next morning and left. We had not gotten around to e-filing him (phew) when we get an email saying "what was my SEP contribution?" SEP contribution/ --What SEP contribution?! First we had heard of it! Back-track dance commenced... and turned out to be a good thing. 'Cuz I did a stupid and entered the state 1099-MISC income a line too high, so it got double-counted, once on Sch C and once on Line 21 - and in the rush to finish for him, no one (meaning ME) caught it. We need new signatures; he was actually happy because his federal tax went down, and I (re-)learned NOT to let clients pressure me into rushing! I eventually found some time to wash the egg off my face.

Young clients - married couple with young children - withholding was way too low because job income increased substantially. Knocked out several credits (EIC, etc.), and no HI so penalties. Tried to talk them through what was different and encourage immediate W4 changes. Fast forward a few days: They have decided they are not going to file. They have been advised that they don't have to file every year, and that as long as they change their withholding this year, it will all even out, and they can continue to only file in some years. They will pay me for the return. Kudos for that offer. OH, AND he (the President) said it was okay. He is trying to help the working class, and this is part of it. I've had amazing conversations, but this was my first foray into the 'you don't have to file every year; only some years' thread of advice. ***Postlude*** - talked them down from the tree, and they are now making reasonable, rational decisions. 'They trust me'.