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Awwww, you all are the best! I enjoyed the day so much, and we were honored to host. Edsel and Posse, thank you for bragging on the kids! They and Donna (Posse) did as much as I did to make it happen. Here's two pictures from May: First one: David, Me, Karsyn & Allie, Daniel, and Erin. Daniel won the marriage lottery when he got Allie. Best daughter-in-law ever. Second picture is Karsyn modeling what you SHOULD wear to Walmart.

I'll be the next to chime in. Callie and I left before the pictures were taken, but maybe Catherine has more that she will share. Not that you're missing much with a shot of me. There were big 'uns and little 'uns. Smart 'uns and .... If anyone wonders what tax people are like, they should have been there. All of us reasonably engrained in the profession, all of us kinda kooky, and wonderfully human. It was great to meet everyone and put faces and voices with the membership. All of us love Rita - but I will take a minute of readers' time to reflect on something special. We had the pleasure of meeting her children. Two sons and a daughter. Tall, good-looking, cordial, and helpful. And appreciated here in the south is their God-fearing disposition. This should speak extra volumes about Rita. Women are amazing creatures - having to multi-task between professional duties, domestic duties, family duties. Additionally, most of us know something how difficult it is to raise children - raising great kids just doesn't "happen" all by itself. And in Rita's case, there is the small matter of tending to the "back 40." This doesn't happen by itself either. Unforgettable gathering, folks. Those of us in attendance feel closer to each other. If it happens again somewhere else, I highly recommend it.

Shout out to my girl RitaB for hosting such a wonderful event. I have considered her a friend online for years, but now she is like a sister. She put on a fabulous lunch for us all and we just had a marvelous time hanging out. Love you Rita....you are the best. In case it does not get mentioned, Possi is the best joke teller of the group. She does accents and dialects for all her characters. Abby is not far behind, he is very fun. Abby is also brilliant and has a wonderful spouse. Margaret can cook! Catherine is sharp as a tack and competitive as all get out. Jack is just like he is online. Edsel is a soft spoken southern gentleman. Gail is very sweet and funny. The back forty has a lot of flowers in it. Seems to be well tended and fertilized. Seriously, the view from Rita's house never gets old. I just kept walking outside to look out over the back 40. Beautiful country to look at. And most important....BulldogTom and Catherine are the undefeated cornhole champions. Thanks again RitaB for hosting. Tom Modesto, CA

It was so wonderful to meet y'all. I don't help much on the board, but I DO learn much! I hope I was able to teach y'all a few life lessons, like maybe stick a $50 bill in your coat pocket before partying, and read the signs before you mouth off to your neighbor across the water... Rita has been like a sister to me for many years, even long-distance, and her gift of hospitality is greater than most people I know. The kids helped with whole hearts. How refreshing is that?! I love the whole family. So wonderful to meet all y'all. When it's time for another gathering, count me in... as long as Rita's there!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Rita for hosting! It was SO wonderful to meet everyone and I had a blast. I do have at least one picture with Edsel once I get it off my camera. More to say, but of course I came back to about three crises... gotta deal, then I can gush about how marvelous it was. Those who missed it, missed a real treat. We need to do this again, for sure.

Sounds like this was a really great time and I am so sorry I missed it. I had to attend to issues with my mother who is in a skilled nursing facility. The last 14 months have been a roller coaster ride. However, I hope I can get meet the folks here at some other gathering.

Thank you so much, Rita! We had wonderful food and fellowship, and I was reminded once again how special a breed most tax professionals are! I would love to meet more of you, and see those I have met again. Unfortunately, I am not as brave as Rita to open up my house to an undetermined number of people showing up! You are the best, Rita!

I have many more pictures to post. I will put up a picture of the group with all the names, so everyone can know who we all are. I have to reduce the file size, in order to have enough room. I have pictures of Edsel as well. A special posting for the back 40......

And thank you Tom for your great humor and kindness. Tom is also a very fun guy. And Catherine is fun size, and very fun to be around too. Everyone was great, really. And it was super cool to meet you all... sorry, y'all. Personally, I had a blast! And I survived a Rita hug! Was also pleasantly surprised to find good coffee and sushi in little ole Crossville. And, man are the prices reasonable!

I swear we look almost like a group of tax nerds! Well, there was the occasional mention of tax, software, etc. but we did have a lot of fun getting to know each other in a very different way. Thanks, Rita, for making this happen (or allowing it, as the case may be ). We always knew you were a super person; now we know for certain!

Oh this is so great to see! I've been waiting all day. So glad you guys were able to do this, it makes this board come alive with all your smiling faces. Thank you for getting everyone together Rita, you are our Sweetheart Queen. Love you, Bill

Just a couple of pics of the grand get together today. I have to s I will attempt to post a picture with name labels, so everyone will know who was here. It was a great time of putting faces and voices with names. (there will be pic of the back 40 in a different post for security reasons...)

Or stop processing such 'hot' stuff!

Just thought I would let everyone know, that apparently the last update from Microsoft for Win 7 & 10 really screwed some things up. I was not able to print anything from with the software. Drake users need to check their print settings. All of mine all the way back to 2014 were changed. To check the settings, go to setup, printer, print settings. Click on F8, select your printer. Be sure ALL of the printer tray settings are set to automatic. Click update and then save. Once I did this, all of my print functions returned to normal.

It basically turns the 1040 into even more of a summary page. Everything pertinent is on worksheets and subordinate forms and schedules. Meh.

ILLMAS, as long as they are married, they have the right to file jointly so MFJ is a correct filing status. Now if they didn't cash the check and now they want a portion of the refund, that's another story. My brother, US Citizen, got married on December 31, 2017 to a student in El Salvador. My bother is here in the United States and his wife will be there for at least a year while her visa is processed. He applied for an ITIN for his wife and they attached a letter signed by both stating that they wanted the wife to be treated as a resident for tax purposes and they were including global income. IRS gave ITIN to wife and needless to say that my brother saved more than $5K.

Below is a link to the IRM that agents use to determine if an amended return such as this that is filed outside of statute will be processed or denied. The sections that pertain to your amendment are sections 21.6.1.5.5 through 21.6.1.5.7 https://www.irs.gov/irm/part21/irm_21-006-001r#idm139996536576528

Thanks Terry. My Drake wasn't specifically affected, but the update did remove my setting telling the computer that the duplex function was installed so it removed that functionality from my print dialog box, and as soon as I saw that I knew what had happened. I think that Windows updates removing custom settings has been a common complaint for a while now, including some privacy settings, and it makes me wonder what else reverted back to MS' default.

This is so amazing! I'm so sorry to have missed it. Very glad that you all had such a great time. I hope it will become an annual event!

Ditto, ditto and ditto.

Thanks so much for posting pictures! It is wonderful to see that you are all having enjoying yourselves!

I've been waiting too. Thanks for posting, Jack. So happy for those of you that were able to get there.

I have a facebook account.

Excellent article in the CPA Journal : https://www.cpajournal.com/2018/06/22/first-look-at-the-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-8/

I'm not overly satisfied with this video, but I've spent around 10 hours to get this far, so, be gentle. The video looks much better before I upload it to youtube, and I'm not sure how to get around that. So with no further ado:

I wonder if we could have a posting with links to this type of posting for example a pinned post that lists only links to instructional postings: Maybe we should have voting for good postings and when the votes make it to 5, then we added a link to the pinned post of links. I am talking about link and an explanation: https://www.atxcommunity.com/topic/20902-atx-letters-seminar-video/ Video showing how to add client letters https://www.atxcommunity.com/topic/20886-can-the-home-office-deduction-be-taken-for-a-second-house/ Answered: Can home office deduction be taken on second house? Etc.

Stay out of Rita's back 40 !!

This conference was awesome. Excellent speakers, well organized, good location. One of the best education seminars I have ever done. Learned some new stuff that I can use right away. Those of you who live in Tennessee have a great EA Society and a great education resource. I may try to come back again, even if Rita is not hosting in her back 40. Tom Modesto, CA

That's very interesting. Let's say you owned a house for three years and it was your principal residence for the three years. You also run a business and you use 1/3 of your house as a home office. Let's say that the house cost $390K and you sell it for $540K. Technically you could approach this instance in two ways: 1.- You report 2/3 of the sale as a principal residence and use the exclusion to kill the $100K profit. AND You report the sale of a business asset and report its cost as $130K and depreciation taken $30K. Then you will have a profit $80K and you will pay taxes on it. (will $30K of depreciation recapture be reported as ordinary income)? 2.- You report the sale as I reported it on the 1040 above and just entered 0 days (as you said... but I am not sure it is correct). If you do that, you will have to pay taxes ONLY on $30K which to me doesn't sound right. The $150K of profit will be killed by the exclusion... I hope someone else researches this instance and finds out that you have to enter 365 days (1/3 of three years) as the non-qualified days and then you will pay taxes on $80K as we did in option 1. One thing these examples tell us is that we don't know how much we don't know.

We pass on the bank charge. If we can't get payment in a certain time frame, we pass it to our States Attorney who has a very good record with such things.

All ya'll have a great time !!! I look forward to seeing your photo's video's, etc.

Sorry I can't make it, but hoping everyone has a wonderful time. Looking forward to seeing some pictures, videos, newscasts, police reports - whatever.

Everybody that is there please post some pic or a video. Umpiring all stars games this weekend.

I'm told this is the biggest attraction in Crossville.

I am jealous that people are meeting in the "Middle" of TN. Is there anyone in MD or VA that can accommodate a group gathering? You only need to have a few horses, a soccer field, a river and some livestock. If Kendall Jackson and Margarita with Jose Cuervo are invited, I can bring los limones. Joking aside, I believe gatherings are a good idea and I am wondering if it is possible to have one closer to the DMV area.

Wow, I wanted to drive to TN but I cannot do it this weekend. Every four years and I get glued to the TV.

Only ever had one. 22 yo kid. I passed on the bank charge.

Must be some really tiny print on those postcards.

And I plan to drive from Virginia to Gatlinburg TN tomorrow, and then on to Rita's on Saturday! Back to to Gatlinburg Saturday night, and back to Virginia Monday. Don't know what I was thinking - I am still so far behind! But this will be fun! (Except for all the riding around, and even that won't be too bad - might make up for some of the time I didn't see my husband during tax season to be trapped in a car with him now!)

I'm from MD but I'm driving to TN today. I'm crazy like that.

What more can you ask for, having true love and more importantly, the love for sports (sigh). https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=klwVM_1529552051

WHEN I WAS YOUNG....... TODAY'S YOUNGIN'S......... .........

Hi Taxmann - just to add clarification, Series LLCs are not allowed in every state, so many of the readers may not know what it is. A "Series LLC" (first called the "Delaware Series LLC" after the first state to adopt) allows multiple LLCs for purposes of liability but one LLC for reporting purposes. Don't know about Illinois, but the intent from Delaware is to allow a single reporting entity, so the various individual LLCs would not have to file returns for each LLC. The most understandable application of a "Series LLC" would be an owner with 10 buildings. If an LLC were created for each building, the liability for each would be limited to the asset recoverable value of only that building, without exposing the other buildings to that liability. You can do this in Illinois (I think) and about 20 other states. Can't do that in Tennessee (at least not yet). I think Federal allows a consolidated return but I don't know that it becomes feasible in states where consolidated reporting is not allowed. I think the answer to the Taxmann dilemma is to simply paper allocate payroll and payroll taxes to the individual LLCs, and report payroll only under the Master LLC.

When I was encoding the screen capture videos into hi-def wmv files, my computer started overheating. I use SpeedFan to monitor my computer temps and alert me when it's too hot. My CPU normally runs about 45-55C, and the alarm sounds at 60C. The alarm sounded and the CPU temp climbed to 64C, so I turned my AC down to 68F and had to blow a fan on my computer to get the temp down to about 57C. Maybe I should have a bigger CPU cooler installed.

What will you do in November? Drain the swamp in CT? Amazing that the voters are the people who can REALLY drain the swamp. If everyone wants it drained why do the incumbents always win? Careful, this could lead to a partisan political thread. Let's leave the parties out of it. They both do their best to hoodwink the public. Delete if necessary. I appreciate the fact that this should not become a partisan political discussion on this forum, but it's hard to talk about taxation and leave the politicians totally out of it.

A while ago there was a thread on the best and worst states when it comes to handling taxes. As the states get their teeth around the TCJA, we'll start to see those that have uglier sides. I nominate CT. On May 31 the governor signed a law that pass-through entities must now pay tax at the entity level, at the top rate of 6.99% of course. Partners and S corp members will get a credit on their individual returns. Problem is that we tax pros found about this on June 13, two whole days before the 2nd quarter estimates were due. So now all these entities are two quarters behind, and interest and penalties are threatened unless the individuals "recharacterize" their individual estimates as paid by the entity. It gets worse. Yesterday we learned that the state has decoupled from the new bonus depreciation that went into effect Sept 27, retroactive to Jan 1 2017. So anyone who filed a perfectly accurate return this past season and took advantage of the bonus now has to amend their CT and pay interest (at 1% A MONTH) and possibly penalties. To ask for abatement, taxpayers have to go through the usual channels and send "evidence and documentation" to the DRS legal department. I feel like sending them the whole 1100 pages of the TCJA! I can't wait to spend days culling client returns to find out who was affected and then tell them they owe CT money and us money for the amendment. The fact that no notice came from DRS until it was too late suggests they were being sneaky, didn't want anyone to notice. We need a DRS liaison in this state, and a legislature that doesn't pass laws that penalize taxpayers retroactively. I can't wait until November!