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Wow, is right. Retirement looks better every day!

@BulldogTom I do feel for you. One of the hardest things I had to learn - and I have to keep RE-learning it every couple of years, is that I can not allow myself to care more about my clients' finances and tax situations than they care themselves. We know how to fix it - if only they will listen! Their lives could be so much better! But many if not most if not all will not listen. So instead, concentrate on "Let not your hearts be troubled." Note that at some level we allow ourselves to get all worked up; stop it. (Lecturing myself at least as much, maybe more, than you.) You did your best; the client screwed up and it's not your fault. Do not let your heart be troubled. And charge him a big fat fee - up front - if you take on trying to get even some of the mess fixed. Plus hugs to you. Not Rita hugs! Sympathy hugs.

21 years now, and I have yet to have a single client make the life, financial, changes needed to solve their problems. Nor have I had even one, follow my suggestions in this area, or estimated payments. I stopped having compassion. File the returns, collect their payment for my services (which increases 10% each year). Nod and smile as they lament about their financial woes. File their information. Wait for the call that they are filing bankruptcy. Charge extremely well for my assistance with that. Sleep well at night. You can't fix stupid, or the unwilling.

I saw a fully functional backhoe.....

I have already added the questions regarding cryptocurrency to the tax organizer. I generally try to send them out after Christmas. Due to the postal rate increase scheduled for 1/27/19 I plan to mail them prior to that date.

Really need more info to provide an answer. Basically "income" distributed to ben's is not taxable on 1041.

Medlin, I just tried your suggestion. Sure enough, "I" have exceeded the number of times to login so another 24 hours locked out. I'm okay with that but annoyed, too. Not sure how to have IRS use two factors. I thought the e-services set up was, well, set. Guess I will try again maybe Friday.

.... and she will HUG YOU.

I thought we covered this. I am closer to retirement age than you are! I will not be working in 10 years. But for now, I'm still having too much fun to retire.

Client received a letter from the IRS regarding a distribution from a Roth IRA for TY 2016. This is not a CP2000. The 1099R was coded J, no exceptions apply from a Roth IRA. The IRS is stating the full amount of the distribution is taxable. I am currently waiting on information from his broker regarding the character of the distribution. I have advised them of the ordering rules that principal is distributed first, then earnings. They are having a difficult time trying to come up with the character of this distribution or any documents supporting what the principal and interest was. What I know is my client started contributing to the IRA several years ago beginning sometime in the early 90's. He is under 59 1/2 years old. But no tax on the principal only the earnings. In TY 2017 the 1099R was marked the same way for a smaller distribution but the total distribution box was checked. Certainly some of these funds are earnings. My client has until Tuesday Nov 13th to respond to keep his rights to petition the tax court available. I can't believe that no one seems to know what the principal and earnings were for this account. The IRS is going to assess 20K+ for 2016. Don't know how to address this situation. I can't even assume the ordering rules were followed as of this moment, no proof of anything. How would anyone here handle this?

Thanks for replies., I did push the heck out of the broker. He was able to come up with a statement that shows the figures I need to address the letter. While they are for TY 2013, the adjustments mean a very small tax due using those figures. So, I am including a breakdown of the statement and how the taxable portion was obtained. Now, it will be the waiting game to see if the IRS accepts the response. Doing it this way still keeps the tax court petition option open.

Thanks Abby, never noticed that before.

Don't know your definition of early nineties but Roth type IRAs started with the Tax Relief Act of 1997. Is it possible he originally had a traditional IRA later converted it to a Roth IRA? If so, it could be the reason the basis is difficult to establish by the broker.

i had two similar situations this year where the client could not come up with the basis and the transcripts of forms 5498 did not show sufficient basis.

Go into rollover manager and click on the poorly named Last Month/Quarter tab. That lets you roll over 2017 returns to a short year 2018 return.

Go ahead and petition the tax court to keep that option open

There is still time for your client to approach the lawyer and say if the agreement is not signed in time, alimony will be reduced by whatever tax bracket applies because it will not longer be deductible. Spouse may even come out ahead if her bracket would have been higher if the alimony was declared as income so she gets to keep more of the reduced amount. Win-win?

I agree on the attorney being out foxed here. I believe the opposing party attorney knows the new rules and signing after 12/31 means the opposing spouse or payee does not have to include the amounts as taxable income either.

jeepers - I do that with my own posts! And just pray someone answers them cuz they are pretty dumb when I have to break down and ask.. and I do not answer much as most of you are so much more eloquent in your response!! D

I get messages from google if they think they detect a hack attempt (they are usually correct). They suggest changing the password immediately. I do not think they lock out (since the messages I have had so far are blocked attempts). For a few things I log in to infrequently, if I do not remember and use the proper password, I can get locked out after a certain number of failed attempts, with a message not to retry for a certain amount of time. If I try within that time frame, the timer simply restarts. If it were me, I would try ASAP - within the 24 hours - and see if the lock is actually in place. If the message is legit, you should be locked out, and will get some sort of warning, hopefully that the timer has been reset. If you get in, and it is within the 24 hours, the message may have been fake. Either way, once in again, change all security items you can, and if possible, use two factor auth (such as a code received via text).

Not me! Be glad whoever did not get in. The miserable-to-deal-with extra security layers seem to be working. At least for your account!

I hear you and I'm with you on this matter.

There is a reason why the opposing party wants to go final on January 4, 2019, instead of November or December 2018.. So the Alimony is NOT deductible.

"TCJA changes alimony tax treatment only for alimony orders pursuant to an instrument of divorce entered after December 31, 2018. Couples planning to divorce may want to hasten their proceedings — or at least their drafting and signing of divorce instruments to take advantage of pre-TCJA alimony tax treatment. An instrument of divorce must specify periodic payments and the parties must reside in separate households. Experts believe an instrument signed before December 31, 2018, will qualify for pre-TCJA tax treatment, even if the divorce is not yet final. If the parties sign their divorce instrument before the end of this year, they can also agree to pre-TCJA tax treatment for any subsequent modification of their alimony arrangement. In that way, couples who sign an alimony instrument of divorce before December 31, 2018, can preserve the deductibility of alimony far into the future."

...But I wanted to mention that I had removed the Donate tab at the top of the site for a few days while I worked on a new system for collecting donations with an option to support recurring donations (suggested by @Catherine and @JohnH) The primary goal, though, is to finally be able to associate every donation with the person who made it. Before I usually had a good guess based on name or email address, but since the whole PayPal process happened outside of the website, there was no definitive way to make the connection between donation and donor, especially if a check was mailed. So now, no matter what method of payment is used, as long as you go through the checkout process, the site will create a record of that donation and associate it with your account. This also allows me the flexibility to add some minor benefits to the accounts of those who donate, like increased file attachment quotas, inbox size, etc, which is more of a gesture of gratitude than something of any actual value. If the ability to pay with PayPal is requested, I will look into implementing it as an additional payment option. Recurring donations can be cancelled at any time from the Donate > Manage Donations page. Card info can be updated/removed from the Donate > My Details > Cards page. Please let me know if you find anything confusing about the process or the way things are set up. Fine print: This is all PCI compliant. No credit card information is stored on my server. All transactions are processed by the Stripe payment gateway, and transmitted over an encrypted connection. I have implemented similar systems for hospitals around Maine--this is all up to industry standards.

Well, if you won't ask people to donate, I will. We need to support our board. And if I am not giving enough, let me know and I will up my annual contribution. @Eric is the best and we need to treat him that way. Tom Modesto, CA

How about CCH? Upcoming Webinars from Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer and NAEA have joined together to provide exclusive offers to Wolters Kluwer's CCH CPELink platform. Hundreds of courses over a broad range of topics make it easy to find CPE relevant to your professional development, while the Compliance Manager makes it easy to actively monitor your CPE deadlines and mandatory subject requirements so you don't have to. Consider these upcoming webinars: Title Date CE Taxation of Employee Stock & Stock Options Wednesday, September 5, 2018 2 How Innocent Does the Innocent Spouse Have to Be Thursday, September 6, 2018 2 When Your Client Dies: Final Form 1040, Post-Death Elections and More Tuesday, September 11, 2018 2 Form 990: Functional Expense Reporting and Grantmaking Wednesday, September 19, 2018 2 Tax Treatment of Individual Retirement Arrangements Wednesday, September 19, 2018 2 Family Trusts: Planning to Preserve, Protect and Transfer Wealth for Your Clients Thursday, September 20, 2018 2