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The client is already concerned about missing documents, so use that and ask her to have the daughter's help. You could ask her to have the daughter call you, or you could set up a conference call where you can ask the client's permission to find out about the POA, or you could set up an appointment to meet with both of them and discuss in person. ETA- if conference call won't work, ask the client to call you from the daughter's house next time she is there visiting her husband. She and daugher could talk to you on a speaker phone and get permission to ask daughter about the POA.

I will second @JohnH's excellent idea. This whole area of concern is a Circ230 weak spot and minefield, and we get caught. On the one hand, you cannot let this client sign a return in her increasingly confused state. On the other, technically you cannot reach out to the daughter. If you do have any recollection of mention of a POA, then JohnH's suggestion is an "out" for you. I have had similar instances. One recent case, the son-in-law contacted me after laboriously convincing f-i-l he needed "just a little help" with his (many years of back) taxes. I had not yet accepted him as a client; we just had our initial meeting. Using that "out" (non-clients on all sides) I told s-i-l it was high time for the man's daughter to get a POA while he was still competent to grant it. He's *fine* is you're just talking to him about the weather and the garden - but oh dear heavens the papers. I've seen it too many times. The multiple xerox copies of the same things, the notes running in seven different directions on one piece of paper (also copied), the important pieces intermingled with junk intermingled with charity solicitations, all jumbled with multiple years. Dementia. Just saw early signs again this morning with an existing client - who fortunately told me of her own volition about her grown child who now has a POA. (And I have an address in my files from something or other some time ago...) I will be reaching out for a copy of that POA.

One approach might be to call the daughter and say something to the effect that you're going through your records and can't find your copy of the POA she previously told you she has. Chances are the daughter knows about mom's mental state and will immediately provide you one. If she doesn't, and if she begins asking questions, that might get touchy. But I'm betting she will get the message and get a copy over to you, or perhaps accompany mom to an appointment. You could also check with the local register of deeds - some attorneys will record POA's or suggest that the client do so.

QDRO covers qualified plans that should also be referenced in the divorce decree. IRAs aren't covered by QDROS and their division used to settle the split of marital assets must be covered in the divorce decree. It should reference the mechanics of division and may be labled as "transfer incident to divorce" or may mention "rollover." Either way, if this is referenced in the document in either way, it would be considered a transfer incident to divorce and would not be taxable, AND someone should make darn sure that the custodian handles and labels this properly! I would have to look up whether this is an exception to the one-rollover-per-year rule, but my gut says 'yes'. ETA - keep in mind that trustee-to-trustee transfers don't count toward the once-per-year rule, and multiple transfers are allowed.

Would there be anything wrong with mentioning to the client's daughter that you have some personal concerns about her Mom's condition/health? You've been dealing with her and noted that she doesn't seem well. Is everything okay with her?? Something along those lines? You wouldn't be sharing any financial info, but as a human being, not a tax preparer, you're concerned about her. It may be a slippery slope but based on your post it does sound like you genuinely have concerns about her state of mind.

per Rev. Rul. 77-282, 1977-2 CB 52, IRC Sec(s). 152, "If the parent had purchased the automobile as a gift for the youth and registered title in the youth's name, the parent thereby would have provided support, and the support so provided would likewise be measured by the fair market value of the automobile and would be included in support for the year of the gift."

If the married kids file MFS and the potential dependent otherwise qualifies, then the potential dependent still qualifies to be a dependent of her parents. If the married kids file MFJ but have NO filing requirement, file only to get a refund of their withholding, then the potential dependent still qualifies to be a dependent of her parents. (NOT your scenario.) If the married kids file MFJ because they HAVE a filing requirement, then the daughter does NOT qualify to be a dependent of her parents. The parents can file withOUT their daughter as a dependent. OR, the married kids can amend their MFJ return to MFS for both, and children and parents mail in their returns. Or, as has been suggested, you can send the whole family to HRB and move on to more appreciative clients!

I've needed chat a couple times this year...worked very well both times. Minimal wait and very knowledgeable reps. Good luck.

There has been a maintenance release for the forum software since the last update, so I'm going to apply it in a little bit. I usually try to keep from running updates during tax season unless they're security related or unless there are problems that people notice. There will be some brief downtime, but shouldn't be more than 15 minutes.

Since the grant is directly related to a real estate rental activity, then why not report it on Schedule E and deduct the related grant expenses? As cbslee pointed out, if it involved a farming operation it would go on Schedule F, so why not E (real estate professional or not)?

This is an extension of time to file AND pay unlike a regular extension. However, the interest still begins on April 15 and I don't think this waives the penalty for being under-withheld, only the penalty for paying after April 15. The penalty for late payment would begin June 15 for an overseas taxpayer. At least that is my understanding.

Need a little help and advice. I have a client whom I have been serving for a number of years. The client's husband is terminal and has been moved out of the home to the daughter's home for her to care for him. The client (husband's wife) each year has retained me to prepare their taxes. Now, she seems mentally unstable. She is confused, doesn't know what she has done with the documents/tax forms (these folks are retired so 1099R, SSA and other similar forms) and now calls me four to five times a day upset cause she is not sure she has gotten everything to me. She constantly claims she doesn't know what to do but wants to be sure I will not file her late. I do not feel comfortable preparing this return. The daughter is my client as well and I thought she said she had POA for her mother (the client). If she doesn't understand items about her taxes my I question her competence with signing the return. What are our responsibilities here? Where am I bound by Circ 230 in a situation like this. Any advice is appreciated.

Or just print everything to PDF. An added bonus is that you'll use less toner. When I printed a few forms directly from ATX, I noticed that everything was much darker and heavier than when I print from PDF. Also, the PDF gives you a way to review what's going to print before you print it.

Can everyone take a look, maybe refresh the page, and let me know if any weirdness they noticed before has been resolved? If you still have issues, try logging out and back in again, or clearing cache and logging in again and re-checking.

Mine actually does that all the time. I always have to close the program, and I often have to restart my machine. The program has been kicking me out 5 or 6 times daily - randomly. The other 3 users in my office (all with licenses, but the same software running off the same server) are NOT experiencing this. Hmmm.

Yes, reboot didnt help. on chat with tech ATM Ive had this setup for the past 3-4 years since my c:/ is only 256GB

--> "new law from IRS" <-- Sounds like whomever you spoke with at ATX tech support was just making it up as they went along. How many times do tech support people of all stripes just say whatever comes to mind to get us off the phone when they don't have a script applicable to the situation? Rather than actually check for an answer, they just blurt out some nonsense and hope you won't challenge them. Speaking of deceased clients, my number of those seems to be increasing exponentially each year.

If the tuition was $4K and the scholarship was $4K and the bill of $4K was paid by the scholarship with no parental cash and the parents can benefit from AOC more than the student will lose by paying tax on income at his lower tax rate and IF the scholarship can be used for more than tuition, then you "use" some/all of the scholarship for room & board or whatever so it's taxable to the child. Then the parents take the AOC. However, 1098-Ts are still unreliable. Use the bursar's statement. For instance, I've seen what you reported, but it meant that tuition was $8K with scholarship $4K so billed $4K. If the parents actually paid $4K toward tuition, you don't have to "move" any scholarship money around.

I double-checked before adding this comment. In NC, it is customary for the POA to be recorded if the agent deems that the individual has become unstable or otherwise believes there has a "triggering event". Recording the POA simplifies the agent's life considerably, and the recording info enables most institutions to rely upon it. So it MAY be that the daughter has recorded the POA already if she senses that Mom is becoming unstable. And if mom is calling you 5 or 6 times a day about the same issue, chances are she's doing the same thing with the daughter about other issues. Anyhow, if you are reluctant to initiate the conversation with the daughter at the ourtset, you could go to the trouble to check with the Register of Deeds just to see if a POA is on file.

I don't think so, because the exchanges don't actually exchange anything but computer bits. It's not like having cash in a savings account in Denmark. But it's a good question, and perhaps that may come in to play as these exchanges mature.

Which return are you doing? It is clear that this arrangement is for the benefit of the employer so if you are preparing the return for an employee, I would just ignore it. Now if you are preparing the return for the employer, you do need to research it.

Exactly how I have handled my 2 bitcoin clients (no dividends). They aren't making $2M...

Age is not considered when checking for HOH. He qualifies for HOH on the info you provided.

That's a brilliant idea. But...there's a setback. Discussing it with my client, I realized that I had misunderstood him. He was not interested in paying social security -- instead, he simply wanted to get the deduction for self-employed health insurance only. I had previously advised he couldn't get it. But, his friendly neighborhood insurance agent (substituting for the infamous "barber") told him he could get it because he routinely sold policies to many other landlords who (unlike him) had no connection to their operations other that collecting the rent, yet they were all happily deducting it with no complaints at all from IRS. I believe that because probably nobody's minding the store at IRS and although I can argue the agent's got a policy sale axe to grind, I can't argue that the other landlords who say yea are lying because they're probably not. What a dilemma! The dopey insurance agent probably thinks he's right, the other landlords are clueless, my client's gullible, and I'm barring the door with ethics (likely known as "that tax guy who doesn't know what you can write off").

The standard deduction for dependents can indeed be up to $12k. The quote from Terry D appears to be from March 2018, before the pubs and instructions were updated to reflect the changes from the TCJA. This from a later version of Pub 501 (underscore added): Standard Deduction for Dependents The standard deduction for an individual who can be claimed as a dependent on another person's tax return is generally limited to the greater of: $1,050, or The individual's earned income for the year plus $350 (but not more than the regular standard deduction amount, generally $12,000.

I would paper file this return with a signed attached statement requesting that the refund be applied to the Trust Fund Taxes. It might work, you have nothing to lose.

Probably not as permanently disabled but they qualify for Qualifying Relatives. They would have had to lived there all year. Your client will be bankrupted by rehab costs, I've seen it happen too many times.

I was right in the middle of a tax return and ATX shut down. Now every time I open it I get this message ' An error was encountered while communicating with the ATX Server. Would you like to retry'. Which it won't let me do. HMMMM what's going on? I don't have time for this darn it! Is this just a glitch on their part after their update, is anyone else having this problem? Is ATX an internet program, I thought it was a download to our computer program?