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Oh, I love this. I'm going to do this when I get a staff. LOL.

Pffft. We don't call them until August or September. Ain't nobody got time for that!

Just venting but who the heck thought up this question AND who approved it! "If someone can claim you as a dependent, do not check the box." Woulldnt it have been much clearer to just have a box to check if you CAN be claimed as a dependent on someone else's return?

Same as Tom. I think I'm ahead of last year. Either that or I'm not and just think I am.

They'd rather we verify 1098Ts for accuracy, give our clients lie detector tests or whatever. Threaten to fine us with penalties if the documents we're given are incorrect.

I require that the first tax return I do for a client they come in and sign in front of me. Or at least I get the interview done with them in front of me and they sign my engagement letter in front of me. Once I know who they are, I sometimes never see them again in person. I have a new client coming in Saturday because I insisted upon it. It is a referral from a client that I don't see in person anymore, completely remote. I am happy for the referral, but I asked the new client to come into the office for the first year return. I will probably never see them again in person after this year, as they live about 2 hours away. Tom Modesto, CA

Well there is one more advantage to them coming to the office, they eat the candy my wife provides which helps keep my waistline under control. Yeah, I hate the one at a time form thing. I guess they think we have never seen these forms before. Also, I like the ones that here's the pile, you'll know which forms you need. That usually follows with is there anything you think I'm missing or that maybe I didn't receive? Once again, I consult my crystal ball for guidance.

Filing education credits and college statement analysis. As I said, these are people providing higher education but for some unknown reason can't see the importance of accuracy. Maybe the colleges should be fined by the IRS for whacky and no sense making reporting.

I love it when people don't come to my office! More time for me to prepare returns and fewer episodes of clients handing me one document at a time and saying 'this is my W2' after staring at it intensely for several seconds . . . it takes everything I have to be patient during these types of 'meetings'. I send secure .pdf's to clients, and they scan the 8879 back to me. Seems to work okay and no postage. Credit card fees . . . aaargh. Sounds like a $10/return across the board fee increase to me!

If the daughter did NOT pay more than 50% of her own support and meets the other requirements to be a qualified dependent of her parents AND files MFS, then the parents can claim her. If the daughter files MFJ, then the parents can claim the daughter if the filing was ONLY to get back their withholding. But, that's not the case described in the OP. The parents would ALWAYS have to state to you (and show you, if you had reason to doubt them) that their child did NOT pay more than 50% of her own support, and that has nothing to do with being married. If a three-year-old child actress supports herself more than 50%, then the parents can NOT claim that little darling. Yes, you can file the daughter MFS. But, you say she wasn't your original client? Who IS your client? If the "kids" that got married are your clients, advise them what's in their best interest, which often is MFJ. If the boy's parents are your clients, it doesn't matter. If the girl's parents are your clients, then advise them what's in their best interest, which might be to claim their daughter. If more than one of the parties are your clients, then you have a conflict of interest. Disengage from one or all of them. It's a family matter. If the family works it out and you still want to keep one or more of them as your clients, then do what's in YOUR best interest. Until the next family feud. See Pub. 17 pages 28 and 30 for Joint Return Test and page 29 for Support Worksheet.

Thank you for all of the great suggestions. I am planning on speaking with the daughter soon and hopefully make some head way. I agree that as long as no mention of anything financial is discussed or implied, then it should be okay to speak with the daughter about her mother's condition. Thanks again.

I don't know how ATX works, but I can tweek the form to throw certain deductions/credits toward the injured spouse on mine. You should be able to do that, too.

Sorry, ATXers. My software is the same as in previous years and is unambiguous with the checkbox labeled "dependent of another".

Agreed. I wonder how other software companies are doing it. If it is a command from the IRS, I like it. I can see that most dependents will make a mistake when preparing their taxes even when careful.

If they are at my office, regardless of if I see them, then I check "physically present". The only ones I check "remote" for are the clients where everything is handled by email.

Terry, I provide Jolly Ranchers in my office, because I don't like hard candy. I never provide dark chocolate, because I'd eat it all. But, I prefer clients NOT come to my office. I can work in my jammies and fuzzy slippers with no make-up. I can work late and maybe sleep late and not shower until I can take a break and comb my hair once in a while. I have FileShare on my website and eSign and a large mail slot in my front door.

Make sure the POA specifically give power over tax matters, signing returns when necessary, planning, anything tax related.

Yes, it is well worth the donation that I make every year in December ! Even when it's not a topic that I am currently dealing with, the questions and varied points of view wake me up and give me a kick in the pants !

I usually have my staff start calling sometime this week with a message along the lines of 'we are assuming that you have gotten your taxes taken care of, but if you need us to file an extension, let us know'. Usually brings them running in. I have had 20 people drop off this week. I guess they are calendar challenged. I was going to have my assistant make calls on Monday, but the flow was so steady, I decided to hold off. Now she'll have far fewer calls to make. I'm down to 2 or 3 that i haven't heard from, but it was 25 or so at the beginning of the week, so I think it's pretty standard!

Yes, income for this purpose does include nontaxable SS benefits. It's called Hall Income Tax in honor of the senator who sponsored the legislation. Don't do me any favors like that if I create a tax, just sayin.

another way of getting to the temp folder is hit the windows key + R. This will open the RUN box and you can type in "%temp%\Sfs.Cache" (without the quotes) and then hit enter that should take your right there and you can then delete the 2018 folder.

Update, spoke with the daughter, she does indeed have POA for both parents. I asked for a copy of it to maintain in my files. Also, required the daughter to be present when we review the return. Daughter really didn't think this was any big deal and I reinforced that with this was the only way I would prepare the return, no other exceptions.

Since it is about certifying identity and protecting against identity theft (my understanding), I always answer 'physically present' if I have seen the taxpayer at any time during the season. I also answer 'physically present' if the individual dropped off tax information and my staff engaged with him/her. Eager to know how others interpret this. I was basing this decision on my assumption of what they were trying to accomplish with this field.

https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/amountofproptax_rent.shtml Hope you get to sleep soon, me too.

The Forms 1098-T have seldom been accurate and probably will stay that way. When they reported Billed, we knew we had to have our clients get the bursar's statement. Now that they report Paid, you'd think they'd be better. But, apparently, colleges don't all use the same definition of Paid. Sometimes Paid is from all sources, sometimes after Scholarships &/or loans are applied. We still need the bursar's statement PLUS have the parents/students add up what they paid out of pocket. And, there's still separating what our clients paid for tuition from R&B and other expenses. And, yes, these are the folks teaching the next generation. Employers can't use a loose definition of what they Paid their employees. We can't be sloppy with how much we Paid for our business deductions. Rant over.

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.

Entry in ATX W-2 allows for 4. If I put the fifth one on a second W-2, anyone know what will explode?

Donate button on the top right tab. I'm so guilty of not being consistent about this. I have no idea what made me think of it at noon on 27 March, but I'm so glad I did. Posting this in case this has fallen through the cracks in anyone else's 'taxed' brain like it had mine this year. Eric, thanks so much for providing this space for us. I truly can't imagine the season without this group of colleagues. Also, many thanks to Judy, moderator extraordinaire. If I missed any thank yous, I apologize.

Yes. You divvy up the dependents, deductions, etc., and the IRS calculates. Although, it's been a few years since I've prepared an 8379 myself.

I've enjoyed knowing you, Margaret. Actually, I don't know the answer to your question, but I only enter items form Box 12 that affect the return. For examples, I never enter DD amounts, and I only enter D amounts if they qualify for Retirement Savers Credit. Maybe there is an entry that you can omit.

The decision of how to word things (assuming a programmer's decision) is the stuff I face daily. If not something anyone can look at and state from only one (positive or negative) position, one cannot just use (what used to be) common sense. Programmers have to look at the number of times a particular item causes support questions, multiplied by some in house factor relating to the number of people who had the same issue but never reported it. For instance, despite having a watermark on our print preview images, we still get calls asking how to print the item without the watermark (select Print, not preview ). Before the preview is shown, we show a dialog box - which the user has to close (stating the same thing, to have the actual report printed, to select Print, not preview) which one would think would prevent the need to ask the question...

I guess I am getting your clients. lol.

Thanks Rita. I thought so from the instructions but thanks for the confirmation.

Seeing a significant amount of late filers this year. Oh well. I just charge a fee for filing extensions and then they get annoyed that their taxes are completed a few days after 4/15. Cant pile everyone in by 4/15 is what I tell them. Get here earlier next year. But they dont listen.

I don't use ATX, I use my QB files. I created a report that shows me who has been billed and by date, compared to last year. If someone was billed last year by the date I run the report but not billed this year, I can spot it pretty quickly. I can also run a history report on a client to see every return we billed for an on which date. Gives me a pretty good idea if they are late. Tom Modesto, CA

All it would take is for the IRS to audit one major university, and very publicly punish them for the rest of the universities to get their act together. But like EIC fraud, it will never happen. Universities and poor people are politically untouchable. Tom Modesto.

Their definition of scholarship is sometimes a little different than mine also. I would not consider amounts paid from a 529 plan as scholarships, but one Virginia university did in at least one case that I looked at. I would not consider a loan to be a scholarship, but at least one Virginia university did in a case that I looked at. I am not even sure they get the half time student box right because at this point I don't trust anything they put on those forms.

Rita, Thanks! Your site can't be as bad as Colorado's it is so very bad...................

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.

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.

It's a tax in interest and dividend income. And no estimated tax to my knowledge although I don't live in Tn. Must pay it via direct debit...no checks allowed. It's called the Hall tax.

Thank You! I will give that a try. I tried just about everything else!

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.