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I'm tired and at that stage where staples are starting to bother me...a lot.

You will need more than one bulk sale because you can't mix 1245 and 1250 assets, and land has to be sold separately, so you'll need to allocate sales proceeds and selling costs.

I got one free with my new Staples stapler, works great. BTW, my 2 "jam free" Swinglines jammed.

Ah, yes. I know that stage well. Although my new staple remover is a pleasure to use.

I have been a bit surprised that I have lost hardly any. I had five or six older clients pass away last year. I pretty much replaced them. I rarely raise prices and when I do not by any huge amount. This will not be my best year but all in all I am not unhappy. Getting older having a few less is not a bad idea. Having only 11 weeks instead of the 13 we formerly had is causing me to have to extend a few incorrigible late comers but they will understand. My family has been in some form of small business in excess of 125 years and great service goes a long way. An example. A neighbor for whom I have never done any work called me in a panic. He left a message so I returned his call. His wife said he was out but ought to be back shortly. Shortly thereafter I heard a knocking on my rear door. Sure enough it was him who insisted in an agitated fashion he wanted to come in. I had just gotten up and standing in a bath robe my hair completely uncombed. He stepped into the den and explained he had used Turbotax and made a number of mistakes. I told him not to be too upset that it was only a tax return and could be amended and requested he bring me what he had done and I would amend it. He seemed relieved and went home to fetch his paperwork telling his wife he had seen me naked ! Lord ! The things I have done in this line of work.

To simplify this response, assume the equipment had a five year life using straight line depr. Also assume he bought the equipment at the start of the project which took one year to complete. The "otherwise allowable depreciation" under that assumption would be $5,000 divide by five = $1,000 which is added to the basis of the rental property. The $1,000 is lumped into the cost basis of the building which is depreciated out over 27.5 years once the building is place in service. So in effect, the annual depreciation from the equipment will be $1,000 divided by 27.5 = $36. The remaining basis in the equipment is $5,000 less $1,000 allocated to the building = $4,000. He cannot directly depreciate any of it. All he can do is allocate a portion to the rental basis. Does he also use these tools and equipment in his carpenter work? Maybe works as employee and lost out on misc itemized deduction? $36 a year is not worth messing with.

Don't change it. The software is working correctly. CA requires 30% in Q1, 40% in Q2, 0% in Q3 and 30% in Q4. This is how they balanced their budget in the recession and it has never been changed back. Tom Modesto, CA

The extenders have been a thorn in our sides for too long. Let them die or make them a permanent part of the next tax legislation.

I had the exact same situation a couple of years ago. The wife had used the pre-printed vouchers with the husband's social as primary but she had written the checks from her own account and listed her social security number on the checks. I wrote a letter explaining the situation and attached copies of the cancelled checks and payment records for the installments showing that they were paid from the wife's personal account. It took them a couple of months but she finally received a letter from the IRS saying they had applied the payments to her return and she received a refund.

I was going to say form 8949 for sale of principal residence and use worksheet for depreciation but with sch E that won't work, so I think your calculation works. Any land included?

Thanks to both for your very helpful feedback. Now I have an idea what to do this time ... and next time!

That's the most well-designed staple remover I've ever used. It handles virtually any size staple and doesn't damage the paper.

Aw shucks, you have taken all the fun out of this discussion.

That's too introspectve for me. On to the next client !

I don't know the answer to your question, but I would follow Lion's advice. Whenever one of my clients tells me they want to start a partnership with family members, or a FLP, I give them this advice: What ship doesn't float? A family partner SHIP. I hate these things because it never comes down to the business. It is always about the family, and I don't get paid enough to be a therapist. Tom Modesto, CA

This did get me thinking as to the why so many of us put up with the dreaded error message. As any of my Psycho Analyst clients would tell me, (we do talk psych stuff once in awhile, after they pick my brain), it's the classic Love/Hate syndrome. They would probably tell me, you need to pick one. As with any relationship, if you can't deal with one, you have to leave. Or, if you do put up with both, are you a martyr or nuts? So you ask yourself, what will it be? For me, as with any other relationship, love always seems to win out and I put up with the hate. I guess I may be a martyr, or more likely, nuts.

Start by reading the partnership agreement/operating agreement.

Yes, that's funny, but he's right. I've been fairly fortunate this year, but every once in awhile I get that pain in the hip error message and I have thoughts of going somewhere else next year. But then it passes.

Box 14 is CAN be just information that's not needed this year. But, it's on your client to bring you documentation.

I seriously had to look at one forever last night and convince myself I knew what I was doing. No, it's not the first time I've seen it this year. And, yes, I do a double-take every time. Every. Time.

Thanks, Lion! I bet you are correct about the held back amount for taxes. That makes sense. I have asked for more correspondence and also to contact HR but no reply yet. She retired last February so her mind really isn't into this at the moment. I'm pretty confident (though perhaps misguided) that the increased basis to avoid double tax is the correct input, just curious about that Box 14 figure. I hate it when there are insufficient explanations!

After more than 3 decades, the stories I could tell... And interestingly, none would be topped by the stories I could tell of being a baseball umpire - since parents really act strange when they believe your actions or inactions have cost them the chance to be the parent of a pro. (Don't get me wrong, there are many good/normal parents and players who made the avocation enjoyable, and interestingly enough, skill is only a small part of what it takes to make it to MLB as a player.)

Hopefully, your client got a statement at the time of the transaction. Maybe Box 14 is stock he did NOT sell this year. Or, stock held back to pay the taxes that are in Boxes 2, 4, and 6. Or,...ask your client for all correspondence re those two blocks of stock. He may have to go to his HR department or something, but it's up to him to provide you the information you need to file.

I'd give the client a list of returns and worksheets that I need from the prior preparer and that I can't proceed without these documents, unless they want to pay me an extra grand or so.

I thought you used that syntax intentionally to emphasize your point

3. Use efficient, well-supported software that doesn't require enough memory to launch a space shuttle

And why would not the client have copies of all or several years worth of returns? If he has 2017, ask for as many prior years as possible. Even one or two more might be of help. Does he have an amortization schedule for the installment sale? Did you mean Form 6252 instead of 4562? The percentage should be the same as established in year of sale and should show total of payments received in prior years. I agree with cbslee, the client has some responsibility here, too, for record keeping even if he doesn't quite know where to put the numbers. That's our job. I hope you receive some big bucks to clean this up!

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.

Thank you BOTH - Eric for making this forum possible, and Judy for being such a terrific moderator!

Seriously, thank you Judy.

All you needed was hyphens and you'd look like you had made a common-sense-making report. I know this stuff because I was an English major.

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 !

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.

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.

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.

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.

I/we feel your/our pain. When this form was new, my husband worked at University of Cincinnati and they produced a sterling form including the breakdown of payments received, scholarships, loans, everything way before it was needed. I've never seen a better one since.

Thanks. Shared screen with tech. Program opened no problem and no error. Weird. I saved a log of the crash and they are looking it over. Really strange that it happened to myself and the OP at about the same time but now there is no error. Im thinking its somehow on the ATX side and not me.

I work on the C Drive and ATX also backs up to the C Drive. I do a backup of the whole program nightly to an external hard drive. I have closed the program up several times to no avail. Strangely enough I was able to do some work in 2017 with no problem HMMMM can you post what customer service says after you get thru please?

Back when I first started preparing taxes I had a retired client who waited until the final year to cash in a bunch of stock he acquired through an employee stock option program. It resulted in a total tax due (federal & state) of $120k. He called to ask how it was going. I hemmed and hawed and told him I had figured it six different ways. He replied, "I'm sure you did a good job. How much do I owe?" I again dithered and assured him that I had applied every trick I knew. He again thanked me and asked how much he owed. I finally told him $120,000. He practically screamed, "$120,000!" I again started trying to explain all the work I had done to minimize it, but he just yelled again, "$120,000!!!" Then he said, "How did you do that? I thought it was going to be at least $160,000! How did you manage to get it down to $120,000?" Every once in a while, I love getting to be a hero. I just never thought it would happen when I told someone he owed $120k!