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Actual footage of me enjoying coffee with the phone off the hook.

If the mower was for a business, you could expense it. This is for rental property. Abby, would you be able to expense it on the Sch E as supplies? As far as the police expenses go, you are supposed to figure out the total expenses and take a percent of those expenses on the Sch C. Policing the school as a "resource officer" is the very same thing as his regular duty. He's in uniform, he's still a cop. It's the same job, second location. He still uses the same training, uniform, packs heat, might have union dues that cover additional liabilities. Hey, I might be aggressive because my kid's been a cop for 16 years and I know how much they spend to be entrenched in society. But, I'm legal. So, I say figure the expenses, figure the percent, and take it on the C. 1099 income divided by (1099+W2) to get the percent of Sch C gross to total gross. Most of the time, I eyeball it. Something is very wrong when a teacher can take an above the line deduction of $250 (and I don't know a single one called out to show receipts) and a cop can't expense a gun, boots and laundering his uniform. It makes me sick, actually. RANT OVER. THANK YOU. #ifeelbetter #pleasedon'tfireme #idonate

2106 is gone so nothing more needs to be said. Split mower into 3 assets if you're depreciating, but can't it be expensed? We expense everything 2,500 and less these days.

I no longer have any clients who come in, sit down, and start handing me their documents one piece at a time. ("Here's my W-2, here's my wife's W-2, here's my mortgage statement, can I deduct what I paid for these Girl Scout cookies?, etc"). Sometimes I'd want to say "Wow! A W-2 form! Thanks for telling me what that is." I was generally thinking along the lines of "Give me that whole stack and shut up for a minute!" Anyhow, the most fun would come when they pulled out their brokerage statement. I liked to yank out the boilerplate pages and quickly cram them in the paper shredder before the client could say anything. As it would whine and grind away, the look on their face was priceless. But then, maybe we just discovered why I don't have to deal with those folks any more.

Tom - there are specific rules. Many of the conferences have 'blurbs' about it in their ministers guides or some such thing. Copied below is one of the Lutheran 'blurbs' because I don't know how to attach a .pdf. We have a few clergy experts on this board - MAMalody, JJstephens, and I think there is at least 1 more. They can explain it far better than I can. I think all of the conferences/denominations school their clergy in these rules, because the Ministers definitely know about it ;). Retired Ministers – Housing Allowance If you are a retired minister of religion and at the time of your retirement your name appeared on an LCMS official roster of ordained or commissioned ministers, you may exclude eligible housing expenses from taxable retirement distributions reported on your federal tax return if certain conditions are met. Benefits earned while a minister are eligible for housing allowance exclusion when distributed to a retired minister. To be considered “retired” for this housing allowance exclusion depends on a minister’s specific circumstances. Ministers who are uncertain whether they are “retired” for this purpose should consult with a tax advisor to discuss the facts and circumstances involved in their individual case. The relevant issues involved in determining “retired” status are beyond the scope of this brief summary and are specific to each individual. Please note that if you are receiving an “in-service” benefit from the CRP, you are not considered to be retired for purposes of claiming a housing allowance exclusion on the CRP in-service payments distributed to you. If you are eligible to claim the housing allowance exclusion on retirement benefits and your eligible housing allowance expenses equal or exceed the amount you listed on Form 1040 Line 4a, then enter $0 on Form 1040 Line 4b. If you did not use the entire distribution as housing allowance, then enter the unused amount on Form 1040 Line 4b. The housing allowance exclusion applies only to those retirement benefits earned while a rostered worker. It does not apply to any benefits you might receive as a result of some other member’s participation in one of these plans or survivor benefits you or your spouse may receive. While the Internal Revenue Service has granted retired ministers this exclusion on their own retirement benefits, it does not extend to beneficiaries of a retired minister or survivor benefits paid to a retired minister. If both you and your spouse are considered retired ministers of religion, only one of you will be allowed to take the housing allowance exclusion unless your eligible housing expenses exceed the total retirement distribution amount received by that one person. In that case, the additional excludable amount can be applied to the retirement amounts received by the other retiree. It is equally important to remember that while benefits from retirement plans are reportable and taxable (minus applicable exclusions) as far as your federal and state income taxes are concerned, they are not reportable or taxable for Social Security purposes. You are not required to pay any Social Security or Self-Employment tax on any retirement benefit received from the CRP or CRSP. For more information of interest to ministers, go to www.irs.gov for a copy of Publication 517. Publication 517 contains details on housing allowance, social security, taxable ministerial income and includes various worksheets that you might find helpful.

I have had a couple of retired ministers, and I do it basically the way JASDLM describes. I do ask them for their actual expenses/ rental value as well and use the lesser of the three, just like with a working minister. Usually the portion they have designated is the least but it doesn't hurt to be sure. As far as I know their are no clergy worksheets to go with the 1099R, at least not in ProSeries.

I looked into this last week sometime and came to the conclusion that if the premiums are deducted by the taxpayer, any benefits paid would be taxable. If premiums are not deducted, benefits are tax free. I think it's in IRC section 104. I remember telling clients in the past that you can't deduct owner disability premiums on Sch C. It may not be so much that you can't, but that it would be a bad decision to do so.

Ah - sorry if I wasn't clear, I meant the basis of the new property if it was a 1031 exchange and not a straight out sale. My mind's a bit scrambled this week!

Isn't this a common time to use Form 3115?

However , I have entered UPE on the schedule E page 2 worksheet for an LLC partner when the only office for the LLC was the home office for one of the partners.

PITA people, people who dole out missing information one at a time over several weeks, and people who whine, ALL see their bills gets hiked. If they go away permanently, that's fine with us!

I agree that normally Sch E filers do not have a home office or the deduction. That's why the data won't flow. It also won't flow for Sch F filers or unreimbursed partners. However, in Pub 587, the instructions address using a worksheet (instead of Form 8829) for farmers and unreimbursed partners. If the rentals are a trade or business, I think you'd have an argument for using the worksheet and taking the deduction. (I'd just use 8829 and enter the results on Sch E manually, we've established that it won't flow. keep the 8829 in the file. give taxpayer a copy). There was a landlord who successfully defended the deduction in tax court. It wasn't me, and I've never entered that deduction for a landlord.

I rolled the return over again and recreated it. The efile was created before the newest version of ATX was received. Oddly the reject notice did not so advise. His son's return created the same day was sent off this am and the reject notice advised I needed to submit it using the updated version. So it seems I have s o l v e d the problem.