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I've tried several going back to ACT! but as you've found they tend to be more work than reward. For at least 95% of my schedule I use GMAIL calendar thru Thunderbird. It's ultra easy to use their "repeat" feature to automatically trickle my contacts and work flow each month or week. Plus Gmail is free and ultra easy to sync with my phone for quick viewing. I don't have the work in process issue so much but when that's in play during tax season I use a notebook or I just put in a "to do" for tomorrow to accomplish the rest of the task with a note. On my calendar I have a few "to do" for each day of the year pretty much scheduled out forever based upon different re-occurrence schedules.

I just talked with an IL auditor today regarding this issue. She said that this is the first year they are comparing via computer the amount listed on the return with the amount posted by the county treasurer under the PIN number listed, because the Dept of Rev suspected widesread fraud in this area. She admitted that real estate tax prepayments and additional real estate paid at closing on the sale of a house will all cause the return to be computer flagged and a deficiency letter sent. Just about every IL client that sold their IL personal residence during 2018 has received a letter asking for payment verification which requires sending in the tax bills and the pertinent page from the closing statement.

A decision was rendered on the case prior to it being closed. Once the decision came down, a period of 60 days is allowed for an appeal. If it did go to appeals, it could take a year. I doubt there was an appeal, otherwise the case would still be open. My guess is that the verdict was rendered in late 2018. You should be able to look up the case and get confirmation of the date.

Your potential problem with this scenario is "when was the investment deemed to be unrecoverable"?

You can make an election to report the interest earned on the bonds through the date of death on the decedent's final tax return. The estate or beneficiary receiving the bonds then reports only interest earned after the date of death (Rev. Rul. 68-145). I think Pub. 559 has a discussion of this.

ATX is poor at communicating. They tell me they make too many changes to communicate all of them. They already have a release notes page. Just have some low level person post as many updates as they can every day. I spend half of tax season discovering new features, sometimes by accident, and I wonder what else is there that I've missed.

Gail, I agree with you but how do we know that the "loan was really for the benefit of her husband and he is the one who defaulted on payments"? What we know is that the wife was the one that defaulted on the payments and that's why she got the 1099-R. In any event, my clients ALWAYS ask me: "Conoce algun buen abogado que me pueda recomendar?" (do you know any good lawyer that you can recommend?). My answer is "Such an animal doesn't exist!!!!"