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Copied from Accounting Today: "Taxpayers are feeling good about their tax-filing abilities, according to a new survey, with 89 percent indicating they feel confident they have their withholding set up correctly and 95 percent saying they're confident that they're taking all the deductions they can." I wonder how different these results would be if you surveyed taxpayers on April 15th?

Just wait until they use the 2020 W4.

Yes, I opened a case, plus I chatted with support and they opened another case.

You should be able to fill in an 8879 in your tax prep software, even if you have to create a dummy return to use the name you need. But, why do you need to fill in an 8879 for a client who is NOT in your tax prep software? What are you trying to achieve?

I use OneDrive expiring links. I upload the documents I need to send with a link that expires in 3 days. They can download from there anything I'm sending. Since the link expires, I don't have to worry about a hacker getting their info from these links and my inbox and theirs remains "personal-info-free."

No way. The income and expenses of a child are reported on the child's return, not the parent's. Where did they "hear" this? Coffee shop, barber shop, standing in a check out line at.......??????

I filled in this one with my info; here's a blank for you: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8879.pdf

Correct, and it will stay that way at least until the IRS figures out how to handle those US citizens who live and work outside the States. For example, my clients in the Czech Republic. They don't have, and can't have, US state drivers' licenses. Passports? Yup - but that's not a choice/option.

The first question is - does this have business intent? You remember the questions: Whether you carry on the activity in a businesslike manner and maintain complete and accurate books and records. Whether the time and effort you put into the activity indicate you intend to make it profitable. Whether you depend on income from the activity for your livelihood. Whether your losses are due to circumstances beyond your control (or are normal in the startup phase of your type of business). Whether you change your methods of operation in an attempt to improve profitability. Whether you or your advisors have the knowledge needed to carry on the activity as a successful business. Whether you were successful in making a profit in similar activities in the past. Whether the activity makes a profit in some years and how much profit it makes. Whether you can expect to make a future profit from the appreciation of the assets used in the activity.

I have noticed a few things that are not working on the ATX Max Program for 2019. I am requesting these items be implemented: 1. Form 8887 Paid Preparers Due Diligence Checklist – It would be helpful for this form to load into the return automatically if the 1040/EIC, Child Tax Credit, Head of Household, or Educational Credits are opened. 2. Anytime the income and filing status on a tax return qualify for EIC and it hasn’t been added, it would be helpful to have a black line in the “Check Return” section that flags “This tax return may qualify for EIC”. It was on the 2018 ATX Program but I do not find it this year. 3. A RED Line be added to the “Check Return” Section if the Virtual Currency Line on Form 1040 Sch 1 has not been marked. 4. On the Oklahoma State Tax Return Form 511 a very helpful line was dropped 3 or 4 years ago. On the buttons across the bottom of a Form 511 is one for “Retirement”. Clicking on that button gives you a list of all the 1099R’s in the program and an opportunity to mark them for the different exclusions that are available. Under the CSRS exclusion there use to be a list of the Account numbers from the 1099R that qualified for this credit. The list included: CSA 0,1,2,3,4 CSF0,1,2, CSA 7,8 and CSF 7,8. Only account numbers starting with these prefixes qualify for the exemption from tax. Having this screen pop up was very helpful and I would appreciate it being added back to the program.

Line 3 of the worksheet is missing 1040 line 6 capital gains. I checked the 1040 instructions and the description for line 3 of this worksheet reads: Combine the amounts from Form 1040 or 1040-SR, lines 1, 2b, 3b, 4b, 4d, 6, and Schedule 1, line 9 ATX's description omits line 6.

Good to know! I will have a few candidates for this. I assume you notified ATX so they might, might fix it.

IRS rules do not prevent the rollover. Other software including my provider's has rolled it forward in prior years, and mine is still doing so for the 2019 tax year. Mine also flags the fields to alert the preparer to check the information, and the flags must be cleared by the preparer before the e-file is created.

I just tried the QuickBooks plugin for tax1099.com and worked really well. I had email addresses for all the recipients so I just had the site email the 1099s (SSN was masked). I downloaded the PDF of the recipients copy and I was done. I've resisted this in the past because of the cost, but it saves me labor and buying forms. And if I can email some of them, it saves envelopes, postage and more labor.

Thank goodness, I check each year, even when I have a copy or it's a state that rolled over. Discovered last summer that a client in Singapore had lost his license, so got a new one when in NY -- with a new number!

The data rolls over in UltraTax (at least it did in the past, haven't checked the 2019 version yet). There is a diagnostic if the license has expired. Speaking of which, some states have six and seven years between renewals. I assume aging is not allowed during that time.

Easier said than done, sometimes. It's April 14th; client comes in to sign forms. Goes to take out wallet for credit card... left it at home. Promises a check. Gets distracted and forgets. Client lives (or is traveling for work) and e-signatures are needed; get those but not payment. This client also forgets, once home. Just to say that it's a good rule of thumb, but circumstances crop up. No reason to be suspicious when they are good clients who have always paid. Most of them just plain-old forget and are horribly embarrassed once reminded they owe. But yeah, in most circumstances, payment up-front. I've only lost one client because of my insistence on being paid for that year *and* the prior year before releasing new returns. I wasn't sorry to see her go, either.

Yes, but is the taxpayer's driver's license info required this year for federal filing? I don't think it is a requirement in order to file the federal return. Correct?

This is so me. I remember last year hearing someone say that IRS would take a year to recover from a three week shut down. While I think that was "speaking evangelistically," as a pastor of mine used to say, it's pretty accurate for me in January. OK, it's BS for me, too, but if I get behind, my life is way worse than it needs to be.

I have been using the CCH portal as well. I like it and clients seem happy with it also. jeff

Some PDF programs allow "writing" on them, even if the file was not created as a fill in form. I use foxit too, and I don't recall having any issues marking up forms when needed. I dropped Adobe years ago because they added a setting, with a default, which caused some files to appear in an alternate font, even though the file had embedded fonts the file designer intended to be used.

I use the Client Portal provided by EMoney. Very user friendly with 2 factor authentication

Great suggestions!

Buy yourself Adobe X Pro or Adobe Pro DC, I also use this product to send my clients encrypted password protected documents instead of using a portal or a share file.

I use ProSystem fx, so the names of the products are different. I have FileShare included free with my CCH SiteBuilder website; I use it to upload returns and such to my clients, and they use it to upload their tax information to me and to return signature pages. And, CCH offers a more robust free-standing portal. If you use CCH's eSign, it automatically delivers a client copy when it delivers the signature pages for verification. Many of us have been demoing Verifyle that's free with NAEA membership and another professional membership, too. And, not expensive if purchased on its own, I think. It's great for private communication. More companies -- tax prep software, website builders, email providers, professional organizations, etc. -- are getting into this market. I hope that means that services will be easier for us and our clients to use and that prices will be competitive.

Been using Eset NOD32 AV for over 25 years. Would not use anything else.