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Copied from Accounting Today: "You hear from taxpayers and congressional offices all the time, but my understanding is that there have been days where if you calculated by looking at the number of calls that were answered and divide it by the number of calls that came in, the level of service was 2 to 3 percent,” said Nina Olson, executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights and the former National Taxpayer Advocate, during a webinar last week hosted by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. “Even by the IRS’s own calculation, where it does the number of calls that are answered, divided by the number of calls that aren’t routed automatically, it’s at 15 percent. With all the attention on enforcement, you can’t have that level of customer service and think that in any way, you’re having a successful filing season."

They need to implement several different phone numbers so all the people calling about when they'll get their refund can tie up the main number, but those with actual tax or account problems can call different numbers. Just like with software support, there are those that call at the drop of a hat about things that could be better handled by email and people who actually need immediate support are left to wait on hold.

I did exactly as Abby described when I last had an LLC with this issue. In my client's case, the LLC made the payments, not an individual partner. The partners are also my clients, so in those years before the debt was paid off I attached a statement to the personal returns and the LLC returns each year with something like this: Interest expense in the amount of $___ reported on Form 1098 in the name of ___ and his SSN ____ is for a property that was legally transferred to ____LLC EIN# _____. Bank continues to report that interest using the partner's SSN, however, that interest expense is now a debt of the partnership and is properly reported on the partnership return.

I usually check in every few days for the blog, updates, and to read what other people are experiencing with the forms and program. I find it especially important early on in the season.

the choice to include scholarship in income is done on the student's tax return, not the parents. click on the arrow on the wages line and a worksheet should come up. input the $ amount on the scholarship line. when you close that tab "SCH" should show on that line next to the $ amount. And yes, the scholarship amount (on the parent's return) is reduced by the amount included in income on the studen'ts tax return.

They do have different phone numbers already. I read posts all the time about EAs calling PPS to ask about their client's stimulus payments. This is one reason why EAs with real problems can't get through.

My past experience with clients, where both the employer and the employee were contributing to an HSA, was that it was helpful to have a copy of the employee's last pay stub along with the W-2 as a confirmation.

I've often heard that a partnership is just a collection of sole proprietors, so I don't think the IRS would have a problem with the mortgage not being in the LLC name, but I'd want the property to be in the LLC's name. And I'd just record the mortgage payments on the LLC's books as a credit to partner capital and debits to interest expense and mortgage payable. When the building was added to the books, it would have been a credit to partners capital so setting up the mortgage liability would a debit to partners capital.

Doesn't it depend upon sate law? I thought that was why it's important to know if you're in a "recourse" or "non-recourse" state with issues like this. Also, it's possible the borrower may have been "upside down" at the time the car was purchased due to an unpaid balance from a prior auto loan being rolled into the new loan (or more appropriately, piled onto the new loan). Next to divorce, auto financing is the biggest drain on personal net worth in this country, IMO.

https://www.irs.gov/filing/where-to-file-addresses-for-taxpayers-and-tax-professionals-filing-form-1040v

is that last years drivers license information would roll over.