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Universities... I literally just got off the phone with one of our kids, as he just received news he was accepted into his undergrad school's medical school! There is hope - since this proves a "normal" person can, through hard work, do something which exceeds GPA competition or legacy $.

My one and only PPP client's loan was 100% forgiven!!. I can't believe this happened without any documentation at all. I was all geared up with all the forms, spreadsheet of all the calculations showing where the funds were spent. We went through two weeks of status pending and we'll let you know what docs to send and today came the great news. I'm sorry but this PPP thing just blows my mind. It defies all logic that you can borrow 100,000.00 and not have to pay a dime of it back. I've been waiting on the invisible hook to appear at any moment. But it appears it doesn't exist. I hope others here will have the same outcome. I know I only dealt with one. but it was stressful enough. It's a shame I don't drink

If your client meets the requirements, I believe the best approach is to do it online.

Sometimes I just think like a tax payer. I hear things from my stylist like "the IRS has a lot trailers full with unopened mail" and I don't bother to find out what's happening to the individual return. In my case, the IRS website had nothing listed for 2019 and I kept telling the client that the IRS had not opened her package and I pretended to be savvy by saying that the IRS had a bunch trailers with mail and that her package was in there since there was nothing on the website. It is easy to send the client away when you have not prepared their 2019 return which is the case with this client. One day, reluctantly, I decided to call the practitioners hot line and they told me that the return was on file but they were taking a look at it. Since it has been so long, the representative said that he was going to open an inquiry and that will force the person or group holding the refund to work on it. The inquiry gives them 30 days to look at the return. For the 2020, the lady said that the client needed to wait 45 days before anything could be done. I am about to call about 2020 since the 45 days have passed. I have read that if you used 2019 income for EIC and CTC on the 2020, they are delayed because someone has to look at it. But again, something can be done after the 45 days. After that call with the IRS, the client stopped calling me every week.

I began with this board, actually the predecessor to this board, when I was at HRB and we used ATX for entity returns. I continued here when I went out on my own, but I ended up purchasing ProSystem fx. I knew these people, knew their expertise and helpfulness and humor. I learn a lot about tax law here and choose to stay.

Neither is going to be MFS if you split them up- unless one or both were married to other people (which would be a whole other can of worms) Each would be Single then when there was a child one would be Head of household. depending upon who has what income and how much.... might not be so bad.... Standard deduction for HH + Single is more than MFJ

Thank you, Eric and Judy!

Sending IA requests in with tax returns goes through *eventually* but it can take several months (pre-craziness) before the first payment is taken. Might be best to set it up online. Perhaps others can chime in with how fast those kick in.

It's fixed now. Thank you @Eric

Well, it seems odd to call something 'deferred' and then not defer it, from a pure logic standpoint. Unless this was deferred from prior years and has to be reported now.

I respect your judgement and am not criticizing your approach. However, if I were at this point I'd still turn the instructions for filing the report with the SBA over to the client with my recommendation that they take this to a lawyer. This may be a routine matter or it may be a time bomb. Wonder what your E&O insurer would advise? It might be worth asking them.

Not only that, one of them might even qualify for EIC or extra EIC. 1 HH plus 1 Single standard deduction is much better than 1 MFJ. If one of them file with the two children, they will get also stimulus for the extra one child on the return which $500 plus $600 and since they have not filed yet, maybe they already got stimulus 3 and the parent with the two children will get an extra $1400. Not only that, if next year the parent with no children in 2020 claims the two children next year, that parent will get another $1400. Regarding amendments... I am always busy. In this case, I would tell the clients, I am going to prepare the return you have hired me to do and I will do it the correct way. You don't qualify to file jointly so I will not do it this year. You should amend the previous years filings, but I am busy and I cannot do it. After I prepare your taxes, you can go to HR block or anywhere else to have those amended. I don't like to amend what others preparers have done because I was not there when the tax payers were interviewed. Plus I am busy and I decide what jobs to take depending on my schedule.

Correct. Cause if they did and it was in a state where common law marriage is legal, then they are off the hook. NC will accept that. Believe me I have covered everything I could with these folks. They are good people but were just miss-informed by their previous preparer. I don't like to say that but in this case, it is the truth. I mean, we all make mistakes right? According to this client he informed the prepared they were not married and they were told that they had kids together an lived together for so long it didn't matter. Unfortunately, that is wrong.

Congrats to your son as well. I give my clients a check list of items to track each year for their child's education. Just had one yesterday and he was a bit overwhelmed with what all I need him to keep track of. But, got to do it if you want the credit.

Congratulations to your son, Medlin Software, and his parents!

Your kids must be extra-special. Plus they have a clue, having grown up around accounting and tax.

There is a new PPS number that goes directly to the ACS unit people. Just learned about it today. 800-829-7650.

Without having any tax withheld and without any earned income, there is nothing to be claimed. No tax, no injury. The only exceptions are for PTC and community property states. With $27K income and a family of four he should be able to get a moratorium on his student loan payments. With some of the statements coming out of DC, it may be that some of the student loans will be dismissed.

I'm glad you got it worked out. I would not mind calling support if they answered right away with no hold time, and the person that answered actually knew something. But I really hate being on hold, or even waiting for a call back because then I have to keep that file where I can get it quickly.

If MFS doesn't result in very much additional tax, then it's not a huge concern. Besides, our job is only to advise. It's up to the client to decide to amend or not. In some cases, deciding not to amend might make the client too unethical to keep, but in this case, maybe not.