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Also hate doing the books for people who think running it thru the bank account converts a personal expense to a business expense.

Everybody should know by now that running it through the bank account isn’t right. The only proper way to convert a personal expense to a business expense is to charge it to a company credit card.

Yes, May 18th. Her mind is good, which I think has something to do with her gambling habit. Always a card player like her father who lived to 91. I taught her dominoes many years ago because it involves more thinking and strategy. At her age I’m always amazed when I leave with less change in my pocket. But if I do win she hits me with “Aren’t you embarrassed taking money from your old mother?” During Covid she fell in the house, fractured her pelvis pulling out a card table when her friends came over. In Rehab she got in trouble for setting up card games in a corner of the Physical Therapy facility. I got a call from the administrator who said, Please tell Olympia there is no gambling allowed in here, especially during Covid. She’s a real character. I also think her 3 ounces of daily wine doesn’t hurt.

I filed some papers, paid my electric bill and the personal payroll taxes, and downloaded a couple of personal bank statements while I was online paying the electric bill. Outside of that, I puttered, and poked around a little looking a kitchen rugs online to put in our new kitchen. Didn't have time to look before the season started up. Didn't see anything I liked. And I sat and enjoyed a truly lovely cup of tea and drank it hot without having to microwave it even once. I may celebrate such success by going to bed early.

Although I don't gamble, I want to be that person. Both of my parents lived into their 90s as well as my maternal Grandparents.

That sounds like improvements, depreciated over 27.5 years for residential rental property. The post implies that they did the work before they rented out the property, which makes me feel more strongly that is part of the acquisition cost and depreciated over the life of the building. Tom Longview, TX

10 days is for business returns. The corresponding period for individual returns (5 days) is in Pub 4164 (section 1.4.2):

Had a client some years ago with a truly lazy (and incompetent) bookkeeper. Could not be bothered to enter the credit card purchases, and "reconciled" the statement monthly by posting everything to "Reconciliation Discrepancies." Yep, you read that right. First year I looked at had over $76,000 in "reconciliation discrepancies!" That one was truly spectacular. It was a vet clinic, and those "discrepancies" were all the exam room supplies, all the office supplies, all the in-house meds, all the gloves and absorbent pads and disposables and sutures and syringes and everything else. Toner and paper and postage and coffee for the coffee room and waiting room supplies. It was epic.

Today I treat myself to my first ever (just because) hairdo at the salon. I might work this afternoon or I might just take a nap. Ah, sweet freedom.

One Quickbook (payroll) client, has some employees "local w/h" as a reduction of wages - others as a deduction. And while she's not the smartest person, she is pretty savvy. (Makes me wonder how easy setup is.) Another, years ago, brought in her books for a lawn mower repair shop. 100k income, 100k A/R, (50K) bank balance. A... Houston, we have a problem.

Haha, I'm sitting in a line right now at motor vehicle waiting to get a car inspected. Not much fun! I did something yesterday though that I'm very happy about. I made my final mortgage payment.

Congratulations, friends and colleagues - we all lived to tell the tales and file another day. Take it easy today. I set up some payroll taxes and will dig out a couple of bills that probably need to be paid in the next week or so, and then I'm gonna play hookey for the rest of the day. Here's a congratulations gif that I couldn't figure out how to embed. Hooray!

You're way ahead of me, @jasdlm because I haven't a clue what a Section 897 Dividend is and would have to look it up if I ever saw one. Thirty years of doing tax returns and not something I have ever run into.

Papermate?? black, eraseable ink pens and paper. Then to the copy machine. But I remember that if you had to look back three or four years, the "carbon paper" copies were obvious.

Wow, I can’t believe your mom is 99!

My first program was a pencil and paper; second was a typewriter and a copy machine; third was Parsons and on to ATX. And away I went.

The one account that always makes me facepalm is 'Reimbursements.' "We were just reimbursing our employees for things."

So glad it’s over! This morning as every year I leave MA at midnight to spend a few days with Mom in NYC after being away for nearly 3 months. She’ll be 99 in a few weeks and all she wants to do is play dominoes, Bingo and drink my homemade wine with no sulfites. A tradition I hope goes on for as long as I am in this business. Photo is not long ago.

"Blame Colorado. Beginning in 2022, the state began imposing a retail delivery fee on retail sales of tangible personal property delivered by motor vehicle to a location in the state. In order to apply, the sale had to include at least one item of tangible personal property subject to sales or use tax. The retailer is required to collect the retail delivery fee from the purchaser and remit the fee to the Colorado Department of Revenue. " "Significantly, Minnesota and New York are now proposing their own retail delivery fees, similar to the Colorado statute. In fact, Minnesota is looking at raising its proposed retail delivery fee from 40 to 75 cents. " "Not surprisingly, the Colorado fee has drawn criticism from the business community, according to Scott Peterson, vice president of U.S. tax policy and government relations for Avalara. The fee has to be reported on a separate return, so every retailer has to file two tax returns monthly — one for sales tax, and another return just for the delivery fee — that's a big step backward in simplification." Since most states are predicting declines in state tax revenue, I expect these delivery fees (Tax ) will spread to more states.

Adjusted Gross Income or Artificial Generated Intelligence Aren't acronyms wonderful?

Expenses for repairs and renovations prior to being placed in service must be capitalized and depreciated. IRS Reg. § 1.263(a)-2(d)(1)). Repair expenses after being placed in service must follow the repair regs, and Abby Normal's second link takes you to the IRS page as a starting point. I agree with Margaret that you should segregate as much as possible because there may be some items may have shorter lives (such as kitchen appliances) vs improvements or items considered part of the building that are depreciated over longer lives.

And look into segregation of items that could have different lives but have to be identified.

What Catherine said. I am waiting for someone to post what the heck that is....just have not had the time or the inclination to look it up myself. Tom Longview, TX

Are you talking about a sole proprietorship? If so, health insurance can be a line 17 adjustment if certain conditions are met. There is a worksheet in the 1040 instructions (and in ATX). Yes, Schedule A is an option. Partners with earnings subject to self-employment tax can also be eligible. Where people tend to get in trouble is with S-Corporations, very specific rules to follow.

At a minimum your questions deserve a 4 Hour CPE class

The repair regs did open up a lot of things to being expensed, but there isn't quite enough info to decide. Here's a related article: https://www.thetaxadviser.com/newsletters/2021/apr/expensing-hvac-costs.html Here's the pertinent IRS page: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/tangible-property-final-regulations

I ususally renew by May 31. With only a few years left, I don't want to change so I just get it out of the way.

But that doesn't really mean anything.

Personally, I would want some general verification (documented) before I put a $200,000 carryforward on a tax return; it could come back to bite you if disallowed. Catherine mentioned the possibility of a 33% drop in the market value, but it is also likely the previous preparer did not know the difference between an allowable loss and a partial gift. It should not be very difficult to document a significant drop in market value given the date of inheritance vs date of sale.

It is either classified as nonresidential real property (most likely); or falls under "Asset Class 15.0" which includes assets used in the construction industry with a 5 year depreciation life. Asset Class 15.0 would be a sure thing if the shed was portable and moved from job site to job site. Otherwise it could be argued that the structure is attached to the land by it own weight and for an indefinite time period. 15 year life would fall under Asset Class 00.3; Land Improvements which are also permanently attached to the land. The shed does not qualify as an improvement since it is a building with walls and a roof. A 20 year life is not appropriate under Asset Class 01.3; Farm Buildings. In that case I would use 5 year life under Asset Class 57.0 for assets used in "Distributive Trades and Services".

In Atx you can put INHERITED in date acquired field and it forces LT treatment too..

"Oregon taxpayers couldn’t make online payments as the state’s tax deadline approached Tuesday night because of an internet outage affecting state websites. In response, the Oregon Department of Revenue says it won’t charge late penalties or interest on payments made before midnight on April 21 – a three-day extension. The deadline for filing state and federal taxes was at midnight on April 18. Oregon’s revenue department says state government websites were offline from 9 p.m. until midnight “due to a vendor internet service outage.”

I checked my last few e-files, and have been reading the news. A person has gone missing around here, so that’s weird. jklcpa, congrats!!!

Parsons was my first tax software after years preparing by hand. Back in those days (early '90s), I often called Bob Parsons to talk about several of his software products (QuickVerse, MoneyCounts, Membership Plus). When Bob & Martha Parsons split up, they sold Parsons Technology to Intuit. Intuit killed off the tax software and sold the rest. Bob did okay. After a brief time off, he founded GoDaddy! You heard right. ATX was originally built on Excel sheets but they moved away from that long ago. Dang! These trips down memory lane always end the same way...me feeling really old!

I used Parson Tax Edge as my second tax program before ATX. Don't remember the name of the first program, it was from Florida.

My all-time favorite--client gives me a self-created spreadsheet to do her (new) sole proprietorship--on one line near the bottom of every month was a decent sized amount entered as an expense. I asked her what were the entries on this particular line and she casually responded, "Oh, that's negative cash flow."

I woke up with about 12 things on my to-do list. I just turned the page over and decided I'll 'find' it tomorrow.

On Monday I visited with a 100 year old client for about 30 minutes as I dropped off his taxes. What a joy that was. He has a lot of health issues but what a terrific outlook on life. He was telling me stories (with names) from his college fraternity years before WW2 and after his service years. That was a fun part of the day.

You have a fine looking Mom, Bill. Bless your hearts.

The only accident I ever had was on the day after tax season ended, so I tried not to drive anywhere on that day.

Yeah, I've seen some over the years. The ones I hate are the ones that keep adding new accounts. I had one that set up new accounts with the year in the name. Serioulsy? We already have dates in the general ledger.

Had a client years ago, business in operation for years. Had not reconciled (multiple) checking accounts in over four years. First thing I did was get those caught up. Another consulting client called me in to troubleshoot reports not giving good information. Two issues: COA had location coding but the codes were jumbled, and they had not closed monthly books in three years. That software only pulls report data from closed months.... You gotta wonder sometimes. First company I almost understand; they downloaded all bank info directly to QB, thinking that meant they had it all (nope!). But with the other the guy who called me in was CFO with a Master's in Accounting. I've never taken an accounting course (taught it in a junior college for a couple of semesters, but never took a class myself), and I saw the key problems as soon as I saw the COA. He never thought to look at it. Never looked at the help files for the tres-fancy and tres-expensive accounting system. Huh?

I hate doing tax returns without reconciled bank statements and balanced books. There's close to zero chance that the return is correct.

Have a wonderful, wonderful visit with her!