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Thanks to all for your great insights. I've spent considerable time over the weekend digging deeper, reviewing the materials you suggested and numerous others. I discovered a few steps I wasn't previously aware of (including filing Form 966- thanks for the tip Abby). I also had an aha moment (more of a head-smack duh moment) about the losses that generated the negative AAA. Since they had already passed through to the sole owner via prior year K-1s, there was nothing further to do about them. I should have realized that sooner--I was making it a lot harder than it needed to be. FWIW, there was no E&P involved.

I have several clients who are dealing with mild dementia / chemo brain fog / TIAs and it has me worried about my future. I was thinking today - how quickly could you get tax season done if everyone delivered everything correctly tomorrow morning? Wouldn't that be wonderful? One thing I'm reminded of every tax season is that we can choose to be happy or unhappy - it's completely up to us. I had meetings with three ladies this weekend who have very little to be happy about in life right now and were pure joys to spend a 1/2 an hour each talking with. I had a meeting last Thursday with a lady who has ever reason in the world to be happy and she was completely miserable and her negativity was just soul sucking. It's a choice we all have.

Excellent question. What is their intent? Hold as investment or use as part of their personal residence property? Sec 163(h) refers to sect 121 for definition of personal residence. Section 1.121-1(b)(3)(i) outlines conditions where an adjacent lot is considered part of personal residence.

Thanks for replies and discussion. Client's son earned just $941 no FTW and SS was $1824. Dependent chart shows a qualifying relative has to live in home for the full year and wife did not in 2024 but will in 2025. I asked about MFS thinking there was the possibility of EIC but her learned that isn't an option. While client said wife earns $1400 per month (looks to be under the $1620 BrewOne states), it is not an issue for 2024 if each adult disabled child will be claimed by their respective parents. I think I have ti for 2024, we'll see about 2025 and how the respective parents resolve the fact that they live together the full year in my client's home. Small issue is that client said the 'pay rent' of $200 per month for their private room and bath. I asked client to track how much support they provide, allocation of utilities, additional food purchases, etc. I think it is more reimbursement or sharing of expenses. Thoughts? These folks are amazing. Over the years this nurse practitioner and now retired physician have fostered about 8 children, all with special needs. They adopted this one son and now have custody of a granddaughter of another former foster. Idealists from the 60's actually making a difference, in my opinion.

You have to be careful about which category of Social Security income you are referring to. And beyond my ability to explain in just a few lines. But you can work, as long as you can't do "Substantial Gainful Activity" (current limit $1,620 a month of earned income).

My daughter is expecting her first child in June so I agreed to host a baby shower at my house on the 12th of April. Don't know what I was thinking! But - it is what it is and I will try to be done with most returns by then.

Here’s the latest list of Social Security Administration offices that have been closed or are in the process of being closed by DOGE: Georgia Brunswick Columbus Gainesville Thomasville Vidalia Alabama Anniston Cullman Gadsden Jasper Arkansas Batesville Forrest City Jonesboro Texarkana North Carolina Elizabeth City Franklin Greenville Roanoke Rapids Texas Abilene Nacogdoches Victoria New York Horseheads Poughkeepsie White Plains Mississippi Grenada Greenwood Meridian

In 2024, my employer contributed $1,200 to my HSA account and I contributed about $7,000. When I entered code W and $8,200 in my W2, the program automatically did "everything" and after stating that I was qualified for 12 months, I thought I was done. After I created my efile file, everything passed but I noticed a few blue warnings. While clicking on a couple of them, I noticed that my HSA contribution worksheet correctly listed $8,200, but "amount contributed by employee" was blank. When I entered $7,000 on that worksheet, my tax liability was reduced by more than $2K. My clients don't like HSA and very few trust 401k, so I doubt I made mistakes on client's return. Please ask your clients with Code W, how much they contributed and make that entry accordingly.

The Code W on W2 includes both employee pretax contributions through cafeteria plan and employer contributions. It doesn't matter the mix between employee/er. As the Box 1 W2 income is already reduced by the contribution, it shouldn't be entered anywhere else. IF the employee makes additional AFTER TAX contributions, that is entered on Line 2 of 8889. The max for 2024 is 9,300 if over age 55 and family coverage for full year. Something seems askew with what you are saying.

"FREE", throws up a red flag for me. A quick search revealed 3 counseling Institutes in Africa, one in SA and 2 in Nigeria. They all charged fees. My guess is that the free seminar is to get attendees to listen a few hours of actual seminar followed by a high pressure sales pitch to enroll in a series of expensive courses. Tread carefully.

Sounds to me like it will be used as part of their personal residence. Did they use their residence as collateral?

Spoke with the taxpayer and he has no deferred compensation plan; the issuer of the 1099 Misc made an error as Tom suggested in his post.

Thanks. I will take a look at that code section. The lot is just protection to keep someone from building right on top of them.

I can sure see a situation where it would be allowed. But for OP, I have to question what knowledge was derived from a "free" seminar with $x,xxx of related travel expenses. And if the knowledge was so critical to his/her profession, was there no other way to obtain it?

right, ordinary and necessary. I accepted travel expenses for a dog trainer's trip to Sweden, but it was for a certification course not offered here.

Was it really necessary for him to attend the seminar and incur all of the travel expense?

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I think I had to do just that last week, enter the correct Taxable Amount myself. But as long as the QCD box is checked, it shows correctly on 1040.

Isn't SS taxable under MFS unless they lived apart for the last 6 months of the year? That used to be the rule. It probably still would not result in a tax liability.

Disability SS is reported the same as regular SS. It is not taxable. Let his parents take him as a dependent. At least he is worth $500 to them. File him MFS if he has any withholding to get back without taking himself as a dependent. This is the best advice I can come up with at the moment. As for 2025; who knows what the laws will be?

I'm glad for this bookmark discussion and want to learn how to do this. New client has a return with 4 states and 2 locals and about 150 pages total including statements and data fields. His previous returns are nicely bookmarked by state, statements, etc. I printed to Adobe and see the option for bookmarks (I had checked this in ATX), but don't know how to create them. Any easy way to do this? Client is in New Zealand for a month so I have time to create it, just don't know how. Thanks for any help!

What is the relationship between your client and the issuer of the 1099 Misc?

How many seminar days and how many personal days did he spend in Africa? Also, make sure you're looking up International travel rules, because they differ from US travel rules a bit. Just haven't had anyone recently.

Our local office (Tallahassee) closed awhile back but I recently found out it had reopened (in a new location). You used to be able to walk in and talk to an agent in about five minutes, even take your docs there and they'd do your tax return for you. Hard to believe.

NYC taxes only NYC residents. NYS taxes NYS residents and non-residents; NYS taxes non-residents only on NYS-sourced income. FDNY sums up your situation well. (I don't like NY nor CA returns, and have been reducing those clients when I can, such as the client being a PITA and not just their NRPY returns being a PITA. Or the clients fleeing NY and CA. Finally got rid of my OH clients.)

What Catherine said. Plus I can make more money, and save my health & sanity, by working 11 months instead of 3 months. I actively encourage extensions. My 1st year on my own, I even gave a small discount for those, a bit like an overbooked flight. It helped me that year and going forward as I then had a core of clients who realize an extension is NOT a bad thing. Unfortunately, my biggest client is an S-corp who adamantly, passionately refuses extensions, plus I have to have their Forms K-1 in the hands of their personal preparer by that firm's deadline, due to no personal extensions, either. This year they're broadcasting out of the country until 20 March, so I'll have a bit more trouble getting their signatures when they have time to check the portal and when they get to a location where they have strong wifi. Plus CT redid their S-corp/partnership form and broke out a separate PTET form to learn. Not crazy about their bookkeeper, either; I just found mid-six figures under Taxes on the P&L instead of the BS Shareholder Distributions! (They take plenty of salary, so that's not the problem, just that their profit is a LOT higher than they are expecting.) I'm trying hard to get through this set of returns before Monday. The worst thing about a 15 March deadline, and others such as brokerages having a February deadline and also extensions to that, is that I just barely get into 1040s when I have to shift gears to biz entities, and then spend a month trying to pick up speed again on 1040s. It breaks my stride. Anyone get well into a return where you thought you had everything, only to discover that their Int/Div/CG seems way to little; they forgot to tell you they changed brokers during the year, and the 2nd set of statements isn't out yet? I hate to restart later but still need to review my earlier work and... OK, I know I'm procrastinating.

You are correct on using IT-203 and yes, you need NY IT 360.1 to enter the wages paid for NYC resident period. Also, I assume you entered the NYC amounts on the W2 worksheet for local wages and local tax. BTW, we call it "The Bronx"

Paging @Lion EA as I know she does a bunch of NY returns.

I just called one yesterday to ask if they had any investment income this year. She said, "Oh, that just came today. I didn't know that you needed it. She dropped it off, I finished the return and filed it. Today she texts me a picture of a K1 that she received today, but of course she didn't think that we needed it since they didn't draw any of that money out. It isn't going to change the outcome of their return, but I feel ethically bound to include this in their income to avoid repercussions.; so will amend. I told her to take her time getting it to me. I am busy.