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You can have more than one version of QB on your computer. I have about 6 that I still use for clients who have older versions and don't want to upgrade. I try to only upgrade every other year if possible, but sometimes I have to get another one when a client comes in with a higher version than I do.

Every time I call the IRS to check on an amended return that we submitted in April they give me a new 16 week time frame to wait.

Assuming this is an ordinary and necessary business expense, why would you not recommend treating as a reimbursement under an accountable plan?

So has anyone had recent discussions with clients on the issue of taxes and PPP loan forgiveness? I've encountered two clients who had read in several places that when the PPP loan is converted to a grant, it is not treated as taxable forgiven debt. But they failed to read further and find that the IRS position is that the expenses paid with these same funds are not deductible. Even when we tell them about IRS Notice 2020-32, they aren't likely to read it. And unless Congress acts, they will wind up paying taxes on the forgiven debt anyhow. I've tried several approaches in explain this, but am still not satisfied with how clear I am being. And having to introduce the uncertainty based on whether Congress acts to clear this up just makes things even more confusing. (It's a much worse problem than trying to make a restaurant owner understand why they can't take a tax deduction for food they discard. ) I guess this falls into under the heading that "It's hard for a man to understand something if understanding it will cost him money." I sure hope Congress gets busy at some point (either pre-election or post-election), and provides some clarity on this important issue.

Last year or the year before the IRS decided that when an employer pays for a cell phone and the monthly bill, that the personal usage by an employee was no longer taxable. Unfortunately, this is not your client's situation. Other nontaxable items are one time payments like Safety Awards or the proverbial "Thanksgiving Turkey" Your client's socalled stipend is not one time but monthly so from my point of view this is taxable income. Actually many years ago I was an Accounting Supervisor for a good sized Forest Products Company, who would buy a truckload of frozen turkeys and then give them out to the employees.

Thank you, Catherine!

Yes. I do this with K1s from partnerships in DC. I amended 3 years of MD returns prepared by an expensive DC law firm and got my new client back nearly 30k in MD refunds. But in the case of K1s, or other businesses, if the business deducted the DC tax as an expense, you have to also add the amount of tax deducted from the business income, as a MD addition to income. But you come out way ahead with the credit

The idea of this calculation and limitation is to adjust for the difference between between our ordinary tax rates and the capital gain rates that a foreign gain is actually being taxed at. It sounds like you are doing it correctly though. If you'd like to read a more detailed explanation of how and why this is done, I've linked to an article from The Tax Advisory that delves into all of this. Keep in mind that the article is several years old and the multiplication percentages for the rate differential calculation are different now, but the overall concepts are still valid: https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2017/jul/foreign-capital-gains-losses.html

The one useful feature I've noticed that gets removed in the Compressed view is the Follow feature. There are other ways to access it, but it's not as convenient. It will be difficult to strike a balance between removing elements and required functionality that meets everyone's needs, but I'll do my best based on feedback. Glad you like it!

Hi Margaret, I know this has been an issue for you for years. As design trends change over time in an effort to be more mobile friendly, stacking elements instead of displaying them side-by-side becomes more common. More white space between elements is meant to make things easier on the eyes--same goes for increased font sizes. This is experimental, but we'll give it a shot to see how it works out. I have created a custom theme for the forum that removes some (hopefully not too important) elements and squeezed some things together for a more compressed layout. I'm not sure if that's easier on the eyes or not... maybe it works out alright with a magnified screen / lowered screen resolution? I'm happy to have some feedback. You can switch between the Default theme and the Compressed version at the bottom of the forum (scroll all the way down). Click the Theme link and choose Compressed.

If you, or any other readers, want a better understanding of how to handle distributions, you might start with this article from The Tax Advisor entitled "Determining the Taxability of S Corporation Distributions: Part I": https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2014/jan/nitti-jan2014.html and this follow-up article published the next month, Part II, that deals with S corps with accumulated E&P: https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2014/feb/nitti-feb2014.html