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I definitely would be forced to retire. I hope that everyone remembers Eric before you spend all of your profits. Also, a special Thank You to Judy for her pristine Moderation and all of the rest of you who reach out so generously to help those of us in need. I couldn't do this without all of you.

No, the losses in year of death are handled like any other year. Any capital losses that are unused (those that would carryfwd if the person lived) are lost. They die with the decedent.

Twitter was abuzz about that yesterday. Some guy was going on why if he won 400K but lost 500K why he now has to pay tax on the 40K. He didn't like my answer that it's a stupidity tax on people that throw away money gambling.

Why didn't they just raise the $32K ($25K) used to determine if any of SS was taxable, and the $12K ($9K), used to determine how much was taxable? I have been preparing taxes for over 20 years and don't remember them ever being raised. Adjust these amounts for past inflation now, and then adjust yearly to avoid this issue in future years instead of using this band-aid approach.

Once again, JOA has done a wonderful job of taking legislative text and turning it into real language. https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2025/jun/tax-changes-in-senate-budget-reconciliation-bill/

And just think of how many of us have clients whose tax returns from prior to 2000 are lying around with our social security numbers on them. (or tossed in the garbage when they did house cleaning or by their heirs)

Yes; us - the good tax preparers. Not the fraudsters (taxpayers, cheats, or 'preparers' in it to cheat). They make it harder & harder for us to help taxpayers (which helps t/p's and the IRS - with the IRS probably coming out ahead in that one), then wonder why we get testy.

I am just philosophically opposed to giving my face to a for profit company to add to their data base so I can continue to work in my chosen profession. I don't know what has gotten into the IRS that they think we are the problem. They know us. And the ones who are running Turdo out of the garage are not going to do this anyways? What in the world? Conspiracy theory Warning ****** The government promised to put as many people into ID.me when they signed the contract so ID.me would have a larger data base. End of theory***** How about requiring everyone to takes a tax credit to have an ID.me account and give their face to that company in order to get a tax break? I am so pissed I am not thinking straight. The IRS keeps shooting at the wrong targets. Tom Longview, TX

Honestly for the last several years, my experience once I have reached an IRS employee has been satisfactory. Does it take too long to get someone on the phone ? Yes it does. Does it take too long for them to find an answer or to change something in one of their programs? Yes it does. However given the old systems they are still working with that don't share information, I think they are doing the best that they can under difficult circumstances.

Includes: "The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries, providing relief to individuals and couples. Additionally, it provides an enhanced deduction for taxpayers aged 65 and older, ensuring that retirees can keep more of what they have earned." Bad enough that we need to dispel the "somebody said" and FB garbage, now it's coming direct from federal agency. Shameful.

So they have 6 months to reflect upon their bad choices and change their behavior before the new rules take effect?

Yeah, in general people don't like truth that makes them question their poor choices.

I still have, in deep files under lock & key, a set of tax forms sent to me in the mail - with the little sticker with my name, address, and ssn on it. Remember those? (That year I had moved so I did not use the sticker.)

Exactly. If hackers can get into the Iranian equivalent of coinbase and make 90 million in digital assets fly into the ether, you think they can't get into ID.me? Tom Longview, TX

until ID dot me gets breached.

I would also be lost without this board. Thank you to Eric for keeping us going, & to Judy for moderating. You can make your donation automatic - annual, quarterly, monthly. Check the Donate link!

i have QB Pro 2019 on Win 11 with no problems. I use it only for my personal business accounting so cannot speak to any potential issues with payroll or other updates. In fact, I don't think it even updates any longer but it serves my purpose.

I just got it. Sent an email to my Congressman telling him if the rule goes into effect on July 1, I will not vote for him again. Tom Longview, TX

G2R Thanks for sharing this disaster with us. It certainly puts a different perspective on whether or not to use IP Pins

Treat these as distributions to shareholders, unless you can convince them to repay the business.

But not unexpected or surprising.

That's correct. What this means is that the final 1040 can show up to a $3,000 loss (just like usual) and any remaining loss carryover is lost. The planning opportunity mentioned is where a surviving spouse can sell capital assets having a gain in that year of death so that the otherwise unused losses would offset those gains. Example: your client is allowed $3K of losses allowed in the current year and $25K losses unused that are going to be lost. The taxpayer (prior to death) or surviving spouse any time during that year, if filing MFJ, could have sold other capital assets having GAINS up to that $25K with no additional tax effect. If single, that client could have done that in prior years or in the final year prior to death to use up the losses so that they aren't lost. For a single taxpayer where someone has a POA and is aware of the situation, that person could so initiate such a sale of capital asset prior to the taxpayer's death.

No matter how many people they hire, it won't improve significantly until they invest in new infrastructure. I had to be transferred three times, over two hours, to reach the person who could access the platform needed to fix the issue. Once I got to the right person, it took 10 minutes to resolve the issue.

I don't judge my clients or their choices. I only recommend, advise and explain the law. They aren't going to stop gambling just because we tell them it is a bad choice. IMO

If only that were the case. It goes much further both disqualifying some completely, making it harder and more burdensome to enroll and making it much more expensive. If this doesn't lead to universal healthcare, then there's no hope for us.

More details here: https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/how-will-the-2025-budget-reconciliation-affect-the-aca-medicaid-and-the-uninsured-rate/

I think that horse is a jackass.

This is one HUGE step backwards. I was talking to a friend, with a family of 4 paying $400/month for a great plan. Now, she'll pay more for a less great plan, if she can even afford it all. She was opposed to Obamacare when it started but now she loves it. Or, should I say, loved it. A lot of people are going to feel a lot of pain.

I'm well aware of the fact that the tax on SS benefits goes from general fund to trust funds. I'm just saying I can't find anything as to how they actually calculate the amount. The extra 6K doesn't affect how much is thrown into the taxable column since it's an after AGI adjustment. So, if they just use that amount times a rate nothing will change. I highly doubt they have the computers look at each return and say xx% of the actual tax on return was a result of SS benefits and then use that amount for reimbursement. Personally I've never understood why someone should have a higher standard deduction simply because of being 65. Most of us at that age should not have a mortgage or rent, yet we are allowed to pay less FIT than a young person trying to get a start making the same income. I was just livid about the email SSA sent out. Waaayyyy too political of a statement and extremely misleading coming directly from an agency that's supposed to be apolitical.

Posting in case anyone here hasn't read the email saying that ID.me will be required to log in to the PTIN and other IRS services.

If son qualifies as dependent, client may also qualify for HOH. No problem to amend back three years, just make sure you have done your due diligence for qualification.

But are we solving a problem that doesn't exist? Have fraudsters been logging into PTIN accounts? Especially to renew them and pay the fee?

Just saw that I can renew by mail. I think about 1 million people ought to renew by mail. That'll teach 'em. Then we can have all our clients opt out of efile and mail in returns with staples and staple checks to the returns and then send letters asking when the return will be processed and then send more letters asking for interest on the late refunds and swamp their whole system with mail. Not like I am being childish about this or anything.... Tom Longview, TX

Which sums up why this is the last place you want to have your photo. Imagine how much more your valuable your data is to advertisers when they know, say, your skin tone or whether you wear glasses, a tie, have freckles, bad teeth, or whatever AI determines about you from your laugh lines or nose hairs.

I am not a techy type, so take this with a grain of salt. But I have found that the issue when the software won't open is the database is not started, or it needs to be restarted. If you can get to your control panel, check the status of the database for the year in question and the year before the year in question (for some reason if the year before you want to use does not have a running database the year you want will sometimes give you trouble). If that does not work, ask @Abby Normal That is what I do when I need to confess my ignorance. Tom Longview, TX

I'm using QB Premier Accountant 2017. I bought a new computer with Windows 11 in May and sent it and the old one to my IT guy to transfer everything. He struggled with my "real" software a LOT and I ended up on a call with Sage support last week because I couldn't access the payroll tax forms. There were quite a few questions when IT moved QB but he was able to make it happen and I've been using it daily for over a month with no issues.

I just bought a new computer to run W11 and had the old hard drive cloned over. Quickbooks Desktop 2019 still works fine on it. But like Catherine, I kept my old W10 machine just in case any issues arise with any software in the future. I plan to run it about every week to keep it updated until Oct 2025 (and beyond if I decide to take advantage of the 1-year extension I keep hearing about) Then I will just run it offline if necessary.

Copied from the Tax Advocate's Mid Year Report to Congress: "One longstanding filing season challenge that remains unresolved is lengthy delays in resolving identity theft cases. There are two categories of identity theft cases. One involves returns that IRS return processing filters flag as potential identity theft; the IRS flagged about 2.1 million such returns. In these cases, the IRS sent a letter to taxpayers notifying them they had to authenticate their identities before receiving their refunds. The IRS typically takes several months to resolve these cases. In the second category of identity theft cases, a thief has stolen a taxpayer’s identity and filed a tax return using the taxpayer’s name and Social Security number. These taxpayers are victims and may also be experiencing the effects of identity theft beyond the context of their tax returns. Their cases are referred to the IRS’s Identity Theft Victim Assistance (IDTVA) unit for resolution. As of the end of the filing season, the IRS had about: 387,000 IDTVA cases in inventory, and the cases were taking an average of about 20 months to resolve. “These delays disproportionately affect vulnerable populations dependent on their refunds to meet basic living expenses,” the report says. In fiscal year (FY) 2023, 69% of affected taxpayers had adjusted gross incomes at or below 250% of the Federal Poverty Level." Sometimes my mind really struggles to understand this stuff

Umm, I thought the purpose of all this was to eliminate waste. Isn't paying people not to work somewhat wasteful? Just a short time ago we were elated that IRS finally got funding to increase staff so phone wait and processing times would decrease and audits would increase in areas we knew needed auditing. TAS was the place we went to when all else failed. Taxpayers are really going to feel this. They won't be able to get questions answered or problems solved, all the while knowing that others are cheating and getting away with it.

If the investment account was joint and originally funded jointly, half of the carryover losses belong to the surviving spouse and can be used on his or her future returns. The deceased spouse's half is lost forever after the final return. Many of us still have clients who lost a fortune in the 2008 market crash, pulled out of the market altogether, and will have to live to be 200 to use up the losses at $3k per year. That $3k limit has been around since 1978 and never adjusted for inflation.

You don't need a computer to send or receive funds electronically, you just need a bank account. With DOGE endangering all of our personal information, I recommend setting up a small balance account at a different bank to receive or pay fund electronically. Then you transfer money to or from that account as needed. That way your real bank info is not out there.

We started advising our clients months ago about this change and, surprisingly, some of them already knew about it. Why make things harder on ourselves by not steering our clients in the right direction? I have never been in favor of paper checks and especially now with the erratic service of the Postal Service.

Why do you think you can't have multiple LLCs in one 1040. I've had two Sch C LLCs and even multiple Sch E LLCs? Is it because you're trying to use 1099 input forms? Or are you talking about some state level problem?

Send him to IRS DirectPay so he can get a payment confirmation: https://www.irs.gov/payments

"In 1867, William M. Springer refused to pay the federal taxes he owed, resulting in one of the first tax cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Before the matter went to the Supreme Court in 1874, how did the government collect the tax due?" In January 1867, after Springer refused to pay the $5,279.78 owed (including tax and penalty), the tax collector levied property in Springfield, Illinois, that Springer owned. The property was advertised and sold at public auction on March 15, 1867. The matter eventually landed in the U.S. Supreme Court (Springer v. U.S.), with Springer claiming that the tax was a direct tax and therefore unconstitutional, and that the seizure and sale of his property deprived him of his property without due process of law. The Supreme Court rejected both arguments and affirmed the federal government's power to levy and collect income taxes, including through the seizure and sale of property. "

" The first nattional income tax in the United States was enacted in 1862 to help finance the war. It started as a 3% tax on incomes over $600 and 5% on incomes over $10,000. These rates were later increased, and the ceiling for the lower tax rate was lowered in 1864. " The Grant Administration repealed these taxes in 1872

Thank you, Abby, for the great reminder. The IRS must RECEIVE the amendment by 10/13/2025. I've been forgetting that lately with e-filing. If you have to paper file, between the USPS and the IRS brokenness, who knows when the IRS will receive any given piece of mail !!!

He can file an amended return at any time. He can receive a refund if he files within 3 years, by 10/13/2025.