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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.

I don't see anything on my friend Google about a blanket change in the dates that estimates are due, nor do I see anything on the IRS website. I am getting my hair done tomorrow, I will ask my hairdresser.

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.

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.

Room & Board does NOT qualify for the AOC, but it does qualify to make 529 Plan distributions non-taxable. Way too many details in all the different education benefits!!

On that theme, a favorite of mine is "THE IRS" without the space, is "THEIRS" and that's how they see it!

GOOD question and one reason I detest those %^&Y* things.

There is a particular schedule they want ES payments made, with specific percentages by Date X. Miss that, and there are underpayment penalties. For one year, you could protest based on unequal income (large distributions in December due to investments), but after a year or two, they will expect the taxpayer to expect those distributions. You could try the 2210 with unequal income distribution. I've used that a time or two for clients and gotten penalties waived. But it's not guaranteed. As for getting a refund, that's only dependent on the total paid. Think of it this way: client's total tax is $9,000, and as self-employed they make zero ES payments until January, at which time they pay in $10,000. They'll get a refund on tax, yes, but they will also have penalties for not having paid in anything the previous April, June, and September.

Well, it clearly wasn’t bar codes. Now we have advanced to QR codes. And we have to use QR codes to set up MFA just so we can log into our software. That’s clearly the work of the devil.

These PTPs are notorious for showing losses year after year yet making nice distributions so investors think they are making money. It's return of capital, lowering basis and adding to the surprise gains when they eventually sell. At least they can take those suspended losses at the end, mitigating the tax bite a bit. Always check that the K-1 is in the taxpayer's Soc Sec number and not in an IRA, in which case you don't have to do anything except alert the client that the custodian may have some UBI reporting.

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

To be clear, the "ATX server" is a piece of software installed on your machines that needs to be running for the program to start. It has nothing to do with the term "server" used where hardware is designated as the server in networked installation (vs standalone). This is also different than the server at the processing center that the ATX program connects to via the internet.

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.

Discuss with your clients WHY they formed a MMLLC. And, if they should dissolve it to save the cost of preparing Form 1065 in the future. Did they watch a TikTok that told them they could write off anything in an MMLLC?!!

There have been a lot of disasters which postponed the deadline to November, but certainly not for everyone (so far https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-relief-in-disaster-situations

Either they were paid late or if AGI over 75/150 110% was not paid.

Frog: you CAN warn him that the sale might not be all capital gain rate, that some could be at his ordinary income tax rate. Was he near the top of a bracket last year? And, that the sale involves more time, more calculations, often more forms, so your fee will be a LOT higher. Tell him to bring you every single page and every single piece of paper and every single mailing for year end.

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.

Hmm, with Drake I can name a pdf attachment anything I like and enter that name in a space provided within the input. As long as the input matches the file I've attached it goes though.

Tom this page should help. Also, did you write down or copy the recovery code at the bottom of the page during setup of the authenticator when you first paired your phone? CCH help says that is used to fix things when your phone is lost or stolen. You may have to go through the steps of unpairing, re-pairing. https://files.cchsfs.com/doc/atx/2024/Help/Content/Both-SSource/Login and Passwords/Manage Admin Authentication.htm

Was that still Joe McCarthy? He was indeed great, very helpful and so funny that no one fell asleep during his portion of a seminar. He once told those "who have never been in an IRS return processing" campus, they really do take all the staples out and have papers scattered over the floor, which is why they request the same docs three or four times. His wife was an IRS agent. If she still was, maybe she's been downsized too. Tough to have both breadwinners in a family unemployed. And it's the IRS's and our loss to have so much expertise dismissed.

UltraTax also doesn't allow payments to be scheduled after the filing date after April 15, so it must be an IRS thing. You can schedule a payment date on DirectPay. Note that you can only schedule a payment no more than 365 days in advance and for no more than $10 million!

I think the reason checks are cashed expeditiously is that the IRS does not do it. They contract it to a lockbox service that opens the mail, deposits the checks and sends the IRS a report. I might be wrong, but that was my understanding.

That only works in a community property state. Otherwise, an MMLLC files Form 1065, unless they elect to be taxed as a corporation. If not entered into with a profit motive, follow the Hobby Loss Rules. How could $200,000+ ever be usual & necessary for revenue of $900, especially with NO profit motive?! Did they actually run their hobby income and expenses through the LLC bank account or LLC charge card? If they paid their hobby expenses personally and deposited their hobby income into their personal account, then you report their hobby income on Sch 1 line 8. Hobby expenses are NOT currently deductible until the sunset of the TCJA. (After the TCJA sunsets, if Congress doesn't change the law, hobby expenses will be deductible -- up to the amount of hobby income -- in the 2% miscellaneous section of Sch A.)

Yes Miss Sara, that is exactly what has been happening.