JJStephens

I got my second renewal e-note from Drake today. I agree with all the above. They could at least wait until I have time to see straight. BTW, it occurs to me that I spent twice as much time reading this one thread as it would have taken to read the renewal e-mail I'm griping about.

This is how many years in a row? I know sooner or later the string will end, but it sure is nice while it lasts!

I'm kinda late getting to the party on this one and (true confession) didn't read every reply so someone might have beat me to the punch on this. When they show up for the refund explain what you did and why and then ask them in view of all the work you put in on their behalf how much of the refund they deserve. Ask them to put themselves in your shoes and then state how much they think they should give back. Then watch them squirm. First to speak loses.

I got one a couple days ago purportedly from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Comp. It said an installment due by March 2 had not been received. I represent about 25 payroll clients--no idea who this was for. I replied using a junk e-address I have asking which client and noting that I was uneasy about phishing. I got a scathing reply that the address I replied from was not in the BWC's data base, that it wasn't phishing, and that I was expected to reply from my actual e-address. I replied from my regular address and again asked which client it referred to. I've heard nothing since. Still not sure about that one!

Thanks. Helpful to know!

Thot I'd followup on this from forever ago. As I mentioned in my OP, I made the jump to Drake last May. Garsh, I wish I'd done this years ago. Sure there have been a few learning glitches but now that I have the hang of it I'm finding that my prep time is about 50-60% what it was previously with ATX. Further, the software has worked flawlessly. Both the last two years I ran into a serious bug that ATX software engineers took two days to figure out. Get this. On Feb 27 I got an e-mail from someone at CCH offering me 2 years for the price of 1 if I'd come back to TaxWise. I've never used TaxWise! I did use ATX (and its predecessor) for more than 20 years. On Feb 27. I guess they thought I was waiting for mid-March to start preparing returns.

File IT-1040 and check the part-year box. If the taxpayer lived in a taxing school district use SD-100. If you need to file a city return use the Ohio Generic City return. Here's a handy site to determine if a taxpayer lives in an Ohio taxing municipality or school district--just enter the address and it does the rest: https://thefinder.tax.ohio.gov/StreamlineSalesTaxWeb/AddressLookup/LookupByAddress.aspx?taxType=taxsummary

Thanks. That all makes sense ... now that I hear it come from someone else!

I did an IRS webinar about six months ago on which this question arose during the Q&A time. The presenters said that the new rules generally require the new roof to be capitalized. However, they acknowledged that the facts and circumstances might occasionally allow for expense treatment. They emphasized those would be very rare exceptions and that IRS is trying to force it to be capitalized.

Most of my client base is not the typical 'kiddie tax' crowd so I'm not real familiar with it and a couple hours' research hasn't turned up an answer to my dilemma. Taxpayers are MFJ (28% marginal bracket). Two of their kids are now FT college students (ages 19 and 21 at 12/31/2015). Sales of stock from UTMA accounts in both kids' names resulted in LT gains totaling a bit over $6000 for each 'child'. If I understand it correctly I can only report interest, dividend, cap gain distributions and Alaska Perm Fund dividends using Form 8814 on the parents' return. I take 'cap gain distributions' to be amounts reported on Form 1099-DIV. I've searched but can't find anything that defines that term differently. Since this situation does not involve a cap gain distribution but rather realized cap gains and their income exceeds the unearned income filing threshold I believe the kids will have to file their own returns and include Form 8615 to determine the kiddie tax. Am I on track? TIA for any illumination you can offer.

The bulk of my practice is clergy returns. I just PM'd some info to you. Perhaps it will be helpful

Thanks for the info ... but I'm even more confused. I guess I'm going to have to read up on the severance tax. (Can you tell I don't get this very much?!?).

I've been there for a long time. Been where?

Client is a trust that receives mineral extraction royalties. One of the 1099s indicated a gross royalty payment of $25,521 but client reported to me they received only $18,802. I had them call the 1099 issuer and was told the $6719 difference was for tax deductible gathering fees. I've never heard of gathering fees so I googled them. I think they are fees assessed by the royalty payer for extracting/transporting the product. All I found was a vague reference that they're deductible on Schedule E. My guess is they would be treated as an 'other expense'. Anyone have any idea if I'm on the right track?

My tax practice is predominantly clergy but I do have a smattering of others including a handful of small business types. For 28 years I've operated on a trust basis. I give my clients an invoice and they almost always pay within a reasonable time. Almost always. I know most of you expect your fee COD but for those who do accept deferred payments, do you assess a late fee? If so, how much? I'm contemplating 1.5% per month with a $5 minimum after 60 days (that gives them more than adequate time to get any refund they might have coming).

I wrestled with those same thoughts. It is a gift to the tenant, but it is a payment of a fee to the landlord. That would mitigate in favor of a 1099. However, it was a substitute payment on behalf of an individual who is not required to issue a 1099 thus mitigating against needing to issue one. In my mind, the second argument is more compelling. I've spent more than an hour searching the net and about half a dozen IRS pubs for some guidance and found nothing. I think I'm going to go with your counsel & my gut. Thanks, all!

Back when I first started preparing taxes I had a retired client who waited until the final year to cash in a bunch of stock he acquired through an employee stock option program. It resulted in a total tax due (federal & state) of $120k. He called to ask how it was going. I hemmed and hawed and told him I had figured it six different ways. He replied, "I'm sure you did a good job. How much do I owe?" I again dithered and assured him that I had applied every trick I knew. He again thanked me and asked how much he owed. I finally told him $120,000. He practically screamed, "$120,000!" I again started trying to explain all the work I had done to minimize it, but he just yelled again, "$120,000!!!" Then he said, "How did you do that? I thought it was going to be at least $160,000! How did you manage to get it down to $120,000?" Every once in a while, I love getting to be a hero. I just never thought it would happen when I told someone he owed $120k!

Just once when a client says 'just put down something for now & we'll fix it later' I want to say, 'Okay, for now I'll put down a million dollars and we'll fix it later.' I have a feeling there would be no need to fire that client.

In late 2015 my client (a church) paid rent (twice) for a family in the community that had suffered a serious calamity. I feel reasonably certain a 1099 to the landlord is required; I'm not aware of any exception for benevolence rent payments. The landlord insists a 1099 is not appropriate and has refused for months to provide a W-9. BTW, I re-instructed my client to withhold future 1099-able payments to any payee until they have a W-9 in-hand. I'm assuming the landlord's refusal is probably the result of under-reporting rental income, but in this case it doesn't make much sense to refuse to provide the W-9 and accept a 1099. I would think the landlord would want to show at least some income and two months worth of rent could be easily absorbed into that. Yes, I know (s)he is legally obligated to report it all. That's not my problem as landlord is not my client--I'm simply stating what I assume to be true about the motive for refusing to provide a W-9. I suppose there could also be some issues of not wanting to show up on a government agency's radar--perhaps dodging a warrant or could be an illegal, er, I mean undocumented worker--no, I mean illegal. Do any of you know of a reason why issuing a 1099 could be avoided in these circumstances? Any suggestions about compelling the landlord to comply?

I signed up for a 14 day free trial. Seems to work well and my clients are adapting okay. Right now I'm inclined to sign up after the trial ends.

Actually, it was via e-mail. And it happens that it is from one of my oldest and dearest friends. Still, the temptation was there

Brand new Drake user. I've done a handful of returns. Even with having to learn on the fly I'm taking only about 2/3 as long as I did with ATX the past year or two. So far so good. Ar any of you using SecureFilePro? If so, how is it working for you? How do your clients like it? Any tips/traps you can share? Thanks for any insights you can offer.

Client has been bugging me for a couple days to send the K-1s for the trust from his mother's estate. He had emailed a document that according to him had' everything I needed.' That return finally made it to the top of my to-do stack. Turns out all he provided in the email attachment was the amount of each beneficiary's distribution. I told him I need the trust's income & expense info to prep the 1041. He told they don't care about the 1041 right now, I can do that later. All they want right now are the K-1s. Deep sigh. How quickly can April 18 get here?!?!?

Do you think that if enough of us signed a petition we could get the IRS to change the nasty 'on-hold' music that hasn't changed since the infernal revenue code was enacted in 1913? It was awful before but now that they're leaving us on hold for longer and longer periods, it's enough to drive me loony (yeah, I know, loonier). What think ye?