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​Really?! I really hope that client's return that you called about had an issue to resolve on it, and that you didn't call the practitioner priority line to simply check on a refund that the client thought he should have received more quickly. Here is the IRS page for that service that describes what it should be used for, that should be limited to: Services provided by PPS assistors are: Locating and applying paymentsResolving taxpayer account problems on active accountsExplaining IRS communications (i.e. notices and letters)Providing general procedural guidance and timeframesProviding one of the self-help methods to obtain forms and publicationsProviding transcripts of taxpayer accounts (including income verification), when the tax professional is calling in regards to an account related issueand it goes on further to say: 2014 Changes to Practitioner Priority Services Effective January 6, 2014, the IRS will limit Practitioner Priority Service to responding only to requests from tax professionals who are actively working with their clients to resolve tax account issues.

​I don't think 8 1040s would enough of a difference to worry about unless it was a significant % of the total number of 1040 series returns that you prepare. I hardly doubt that is the case.

​IRS' database may be segregated in some additional way because IRS tracks the EAs' CPE requirements and may have programmed only that section to tract the returns also. Guessing.

More funny stuff. This must be some tasty medicine!

I thought so too, but that was the message it produced. Formatting and bolded text is from the IRS site, not my formatting: Returns Filed per PTIN See the chart below for the number of tax returns with your PTIN processed by the IRS this year. The data is updated monthly and includes only Form 1040 series returns processed through the date specified. If the number is substantially higher than the number of tax returns you've prepared and you suspect possible misuse of your PTIN, complete Form 14157. Note: A minimum of 50 returns must be processed for data to be shown. At this time the data is only available for enrolled agents, but will be expanded to other PTIN holders in the future. Definitions: Processing Year: the year the return was processed by the IRSTax Year: the tax year of the return1040s Processed: includes only 1040 series returns (1040, 1040-PR, 1040-SS, 1040A, 1040EZ, 1040EZ-T, 1040NR, and 1040NR-EZ)No records to show

Interesting and good to know. Presently it is currently set up to report only for EAs, it only reports those that are the 1040 series returns, and only if 50 or more returns have been filed with that PTIN.

Haha, I'm a sucker for pleading dog eyes and with these two, they'd be eye level with the table!

I agree with KC. Any of the general partners would be fair game for levies.

I would also start the depreciation in 2014 for the portion that was paid in that year. I don't have a reference for you, but I believe this would fall under the definition of when the cost was "incurred", and reporting on the cash basis, that would be in the year that it is paid. The only exception would be if the item in question was financed or put on a credit card, and in those cases the contractor was actually paid and the debtor has obligating himself for the payment.

​Rich, thanks for that. I'd already started to look into this. FL didn't expand Medicaid and I don't think her earnings were much, but too much to qualify for Medicaid, and not enough to actually purchase insurance. What I discovered is that a change in income would allow her to purchase a policy now even though open enrollment has ended, that is, if she now isn't qualified for Medicaid. I don't know about that yet. I was thinking that some of the money from a fundraiser might be well spent by purchasing insurance if she doesn't qualify for Medicaid at this point. Am I on the right track with this? Do the social workers in the hospitals counsel on this aspect?

I don't know if this might page from the ATX KB might help: http://cchsfs-atx.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14572/kw/2013 backup location or try seaching the drive for files having the extension " .atxBackup" in the name to find their location. Enter " *.atxBackup" in the search box. It should bring up all the backups for your clients along with formsets, company folder, payers, preparers, hourly rates, everything that the program creates a backup of.

Thank you, Catherine. That is very sweet and caring of you. I've seen the battle a cancer patient goes through first-hand with lots of help and support, and I'm so very worried for my friend that will not have any of that, and it's hit me extra hard this week. She lives too far away to help her in person, so I'll do what I can from afar.

Yes, please, if we could leave the politics out of it, I'd appreciate that. I purposely didn't post her state of residence hoping we wouldn't go down that path because it won't change anything for my friend. I only posted about the lack of insurance so that you'd know how this youngish person ended up stage 4 and how bad off she is financially. She is no longer local to me, she has no family support (won't help physically, financially, certainly not offer emotional support either), and she is totally alone except for her employer/friend, so whatever is set up needs to be simple for her to manage.

Yes, Eric and Jack make good points, and going with PP directly is an idea we hadn't considered. My concern with setting up only through PP and not one of these pro sites is that some might be less inclined to donation if they saw only the PP setup. I don't know though, I've never been involved in helping to this extent.

Here's the situation. A friend of mine was very recently diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, was very ill going through ER, took days to stabilize and have surgery, has been in ICU for over a week, and she has no insurance. She's couldn't afford the premiums and couldn't afford the colonoscopy. It's a case of "if only we'd known sooner", and you know, I'd have paid for her test but I didn't know about it. I'm a wreck over this because my friend is only 45 years old. Anyway, a group of us have raised money so far and bought her a tablet to occupy her while she has chemo and recuperates, but we want to set up a larger fundraising effort that can be opened up to a much larger group of friends and others that know her from her work and social activities. Does anyone have advice on using those sites like gofundme.com, youcaring.com, or any others? We want to make sure that our friend receives as much of the money raised as possible, not going toward processing or site fees, or losing some of it because of not meeting a goal. I have no experience with any of these, but others are looking to me for help getting it set up.

Yes, I understand. I've already checked and my clients were allowed 100% of the DE tax liability as a credit on the original returns. There's nothing more for them to recover even if including the MD local in the calcs.

Thank you, Rich. I, too, remember that local tax being the 50% of the state. Somehow it has worked out that none of my clients' returns will be affected. Those that were MD residents either worked in PA and had no PA tax because of the reciprocal agreement MD has with PA, or they worked in DE and were already allowed 100% of the DE tax liability on their MD returns. When you have an update to this, if you'd be kind enough to post the information, I'd really appreciate it.

E-file the 941s.

Definitely keep the explanation simple. Since gross wages and taxes will be increasing on these returns, I'd simply state something like "amending to properly include fringe benefits and related tax effect."

​I agree with you, and with restaurants that have a fairly high rate of turnover, some of the affected people may no longer be employed there. Amended returns and corrected W-2s is the way to proceed.

I renewed today and it feels good to know that I'm in good hands with Drake!

Thank you!

JMDavis, I thought I remembered it that way too. I want to make sure that I understand this correctly. So the way I understand this is that if the client already claimed 100% of the taxes paid to other states, there is nothing to amend for, correct?

Another article that explains it a little better. Basically, it's the piggyback add-on by the counties that is the problem. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/supreme-court-rules-maryland-income-tax-law-is-unconstitutional/2015/05/18/1e92ee7a-d16f-11e4-ab77-9646eea6a4c7_story.html

I'd like my PTIN fee and renewals refunded too. Did anyone see this class action suit: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/09/08/irs-hit-with-class-action-suit-over-tax-preparer-user-fees/