jklcpa

You don't need an actual friend at all. You could go to the cell phone's settings and adjust the volume of the ring and it will start playing, or play one of the sample ringtones. Here, I could also simply point at the doorbell button and at least 2 of my dogs would start barking.

I hope you kept a copy of the 1040X, its schedules, and your calculations so that if they receive a notice, you will already have the calculations done. No point in doing the work twice. When I've had these situations where the client refuses to file the correction, I simply put the completed forms or calcs away with a memo stating that it wasn't given to the client or filed with any agency.

I spoke too soon about the t'storms missing us. We just had a whopper of a storm with hail too. It was a small cell that has dissipated already, but there's another line coming through in a couple more hours. Oh joy!

Hot and dripping with humidity here, but the t'storms keep missing us. The mosquitos have been very hungry and forced me back inside. These Asian tiger mosquitos that we have here now don't even need standing water; they can breed under some wet leaves or in the damp grass. I cooked the burgers inside.

KC, maybe I wasn't clear about my mom friend's comments. They ARE raising their children as you say, and they were making the comments out of their disgust for the style of clothing for the little girls and their disgust of the double standard of the trashy clothing for girls and not so for the boys. They were trying to do their shopping for school clothes.

Yes, Jainen, and thank you. I wasn't looking for the specific advice but only to make the point that even with the simplest of returns there can be difficulties keeping both of them happy, as happy as a divorcing couple can be when discussing finances. Yes, I have a variation of this each year with one older couple. They aren't divorcing, it's that they decided to get married about 5 years ago after having lived together for more than 30 years. He's been my client for 17 years and I'd never met his wife. She will most likely never get over that filing a joint return causes 85% of her social security benefits to be taxable because only about 25% was taxable on her single returns, and she used to use the standard deduction (higher because she's over 65), and always received a refund. They itemize with most of the deductions coming from the husband and the joint returns usually show a refund where a MFS return would have her owing. They both make my job easy by asking what her refund would be if she could file single, he pays her off something much higher than that, and they both go away happy. It works for them.

Great video. We also should be instilling in our young girls and women that trying to be as skinny as a Barbie doll, getting breast implants, and dressing like Brittany Spears does not make you beautiful. My younger friends that are moms of little girls have mentioned the big difference in shopping for boys vs girls clothes. The boys dept has loose mid- to lower-thigh length shorts and standard fit t-shirts while the girls dept has tight fitting tank tops with spaghetti straps and tight cropped shorts with some that allow little girls butt cheeks to show.

The way schrallicpa presented the information, I assumed that the couple was still married at the end of the tax year, that the divorce either hasn't been finalized or was finalized in 2013. For those few here that think you can represent both sides fairly, let's take an example of a very simple hypothetical return for a divorcing couple, John & Jane, where each party has one W-2, no children, and using the standard deduction. My state is not a community property state. It's easy enough to calculate the MFJ return and the two MFS returns. Let's further assume that all three returns would show refunds, but that the MFJ results in the lower overall tax and larger refund when compared to the two MFS returns. The couple is amicable to working out their divorce and settlement, and they both agree to file that MFJ return to receive the larger refund. They want the answer from you as their tax preparer on how they will split that refund? What basis will you use? You come up with what you think is a reasonable basis, and then Jane says that as in past years, they arranged to have extra withholding from John's pay because they like the return to show a refund. Can you be fair to both? What is your basis for splitting the refund?

Jack, you were baiting Jainen to respond, and when he did, you then made accusations that he is giving you too much attention. This is inappropriate as is your comment about the Xanax. Please refrain!

Jack makes a good point about being challenged on ethics where a client wants, or implies that, he should help them cheat, allow questionable deductions, or omit taxable income because it wasn't reported to the IRS by the third party payers. There is a difference between all of that and clients asking questions because they are simply unfamiliar with an aspect of the law, the complexity of the forms, limitations and phase-outs, etc. To MsTabbyKats, I would never show a client a Sch A with a non-valid expense included even if the standard deduction is higher. It gives the impression that the item would be deductible if itemizing is higher than the standard.

As I was reading that article and got to the part about the CEO being tight with the dishonest executive and then that the CEO didn't want to discipline the exec, all I kept thinking was what dirt that exec might have on the CEO. The alarm bells were ringing for me. Did anyone else here have that thought?

KC may have been trying to give a link to this IRS audit guide as it contains the text she quoted in the earlier posts: http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Partnerships/Partnership---Audit-Technique-Guide---Chapter-7---Dispositions-of-Partnership-Interest-(Rev.-3-2008) It does sound like this partner has a deemed distribution because he has been relieved of his share of the partnership debt. Also, you should read the section about assets that have the characteristics of being both cold and hot assets since this building has been depreciated, you should check whether or not there is a component of ordinary income from recapture to this transaction. I was starting to post that you should also check whether you have a technical termination or not so that you don't miss filing a return for a short year, but then I ran across this article that says transfers by gift don't trigger a technical termination with the cite of Regs. Sec. 1.708-1( b )(2). http://www.aicpa.org/Publications/TaxAdviser/2012/October/Pages/clinic-story-10.aspx It's not anything you asked about, but since I had the article up, I thought I'd post it since it does address the gift issue.

Are you watching or listening to the TV through a doorway while you are riding your exercise bike? Presumably you are contemplating your unfinished tax returns while you are riding, right?

Thanks for your concern, Brian. I think I'll keep the picture and the dog. My practice is a C corp, and I am not deducting expenses for the space on any return or reimbursing myself in any way, so there really is no issue for me with the picture or the dog being in my office.

Really? My home office is my sole place of employment and is that big. In that space I have a large desk, several chairs that clients sit in, my chair, separate computer hutch, small table with printer, small table for binding machine, several lateral file cabinets, a copier, shredder, a place to temporarily put client files with work in process, and closet all taking up that space. Other than one non-accounting picture on the wall and a dog sleeping on the floor at the moment, it is exclusive use. Not all of us work in a cubicle.

It's a return of capital. You report it on the Sch D so you tie in to the 1099-B and generally would use the same amount for the cost basis so there is no gain or loss. You reduce the basis in the investment by the principal amount received. Remember though that you can't reduce basis below zero. As an example, if your client had a basis of $10,000 immediately before this payment, his basis is reduced by the $1046.04 and his new basis is then $8953.96.

That's wonderful. It must give you a lot of pleasure to see that each morning.

So now you're a comedian too? Sorry, I simply couldn't resist!

I'm thinking that collecting this person's data by use of the "in care of" address might not be a good idea. KC, maybe your musician client was more responsible than this comedian of MsTabbyKats. She's already shown herself to be delinquent in providing records. What if she failed to give MsTabbyKat's address to a few of the gigs along the way? Then there'd also still be the issue of getting some documents (1099s or W-2s) from the client, and it still doesn't help with accumulating data for the expenses related to the gigs or the numerous stock transactions that this person had. I only allowed one client to use my address, and it was for a trust with 2 very elderly trustees that summered here, wintered in Florida. The trust activity came entirely from one brokerage account, the broker was local, and the broker had the client's permission to provide the information directly to me. I'm also wondering if the MI preparer had this client's written permission to send those client documents directly to another preparer instead of returning them to the client. I hope he had copies in case those were lost in the mailing.

Brian (FinanceWriter), This forum is for tax preparers only, used to be for only those that used ATX but some of us have moved on to other software. Your profile interests says "For the tax professionals I train and advise..." and I've seen your site and blog. Also, your former and current siggie line contain an advertising link, and 3 of the 6 posts you've made include that same link to the educational materials site. Several of your posts almost seem canned as well. This is not the venue for you to use for free advertising, and we don't allow advertising on this forum.

JohnH, that could have been me! During college I worked as a sales clerk in a small retail store. Computerized cash registers were fairly new and the senior discount had to be entered before ringing any items, and because the seniors would forget to mention the discount until they were ready to pay, we were instructed to always ask before ringing the sale. Otherwise, we would have to void the entire sale and start completely over If they were entitled and didn't say so. Those over 60 were to get the discount. There was one lady that was prematurely gray and had enough wrinkles...you guessed it, she was very offended because she was only in her mid-40s! I thought she was going to slap me.

What about downloading the program directly from the ATX site? Would that work?

^ Yes, that, and by bringing in more users as beta testers expands their web so that those people will spread the word of their purchasing decision to a wider audience of colleagues, peers, and on forums such as this one.

Jack, you have no basis for saying this except to insult someone publicly. Please refrain from the personal attacks. Thanks.

Old Jack, while I agree with you that a sole proprietorship may keep a complete set of books including tracking the cash invested or loaned by the owner to the business, that really isn't necessary because at all times the cash belongs to the owner and does not affect the basis of the company. A sole proprietorship reports its activities on whatever tax form is applicable to each component of its activity. It could be Schedule C for its ordinary income from operations, Schedule B for interest or dividends earned on investments in its name, or on Schedule 4797/D if it sells fixed assets used in the business, 6252 if business asset sold is structured as an installment sale. The basis of a sole proprietorship is the basis in its underlying assets, and unless the purchaser assumes debt that is against an asset (for example, a loan on a fixed asset purchase) the amount of the debt is disregarded. For tax reporting when a sole proprietorship is sold, the seller is considered to be selling the assets of the business, not the business itself.