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Active participation also includes being allocated a forfeiture, even though the employee isn't contributing during the given year. I've seen that too, and the person was shocked to see the block checked on his W-2.

The 2011 Form 1040-ES and its instructions show the 1st quarter due date was 4/18/2011. 2011 Form 2210 shows a due date for the 1st quarter estimated payment of 4/15 and is showing the payment being 3 days late. This is going to be a loooooooong season.

Thank you, Margaret. I posted over in the e-file section that I thought the larger companies such as Paychex, ADP, etc were reporting agents, and that we were only EROs. Like you, I would choose to have individual Pin #s unique to each client.

I'm confused on this. For those of you e-filing your client's 941s and 940s, are you acting as EROs with individual Pin #s for each client, or acting as reporting agents with one Pin # no matter how many clients you file for?

I've only ever customized the client letters and cover to be more generic and shows through the particular window covers I use. I wonder if even doing that will cause a problem with the program?

First you have to go through IRS e-services and update your ERO application to include the efiling of the 94x series of forms. Then you have to request a separate 10-digit PIN for each client that you want to efile. That request is made on the 940/941EF form within the ATX program. Create the efile and send through the efile manager. The PIN is mailed to each client in 7-10 days. Reporting agents can get one PIN and then each separate client does not need a PIN. Someone else mentioned getting one PIN as a reporting agent, but I don't think that's what we are, we are only EROs. I think of reporting agents as outside payroll companies that actually process the payroll, handle direct deposits, and remit the taxes on behalf of the taxpayer's they represent. Maybe I'm wrong on this thinking though. :shrug:

It's crazy but I'll take it. It's going to be 63 and rainy here tomorrow but that's OK. It's still better than shoveling snow, a painful back, and high heating & electric bills. One of my easy return clients came by this afternoon. It's the first time in about 5 years that I wasn't worried about him slipping on an icy sidewalk or having to shovel snow away enough for him to get in.

Thank you!

My two cents, fwiw: I just applied for a pin for my own firm's 941/940 to test the waters. For myself and clients, I added W-2 efiling this year but will continue to give clients the printed 941s to paper file because I still have to give paper returns for the state withholding and state unemployment.

1099-misc to service providers such as repair people, window cleaners? Since the LLCs sole activity was rental, I wasn't sure if this excluded them from the 1099-misc rules.

Taxpayer and wife have a rental property in an LLC, taxed as a partnership. The only activity of this LLC partnership is the renting of commercial property. Does this LLC need to issue 1099-misc forms, or because this is rental activity, would this exempt them from the requirement? TIA for any insight. I already hate this year, and it's barely rolling!

No rule change on that for 2011. It should be included in the W-2.

There's no way that amount should be there as you described because the IRA distribution was already included in regular taxable income, and the idea of the AMT is to make adjustments starting from there. You probably already know this, so forgive me for stating the obvious, but that line does include AMT adjustments to IRA distributions that may be required IF the taxable portion of the IRA distribution would be a different amount using AMT rules. It seems like the former preparer didn't know what they were doing when they prepared the 6251, saw that line with its worksheet (if their program included worksheets similar to ATX), and plunked the IRA $ in there.

Joan, is that the house brand? I checked their online site, and for those prices it's only 5 reams.

If you are using the ATX program, it's not under the main Preferences. When the client's return is open and on the W-2 form, click on the "Employer Info" tab, the tab at the furthest left. In the top section, uncheck the box "auto calc boxes 3,4,5,6, and 16.

It's the first year I've tried importing data from QuickBooks, and I'm using QB Pro 2011. This is a fairly simple corporate return. I created the 2 files and it seemed to successfully import the data. The trial balance worksheet opened and I proceeded to assign the remaining lines. After this I clicked "Send to Summary" and this is where I encountered my problem. I tried this twice, and both times at this point in the process, ATX encountered a problem and stopped working. Has anyone else had this problem or can tell me if I did something wrong? I feel like this process is a total waste of my time. I already had the tax lines assigned during the year, but I spent more time fiddling with these files and assignments once the file got to ATX than I spent actually preparing the return by inputting the data manually. [/rant]

It isn't unusual for liabilities to arise or be discovered after a business is liquidated. Had the business known about this liability and paid it prior to liquidation, it would have affected the partners' basis, and therefore most likely would have affected each partner's Schedule D for the reporting of the partnership's liquidation. This was the general premise of Arrowsmith v. Commissioner, a very old case that applied to corporations, and I honestly do not know if it could be used with a partnership. However, following the logic (who said tax law was ever logical), it would seem to me that you need to look back to how this would have affected the final reporting of the partnership if this debt's existence was known at the time. That should give you a start in determining its character.

I got extra copies of W-2s yesterday without asking for them. Luckily the company only has 3 employees, so it wasn't a lot of extra paper.

Customer support is asking for me to send in the return. I'm sending a dummy return that I created having the same error, so it wasn't something with only the real return.

I am preparing a corp return on 1120. I've properly entered the current year additions of fixed assets. Forms 1120 and 4562, line 14 are reporting the correct amount. When i open the 4562 Statement tab, my 3-yr software added during 2011 is not included in the report and the total shown to be carried to 4562, line 14 is short by this amount. Anyone else with this problem?

Primo pdf is free software that allows the user protect the file with a password also.

I'm not new to e-filing, but I've never filed W-2s this way. I found most of my answers, and I sent the appropriate files from my hard drive using the SSA site and my state's website. What happens to those "created" files on the e-file manager? Do they stay on there permanently like the other efiles that are sent?

Two of the Sch Cs were for board of director fees and the third Sch C was for speaking engagements with gross rev of ~ $21K. There may have been no expenses if the host organization was covering the travel, meals and other related expenses.

I only very occassionally have to request POAs. I got one last fall for a client through the e-services and quickly resolved the issue. Today I received a request from the Treasury Inspector General's office of audit for a copy of the signed Form 2848. The letter said that the Dept of the Treasury is conducting an independent review to ensure tax professionals who electronically submit 2848s to the IRS really did obtain the taxpayer approval and authorization. So it looks like even more monitoring of us tax professionals. Has anyone else received one of these yet?

This won't help for your IRS inspection, but for this year and going forward, it would be easy to track e-filed returns by customizing the Return Manager by adding a column and simply placing and X, or indicating the tax agencies the return was filed with (Fed, state 1, state 2...). Or if most returns are e-filed, track only those that are paper filings.