Pacun

Correct, I meant the part they were living in and the office minus land and depreciation taken or takable. (Allowed or allowable).

I am glad you didn't prepare her taxes otherwise you would have to deal with it. Good advice though.

I thought taxes were expensed every year when paid.

Rita, The computer will know because you entered the W-2 correctly. If one person works, and the other pays baby sitter to go and look for jobs, pay babysitter to go to job interviews, 2441 is in order and they get a credit even the other spouse never got a job.

I think we all have the same type of customers. When I ask "how business miles did you ran your car last year"?, they say "same as last year". Without mentioning the previous preparer, if I see 11,000 in medical expenses (especially now that everybody should have MEC), I would tell them up front, "I doubt you had all these expenses last year but I am not auditing your previous return... so, I need all you medical receipts before I start working on your return".

Yes you start with 27.5 and depreciate the whole enchiladala.

It depends how much they paid, how much was put aside by the employer and if the other person was working. Losses doesn't mean that the other person didn't work. Let's say that I buy a big building and I work and operate a Bed and Breakfast, I work 12 hours everyday for the whole year and at the end I have a loss because of depreciation or business not doing so well. I deserve to qualify for DCB if my spouse works. So if the W-2 shows 2K pretax for child care, and we paid 5K for dependent care, I will use 3K on form 2441 and the computer will correctly use only 1K when calculating the credit. Be care to enter box 10 on W-2 so everything flow correctly.

My philosophy only applies to me not charging to clients when they change their mind and want their documents to go elsewhere.

Why don't you just refuse the customer and forget the conversation with the lawyer? Do you really have time for that client when you only have 9 days left?

Do you really think that a person who has filed that type of returns for 5 or more years and never audited are afraid of the IRS? The IRS needs to put some tax payers in jail and advertise it so tax payers start getting afraid of the IRS again.. When I hear Ted say "I will abolish the IRS", depending on my mood, I laugh or get pissed. How can people be afraid of the IRS when politician talk bad about it? As a developed society, you need the IRS and the tax code will always be huge. Going back to the thread at hand, I have noticed that many preparers, not the ones on this forum, as soon as they have a return in their hands that was prepared by someone else, start pointing out mistakes on the return. We forgot that people don't hire us to check the return that was already filed but rather the current return. Remember that we have an obligation to tell our clients of the consequences of omission or lies on the return people have hired us to prepare. We have not obligation under circular 30 to audit someone else's work. Especially a return that was already processed by the IRS. Also remember that as an EA, I decide what returns I work on and which ones I don't touch. This is what I do: I tell my clients, why are you here today? 100% answer, I want you to prepare my taxes for this past year or I want you to do my taxes. I tell them "it is not required by the IRS rules that you show me your previous year's return, but sometimes is good to know if you itemized deductions (if you got a refund from the state) or if you are depreciating any items". I continue on and say "Do you happen to have the last return you filed?". If they say yes, I ask for it and I take a look. As a preparer I know when a return has been properly filed within a short period of time. Then I ask a few general questions, "I see you reported payments of $$$ to daycare on this return. Did you also pay last year?". Then I point some other deductions and depending on their answers, I don't say anything about the previous preparer, but if I see the preparer was taking deductions without regards to the rules, I tell them. "There are items on your return that I won't be able to incorporate on the return I am going to prepare and therefore, your refund will be smaller or your amount due will be higher." Do you want me to start with the return you want me to prepare for you? If they say yes, I make the interview and start preparing their return. A few times, I have volunteer to amend returns when a child is born during the tax year and the preparer told them that they couldn't claim the child that year. Some of them just say, let me go back to my previous preparer and I say, "sure, here are your documents". If you ever want to do your taxes correctly, please come back. Some people do come back. Every year I prepare about 5 returns that people change their mind. I don't charge them anything and I gladly return their documents. Do you remember when the stores asked you "why are you returning this item?" You couldn't say, "I don't like it anymore or I changed my mind". You had to come back with something like "it seems to be defective". I remember a few years ago a lady was wearing a vest and she asked me to make sure she wasn't showing any tags on her back. I said "no you are not" and then I said "why the question?" She said because I will use this vest for this happy hour (2 hours) and tomorrow I will return it. This is my philosophy, if big stores are still making money with "don't ask why people changed their mind" policy, why not us? It is inconvenient but times have changed and we need to adjust. Of course business returns are another story. If I prepare them, I charge them but for personal returns, it doesn't matter if they don't pay. I don't mind wasting 30-45 minutes on a new client and then hand their documents back. I will recover that lose with other clients who appreciate me and it is a pleasure working with them.

Question: How can I hyperlink HERE the donate button for those of us who have not donated or those who want to donate again?

My classmate used to help me with a couple of returns and then went to work for the IRS. We met a couple of years later and told me that they don't have permissions to see any other return unless they have justification. If they do, they request their manager to open another return and the manager makes the requests on their behalf to a higher authority. I agree that that is a good rule because otherwise, a lot of IRS employees will be looking at Trump's, Madonna's, Bill Gates', etc. returns and they would barely work.

Interesting. I thought you could use exception C (living abroad) from Aug-Dec since MEC is a month to month thing.

Use 29K on parents return and 8 on the kids return. Remember you are not taking a credit on the kids return and you are only saying that the 8K were used for education expenses. The distribution should come under the father or mother's social security number if they set it up and they should have an option to use the distribution on another kid if they choose to do so. By being on the child's social security number, parents don't have that choice. I am just talking about the general rule (maybe your client's only have one child).

Lion is correct. If they are not talking, you itemize deductions on your return (The return you prepare) even if less than standard deduction. Keep in mind that this is an issue only when people make little money. If someone makes 100K and paid 7K to the state on his W-2, itemized deductions will be selected if you open Sch A.

I think the answer to the original post has been provided but how about this scenario: Parents lived apart since June 18 of the tax year. One parent took the only child and filed as HH and itemized deductions. Can the other use the standard deduction?

IRS seems to be correct on this one. If payment is going to be withdrawn from a bank account by the IRS, you have to provide a valid phone number.

I am trying to answer to Marco. I have not read the whole thread carefully. In your case, I believe the printer thinks it has the wrong type of paper than that being requested. If you press the button you are accepting to print on the other paper that the computer thinks is has but it happens to be the type of paper that you need. (I think).

Thank you.

Change the rollers because if I am not mistaken, they are bold. If that's not an option, make some crest on the bold roller by making lines with a house key or saw, knife or any other sharp device.

Yes, they had an LLC. The LLC had a bank account, all 1099 were made to and from the LLC. The LLC paid for the supplies and they operated for about 5 years and each year the partners received K1s. When I said a Partnership on my original post, I meant a partnership. Will the FMV of the items split go to K1 (partners have no basis) or should that amount be reported somewhere else?

My cursing also starts very politely:"I didn't vote for him neither during election nor re-election." Then I go off and then I end it with a "never mind".

You are right, she will find someone and maybe they will never be audited. When I get new clients, and I see that the previous preparer deducted a lot of items. I ask "Did you get the refund from both places?" if they say yes, I tell them they are very lucky. I hope you are audited because if I were an auditor, I would audit your return and for sure you would get full refund. When they start telling, me "well I didn't tell my previous preparer to put all those expenses"... I tell them "yes but you go to those places because people tell you they give good refunds. About these crook places people say they will get you a big refund... they don't tell you these guys are very honest and you should come and have your taxes prepared. In any event, I don't know what you told the previous preparer last year and if I am not mistaken, you want me to prepare this year's return so let me work on that and I will tell you your situation for this year. For sure, it will not be like last year because I prepare taxes as accurate as possible and maybe you want to reconsider and go somewhere else" A lot of people ask for their paper and I wish them luck. I add before they live "If you ever want to the do your taxes correctly, we will be happy to prepare them for you". Some people come stay or come back a couple of years later.

Yes, they were not depreciated, but rather expensed. I think you are right it is a liquidation of partnership assets which becomes ordinary income, correct?

Correct, no partnership involved in my scenario but the same could applied to me if I had a third person as a partner. I have read in other posts that at the end of a partnership you just pick up your marbles, which is not true. Thank you for the info.