Pacun

Make sure you check on his W-2 that he was covered by a retirement plan and you might get a different result.

Casualty loss?

When a client owes, I always suggest to open an IRA maybe you should do the same.

Repairs. They didn't improve or extend the life of the asset. If they have insurance, they should file a claim. While depreciation is clear "allowed or allowable", this type of claims are also treated like that. For example, if you run your car 20K miles for your employer and your employer refunds you mileage, you cannot claim it on 2106 because you should do it with your employer. Same thing with the insurance and at least you should try to get some money from them before you take a deductions on your taxes. The least they should do is to file a claim with the insurance and if they deny it, then they will have documentation in case the IRS needs to see it.

Two things that I learned is that: 1, ACA is only beneficial to the people who make a lot of money (they have insurance anyways) or the people that makes little money, they will get cheap or free insurance. 2. Besides EIC, ACA will motive people to under report income.

1040 always for US citizens.

I have a MFJ client who moved from MD to WI in August and they contributed to their daughter's 529 college fund in MD. I know that if you are a full time resident in MD, you can deduct that on the MD return but I am not sure if you can take a deduction if you are part year resident and I don't have time or energy to find out. Any one knows if I can deduct something on MD or WI returns? I like WI part year return... it is straight forward.

The IRS has a website now that you can check on people.

Nothing wrong with having Is as a grade. That grade will become F and there is nothing wrong with that either in order to claim the credit. Are you sure she didn't provide more than 50% for her own support and child will qualify for education credit?

Household means ONLY the persons included on your 1040. So, it would work what the original poster said about the wife not being hit with a huge penalty if using only her income.

It seems the "no amendment" after 4-15 comes from many facts. It could be a nightmare when people get divorce and one of them want to amend their MFJ return for the past 3 years. I guess Lion found something that I have been looking for that is closely to the situation at hand, but all of them refer to annulment of marriage, which is not the case here but that rule could be applied.

To add to our confusion and to defend our point, the ACA regulations read, you are supposed to add your income and the income of ANY dependents required to file a return. I need a break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So if your client was a dependent, you would add his income? (he is required to file). BUT if he was a dependent and made 6K on a W-2, he was not required to file and therefore no need to add his income.

I am glad to hear that.

I gave you the correct answer from the beginning, but I also had my doubt. What I was going to say right before Judy cleared it up, was that the worksheet adds automatically $10,150 to the amount to be considered. So 6K was going to be below that amount and no penalty.

Judy brings a good point, Vityaba and myself were confusing to different terms: Filing Threshold and Filing Requirement. Thank you for the clarification.

That's the funny part... the regulations don't say "if joint was an error", you can amend. It says that it cannot be done and nothing else. In any event, can someone do a "little" (I should say huge) and post something to that effect or to the contrary.

YES, you should be able to.

Use whatever s/he paid to school to calculate the credit. You are not double dipping. If the employer only reimbursed him $18 (no freebie), and if you have other communication with the employer, you can suggest a win win situation by making a reimbursement plan that will allow the employer to deduct $5,600 for each employee that participates and will allow the employees $5,600 of tuition reimbursement tax free.

Common law marriage is a very interesting subject. Gene brings up a very good point, when you work on a state that accepts common law marriage, you have to be careful if you decide to file married filing jointly. By doing that you are becoming a judge and you just married a person to a certain degree. So, I normally go with their civil status and if they want to start filing MFJ, I suggest an extension until April and to go to the courthouse to get married. If they are willing to do that, I can file the previous year as a common law marriage (MFJ).

Rita, darling, by definition from the IRS, you cannot amend. I have been that route a couple of times. I have a couple that immigration was forcing them to amend and IT CANNOT BE DONE. The statue of limitations is April 15 of the current year. Yes, that's the correct word, the statue of limitation to change from MFJ to ANY OTHER filing status is April 15. Congress will have to change that in the near future. So, when you have this situation, please don't preach the tax payer, just do it correctly.

You cannot file as single after April 15 of the current tax year. So for sure you cannot amend 2013. File correctly this year and that's all you can do. That's by definition. Don't preach them, only prepare their taxes because that's what you were hired for. It is nice to see the old return in case they itemized deductions and they got a refund from the state, but each year you have to ask people, are you married, and blablabla. Based on that interview you file accordingly. What they did last year has no bearing on this year's reality. If they ask you, can you amend for us? The answer is NO WAY JOSE.

Who is a qualifying child? Your child is a qualifying child if your child meets all of the following tests: Age Relationship Residency Joint Return Age Your child must meet one of the following: Be under age 19 at the end of the year and younger than you or your spouse, if you file a joint return Be a full-time student under age 24 at the end of the year and younger than you or your spouse, if you file a joint return, or Be permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year and any age. Relationship To be your qualifying child, a child must be your: Son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild), or Brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your niece or nephew). Definitions to clarify the relationship test Adopted child. An adopted child is always treated as your own child. This includes a child who was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption. Eligible Foster Child. A person is your eligible foster child if the child is placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree, or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction. Residency Test Your child must have lived with you, or your spouse if you file a joint return, in the United States for more than half of the year. Joint Return Test Your child must not have filed a joint return or if your child filed a joint return, your child and his/or her spouse filed only to claim a refund and were not required to file. See Publications 596, 596(SP) and 501 for more details Based on the above information from the IRS, I was right, the child must be in the U.S. for more than 6 months and Live with you or your spouse. If the child was in Costa Rica or the mother in this case, no EIC.

No way Jose. File correctly this year and final de la conversacion.

My employer reimburses me 7K, but the IRS has a limit to about $5,600, so my employer gives me the first 5,600 (as a scholarship), which is tax free and it is not mentioned on the W-2, the other $1,400 is added as salary to my W-2 and I get taxed. So If I pay for school $10K, I can use $4,400 for education credits.

Think about the pretax money as a scholarship and you will understand that you are not double dipping. So lets say that you go to school and the school gives you a scholarship for $5,600 but the total cost for the year was $12K, so you paid from your pocket $6,400... in this case, you will use $6400 for education credits. Same thing if your employer reimburses $5,600 pre-tax. So, ONLY the pretax is the amount that you cannot use to calculate the credit.