MAMalody

I just went and checked the practice rollover return I had been using. All data except the secondary name was gone. Good thing I had not rolled over my entire client list yet. I was planning on doing that Monday.

So it was a "what you know" to tell "who you know." That's the way that works best.

Happy New Year!

Just so I don't have to look it up. Since I have Max this year, does this mean that I can e-file W-2s and 1099s? If so, do I have to have approval to do so? If so, what form(s) do I file?

William, I am so glad to see your name pop up on our community. And I am so curious as to why your corporate masters have allowed you to become visible on this site now. Can you let us know?

Maribeth

I am glad to see William back also. The reason is probably his "masters" see a difficult tax season coming up, over 200 let go and nobody to answer questions intelligently. They need someone of his skills to run interference. His auality is obviously a cut above. Whatever the reason, it is good to have him back and it will prove to be a benefit for us.

Mike

Please do not share copywrighted software on this forum. It is illegal!!!.

Is it possible that since the years in question don't work on his computer that we do not actually have dual use of a single licensed item, therefore not have a copywright issue? In fact, since they don't work on his computer, he could send him the disks if he wanted to.

Just received a call from a client who had not filed returns for 1996,1997,1998, and the IRS wants to charge her tax on the full amount of income. and she claims she had plenty of deductions.

Since I've thrown my old tax programs away from those years, (who knew?), I was wondering if anyone had these programs that I may be able to get a copy of?

Thanks in advance.

Bardon

I would contact ATX. You used to be able to buy back years for a nominal fee. William always seemed to take care of that for us. Seemed to me that it was in the order of $5-$15 dollars.

Mike

I think jainen hit it on the head!!

This link was posted on the other tax board.

http://www.lesemanncpa.com/news_details.asp?newsid=8

Don't be silly. There are no special rules about clergy travel. Like any other worker, they deduct transportation away from their tax home and local travel between jobs. That means if he preaches in three churches on Sunday, travel from #1 to #2 and #3. It doesn't mean across the continent, even if he flies in a single day.

I never said they could. Although, since you don't give many specifics, I suspect that if he walked out a church door, into a cab to the airport, into a plane, into a cab to another church door we could make an argument that he went directly from one job site to another job site.

I notice you didn't identify the source of your quote, nor any authority the author may cite. Many on this forum are professionals who require something more substantial than "I read it somewhere." There is a large number of IRS and court rulings on a topic as common as business mileage; if you can back up your author's opinions we would all appreciate it.

You might try reading the OP. You have posted two or three times to this thread on this question and as far as I remember you have not yet posted a cite that refutes or endorses the authors contention. (I probably should go back and check before I say that.) When I made the posting I saw no reason to identify the book and I did not say "I read somewhere," I quoted the book itself. There is a distinction. Also, I was never trying to back up the author's opinion. In fact, I was actually posting it here because I questioned the author's conclusion. I also never said the author gave a cite. In fact, in the thread I indicated that I had written back looking for an authority of some type.

Just as a point of fact, there have been a number of postings about "I read it somewhere." They were probably posted when you were not monitoring the board.

I have not yet received a response back from the author with any authority for his position.

Mike

The other tax board's original question had to do with an itinerant traveling and working out of an RV. they had no tax home. This quote relates to a traveling preacher and considering the RV as his parsonage and being able to take the parsonage allowance for the RV, and transportation expenses. The two discussions are apples and oranges.

That is partially correct. When I posted the tax issue in reference to clergy it was NOT dealing with parsonage allowance. It was specifically looking at the fact that the evangelist was classified as a transient or itinerant and the clergy tax book indicating that while not qualifying for travel expenses, the evangelist would still be able to deduct the transportation from one job site to another - which could also be from Seattle to Boston, etc. That is clearyly pointed out in the OP of this questions on this cite and also on the other cite. It is an apples to apples comparison. The discussion had nothing to do with the parsonage allowance.

I do agree it looks difference, but that is only because I posted the entire paragraph from the tax book and the response from the author's web site.

>>his tax home is his RV therefore, the travel expenses between preaching places (ex. Boston to Seattle) would qaulify?<<

I would not agree. It is the opposite of the revenue ruling I cited and the court case you quoted. If his tax home is an RV, then whether he is in Boston or Seattle all he has is local commute because he is never away from his tax home.

Duh!

Mike, you stated that you wrote the author of the book and asked a question. Can you not contact the author again and ask for a citation?

I have done this and will post any reply that answers the question.

Mike

>>If the taxpayer is a transient or itinerant their tax home is where they are<<

This was my initial reaction to this thread too, but I hesitated to post it. There is an alternative viewpoint (Revenue Ruling 73-529) by which, given certain facts & circumstances including the lack of a main place of business, the taxpayer's main home IS their tax home.

I was thinking of the traveling nurses, sent by an agency to various cities for short assignments. The ones who lost their IRS case actually moved repeatedly, instead of maintaining a home base and duplicating living expenses.

But itinerant preachers typically have a regular home including a significant church membership. So in the end I think I would look to the facts & circumstances expecting to allow such travel expenses.

A cite has appeared on the other tax board. I have not had time to research it yet, however, here it is:

"The Tax Court in Johnson 115 TC 210 lays out the concept of tax home. Citations omitted.

We disagree with respondent's assertion that petitioner had no tax home. This Court's jurisprudence holds that an individual's tax home is generally the location of his or her principal place of employment. .... If an individual does not have a principal place of employment, we generally deem the situs of the individual's permanent residence to be his or her tax home. ....We consider a person who has neither a permanent residence nor a principal place of employment to be an itinerant without a tax home."

Can you argue from this that if the evangelist has not permanent place of residence,

that the vairous preaching places are his places of employment

that his tax home is his RV

therefore, the travel expenses between preaching places (ex. Boston to Seattle) would qaulify?

Mike

Refer to IRS Tax Topic 514 and you will see this, which may make it clearer.

Although commuting costs are not deductible, some local transportation expenses are. Deductible local transportation expenses include the ordinary and necessary expenses of going from one workplace to another.

So even if the client is considered an itinerant, so that he does not have 'travel away from home' expenses, he still can deduct the reasonable and necessary expenses of his business, which would include going from one workplace [job] to another. Don't have time to look up a cite right now, but if no one else does, I'll look into it for you tomorrow.

For local transportation, I would agree. A prior posted indicated maybe the evangelist is in one church in the AM and a different one in the PM, which happens frequently. However, that begs the issue of traveling from Boston to Seattle. The inference I received from the book and the response when questioned, is that the transporation is deductible whether across town or across the country.

A response from another tax board:

Travel and transportation expenses are identical if it is out of town.

Travel is disallowed if it is in town. Transportation expenses in town are allowed if it is job to job, including office in home to another job site.

You have to decide whether it is out of town or in town before you can apply the rules.

This may be what you meant, KC, however, I was not able to determine that. I would be interested in any cite that can settle this. I really struggle to think that the Boston to Seattle trip is deductible for the transient/itinerant evangelist....but, I have been wrong before.

I agree with them, that the cost of traveling is clearly a reasonable and necessary business expense of being a traveling evangelist. Transportation expenses and travel expenses are two different things, in the tax code, even though they are very similar. So while he can not deduct the cost of his personal travel to and from his personal home to his job, he certainly can deduct the cost of travel between jobs.

Interesting distinction. So my surmise of the distinction was correct. Is there any cites that might endorse this? I posted the same info on another board of tax professionals and they seemed to think there would be major problems. I can see both sides of this quarter, but must be doing poor research because I am unable to find anything (RR, Court Cases, PLR, etc) that touches on this. I guess I will have to go and take a more systematic approach to researching this. My request for a cite in not due to lack of respect but clear knowledge trail for future reference.

Mike

I was reading a tax book and the author said,

"A traveling evangelist or conference speaker with a permanent tax home will incur deductible travel expenses for lodging and meals while on the road and use parsonage allowance exclusion for his permanent home. If he lives in a motor home or travel trailer and does not have a permanent home, he is considered a transient or itinerant. His tax home for tax purposes is wherever he "hangs his hat." His lodging and meal expenses will not be deductible as business expenses. He may treat the motor home as his parsonage but his meals will not be deductible. The cost of transportation between engagements does qualify as business travel expense."

I wrote and asked about this and their response was,

"The cost of transportation between engagements does qualify as business travel expense. It is considered a business expense even for a transient because it is a part of doing business."

I don’t understand. I have never come across this before and it seems to violate the general rule that says a transient or itinerant does not qualify for travel expenses. Maybe it is late…what am I missing? Are they saying that transportation expenses are not part of travel expenses? I have never made that distinction before.

What say you?

Mike

Was the Document Manager supposed to be with the CD I received the other day? I did not notice it.

Mike

Great!

Thanks Tom, that will make it more convenient for me.

Mike

Are we allowed to enter the ATX program on a desktop and laptop without additional licensing? I'm not talking about networking. I have a one personl office, generally use a laptop but on occassion at a different office would like to use a desktop. This would make it nice.

Mike

Check Pub 536 but off the top of my head I believe the NOL dies with the person just like the NOL carryback and carryforward apply only to the income of the spouse who incurred it.

taxbilly

That's my recollection also.

Tax time already. I had better tell that client that I am still working on his '06 return....if he is not careful he will be late...what a turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Congrats

I might suggest that you check with PayPal and ProPay. They may serve your needs with little expense.

I think I was told mid December, however, I can't find that in print.

I don't think you will have a problem. I have a couple of hundred retuns on my hard drive, have a paperless office and my backup through Mozy for my files is only 3.9GB. I don't see hard drive size as a limitation, especially when you can hook up a 500GB hard drive to almost any computer as an external drive and only spend a couple of hundred dollars.

Mike