tilt

With no complications I would charge $275. That's for a CA return.

She's close, but no cigar. There will be an above-the-line deductions for state and local or excise taxes paid on the purchase of a vehicle in 2009. This only takes effect after the date Obama signed the legislation. The new law puts two limits on this deduction:

1) Deductible sales or excise tases cannot exceed the portion of the tax attributable to the first $49,500 of the purchase price of any one vehicle; and

2) Any deduction will be phased out for any tax year in which the purchaser has adjust gross income exceeding $125,000 ($250,000 for joint returns).

Any newly purchased vehicle, including cars, SUVs, light trucks or motorcycles, first used by the taxpayer that weighs no more than 8,500 gross pounds generally qualifies. Motor homes also qualify.

I thought maybe this might answer some questions.

http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/faq.php#2.

Shortly after class, an economics student approaches his economics professor

and says, "I don't understand this stimulus bill. Can you explain it to me?"

The professor replied, "I don't have any time to explain it at my office, but if

you come over to my house on Saturday and help me with my weekend

project, I'll be glad to explain it to you."

The student agreed.

At the agreed-upon time, the student showed up at the professor's house.

The professor stated that the weekend project involved his backyard pool.

They both went out back to the pool, and the professor handed the student

a bucket. Demonstrating with his own bucket, the professor said, "First,

go over to the deep end, and fill your bucket with as much water as you can."

The student did as he was instructed.

The professor then continued, "Follow me over to the shallow end, and then

dump all the water from your bucket into it."

The student was naturally confused, but did as he was told.

The professor then explained they were going to do this many more times,

and began walking back to the deep end of the pool.

The confused student asked, "Excuse me, but why are we doing this?"

The professor matter-of-factly stated that he was trying to make the shallow

end much deeper.

The student didn't think the economics professor was serious, but figured

that he would find out the real story soon enough. However, after the 6th trip

between the shallow end and the deep end, the student began to become

worried that his economics professor had gone mad.

The student finally replied, "All we're doing is wasting valuable time and effort

on unproductive pursuits. Even worse, when this process is all over, everything

will be at the same level it was before, so all you'll really have accomplished is

the destruction of what could have been truly productive action!"

The professor put down his bucket and replied with a smile, "Congratulations.

You now understand the stimulus bill."

ProSeries has an alphabetical list and based on the code it gives for a mobile home, it would still be 27 1/2.

I use Coast to Coast and am quite happy with their service.

http://www.coastcoast.com/

You might want to keep this link handy.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/care/ProgramBa...tes_Current.htm

Phone number is

866-234-2942

When it answers, your responses (assuming you want English) are:

1 - 1 - SSN - FS - EX

Where:

1 chooses English

1 chooses last year's ESP amount

SSN=The Social Security number you are looking up

FS=The number of the filing status used last year (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5)

EX=The number of exemptions claimed on last year's return

FWIW, ProSeries is absolutely terrible about forms this year also.

Now this guy can write!

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/blog/editors_corner/article/11975/

Went out to get my Denny's and they were wrapped around the building and starting to double back. I wasn't going to stand in line when it was 15 degrees just for breakfast.

Here's a way to enjoy a night out and still save a little money.

http://www.8coupons.com/deals/0/00001/1233344119_00001.pdf

Since the due date falls on a weekend (1-31) you have until Monday, 2-2. However, the instructions also read:

If we receive Form 941 after the due date, we will treat Form 941 as filed on time if the envelope containing Form 941 is properly addressed, contains sufficient postage, and is postmarked by the U.S. Postal Service on or before the due date, or sent by an IRS-designated private delivery service on or before the due date.

Thanks KC. That's pretty much my take on it too. I work from home and tell the clients that I have 9 tax kitties. It makes them smile. Sure wish I could write them off - I spend a fortune on them.

It was a dog. She told me that the dog "found" them when they were hiking and they just brought it home. From everything I've read, the IRS takes that position that a cat or dog is a family pet and not a deduction. Further reading takes the position that if she bought a hamster or other critter, she would have to keep records to show that she was showing kids how to care for it and document their learning experiences.

I can see a preschool doing something like that. When my sons were in preschool, kids brought a rabbit home on the weekends. But she does not intend to loan the dog out.

Client: How much can I deduct for a pet?

Me: Excuse me?

Client: Since I have a day care business, I got a pet and the kids play with it. Isn't that the same thing as getting toys and games?

I believe that 941-X is the correct form to use as of Jan. 1.

It's quite important to know if they filed for "S" corporation status and if it was accepted.

Here's the cartoon to go with it.

One of the ProSeries moderators on the Live Community was suggesting that you make the RRC zero and said they were working on making adjustment. That's bogus. The IRS approves all the programs and programming so it should be correct when you enter the proper numbers.

I bet they won't hold up my return. I qualify for RRC, but I'm sure they'll be more than happy because I owe this year.

Don't forget the quarterly DE88 too.

Although an EIN is not required, what would it hurt to get one. That way the client does not have their social security number floating around.

It's supposed to insert your phone number if you have the federal worksheet marked to do this. Right now it doesn't. I have let ProSeries know and their response is: "Thank You for brining this issue to our attention. I will forward this information to our development team . We apologize for any inconvenience this is causing." Now granted, it takes me less than 5 seconds to type in my phone number, but multiple this by X amount of returns and it's a pain.

They still haven't done anything about the CA ESs not calculating 30/30/20/20 so I don't expect a quick response.

Just wanted you to be aware.

I ordered the demo cuz I was thinking of switching from ProSeries. It wouldn't install. They came in and did remote on my computer, it still wouldn't install. After the 4th or 5th attempt (by them) they finally figured out that it was incompatible with the SQL server that works with my payroll program. At that point they wanted to sell me their payroll. I stayed where I was.