TaxCPANY

Yes, ANY 12-consecutive-month period in which a taxpayer overseas drops by the U.S. for no more than 35 days can be used to qualify for the Physical Presence Test (PPT).  For instance, their second bout of PPT might even carry into 2024 for as many of the 35-day limit as hadn't been used during 2023.  E.g., suppose your client stayed overseas *every day* from Jan 1, 2023 through Nov 30, 2023.  They not only could claim 2023's entire amount of earned-income (AND housing) exclusion(s), but also the first four day's worth of 2024's exclusion amounts.
Not only can consecutive years contain overlapping PPT periods, but the unused 35-day limit before AND after PPTs can be used to maximize claimable exclusion amounts.  Reg. Sec. 1.911-3(d)(3).

From Pub. 54, How to Figure the 12-Month Period:  "In determining whether the 12-month period falls within a longer stay in the foreign country, 12-month periods can overlap one another."

I've been e-filing a client's 990-PF since the 2011 tax year.  I suppose that only returns back to 2021 yet can be e-filed, based on IRS' normal three-year limit.

I can't hardly wait to (try to e-)file my remaining NY non-profit!  Ahead of a monthlong stint overseas I sought instruction on how to extend CHAR500; nothing online; finally reached someone in the Charities Bureau who asserted that extensions were automatic this year.  Who was I to disagree?

Since March 6 I've been broadcasting the following to ALL my clients, and those that try it love it -- as do I when getting scalable pix instead of JPGs in which it's impossible to differentiate 5 from 6 from 8 from 3 . . . !  I regret I don't recall in which publication I found this -- but at least I'm citing the author.

Using Google Drive app to scan important tax documents right from your phone
by Olivera Ojdanic
Tax Day is right around the corner, and if you haven’t filed yet, it’s time to quickly get all your documents in order.
The best way to save, store or upload your tax documents, especially if you have paper copies, is by digitizing them.
You don’t have a scanner?  Not a problem!  You can easily scan all your documents right from your smartphone. Here’s how.
Scanning tax documents from your iPhone or iPad
There are a few ways to digitize your tax documents from an iPhone or iPad.  The simplest way is to simply open your camera app and take photos of each document.  Make sure you place your documents on a well-lit, flat surface and snap a picture of each one.  This method will be a bit time consuming, since the files will be stored as images (not PDFs) and you will need to manually crop and organize each one.
However, our preferred method is using the Files app, which will automatically recognize, scan and crop your documents and help you organize them for easy sharing at a later date.  Here’s how to get started:
        Open the Files app on your iPhone or iPad
        Tap the Browse tab (likely in the bottom corner)
        Tap the three dots in the top right corner and choose Scan Documents
        Position your document on a well-lit flat surface and hover your phone’s camera over the document.  The app should automatically recognize and scan it.  The file will be placed in your scanned documents
        Continue scanning documents until you are done.  Click Save.
        Choose the folder you would like to save your documents in, or click the three dots at the top of your screen to create a new folder.  Click Save to save your documents.
Scanning tax documents from your Android device
Scanning documents on Android devices can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.  Some models have a built-in scanning function in the Camera app, while others do not.  However, you will likely use Google Drive on your Android to store your documents, photos and other important information, so here’s how to use Google Drive to scan your tax documents, which should work across all Android models.
    Open the Google Drive app.  (If you don’t have Google Drive installed on your device, download and install it from Google Play here.)
    Tap the “+” button, then tap Scan.
    Position your document on a well-lit flat surface and hover your phone’s camera over the document, then tap the shutter button.  You can now edit, crop or rotate the image.
    To add more documents, tap the + button.
    When you’re finished scanning, click Save.  Now give your document a name and organize your files in Google Drive.

Has anyone succeeded with corporate extension payments directly debited to the NYC Dept. of Finance this season?

Two client companies' payments were rejected last month but their NYState payments went through fine -- as had payments to other jurisdictions.  I must wonder whether it's a problem with ATX or NYC.

NYC has flaked out in past but not in this particular pattern; so I'll be much obliged to anyone whose information gives me more territory to work with.

Happy Season to all!

Per Tax Adviser, 2/27/23:  https://www.thetaxadviser.com/news/2023/feb/district-court-holds-irs-owes-tax-preparers-partial-refund-of-ptin-fees.html

IRS owes tax preparers PTIN partial refunds.pdf

Shareholder's health insurance premiums paid to a *company* plan, not a reimbursement of private insurance, added back only to Box 1 (and in New York Box 16 but not 18), not 3 and 5 (and coded as "SEHI" in Box 14).

There's a nice, big discussion of this in the TaxTalk group (used to be Yahoo Groups but now groups.io), a couple of years ago but the law is still pertinent.  The gist is that reimbursing private plans would be discriminatory, but not all practitioners agreed with various tweaks to achieve that.

When I got a red error preventing me from efiling a database provider, ATX tech help just told me that IRS had changed its biz codes.  519100 still shows up online as a valid code but ATX wouldn't accept it; 999000 fixed that -- but, oy, it just doesn't smell right.

As soon as I've backed up my system I'll try it.
Perhaps I should mention that, when Marissa (whom I now feel is ATX's best tech ever) helped me overcome problems stemming from migrating ATX 2020 & 2021 from my old Windows 10 PC to a new Windows 11 one, she remarked that she feels 32 GB is the minimum RAM I should run the program with.  As soon as we finished I ordered another 16G DRAM from Crucial, to double my RAM.

I recall having no problem using any client's business account for them, whether they're a mongo corporation (N.B. their own) or a sole proprietor such as myself.

I flinch only when the bank is Citibank because it's failed to honor over a dozen clients' debits in just the past decade, no matter how ample the funds and long-standing the banking relationship.

I must disagree:  one does not get "the same suggestions".  My experience accords with Pacun's:  UNIQUE problems surface upon attempting to efile a return which are not divulged merely by checking the return.
That some small number of returns have been efiled prematurely is the lowest but not common denominator to which I do not feel compelled to stoop.

A UK pension received by a US "tax resident" is taxable on Form 1040.
Enter it on the "FECWKST" -- the Foreign Employer Compensation & Pension form -- an annoying form that requires what seem to be duplicate addresses and treat the taxpayer as still being overseas.
The bigger fight might be with US state treatment.  It should qualify for most state's exclusion of all or a portion of a 'private'/non-governmental pension (unless it indeed is from a government but I haven't handled one of those).  But I have had to fend off a couple of states that took issue with the lack of an EIN as well as monthly amounts that varied because of foreign-exchange fluctuations.
Good luck!

I'm having trouble matching the font of the all-caps letters used by ATX to display information input on New York State forms POA-1 and TR-2000 -- i.e., my input and not the form's fonts.  Has anyone managed to do that?
The client returned a copy of his signed POA-1 that I belatedly noticed lacked his apartment number, so I want to simply add that to the PDF before submitting it.
I've gone through almost a dozen fonts -- playing with boldface and various sizes -- and am about to just settle for the near-miss of 9-pt "Mongolian Baiti" that I've never heard of before and don't even know how to pronounce.

Sorry about the link which even I can't get to work now -- yet it's still viable in the post in TaxTalk where I first found it.  I'll now try to attach the PDF to which it led.

NYS Pass-thru Entity Tx FAQ.pdf

Parker Tax Research made it a matter of less than 3 minutes to find the attached pages 141-143 from the Joint Committee on Taxation's "General Explanation of Tax Legislation Enacted in 2015".
Basically, Regulations pertaining to IRC Sections 168(e)(3) and (6) lay it out.
(I don't know whether it's just me that takes longer to find the most authoritatiive answers via AnswerConnect.)

Lshld Imp lives.pdf

Here's a link to a 10-page New York-centric FAQ I've found most illuminating -- and includes remarks about Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania residencts:  https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/groupsioattachments/45544/85380483/359553/0?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJECNKOVMCCU3ATNQ&Expires=1630956802&Signature=Z6meD91kXv%2BsPHjRoSKlqqbg0ow%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3D"New+York+State+Pass-through+Entity+Tax+-+FAQs+-+August+2021.pdf"

I must disagree, Ken:  I have several New Yorkers receiving both federal EIC and UCE, and for all those clients ATX indeed boosted their New York AGI by the UCE before testing whether IT-215 permits the state credit.
Might you be looking at a IT-203, in which I have no clients meeting the initial test?  Or, in all cases where you see NY EIC being permitted incorrectly, are both Forms IT-201 and -215 the proper versions, and was IT-558 included which -- ATX's oversight -- is not included automatically for everyone?
Else I believe the illusion of a mistake stems from ATX's 'bunny jump' from IT-215 line 10, as that's what your reply to LionEA implies; it does go to Form 1040 line 27, as if federal AGI were accepted uncritically.  But following the green arrow from IT-215 line 9, instead, leads to IT-201's line 19a (and its worksheet illustrating the addback).

I've favored FireFox for several years now because it's offered far more privacy than Chrome -- and I cannot recall the last time I had a 'sticky window' like that.  The following link offers a very good, recent overview of browsers.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/best-browser-for-privacy

I'm on the verge of signing up with Venmo, too -- gotta have a digital payment scheme of one sort or another now.  I really luvved Google Wallet/Pay but last month it transmogrified into the worst method of all -- see the raft of aggrieved reviews in Google Play Store for how mistreated its previous users feel.

I would have gone with Zelle as that's being promoted by my credit union, but its EULA requires users to consent to robocalls.  What the h*** is wrong with fintech, that commodifying our behavior isn't lucrative enough but it's got to spam us too -- and in the most obnoxious way possible?!

Well, it worked inasmuch as MeF accepted it tonight.

Besides attaching two 8865 K-1's, I input their ordinary income on Line 8 of Schedule 1 with the legend "Form 8865 Schedules K-1" and the partnership names, input the same amounts (fortunately) on the supporting schedule to Line 2 of Schedule SE and the detail schedule feeding Line 1a, Part I of Form 1116.  Foreign tax withholdings ended up on Line B of Part II while Line A was empty but it doesn't look too bad, and it's just there to be carried over as the client had insufficient taxable income -- only self-employment tax.  No ordinary tax also meant I didn't have to wrestle with Form 8995 which initially looked to be the most difficult to work around.

After Tax Season I'll email a request to MeF to make 8865's acceptable.  This wasn't fun.

Reminds me that Schedules C free of self-employment tax (due to totalization) also necessitate paper filing.  That seems a much simpler form to allow the e-filing of and yet . . .

Has anyone successfully e-filed a 1040 with PDF'd Form 8865 K-1's attached?  This has got to be the worst year possible to tell a client to paper file a return!

Per IRC Sec. 195 upto 5K of "business startup costs" can be deducted; amounts exceeding that must be amortized over 15 years as Sec. 197 intangibles (ignoring the 50K cap on startup costs), beginning the month in which the business begins.  But for no business having yet begun startup costs otherwise would have been deductible as ordinary and necessary expenses.
Also, per Rev. Rul. 81-150, expenditures that otherwise would have been capitalized such as those in constructing a capital asset, are not startup costs.
Based on the client's assertion that the 11.7K were 'mere' repairs and maintenance I wouldn't saddle the business with a depreciable-lived definition but take the 5K deduction and amortize 6.7K over 15 years.

From the horse's mouth

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-day-for-individuals-extended-to-may-17-treasury-irs-extend-filing-and-payment-deadline

My usual shortcut of duplicating the prefigured, dummy return in Return Manager won't work today.  Three times I selected the return named "AA" (to keep it at the top of the client list) and typed in the new client's name; three times ATX "had to close" -- even after I'd rebooted the whole system.

Anyone else had this?