Margaret CPA in OH

So what to do when the student qualifies but software calculates no? Time to play around, I guess.

I am baffled by this worksheet as it says (#4) if the student has claimed the American Opportunity Credit for any of the 4 prior years they are no longer eligible and must take Lifetime Learning Credit. But if 2011 year was the first year claimed and ARRA extended it through 2012 (per IRS website), why cannot the student take it for 2012? I must be missing something, I guess, but this doesn't seem right at all.

Here's the scoop: I had to hire an attorney to help sell my house because: My real estate agent, BY with Comey and Shepherd was negligent in enforcing the terms of the listing contract on my behalf. I was not informed of a change in buyer financing from FHA to DOA until the loan was denied by the DOA, 5-6 weeks after listing contract was signed. The change from FHA to DOA required my signature on a contract amendment. All this caused a 4-5 week delay in closing. The buyers eventually got an FHA loan approved. It was at the point of learning (March 17. 2012) that the buyers had applied for a DOA loan without my approval of this change that I hired an attorney. Although I met every timeline specified in the contract for the seller, most of the timelines specified in the contract for buyers were not met. The negligence of BY led to her paying my rent from March 24? (I will get you date) - April 6th so that I would not lose the house I rented due to delays in closing on the house I sold. My attorney had to talk with landlords to work out this agreement, and also to get penalty fees waived for late rent and the breaking of the lease at one point (which did not actually happen) after buyers' loan was not originally pproved. There is a ton of documentation to show the negligence - communication between my agent, Comey and Shepherd broker, Title Company and me; and between my attorney and the Comey and Shepherd Attorney. SA of Comey and Shepherd had KB, the attorney for Comey and Shepherd, put a lien on my house on the day of closing just prior to closing. My attorney took legal measures to get this lien released. The reason the lien was put on my house, according to VL who was the attorney who represented the Comey and Shepherd agents, is that I was not going to show up at closing. I had, however, signed the contract addendum that to appear at closing on April 10th, 2012 at 4:00 pm and all parties had a copy of this addendum that I signed. I always had every intention of attending closing and told no one otherwise. My attorney attended closing with me to protect my interests: He asked KB at closing if he was legal representation for Comey and Shepherd in matters related to the sale of my home and KB replied, "No." We learned, however, that KB was representing Comey and Shepherd on the lien placed on my house. So, he directly lied to my attorney. When asked by the Title Company at closing if I had any liens placed on my home, I replied "No". However, the lien had been filed on my home just prior to closing by KB, representing SA. BY knew about the filing of this lien. All 3 Comey and Shepherd folks were silent during me being questioned by the Title Company about whether were any liens on my home. My attorney and I did not find out about the lien until April 11, 2012 when a copy of it arrived in my mail box. So it appears as though Pacun has the answer as this was directly related to buying or selling an investment, her house and could reduce capital gain, if any. Sadly that will not help as she already has a small loss. Thanks all for this exercise. I feel for her but it is what it is. Profound, no?

Thanks, Pacun. Rationale? Cite? Other attorney costs on the closing are expenses of sale. I will find out more as to the reason yet.

Thanks again, MAS. I think I need details as to exactly why she had to hire an attorney. If it was just an issue with a particular realtor and maybe not good marketing or disagreements about Open Houses or some such, well, need more info! If an expense of sale there is no difference. If itemized deduction, a change from owing $600+ to a refund of $100+. So it matters.

Thanks, MAS, I knew that much. The question relates to whether this goes directly to the sale of her home because it isn't on the closing statement. She did have a home office so the point may be stretched, really thin, that it was protecting business interest but I don't like that. I really don't think it goes anywhere but always look to this board when in doubt and cannot find specifc, on point references. And I do look first... Thanks again!

Bump - anyone?

I see the issue - I don't have a Getaway home. Next year's wish list, for sure! But then I couldn't afford my dive trips to exotic places to get away. Both, now that would be nice

I think Marilyn and I are twins. About 90% of what she wrote reflects my situation. I don't use a laptop for business, though, and I only have 8g Ram.

Ah, yes, those pesky conversions! Agreed much more info needed. So glad you are on the board.

Client had issues with realtor so went to attorney to resolve. Fees were $9000. As this sort of was related to getting her house sold, I am inclined to think expense of sale although not directly. Because the sale did not result in any taxable income and was not business related I think it does not have a place on Sch A. Other thoughts? I suspect she is expecting a deduction. Thanks.

Thanks for the clarification, jainen. That's why I posted the pub info. with all the qualifications for the OP to determine how the situation at hand might fit. Admittedly I did not personally read all the details and used the word 'should' in my reply because I thought an idea behind the Roth was that the contributions were post tax and the earnings would be tax-free as well with the holding period. I will have to read ALL the fine print one day when I am faced with the OP's situation.

Then I think it should not be taxable, one of the ideas behind the Roth. This is from Pub. 590 http://www.irs.gov/publications/p590/ch02.html#en_US_2012_publink1000231084 Distributions After Owner's Death If a Roth IRA owner dies, the minimum distribution rules that apply to traditional IRAs apply to Roth IRAs as though the Roth IRA owner died before his or her required beginning date. See When Can You Withdraw or Use Assets? in chapter 1. Distributions to beneficiaries. Generally, the entire interest in the Roth IRA must be distributed by the end of the fifth calendar year after the year of the owner's death unless the interest is payable to a designated beneficiary over the life or life expectancy of the designated beneficiary. (See When Must You Withdraw Assets? (Required Minimum Distributions) in chapter 1.) If paid as an annuity, the entire interest must be payable over a period not greater than the designated beneficiary's life expectancy and distributions must begin before the end of the calendar year following the year of death. Distributions from another Roth IRA cannot be substituted for these distributions unless the other Roth IRA was inherited from the same decedent. If the sole beneficiary is the spouse, he or she can either delay distributions until the decedent would have reached age 70½ or treat the Roth IRA as his or her own.

If it was a traditional IRA, it is taxable as the decedent deferred tax on it during life. If decendent had received distributions, they would have been taxable at that time.

I second that. It would then maybe be easier to find threads that address one's particular problem.

Possibly a silly question but are you sure that you checked Paper Check option for refund? I forgot that once last year and nearly cried until I figured it out then nearly cried because I had overlooked it. With this year's program though, maybe another gremlin in which case delete the 1040 EF Info sheet and readd? I dunno...

Pouting - I use Adobe Pro. Also I like to print filing quality letters, Comparison, Tax Summary and 9325 but have the filing copy with the watermark. If I use Custom I can't combine. Grrrr... Maybe I will figure out something eventually.

Thanks for the heads up. Took me 3:56 but I am bummed. Still no planner and still can't print efile acks. Sigh....

http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/5747 Try somewhere here maybe.

Yes, in theory that is exactly correct. I just can't remember how to change the printer to pdf. I'll get there. I really like PrintKey for so many uses but I had to pay for an upgrade from free as it wouldn't work in Win 7. Thanks, I have to find my way....

Alas, I am incompetent with this. I also have a complication as I have PrintKey, a program on my computer to print the screen. I have to figure out how to change the printer on that.

Unfortunately I do not know when it will be available but I have found it very useful for about a third of my clients, especially those with higher incomes. In the past at least, the data from the current year populated a spreadsheet in columns with all the line item numbers of the Form 1040. Those figures would spread over the next 5 columns for each subsequent year unless you change something You could see what would happen when a client has reduced wages choosing to work part-time but then getting some Social Security or retirement income, for example. Another choice would be to show a client how much to increase charitable giving to get to a lower tax bracket. The clients for whom I use it are most appreciative. A nice added service which keeps them coming, I think!

I use MS Security Essentials and have had none of the problems seen here. My computer maker used to have AVG on my machines while he evaluated Essentials but is now convinced it works fine. I have a firewall, too, and no wifi use on my work machines. The wifi I do use with my Kindle, etc. is pw protected but I never have client data on wifi.

This is the same problem I have encountered and just decided to print 2 letters. At first I thought it was because the state was held until the federal acceptance and the coding took only the first shot at it. Long ago they could not be combined so I just sigh and carry on.

Thanks for the hints. North Idaho Rich, when I follow what you wrote, my screen does not have a Tools option. XP was like that, I think, but not Win 7 Pro. Lloyd Hudson, I tried your steps, too, and the link but my Control Panel has only a Personalization choice, not an Appearance and Personalization. I tried the Personalization choice but it shows only Desktop Background, Window Color, Sounds and Screen Saver. Time to call my computer geek. Thanks! Update: Just for kicks I typed into the search box, Hidden files and VOILA! up popped a window called Folder Options and show hidden files and folders was already checked. I guess my machine maker did that already. Back at Control Panel I found the icon for Folder Options - just not smart enough to make the connection before. Thanks again.