Max W

Drake has W-4 included in its software. I would assume that others do as well.

I would not wait for Efiling, because that will only be for 2019 returns. As for mailing, under normal circumstances it takes 4 months to process an amended return. Under current conditions it could take a lot longer. I think it is better to get it into queue sooner than later.

How many siblings? If there are three, they can each gift $16000/yr to the mother and the daughter can administer it. If there are only 2 siblings, they can gift a total of $32K and the daughter can apply for IIHS through medicaid/medical. She would get about $12000/yr in non-taxable income. That would only leave $4000 taxable and surely there would be enough expenses to offset this.

It may stop some, but it is not foolproof. If the clients are from Mexico and a few other places, students are not taught cursive writing and use block letters for "signatures". It would be fairly easy to forge these "signatures" and make the return self-prepared. The refunds would go to whatever address is on the return, which is what they already do.

Big Charts won't help if the company merged, or went out of business. Once a stock is delisted, BC drops it. Info may still be available on the company website until that disappears for non-payment of web/domain fees. However, the information might be on the company website with which it was merged. The details can sometimes be found on business news websites. Sometimes it takes a lot of searching.

There are only 4 states -CA, MD, OR, NY - that have rigorous testing requirements for tax preparers. In most of these, if not all, EA's, CPA's, Atty's are excepted. However, if they are out of state, they are limited to 5 returns in OR and 10? in NY. It would be interesting to see if there is any correlation here to the proportional number of bad azz preparers elsewhere.

Here is a 2 hour CPE Clergy course for $29. https://classroom.onlinetaxuniversity.com/Order/ Course description - https://onlinetaxuniversity.com/product/clergy-and-minister-taxation/ Compare it to UI. The UI course that Lion posted is only 1 unit for $25. I don't think that one hour would be enough to cover this topic. There is also an issue with UI. A few years ago, they published a pamphlet on preparing an OiC. There were some really egregious errors in it. The worst of these was they way they calculated the two payment options as that part was completely wrong.

BEWARE!!! Working for HRB requires you to sign a non-compete agreement and to surrender use of your EIN. So, if you wanted to keep some of your choice clients you would be violating their contract. You would have to surrender all of your clients to them. Liberty at least allows current clients to be grandfathered, so you don't lose them. If your employees are tax preparers, they would be paid a minimum hourly draw against a commission. It has been along time I worked there and management was a disaster then. From what I have heard from former colleagues, it hasn't changed much. The district managers had no tax experience and didn't know an AGI from FMV. At least the office managers were required to pass Block's exam. They were constantly urging preparers to push HRB's programs, Peace of Mind (to cover errors in the return), Retirement Savings, etc. HRB has lost law suits over usurious refund loans and also the Retirement Savings as people were losing money because of the high fees charged. The really bright spot at HRB is their excellent educational materials and courses with the plus that they were free to employees. Most of the instructors, usually EA's, were very knowledgeable, but occasionally one was a dud. They also had a higher standards to pass the exams - 80% correct, whereas most others were 70%.

What is the experience, pros and cons, of using BitLocker?

Transcripts have been available long before there were any tax sharing information agreements, so there was nothing to program. Even as late as 2015, there were only 26 states involved. Perhaps, now that all the taxing states are on board, it can become a reality. It would certainly be a big help.

Call the credit card company you use and tell them you lost your debit, or credit card. They will send you a replacement card in about 5 days with a different number. Now the vendor only has your "lost" card on file and can't charge you. Anyone that is married and has a card for their spouse can use the spouses card and not lose the use of the account.

A POA that I faxed in late March has finally been posted.

Yes, it would be nice if the IRS Wage & Income transcripts had the state info as well - at least the state income tax withheld. Tax sharing information between the IRS and the states has to be done through an agreement with each state. The IRS has tax sharing agreements with all but 2 states (AK, WY), but the agreement determines what info is shared. If all the states are sharing the W-2 info, there is no reason I can think of why the state info could not be included on the W&I transcript, other than bureaucratic inertia. Since, the W-2 information does not go directly to the IRS, but to the SSA there might be some issue there, such as SSA having an agreement with the states, too.

Changing the fiscal year requires filing form 1128. You might want to check into that and see what they ask for. If you are on a fiscal year, the only time you could change to a short year is if you are going to a calendar year. There is also a 48 month look back period for making a second change.

One thing that eliminates QBI for commercial property is a Triple Net Lease. Another thing that also eliminates it for both biz and residential is renting below FMV. I think that that is more of an issue with residential, with people renting to children , or other relatives at discounted prices.

The IRS is of little help on this. They only say legal advice and tax prep are deductible. Other references say it eviction expenses are deductible, but there is nothing official. This is something that should be clarified, because it is becoming a big issue in rent controlled areas, such as San Francisco. One of my clients had to pay legal fees of $25,000 to get a tenant evicted plus another payment to the evictee of $4500 so they could look for another place. Fortunately, there was only one person involved as that is per person, plus another $3000 if there is a child under 18 in the household.

This is great news. It is a long time coming. Hopefully clients will refunds with the same speed as with the 1040, rather than waiting 4 months.

There are two safe harbors; the one being discussed and the De Minimus Safe Harbor, Sec 1-263a -1(f) election which allows a $2500 item that would normally be capitalized to be expensed. As long as the object of the rental is to make a profit, it is considered a business.

I agree with the check-check solution. As for the receipt, do you mean the formal letter acknowledging the gift? Does the non-profit have enough funds to write the check? It may be that they are having problems making payments, which could be the reason for the loan forgiveness. I think the problem with Marie's plan to amend is the acknowledgement letter, as that has to be contemporaneous with the gift. A possible solution would be for the client to write a letter to the N.P. forgiving the balance of the loan as a donation. The NP would then send the client the acknowledgement letter.

Is that one of the new Revenue Officers being hired?

If itemizing, it can be deducted on Sch A Line 6 and Not subject to SALT.

I seem to remember many years ago, that if taxes were paid on land and SD taken, that the taxes could be added to the basis of the land. Does this sound right to anyone?

It is one of several experimental surveys the Census Bureau keeps coming up with. It is more like a poll. There is also a Household Pulse Survey covering issues about how people at home are handling the Covid crisis.

I had a client once whose daughter did a manual rollover and prepared her own return for that year. Guess who she got a letter from? Fortunately she was able to come up with all the paper work and the rollover could be show to have happened within the allotted time.

After looking over the forms and instructions, I think you right. A fiduciary can't use 2848 unless it is a family member, so Form 56 and the durable POA are sufficient. They have to be mailed, along with 8453, within 3 days of the E-filing. It is mailed to the same center where paper returns would be sent.