Christian

CCH bought out a software provider which was based in Maine so that's how long I have been with them. I enter my info from each form and have had a few problems over the years but I plan to stick with CCH until Gabriel blows his trumpet. I have a 64 bit machine and now must upgrade to Windows 10. Y'all say a prayer for me.

A client couple has now divorced and requested that their refunds be evenly divided and deposited into their individual bank accounts. They filed MFJ for 2018 and I can do this by using federal Form 8888 but I find no Virginia form to accomplish this. Is this correct or is there a state form for this ?

Additionally, Virginia has an additional deduction of $12,000 available to folks over 65 yoa within certain income limitations. I believe it fazes out if you file separately and your combined marital income exceeds $75,000.

I have begun adding the two year comparison form to returns which I formally rarely did but find there is no form for the state. Am I missing something ?

That is a point well made. It was clear to me this man had become "hooked" on short term trading which he knew little or anything about. He got hooked for over eleven grand in profits and says it's all over. Who wants to place a bet on his coming back next year ?

As my return has the attached Schedule C and my business info at the bottom of the 1040 I simply sign it and let them figure it out.

OIC. So if he sells the security at a later loss it will increase his loss or if a profit decrease his gain. Of course, as he had to cough up over $11,000 on those sale gains he lacked appreciation of this fact. Good grief the next question is does his broker recalculate the basis on those shares?

I have been a stock investor since 1965. I do not engage in short term stock trading and have studiously avoided wash sales. This year an individual came in and to my utter astonishment presented me with a single brokerage account in which he traded over $5,400,000.00 in securities (all single stock trades). In looking at the yearly total I found he had lost some $5,441.00 for the entire year or so I thought. He had some $38,000 in disallowed wash sales and was left with a slightly lesser amount amount of taxable short term gains. He had made some profitable trades and basically ended up paying tax on those and losing virtually all the offsetting losses to wash sale rules. What the heck did they do with those losses as I see they are not retained for deduction in follow on years ? Is there no recovery for these ? His trades were all in the same securities meaning he traded the identical stock multiple times in the same 30 day period.

I have been having recurring bouts of glacial internet service with pages loading so slowly they don't load at all. My ISP sent me a new router which initially worked ok then yesterday the problem reappeared. They now suggest my Ethernet modem may be starting to fail. I initiated a full security scan yesterday afternoon (Microsoft Security Essentials) which always take forever. I got up this am to find the computer had reverted to the start up screen and the scan had aborted. Oddly enough the system speed is back to par more or less so I activated a second full scan which will finish in several hours. I have had some problems after these updates and wonder if it may have had something to do with this matter. I likely will replace this old reliable model but Lord knows I am not tackling Microsoft 10 until summer.

A client is sending me her tax info which she says has information on a loan taken from her 401K plan for her soon to be divorced husband . He defaulted and I am wondering how this will be reported. I would think on a 1099-R issued to her indicating a code 1 distribution. Is this correct ? She is 40 yoa.

As stated before in this forum I usually purchase my ATX program in May. As there is some question as to whether I will be in business in 2020 I plan to defer until I decide. If I recall correctly some other forum members purchase there software in November or a little later and still receive the 10% discount ATX offers. Can anyone confirm this?

I rolled the return over again and recreated it. The efile was created before the newest version of ATX was received. Oddly the reject notice did not so advise. His son's return created the same day was sent off this am and the reject notice advised I needed to submit it using the updated version. So it seems I have s o l v e d the problem.

If they are retired and have no earned income W-2 or self-employment how do they qualify to make an IRA contribution ? How does a contribution to the account reduce the account balance ? Maybe I am misreading the post.

I rolled the return over again and recreated it. The efile was created before the newest version of ATX was received. Oddly the reject notice did not so advise. His son's return created the same day was sent off this am and the reject notice advised I needed to submit it using the updated version. So it seems I have s o l v e d the problem.

I have a client who despite having no need to file a federal or Virginia return continues to have state tax withheld insisting on filing a return. His federal return has now been rejected by the EFC I suppose because he has no need to file. Since there is no reject code indicated I have no way to address this as I am unable to delete the efiles and recreate. Anyone know a solution other than giving him a return to mail ? He is the only client I have ever had to not quit filing after advice to do so.

Additionally, the partnership knowing he lives out of state regards him as exempt because he has no Virginia residence. Gail may disagree but personally I don't see why he began paying Virginia tax.

Why is a resident of Arizona paying any Virginia income tax ? He is not a resident of Virginia. I hold one or two partnerships. I pay Virginia income tax but no other state income taxes.

All right where did you get that handy dandy staples puller? Or rather what brand is it. I simply gotta have one.

I have been a bit surprised that I have lost hardly any. I had five or six older clients pass away last year. I pretty much replaced them. I rarely raise prices and when I do not by any huge amount. This will not be my best year but all in all I am not unhappy. Getting older having a few less is not a bad idea. Having only 11 weeks instead of the 13 we formerly had is causing me to have to extend a few incorrigible late comers but they will understand. My family has been in some form of small business in excess of 125 years and great service goes a long way. An example. A neighbor for whom I have never done any work called me in a panic. He left a message so I returned his call. His wife said he was out but ought to be back shortly. Shortly thereafter I heard a knocking on my rear door. Sure enough it was him who insisted in an agitated fashion he wanted to come in. I had just gotten up and standing in a bath robe my hair completely uncombed. He stepped into the den and explained he had used Turbotax and made a number of mistakes. I told him not to be too upset that it was only a tax return and could be amended and requested he bring me what he had done and I would amend it. He seemed relieved and went home to fetch his paperwork telling his wife he had seen me naked ! Lord ! The things I have done in this line of work.

My late Uncle himself an IRS field agent once said something to the effect that they were considered as adding to the land or some such thing. I suppose cows pooping on the soil and passing methane into the atmosphere has it's proponents in congress.

I wonder sometimes if the small farmers I prepare returns for ever show a profit. They seem to go on for years and never turn a plus sign. I had only one to ever be audited and he had posted losses for well over ten years. The lady came to his home and found he had a gas tank on the place and had not taken the credit for gasoline used off highway. He had maintained immaculate records and after some time received a CHECK for fuel taxes paid !! He continued to post losses until the day he died.

My solution has been to not mark an IRA and the software computes the amounts correctly. Go figure.

Are you filing a Schedule C for him ?

I think jasdlm misunderstood what I was getting at. This occurred today as I was preparing a return. Oddly it had popped up in an earlier return some time back but had corrected and now has for whatever reason come back. I don't see any upgrades I have missed. After removing all IRA indicators the program posted the correct info. I have no wish to call tech support and stay on a phone line for an indeterminate period of time.

Who else's 1099-R calculations are coming out incorrect? The only way mine report correctly is if I uncheck the IRA boxes. An earlier one was the reverse I had to check an IRA box when the pension was not an IRA.