Christian

I am sure what you say is correct Sara but nowadays if I encounter a sticky tax question we have forums such as this one in which our fellow folks in the field can share their knowledge. CCH just sent me two useful book sources of tax law as an incentive to early renew which will replace my older ones. Most of what I encounter are run of the mill situations which I have dealt with for ages and the couple of questions I had this past season I submitted here or contacted the practitioner help line. According to Kiplinger the tax legislation being proposed will likely not be addressed until next year so we have another year to wait perhaps.

I note the new tax legislation being proposed includes the right for the Treasury Department to regulate the industry. I passed the original RTRP test but it was a real pain in the butt. In addition it required a 130 mile road trip just to get to and back from the test center. I hope it dies in committee but I rather suspect it may very well pass this time around. So many items addressed in the original test are never seen by small time tax folks like myself.

I appreciate all of your feedback. I feel comfortable with what I charged. While he keeps good records it always comes in by mail in a large jumbled pile at the end of the season due to the fact he has to wait for the amended 1099 forms from his brokerage accounts. I forgot the K-1 form from some fund he has. It takes easily 4.5 to 5 hours to address all of this plus he mails them. If he ain't happy he can just take a hike as I am too old in the tooth to fret over clients like him anymore.

A client took exception to the price of his return so out of curiosity I'd like to hear what some of you think. His return is a Form 1040 with the following attachments. Schedule A, Schedule B, Schedule C (he is a part time minister),Schedule D (two investment accounts),Schedule SE, Form 8948, Form 8949 and of course, his Virginia state return. I priced this return at $325.00 (bear in mind I am not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent) but still feel I did not over charge him. Any input would be appreciated.

The usual offer from ATX quoting the best price of the year. This year they apparently are not sending a CD. This year's increase is even greater than ones in prior years amounting to right at 10% for the package I use. Next year I am planning an across the board increase for almost all clients. I look into other software options from time to time but never find one better price wise than ATX. I have never packed my returns with stuff (calculations and all that stuff) but next year will begin doing so as apparently many clients feel it really means they are getting their monies worth even though they have no clue what all that stuff means. Despite my concerns about diy returns the business was fairly stable this year and I had all I should really take on as I about wore myself out. I sincerely appreciate all the responses to my posts during the season as so many help clarify these occasional thorny problems.

I have a female client who updated her Social Security card some years back and her efiles only go through under the old registration. Clearly the system needs some tuning.

I am not an employee of the federal or state government. Like I am sure all of you I try to put down correct information but in the end it's the client's info. In over thirty years I have had only two field audits of clients. One gave far too much money away and a farmer who went over fifteen years reporting losses and who on audit WAS REFUNDED $54.00 FOR THE FEDERAL GAS TAX .

I did not address that. I should have known since I have known married women who went years and did not change their registration.

A formerly unmarried client tied the knot last year. He normally efiles so I created the efile and it has now been rejected as there is the name mismatch between the beloved's current and former name. Is there any number I can call as a practitioner whereby they can effect a manual adjustment of her name. I have printed a mail copy but perhaps there is something I can effect by making a phone call.

The virus is identified as Exploit:html-Prominer.A which I of course deleted. I had to access the 2013 version of ATX yesterday and the pop up box kept coming so I just gave up. Today I've had no problems thank goodness. I formally used Zone Alarm but it blocked certain functions of the ATX software.

I use Microsoft Essentials for virus and firewall protection. This week a notice pops up telling me it is cleaning the computer of a detected virus. On checking it identifies it as a severe threat so, of course, I called my isp who said do a full scan and a malware scan. Some time back I downloaded a Norton scan and it identified a number of suspected threats. Guess what. All the files identified were CCH ATX files. Anyone else had this problem? I did not delete them.

I did a backdate for him. He moved to Virginia in September 2013. The house was sold in June 2016. It does indeed appear he can take the exclusion. I would not be surprised if they question it but June 2011 to September 2013 is clearly two years.

Alas ! He downloaded the IRS publication on home sales and has concocted in his mind a justification for using the full exclusion. I rather doubt the Service checks these all that closely. Still they will be looking at four years of tax returns from Virginia. I told him if he receives a letter down the road he may have to sit down and chat with them. What Terry said is my concern since he has lived in Virginia four how the devil could he have lived in Carolina two out of five. Time will tell.

A client who moved here in early 2013 from North Carolina recently sold his former home in North Carolina in July (15) of last year. In determining whether he gets the $250,000 exclusion he is eligible for do you count back in months five years to July 15, 2011 ? This is going to be problematic as he will have filed four years 2013 - 2016 as a Virginia resident and paid Virginia taxes for those four years. I surely don't want him to receive an audit from this.

On adding a child as a dependent who was born 2/1/16 ATX does not indicate he qualifies for the child tax credit. I added Form 8867 and it still will not give his parents the credit. I reread the qualifiers and find no reason he does not qualify. My thought was he was not yet one year old in 2016 but don't see that as disqualifying. A software glitch?

I wanted y'all to know how this matter ended. I called the father today to advise he could obtain a taxpayer ID number instead of a SSN explaining that without one or the other he could not claim his newborn on their return. He and the wife came to me because all his other tax folks had failed to obtain a refund and they always had some tax owed. Expecting I had a sure fire win you may only imagine my astonishment when I was informed that he did not want his son to have ANY state issued number assigned to him. I pointed out that this would cause the loss of thousands of tax dollars over time but all to no avail. Now I am wondering if he is a member of one of those militias you hear about.

Reply to FDNY. His wife !

It's so comforting to know I am not alone.

A young man came in today with his infant son in arms born in 2016. On asking for the child's ssn I was told he did not have one. The father was told at hospital it was optional. His return will be efiled and I am wondering if it will go through. Somewhere I was under the impression they were now assigned shortly after birth.

A guy had called me earlier in the season who has been doing his own returns stating he had two W-2's and owned two home rentals inquiring about pricing and advised he might call back. Today he called. I advised him we would set an appointment and look at his info asking for him to bring in his 2015 returns so I could match info. He hesitated a minute or two and then said he would be bringing in 127 PAGES !!!!!!!!!!!! I grew sorta weak and somehow feel I will let this one pass.

Like Rita it is LATE in the season and my tolerance for having to use time to sort this stuff grows more thin with each passing day.

Rita on the ATX 8965 under exemptions there is G1 or G2 or G3 which list that one. I may have not clearly understood it but I used exemption A for their months of no coverage. On page 13 of the instructions for the form it stated how to deal with it. The wording is not crystal clear and I had to read it a number of times to get it correct. So what else is new in IRS instructions ?

I was finally able to get this sorted with assistance from a lady at the Practitioner Priority Service. Happy to say I rarely encounter this ACA stuff.

A married couple with a dependent daughter has come in today. He is covered 12 months through his job. His wife and daughter were not covered from January - September and were covered through the federal exchange from October - December. The exchange provided a separate 1095-A for the mother and one for the daughter. Do I merge these two on a single Form 8962 or complete one 8962 for each? I am assuming I can qualify them for an exemption for the earlier nine month period. Likely the one in which they qualified for exchange coverage. I do not have a lot of clients needing me to address issues involving the ACA so any input will be appreciated.

A client couple have not filed their 2015 or 2016 returns. The wife called today to advise she finally has the 2015 info ready for preparation. I cannot recall ever efiling a prior year return and am wondering if ATX and the IRS accept them.