Christian

As a former owner of Linn shares I had to pay tax on their canceled debt. What a bummer but it had already been reported in the financial media.

Thank y'all for your replies. I'll print the page and place it in his file for 2016.

A client and his wife who owned four rental houses are divorcing this year. The settlement stipulates that he will give her one of the houses for her home. In filing his 2016 return next year I am uncertain as how to show the disposition of this asset or do I simply drop it from the 2016 return with no disposition indicated. The remaining three rental properties apparently will be owned by him.

I see youall are as much perplexed as me. Low hanging fruit? It cannot get any more low hanging than a married couple with only three W-2s and a combined income approaching $100,000. A simple case of under withholding and since someone at the Service picked up on it a simple review to check their filing record of which since 2009 there was none .

A couple who have not filed a return since 2009 came in this year. I asked for their 2012 and 2015 information with the filing deadline at hand. They owe somewhat over $3000 for 2012. In preparing his 2015 return I noted a massive increase in the husband's withholding. This produced a refund in excess of $1,000 for the couple. Curious as to why he increased his withholding in 2015 I called the husband who advised he got a letter from the IRS advising he needed to increase his withholding which he , of course, did. The Service clearly saw he was under withheld. This being so why have they not insisted these unfilled returns be filed and taxes and penalties imposed? Any thoughts on this will be appreciated.

I m sure you are right. Add the fact that this particular retired taxman was 95 years old and had been likely filing farm returns this way since the 1970's and your eyes might pop from your head. I cannot resist a final word. Who among you ever met a small farmer who reported the sale of depreciated equipment? My late Uncle was an IRS field agent. He once was going to a farmer's residence and heard a shot fired so he dealt with the problem at a later date. Farmers in southern Virginia despise paying taxes. I hope youall have had a good season.

Alas. I try to help my folks. I have never had any problems deducting remaining depreciation likely because the amounts involved were not large. I will file jk's reply for future use. After seeing some of the work of now retired tax guys the small amounts of depreciation I took off are tiny potatoes compared to the thousands of dollars of farm losses deducted from the following year's Schedule F's and shown as excess farm losses. All of this in plain view and the Service never batted an eyelash. Thank youall for your feedback.

That's true Gail but it must be remembered they paid for this equipment in a given year and did not deduct the costs fully in that year. Normally when someone leaves farming I deduct remaining depreciation in that year. These folks simply sold their final animals and did not farm at all in 2015 which they failed to advise me that they were going to do or I would have taken the remaining depreciation on the 2014 return. I likely could place it on Schedule A but that will provide them no tax benefit.

A couple who have farmed for years basically just quit. They had no farm income nor expense last year other than depreciation remaining on a few pieces of equipment. Can I file the final Schedule F showing only the remaining depreciation as an expense item and , of course, will not have a Schedule F for next year's filing?

A CPA friend resolved this indicating I need use only one Form 8962. It worked perfectly.

A married couple came in who both turned 65 in 2015.They were covered by the exchange until the month they turned 65 and went on Medicare. They received two Form 1095-A one covering the period January-April at which point the husband became 65 and a second for the period May-November for his wife she becoming 65 in December. As I understand it I need to fill out two Forms 8962 for the covered months for each. Any input will be appreciated.

In 2009 a mother who owned 200 acres of land with standing timber added her son's name on the deed to the property with a right of survivor ship. She died in 2010. The son sold the timber in 2015. The question is the basis of the timber he sold. My view he inherited it in 2010 and that he is entitled to use the stepped up basis. Any input will be appreciated.

I have a client with a wife and four children whose income is well below the filing threshold. He was assigned exemption numbers by the federal marketplace for himself, his wife, and two of his kids. The other two children are covered by the CHIP program. I filled in Form 8965 showing the four covered by their exemptions thinking it unnecessary to add the other two there being no listed exemptions for government coverage in part two. ATX added $975 in penalty fees so I went back and checked the hardship exemption box which eliminated the penalties. However, I am wondering if this is correct. Any feedback will be appreciated.

After reading the points made in the last two replies I have decided to take another bite at the apple. Of course it's true the executors have the final say. My guess is they simply don't want to listen to a lot of yipping and yapping from other family members. Even so, as pointed out by Sarah (a fact I overlooked) the K-1s will apply to 2016. Still I will bet a dollar to a dime they will opt for the estate to pay because " I don't want to pay no more tax". The 1041 will encompass the final period of farm operation and the profit likely will not be that much so happily I won't need to address this until a little later. Again thanks for your input.

Thanks Taxlady for confirming my reading on this. For my part a second or third opinion never hurts when you deal with the convoluted tax code we face. And Sarah I have discussed that very point with the two executors but some other family members file early and would not agree to waiting for the K-1s to come out in March. So they agreed to letting the tax be paid with the Form 1041 filing.

I went back and tried to delete this post but too late. I see now I will not need to send forms K-1s but will need to complete Schedule B and G.

As mentioned in earlier posts I am having to prepare a Form 1041 for a now deceased client's family. They have chosen to pay the tax due on any income with the Form 1041. In other 1041s I have prepared the heirs elected to take distributions which were reported on individual K-1 forms and paid the tax due on their returns. Since these heirs want the tax paid with the 1041 I can find no reason to fill out Schedule B on the 1041 nor prepare any K-1 forms. Is this correct ?

Thank you for your information. It could hardly be more clear than that. I do very few 1041s. A pity it cannot be deducted.

A client who died in March 2015 owned a farm which has a remaining NOL which has been carried forward for a few years. On her final return there will remain a portion of this NOL unused. Can this be used on her Form 1041 on line 15b to reduce any tax due on the 1041? Somewhere in the distant past I encountered this same problem and arrived at the opinion that an unused NOL is simply lost but this applied to a succeeding owner of a farm who was not allowed to use the prior owners NOL.

I note the deceased dod usually showing on the upper part of Form 1040 does is not working being posted after I entered the date in the information field. Anyone else noted this problem?

A longtime client who owned a small family farm passed away in late March last year. Part of the farm's operation fell into the period after her demise and will be reported on Form 1041. The farm will show a small profit of a few thousand dollars for that time period. I rarely have need to file Form 1041 and am wondering if the estate needs to pay self employment tax just as if the client were still alive. My thinking is no SE tax is due but will appreciate any input.

This year I spoke to a former practitioner who retired in 2013. He was 93 before he quit. See there's hope yet.

Here's wishing all members of this forum a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Next year will be my 34th year as a practitioner. I enjoy the work but realize that not so far down the road I will have to pack it in. It's great to know that we have this forum as an additional information source and can enjoy the friendship of it's members.

Microsoft keeps popping up a reminder to upgrade. Like Jack once I get comfortable with my existing Microsoft version I usually put off changing until I need to replace my pc or Microsoft stops supporting what I am using.

I note that ATX is offering IntelliConnect to their clients this year. After reading the user agreement I thought the program too intrusive. I am the farthest human from being a tekkie so I thought it would do no harm to solicit opinions from the forum.