Lee B

The Wall Street Journal: "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is probing the way that Venmo, the digital money-transfer service operated by PayPal Holdings Inc., treats customers who the company says owe it money for transactions that went awry. In a regulatory filing Friday, PayPal said it had received a “Civil Investigative Demand” from the CFPB “related to Venmo’s unauthorized funds transfers and collections processes, and related matters.” The company said the CFPB had requested documents and answers to written questions, and that it was cooperating with the regulators. Venmo’s debt-collection tactics were the subject of articles in The Wall Street Journal in 2019 and 2020. The company has threatened to dispatch debt collectors on users who overdraw their accounts, even when those users are victims of scams, The Journal previously reported. Venmo continued its aggressive collection efforts during the coronavirus pandemic."

So your balance in a Venmo account is just an electronic number. It's not a bank account, it's not FDIC Insured,it's not real money.

There is no logical reason for interest income on a 1 year or longer Certificate of Deposit to be taxed at a different tax rate than capital gains. There is not a single serious economic study that supports the "Trickle Down" economics that you are espousing.

Since fintech is all about gathering as much information about you and your clients as possible and using that information to make more money, I will continue to limit my use and involvement to the extent possible! Equifax anyone?

Many of these proposals will not be in the final bill that passes

I accept checks and cash

I already have a question from a client who wants to whether they will be eligible to receive the advance payments, beginning July 15th for their 3 year old. Their 2020 Income without the Unemployment Exclusion exceeded 150 k,but with the exclusion was below 150 k. Their projected income for 2021 is below 150 k. I told them based on the information released so far they will qualify for the enhanced ACTC on their 2021 tax return, but it was too soon to know whether they will receive any advance payments beginning in July?

It's good to hear TaxAct is working for you.

Don't pat yourself on the back too hard. Perhaps you have forgotten about the $ 150k exclusion reversal?

Multiple news sources are reporting: It will take the IRS until the end of this summer before everyone gets their return recalculated and their refund issued. None of the IRS's online tools will show the status of these refunds, so we will get a number of client calls. The IRS does not want any amended returns submitted until they have finished this process.

Unfortunately your clients don't have any assets which qualify for installment sale capital gains treatment, even though the sales contract payments may be multiyear. Therefore you are going to end up trying to balance capital gains on the sale of intangibles in the year of the sale against ordinary income spread over the years of the non compete agreement payments.

The times I did try the Drake forms option, it seemed to me to be a pale imitation.

Sara I am really impressed, I couldn't even decide what the questions were?

Yeah, the best friend of my nephew obtained a Minister's License Online so he could perform the wedding ceremony for them. Only wedding ceremony he ever performed. Perfectly legal in my state.

One more time, I am sooo glad I am not in a community property state

Because people don't really look at things, they just assume it's right. Back in 2012, while changing payroll programs I transposed 2 digits in a longtime client's SSN which ended up being filed with the SSA incorrectly for 2 years before I caught it. My client never noticed. At that time I was using ATX and the correct SSN carried forward in my tax program so it wasn't a tax return issue. My client never received any letters either.

Getting faster is not a top priority for me, since I have a niche practice mostly doing Business Entity Returns plus personal returns for the owners and their family. I will only do between 50 and 60 tax returns this year and only 5 of those were non business related 1040s.

While I switched from ATX to Drake 3 tax seasons ago, if the choice was between ATX pre 2012 and Drake , I would choose ATX pre 2012. For me, preparing returns on Drake takes a little longer because their entry screens have so much stuff squeezed into them, it's hard to find things sometimes. In addition there are several annoying entry screens, that I have no idea where they are, the only way I find them is with their search function which works well. In addition there is the extra time spent between going back and forth between entry screens and looking at form screens. Just to be clear I am satisfied with my decision to switch to Drake. However Drake is not a perfect program, it has it's pros and cons.

I don't see the quandry! The only thing to do is to paper file MFJ along with an ITIN application to Austin if that is where they still go. Any other approach would be ignoring the rules and regulations. In addition not doing this blocks eventually getting a green card and ultimately citizenship. I have some longtime clients who are in this exact situation, which has worked out just fine. He has renewed his ITIN multiple times with no issues.

My all time favorite was "Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again"

Since the 3115 fixes the skeletons in the closet, I don't think there is anything to worry about. You have some fixed asset allocation issues and depreciation errors to fix. You're aware of the problems, it's your responsibility to bring them to your client's attention and to fix them. Not to do so, would be a huge problem! I have never had any problems as a result of filing a 3115.

Robert Zimmerman is 80 years old today. "The answer my friend is blowing in the wind"

I used Gleim back in 1977 , helped me pass the final 2 parts of the CPA Exam

The third party efiler that I use for all of my 1099s verifies the EINs and SSNs of all of the the payors and payees with the IRS before actually efiling the 1099s. Then they send me an email if any of the EINs or SSNs are unverified.