Lee B

Edsel, You have a tendency to ask incomplete questions and then dribble out additional tidbits of important details over your next 2 or 3 posts, so that when someone answers your first post, our posts are usually wrong or not useful. My personal choice is that I will not reply to any more of your posts.

We are gaining a lot of circular momentum here, approaching Warp 1.

I stand corrected with egg on my face. This situation is a perfect example of how difficult it is to prepare returns correctly and why so often we see mistakes on returns prepared by other preparers.

I would enter original cost plus improvements for the depreciable basis and carryover the accumulated depreciation. I believe changing the basis or the accumulated depreciation would be incorrect. You have a change of method on an existing asset not a new asset.

First, this is not my area of expertise, bur I do read a lot and it seems to me that this could be a fairly complex question. Find some detailed resources, which are available online, so you can pin down the key issues, then examine the facts & circumstances. Note: Selling your home, then buying a boat registered in a different state by itself does not change your principal residence.

I started making QCD's last year although not in excess of my RMD. My understanding is that you can make a QCD(s) in excess of your RMD, however the excess amount will not reduce your taxable income, it will only reduce the account balance against which next year's RMD will be calculated. Note: The total of your QCD(s) are limited to $ 100,000 each year.

Quite true, the reps I dealt with were very friendly. The results, not so good!

Copied from IRS E-News: 1. New IRS Impersonation Email Scam The IRS and its Security Summit partners warned tax professionals this week about a new IRS impersonation scam campaign spreading nationally on email. The new email scam uses dozens of compromised websites and web addresses that pose as IRS.gov, making it a challenge to shut down. By infecting computers with malware, these imposters may gain control of an individual’s computer or secretly download software that tracks every keystroke, eventually giving them passwords to sensitive accounts, such as financial accounts. “The IRS does not send emails about your tax refund or sensitive financial information,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “This latest scheme is yet another reminder that tax scams are a year-round business for thieves. We urge you to be on-guard at all times.” The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information. This includes requests for PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial account.

I won't go into the details, but I had similar experience recently with a B of A credit card in regards to setting up automatic payments. On the face of it their credit card website looks very professional etc, but when you go down to the next level I was going around in circles. Tried to get help from a real person on the phone, they emailed instructions telling me to do the same thing which had already not worked. I am in the process of closing this credit card and will never do business with B of A again. It's a tossup as who is the worst B of A or Wells Fargo !

Actually, Microsoft is making a number of changes to become more compatible with Chrome, Android and Linux in order to compete with Google.

I used Firefox for years. My SaaS Payroll and Accounting software from Accountants World no longer supports Firefox, so I have had to switch to Chrome.

I totally agree. I would never use McAfee or Norton !

In my state of Oregon only CPAs can issue compilations. That position is strongly defended by the Oregon State Board of Accountancy.

I don't know about your state, but in my state of Oregon only a Practicing CPA would be able to prepare those statements. As a practical matter, that's why I have never had questions about my "internal use" financial statements, because compiled, reviewed or audited financial statements are so expensive! For about five years I did have a client who was a subsidiary of a Swedish Corporation who did have audited financial statements. I had to arrange for a CPA with a nearby office to issue reviewed statements to keep the parent company's auditor happy.

Why don't you have a discussion with your clients explaining to them that the situation is unclear due it being new tax law with numerous gaps in the rules and regulations. Give them clear explanations of the dollars involved and let them decide. Don't apologize or get too deep in the weeds. It's doubtful that you will find any more clarity by doing more reading.

As a former CPA for many years and now an Enrolled Agent, it's unclear to me what the issue is here. Unless your client is required to provide some third party Compiled, Reviewed or Audited Financial Statements, most small business tax returns are not prepared according to GAAP. In fact, most small business tax returns are prepared using "tax basis" accrual or "tax basis" cash methods of accounting or some hybrid method. My core practice for the last 27 years is based on providing 'internal use" monthly financial statements which are either accrual or cash "tax basis" statements, not GAAP The statements that I provide my clients do not have any supplemental notes or disclosures. My clients have been able to obtain bank loans based on these "internal use" statements. In fact, in 27 years I have never had a loan officer question or reject the statements that I provide my clients. As far as I am concerned, until the IRS affirmatively requires the capitalization of operating leases, this is a non issue.

Catherine, at first I thought you pulling our collective legs with this yarn, but you couldn't make up all of these stories

Once in awhile, about every other year I will see a weird message, but I haven't seen this one .

As long your use is moderate and doesn't require any intense use of computer resources, you should be OK. Your CPU is lower end speed wise etc, which is why you only paid $ 430.

There is no requirement for active involvement except in for the rental safe harbor rules.

Your post implies that your client's S Corp isn't an operating business, but instead is just a pass thru for these various investments ? I have attended seminars and done way more reading and thinking about this issue than any other tax issue, since I passed the EA Exam back in 1992 ! The real question is " Does the ownership of these investments by a passive S Corp deny your client the use of QBI deductions on their 1040 when if your client owned these investments directly the QBI deductions would be clearly allowable ? I don't have a cite for you, but I think the intent of the law and the subsequent rules and regulations would allow you to combine all of the QBI numbers from the various investments onto the S Corps K-1 s and let them flow to your client's 1040. It's what I would do if this was my client.

"Microsoft is warning Windows 10 users to update their operating system immediately because of two "critical" vulnerabilities. The company said the vulnerabilities are potentially "wormable," meaning affected computers could spread viruses and malware without any action on the user's part. There are "potentially hundreds of millions of vulnerable computers," Simon Pope, Microsoft's director of Incident Response, wrote in a blog post Tuesday. "It is important that affected systems are patched as quickly as possible because of the elevated risks associated with wormable vulnerabilities like these, and downloads for these can be found in the Microsoft Security Update Guide," Windows 10 users that have enabled automatic updates are already protected. For those who update manually, they can click the search button and type "Windows Update" to access the update tool. Other operating systems, such as Windows XP, are not affected."

I have been using the Medlin Payroll program for about 4 months now and really like it. I have looked at the Medlin Accounting Program several times, however I don't use it. I have not looked at the Medlin Receivables Program and i don't use it.

As I posted before, the only way is if the S Corp borrows the funds directly in it's own name.

Did you read my first post ? It is a big problem if you do it this way ! Unfortunately, there were several later posts that wandered off into the weeds and confused the issue.