Lee B

Just attended an OSCPA seminar where at least 3 hours were spent on 199 A. My thinking has totally changed. The presenter convinced me that most rentals will qualify for 199 A Give me a few days to gather my thoughts, review the seminar materials and I will make a detailed post on this subject.

There are lot of independent government contractors who will receive no back pay.

The presenter at the OSCPA seminar I attended today said that he would reduce the QBI by the amount of what reasonable compensation should have been.

I guess things are different here. Our local financial institutions are so security conscious, that they now prefer paper copies. Back in the summer of 2017, I went with my largest client to meet with a local bank about the renewal of her commercial real estate loan.. I took with me a DVD with copies of 3 tax returns and financial statements. I went to hand it to the senior loan official who recoiled and asked for paper copies because of their strict security protocols. They also will not accept emails with attached pdfs, encrypted, password protected or unprotected, due to the security risk. I have returned to mailing tax return copies, because that is the only thing they will accept.

"While the ongoing government shutdown had some concerned about a possible delayed start to tax season, the Internal Revenue Service confirmed Monday that it would begin processing tax returns on Jan. 28 – and issuing refunds on a regular schedule. “We are committed to ensuring that taxpayers receive their refunds notwithstanding the government shutdown. I appreciate the hard work of the employees and their commitment to the taxpayers during this period,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig in a statement. In 2011, the Office of Management and Budget had directed the IRS not to pay out tax refunds during “a lapse in annual appropriations,” but this year, at the request of the Treasury Department, the OMB reviewed the rules and reversed itself" "Tax refunds will go out,” the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, told reporters at a briefing on Monday. (See “IRS will pay refunds during shutdown, easing pressure for a deal.”) As a result, the IRS will recall what it described as “a significant portion” of its furloughed workers, and plans to release more details in an updated version of its “FY2019 Lapsed Appropriations Contingency Plan” in the near future" I wonder if these will be furloughed employees working without pay like the TSA and the Coast Guard ?

No I don't use QuickBooks. Currently, I am using a combination of Payroll Relief and Drake Accounting. Payroll Relief is handling the STT correctly on W - 2s and Form STT-2. They still don't have Form STT-1 quite right and they are still working on Forms STT-A and WR. Are you using QuickBooks Desktop or Online ?

If you are talking about ATX Payroll, their past practice has been not to support this kind of application.

Used ATX last year, but not this year. Output a pdf file then pick the pages you want to print.

Just so that you aware, the definition of a "real estate professional" has nothing to do with whether an activity does or does not reach the level of an active trade or business, which is based on a totally different section of the code.

Perhaps, if he spends the majority of his time and generates the majority of his income from rental activities.

As far as tax season goes, the key issue that I am concerned about is which of my clients that have different kinds of rental properties will qualify for the 20 % PTE deduction which clients won't qualify? Second, due to the partial government shutdown, Congress is showing no concern or movement toward a TCJA Technical Corrections/Tax Extenders Bill. Is Qualified Improvement Property 15 years or 39 years ?

Can I assume that your client is the Managing Member and that there is no involvement of a Real Estate Broker or a Property Management Company ?

Not enough information. The key hurdle, you will probably have with this scenario is that for the commercial rental income to be included is that your client must be "actively participating' in the rental activity, which is a much higher hurdle that material participation and a different definition.

Here is what will continue to be done : Completion and testing of the upcoming tax-filing year programs Electronic returns that are processed systemically (requiring no intervention by service center functions) up to the point of refunds Processing paper tax returns through batching Processing remittances Processing disaster relief transcripts Continuing the IRS' computer operations to prevent the loss of data Protection of statute expiration, bankruptcy, liens and seizure cases Upcoming tax year forms design and printing Maintaining minimum staff necessary to perform accounting functions and to prevent the loss of accounting data Maintaining criminal law enforcement and undercover operation Here is what has been halted: Service center processing after the point of return batching Issuing refunds Processing non-disaster relief transcripts, Income Verification Express Service/Return and Income Verification Services Processing 1040X amended returns All audit functions, examination of returns, and processing of non-electronic tax returns that do not include remittances Non-automated collections Taxpayer services such as responding to taxpayer questions (call sites, during non-filing season) Information systems functions (except as necessary to prevent loss of data in process and revenue collections Supposedly this will be subject to change the longer the shutdown drags on.

Interesting I have had a Scansnap S300 for over 10 years and never cleaned it.

I have a Canon that is very fast duplexing, so I will print duoublesided.

Last tax season was my first year with Drake and twice they had me email a copy of the return that I was working on and were able to quickly identify and resolve my problem(s). I never had any issues that would have needed them to directly access my computer.

Even if a trailer is personal property, it still is a residence. Options: 1. What I have always done if I am filing a return anyway is to report the sale and claim the exclusion in order to avoid a potential IRS letter and the panic call from the client. 2. Don't report and deal with the IRS letter when and if it happens. Just explain the choices to your client and make an informed decision together.

Just to be clear, your paper filed return will not be processed. It will put on the back burner to be worked at some later date after the shutdown finishes. Actually waiting for the shutdown to end and for efiling to restart would more than likely result in a quicker processing turnaround.

I have Drake Accounting installed on a standalone system. I just started using it for "on the fly" Forms 94x, W2/W3 etc. I have experienced some noticeable time lags with only 9 or 10 small clients set up. As it currently stands, it is slower than the SAS online programs, Accounting Power & Payroll Relief from Accountants World, which I have been using for almost 7 years. Hopefully Drake Accounting 2019, which was just released, will be significantly better ? If not, Drake Accounting has a ways to go before it can be considered a serious program !

Judy, you absolutely nailed it.

The updated numbers are 69,922 employees have been furloughed and 9,946 employees remain at work. The current shutdown plan being used by the IRS remains in effect until midnight Friday, December 28th. I assume that they are madly scrambling trying to figure out what to do next week.

Supposedly, 9,880 IRS employees are still working. Secretary Mnuchin has assured everyone that there will be no delays in the opening of tax season or in the issuing of refunds.

I am sure the furloughing of 52,000 IRS employees will have little or no effect.

After 20 years with ATX, I switched to Drake last tax season. However I continued to use the Payroll Compliance program this year, since it has always performed well for me with minimal problems. Now I am switching over to new Drake Accounting program for payroll compliance filing because: 1. July 1st, 2018 Oregon's "Statewide Transit Tax Withholding" went into effect, which requires the quarterly filing of 3 new forms, OR-STT-1, OR_STT-2 & OR-STT-V. The 3rd quarter forms were due October 31st. ATX created the forms, but they are still not approved for filing. Called support, but they were not aware any effort to get the forms approved. 2. I filed a Form 4419 with the IRS which was returned because the ATX version was not the current version. Just checked, the current version of this form is still not available from ATX. So, now I am severing my last connection to ATX. Used to be a great organization and a great program. Now, not so much. C'est la vie