Lee B

I'm curious. Are you both using IE by any chance ? I almost always use Firefox.

Hmm, I would leave on the books with a business use of .001 and if necessary you could unlink it from the 2106. Other posters have suggested this in kind of similar circumstances.

Exactly, just did it again, works fine.

I have done it twice , once this morning and once this afternoon. Did you see the button that says, "Lock in my Deal". That is what you click on before you log in.

When I go to atxinc.com, there is a left to right series of moving windows, click on the one that says "Lock in My Deal". Then you will be prompted to log in, which will take you to your renewal info. Mine was ATX Max $ 1329 plus $ 69 processing for a total of $ 1,398 There is another window that will give you the package details.

It popped up when I logged into the ATX site.

FALSE ALARM ! I just took a quick look at my renewal info this morning and I don't really see any significant changes.

I believe you have it backwards. ATX will be offering a optional upgrade to the depreciation function that is part of the ATX standard tax software which will be available to current users of FAM for $ 179. Any other users that want the optional upgrade will pay a higher price ( don't know what that price will be).

Hmm, would the farm have shown a loss if these items were expensed ?

I have kept my eye on the various cloud based tax programs and as far as I know, there isn't a good one out there. I demoed Intuit Tax Online last year and it was so painfully slow that it was unuseable.

Farming has special rules. You don't say what this farm produces, but in certain situations expenses are capitalized until the crop etc is in production . Vineyards, Christmas Tree Farms, Orchards, Breeding Stock etc.

I ran into the same issue several days ago. I ended up looking at other clients documents to find EINs, in order to clear the error messages.

Several posters on the ATX Board have reported this problem during the last week.

How about filling a 3115 to clean up the fixed asset mess. Then they would show up on the current return with the correct accumulated depreciation etc. without running everything thru the prior year's amendments.

The key word for dependency purposes is "attending"

COPIED FROM ACCOUNTING TECHNOLOGY: By Danielle Lee In a tax season plagued with identify theft and tax fraud, a new method of online criminal activity has been identified, according to Intuit’s statements to The Washington Post. Typically, fraudsters file a tax return in their victims’ names to collect the refund. In February, a rash of taxpayers reported logging into TurboTax to discover their state return already processed, leading Intuit to temporarily halt TurboTax e-filing. Earlier this month, Intuit CEO Brad Smith joined other tax software leaders in a sit-down with the Internal Revenue Service to address the growing problem. In this rarer form of theft, tax refunds are stolen after the return is filed by the taxpayer and accepted by the IRS, with fraudsters then changing the bank account information to divert the funds. According to Intuit, between 24 and 40 taxpayers have been affected and about 24 of them used TurboTax. All of those customers had elected to have their filing fees taken from their refunds in a refund transfer. After filing fees are withdrawn, refunds are transmitted to taxpayers with a deposit by Tax Products Group, owned Green Dot Corporation, a bank that works with tax-preparation firms. In these newly reported instances, taxpayers’ personal information is obtained so the refunds can be sent to another bank account. This season’s fraudulent activity was not limited to taxpayers using TurboTax, and Intuit has since beefed up the product’s security. Intuit offered to front tax refunds for customers affected by the latest incident, Intuit spokesperson Julie Miller told The Washington Post. In a company statement, Tax Products Group also said it has improved security measures. Asked for further comment, Miller said Intuit had no statement beyond what she told The Washington Post Another example of American ingenuity !

Yes, there was long thread about this roughly six weeks ago. It's because of the annual limitations, especially if no bonus depreciation or 179 was taken in the first year

Actually, I'm surprised that this type of problem hasn't popped up more often. There was a lot of confusion about what to do around the time W -2 s were being prepared. His employer needs to talk to their accountant and decide what they are going to do.

Do you think the father is competent enough to execute the gift ?

I had almost the exact same scenario a number of years ago except there were 3 brothers involved. The CPA who prepared the returns before me just divided everything in thirds on each 1040's Schedule E So after I had prepared the returns the same way for 2 or 3 years the IRS sent the three brothers the same letter and insisted that a partnership return had to be filed going forward.

Mar 22, 7:51 AM (ET) By HOPE YEN WASHINGTON (AP) — Cash-strapped Americans anxious for tax refunds are increasingly turning to payment advances, prepaid cards or other costly services when getting tax preparation help, according to new federal data raising concerns among regulators about whether consumers are fully informed about the fees. Regulators are looking to increase oversight of preparers amid the rise in "refund anticipation checks," a type of cash advance especially popular among low-income families who receive the Earned Income Tax Credit, the government's $65 billion cash benefit program. The advances are being marketed as a way to get fast refunds or defer payment of tax preparation costs. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says some consumers have complaints about refund anticipation checks centered on advertising, quality of service or fees. The bureau is finalizing the first rules on prepaid debit cards, including those for tax refunds, that would require "easy to understand" disclosures upfront about costs and risks. Refund anticipation checks rose to roughly 21.6 million in 2014, up 17 percent from 2011, according to IRS data provided to The Associated Press. About half the purchasers are EITC recipients; roughly 84 percent are low-income, according to the data. Industry analysts project the payment advances and their fees will become more widespread as tax preparers seek to boost revenue. Currently, refund anticipation checks and prepaid cards make up 10 percent of industry giant H&R Block's revenue and more than 20 percent of Liberty Tax Service's, according to earnings reports. Both companies said they are committed to providing consumers with the information they need to make tax-filing decisions, including use of refund anticipation checks. They said the payment advances offer added value, such as convenience. The Internal Revenue Service has been pushing Congress for new authority to regulate the $10.1 billion tax preparation industry after an appeals court last year barred it from requiring tax preparers to undergo background checks and testing. "It's the wild, wild West," said Nina Olson, the IRS' national taxpayer advocate, describing the current state of the industry. She called the level of risk for abuse in pricing and quality of service unprecedented. The National Association of Tax Professionals supports certification of providers to ensure a minimum level of competency. But the Institute for Justice, which filed the lawsuit against IRS, says new licensing requirements and other oversight aren't the answer. "We should do more to increase competition, not drive independent tax preparers out of the market," said Dan Alban, an attorney for the group. The average tax-preparation fee for 2014 returns is $273, up 11 percent from two years ago, according to a survey by the National Society of Accountants. But there's wide variation, with fees of $400 or more, according to the National Consumer Law Center. Netran Washington, 40, a materials handler in Cleveland, says he's been going to a neighborhood tax preparer for four years, eager for a fast refund. Washington readily agreed when asked if he preferred to pay for the tax preparation later. Washington says he was later surprised by a $500 fee that included the cost of a cash advance. Still, he kept going each year until a friend suggested the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, an IRS program providing free tax preparation services to low-income families. The IRS-certified tax preparer found a filing error that had cost Washington $1,000 in unused tax credits and helped him file an amended return. "It was very upsetting," Washington said. Four states — California, Maryland, New York and Oregon — require preparers to undergo training. The California attorney general's office recently requested information from H&R Block about its refund anticipation checks, which range in cost from $34.95 to $59.95; at issue may be whether the fees may be subject to strict truth-in-lending laws, the company said in financial filings. H&R Block emphasized that it was a request for information, not a lawsuit. Consumer groups in Colorado and Ohio are pushing proposals to require greater disclosure. In Ohio, a federal court two years ago barred the owner of Dayton-based Instant Tax Service from doing business after finding various abuses, including defrauding mostly low-income customers. "Taxpayers should have the ability to research and compare prices," says David Rothstein of Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland. In his budget proposal, President Barack Obama asked Congress to give IRS and the Treasury Department explicit regulatory authority and to increase penalties for certain tax filing errors due to willful or reckless conduct. Legislation has been introduced in the Senate, but prospects remain uncertain in a GOP-controlled Congress unhappy with the agency's investigations of the tea party and also its role in implementing Obama's health care law

Sounds about right

Most of my clients are blue collar people who are somewhat distrustful of attorneys. Then when I do convince them to see an attorney, they have a tendency to disregard what in their minds is legal mumbo jumbo and do what they wanted to in the first place. They seem to think that, "O K, I went to the attorney and paid him a lot of money, that takes care of whatever ! "Now I can go back to doing things my way"

Sounds exactly like a call left on my answering machine at home about 10 days ago. I thought about reporting it, but I am just too busy right now.

Issue Number: 2015-3 1. New on IRS.gov 2015 Form 5884-C, Work Opportunity Credit for Qualified Tax-Exempt Organizations Hiring Qualified Veterans 2015 Pub. 5196, Understanding Employer Reporting Requirements of the Health Care Law (brochure) 2015 Pub. 1167, General Rules and Specifications for Substitute Tax Forms and Schedules 2015 Pub. 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax 2015 Inst. 941-SS, Instructions for Form 941-SS, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return - American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands 2015 Form 945-A, Annual Record of Federal Tax Liability 2015 Form 943-A, Agricultural Employer's Record of Federal Tax Liability 2015 Inst. 941, Instructions for Form 941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return 2015 Form 941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return 2014 Form 1095-C, Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage 2014 Form 1095-B, Health Coverage 2014 Inst. 1094-C and 1095-C, Instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C 2014 Form 1094-C, Transmittal of Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage Information Returns 2014 Inst. 1094-B and 1095-B, Instructions for Forms 1094-B and 1095-B 2014 Form 1094-B, Transmittal of Health Coverage Information Returns 2014 Form 8922, Third-Party Sick Pay Recap 2015 Pub. 5200, Affordable Care Act: What employers need to know (flier)