Lee B

I responded to a CP 2000 related to TY 2019 which the IRS mailed in November 2021. So far we have received a letter from the IRS dated April 30, 2022 saying that they needed 90 days more time. This was related to a tax return Form 1040 that was efiled back in February 2020 over 3 years ago. So far still waiting

Let sleeping dogs lie

artp, I see you're from Illinois. It's been some years since I demoed OLTPRO, it might be worth a look since it's a midwest firm.

Just be aware that both Tax Act and Drake are now both owned by Cinven, a international private equity firm, so there are changes coming both Tax Act and Drake including larger annual price increases. Cinven announcement dated November 1,2022, London England: "International private equity firm, Cinven, today announces that it has reached an agreement to acquire TaxAct for approximately $720 million. Following closing of the transaction, Cinven will bring the business together with existing portfolio company Drake Software ("Drake" or the "Company") under a single holding company. This will create a full-service tax ecosystem provider with the scope to use the resources and shared principles of the combined businesses to innovate and support their complementary professional tax preparer and individual tax filer customer bases."

It's fairly obvious that these are intended for IRS internal use. The wording suggests that your clients refund was reduced by an ACA Shared Responsibility Penalty. What year was this transcript for?

"896 Debit (NPJ) I/B Overpayment Credit Offset Generated Transaction or 29 TC896 is used to reflect an offset to IRAF (MFT 29) and Shared Responsibility Payment (MFT 35) accounts and from IMF to BMF." I am sure this will answer your question

"As of March 4, 2023, taxpayers made a total of 17 million attempts to contact the IRS by calling the various customer service toll-free phone assistance lines. The IRS reported that 4.4 million calls were answered with automation, and telephone assistors answered 3.5 million calls and provided an 80.6% level of service with a five-minute average speed of answer." Now I understand. They included every automated response as a successfully answered call

Supposedly you need to look for signs of battery seeping and or swelling. Not sure how you do that in a laptop?

Wow, I am glad it wasn't worse! There have been stories in the news about fires started by lithium batteries in electric bicycles and scooters exploding.

California supposedly has a big projected budget shortfall. They will be looking under every rock for more revenue.

"The section of the partnership K-1 delineating partners’ share of debts of the partnership may be subject to modifications with the anticipated release of the 2023 draft version of Schedule 1065 Schedule K-1. A recent article penned by Kristen Parillo and published in Tax Notes Today on May 9, 2023,[1] provides coverage of a session held on May 5, 2023 at the American Bar Association Section of Taxation meeting. During the meeting, Adrienne Mikolashek, the IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel for Passthroughs and Special Industries, reportedly highlighted these prospective changes to the Schedule K-1. The 2022 iteration of Schedule K-1, Form 1065, featured three lines that categorized a partner’s share of debts into recourse, qualified non-recourse, and non-recourse. As reported in the article, the IRS plans to subdivide the recourse liability category in 2023, thereby distinctly identifying debt restoration obligations and partner debt guarantees." I fondly remember the words, Tax Simplification

The only thing I would add is if it is an LLC, that due to the gifting the W's outside basis and inside basis may end up being different.

While making arrangements for our next vacation in October, I had some issues using the airline's website so I called their 1 - 800 support number. Their phone support has been outsourced to the Philippines. While the support people were nice it was a frustrating experience, they had trouble understanding my problem and ended up not being able to help me. I ended up losing a $100 discount on our airfare.

Actually it was an article in The Financial Times which is a British Daily Business Newspaper. First, part of the problem is that wages for US staff accountants and auditors for the last 20 years haven't kept up with inflation. Second, the number of US Accounting graduates are less than the number of retiring baby boomer accountants. The articles I have read didn't say anything about outsourcing tax return preparation. Personally, I have been receiving weekly solicitations both by email and by phone about outsourcing my own tax return preparation.

"BDO USA is planning to double the size of its offshore workforce after a slide in the numbers of young graduates becoming accountants in the US. The accounting firm would add thousands of jobs overseas, largely in India, according to chief executive Wayne Berson, amid a worsening talent shortage affecting the US audit and tax businesses. BDO USA, which employs about 12,000 people, is aiming to have 5,000 people at its offshore joint venture “BDO Rise” within five years, Berson told the Financial Times. BDO Rise already has 2,000 people in India and recently added about 100 jobs in South Africa, Berson said, with plans to grow in both countries." I read another article earlier this week about how the Philippines now has a serious shortage of accountants because too many Accounting Graduates are taking accounting jobs outsourced from the US and Europe, who will be paid less than half of what US graduates get paid. Apparently the BDO partners aren't making enough money?

I don't use social media because of their excessive data mining which is used by hackers and other purveyors of malware.

"Receipt of a Form 1099-K for Distributions of Money Raised Through Crowdfunding The crowdfunding website or its payment processor may be required to report distributions of money raised if the amount distributed meets certain reporting thresholds by filing Form 1099-K, Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions, with the IRS. If Form 1099-K is required to be filed with the IRS, the crowdfunding website or its payment processor must also furnish a copy of that form to the person to whom the distributions are made. The American Rescue Plan Act clarifies that the crowdfunding website or its payment processor is not required to file Form 1099-K with the IRS or furnish it to the person to whom the distributions are made if the contributors to the crowdfunding campaign do not receive goods or services for their contributions." "Tax Treatment of Money Raised Through Crowdfunding Under federal tax law, gross income includes all income from whatever source derived unless it is specifically excluded from gross income by law. In most cases, property received as a gift is not includible in the gross income of the person receiving the gift. If a crowdfunding organizer solicits contributions on behalf of others, distributions of the money raised to the organizer may not be includible in the organizer's gross income if the organizer further distributes the money raised to those for whom the crowdfunding campaign was organized. If crowdfunding contributions are made as a result of the contributors' detached and disinterested generosity, and without the contributors receiving or expecting to receive anything in return, the amounts may be gifts and therefore may not be includible in the gross income of those for whom the campaign was organized. Contributions to crowdfunding campaigns are not necessarily a result of detached and disinterested generosity, and therefore may not be gifts. Additionally, contributions to crowdfunding campaigns by an employer to, or for the benefit of, an employee are generally includible in the employee's gross income."

Here is one theory that shows up in an online search: "The IRS sends letters to both to make sure both spouses know about the liability because, on a joint return, each of you is liable for the full amount. If they only send a letter to one spouse, it's possible that spouse would not pay the tax and would also not tell the other spouse about owing the money."

"ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that's taken the world by storm, has already conquered numerous tests–the Wharton MBA exam, the Bar exam, and several AP exams among others. But the talking bot met its match when Accounting Today ran it through the CPA exam as an experiment: ChatGPT failed utterly in all four sections. — The experiment took place at the Arizent office in New York City's financial district on April 13 in collaboration with Surgent CPA Review. We used two laptops, each running a separate ChatGPT 3.5 Pro account (metering on free accounts, or on GPT 4, would have made the experiment impractical). One laptop ran the BEC and FAR section. The other ran the REG and AUD section. When all test sections were completed, its scores were: REG: 39%; AUD: 46%; FAR: 35% BEC: 48% The results indicate ChatGPT did not pass any part of the CPA exam." I wonder how ChatGPT would do on the EA Exam?

I was able to login with MySocialSecurity User Name and Password since I created it back in 2016. Then I had jump through some identity verification questions and change my password. Now I have to wait for an Upgrade Code in the mail.

Rather than giving money back to her church, she can pay less social security by reducing the amount she receives from her church.

In Oregon, online filing was required. I had to enter the information into the Oregon Department of Revenue website. The setup of the website was kinda confusing, fortunately the information required was limited.

"New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday that taxpayers who were duped by TurboTax’s owner Intuit into paying for free tax services will soon be receiving checks from the $141 million settlement. More than four million taxpayers nationwide were affected and will receive a check sometime in May from the multi-state settlement." Yep, Intuit is certainly all about maximizing their profits!

"The trio of bank failures since March has cast a pall over KPMG’s lucrative business as the largest auditor of the US banking sector. Questions over the quality of its work and independence have mounted in recent days, following the release of a Federal Reserve report into the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the forced sale of First Republic. The Big Four accounting firm was auditor to both banks, as well as to Signature, which was seized by regulators in March. In all three cases, KPMG gave the banks’ financial statements a clean bill of health as recently as the end of February 2023." "KPMG alumni have also gone on to play significant roles in the banking sector, including at former clients. The chief executives of Signature and First Republic were both former KPMG partners." IMHO, it's been clear for many years that most large CPA Audit Firms are not truly independent from their clients. Remember Enron and Global Crossings

Tom, have a great vacation. This is my first day back to work after two weeks off.