TaxmannEA

Interesting site. I noticed that a couple of the people in our area were my old students. ( I teach Federal income Tax for a local Jr. College.) I always thought that I'd taught them better that that!

I live in the country, but our area is noted for: Spoon River Anthology Spoon River Scenic Drive (The longest garage sale in the world!) Birthplace of Carl Sandburg Site of Lincoln-Douglas Debate at Knox College Loss of 2000+ jobs that went "down south".

I just got the ACKs for my 1099's this evening. Maybe things are looking up.

I recently had reason to call the help line for a matter involving E-Services. I was transferred to a lady on the phone who was quite helpful, but spoke with an Indian accent that you could slice with a knife. Please don't tell me that our goverment agencies are also sending jobs overseas.

You paid them 3 months in advance when the school insurance would have paid the whole balance at a later date. The $250 was the time value of the money. This means that your "loan" of the amount owed was of no value to you while the hospital would surely have charged you substantial interest had payment been late. They charge you interest = good business practice. You charge them interest = insurance fraud. Am I the only one who has a problem with this attitude?

What you are dealing with is a prime example of the level of honesty in most medical finance offices today. The hospital had $250 extra payment in hand and then simply kept it. You protest, and are accused of fraud in an attempt to intimidate you into silence. The fact that they did not honor their own agreement means nothing to them. That , unfortunately, is the way these people seem to operate now. Honoring their word and treating the customer ethically take a back seat to getting more money any way they can.

It finally came back on. I guess that they have computer problems too.

I've been trying to access E-Services and keep getting dumped with an "invalid URL" message when I try to access the log in page. Has this been going on long or is it just a tempoary glitch?

I believe that a trucking business must use actual expenses. The mileage deduction is not available for heavy trucks. Therefore depreciation would be properly taken, along with the actual expenses for fuel, repairs, etc. It looks like your client is trying to take a short cut to avoid actually having to account for the actual expense. (No books, perhaps?)

Thanks! You jolted my brain into gear. I was hung up on the fact that this trust had been treated as a Grantor trust in the past. I was not presented with the trust instrument until after the death of the taxpayer, so I was relying on the word of the TP's daughter. This has been running for the last 18 years and no return has ever been filed on it. Income was included in TP's income as per a revokable trust. I think that I have my summer screw-up project for this year. Any suggestions?

I'm having a brain lock on this one. Taxpayer created a charitable remainder trust under Sec 664 in 1990. She died in 2007. All the assets in the trust were liquidated and given to a college and a church as per the trust document in 2007. The trust had about $4K in income in 2007. I believe that I need to file a 1041 for the trust, but there won't be any income shown on K-1's as all the income was given to the charitable institutions and a charitable deduction is taken on schedule A. Am I on the right track? This is the first one of these that I've had that totally distributed to exempt organizations.

Simple return (W-2s only) start at $65. Partnerships, Corps, Trusts, etc. are charged at $96 per hour. This goes up inversely with the condition of the books and documentation. I also charge relatives, except dependant minors. All fees are increased by the PITA factor depending how big a PITA the client is.

I have used both Drake and ATX in 2 separate offices for a number of years now. I like Drake for being easy for an inexperienced preparer to learn and use, but I sometmes have problems with input on the higher level returns. There are many Drake features that I love, such as auto-fill upon entering zip codes of FEINs on w-2 and 1099 input screns. It also handles multi-state returns as well as any other program that I have used. Their customer service people are great, even though I usually call only once or twice a year. I have called ATX only once in the last 2 years. That being said, I do find that I bring a copy of the ATX program to the other office to help with returns that I have trouble getting right on Drake, but I have never felt the need to instal Drake at my private office. There are a large number of forms on ATX that Drake doesn't have in its package such as 1099, W-2, and a large number of state and local forms. While MAX and the Drake programs are about the same money, I do feel that the ATX program is a better value for the money. I also think that ATX is better suited for us more experienced (ie: Old F**ts) practitioners. I might also mention that Drake issues about as many updates as ATX. I think that this occurs no matter what product you use. I'll probably stay with Max unless CCH starts pulling any tricks later.

I did a synch with ATX last night and all but 2 of my ACKs came in , along with repeats of all my old ones. I guess it's progres.

I haven't been competent to prepare taxes for years, but I still make good money doing it !

I'm also waiting for ACKS, but I got all of my transmissions validated by midnite. I use both ATX and Drake in 2 separate offices. I noticed that while Drake was receiving transmissions OK, that the ACKS had stopped around noon on the 15th. I wonder if they also didn't allocate extra resources to handle the heavy volume. I'm still torn between Drake and ATX as the ATX software will do things that Drake won't, but Drake seems to be more user friendly. As long as I get ACKS in time to retransmit if needed, I'm happy.

I've been in practice for over 30 years. I decided long ago that the clients' problems are not problems of mine unless I cause them. I try not to get emotionally invested in the clients and strive to remain objective at all times. If they choose to procrastinate, it's on their head, not mine. I actually like to have a few of the screw-ups as they always provide an opportunity for more revenue in the off season. Also, many of them are very entertaining!

Just got a call from a client asking for an extension for 2007. I reminded her that filing 2004, 2005,and 2006 might be a good idea also. I've been at this so long that they just don't bother me any more. It does get interesting at this time of year!

I just sent in my last 8 returns with no problems. I do have 26 returns that have not been ACK'ed for the last 2 days. Cross your fingers!

It's because MACRS depreciation does not use a salvage value. Assets are fully depreciated for tax purposes. . That's just the way the code sets it up. I suppose congress wanted to stimulate business by allowing more deprciation deduction in this way.

It's not unusual for someone to build on land that they do not own. We have a community near Galesburg that was established in that manner. She would own the building and could depreciate it for her business even though she does not own the land. It's her asset. (Illinois being a joint and several property state, the distinction is blurred anyway.)

The IRS might also be curious about his filing a joint return and forging the wife's signature.

Because premiums for insurance that pays so much per day as opposed for actual medical expenses are not deductable as medical insurance premiums on Sch. A.

As usual, KC's reply was both interesting and right on target.

Twice in the last week I have received rejects on returns that I have on the program, but I have not yet transmitted. Luckily they had been changed after the E-file was formed, so they did reject. I positively did not mark these for transmission and did not see them going when I sent other returns. Anyone else having this problem or have an idea what might be going on?