TaxmannEA

I went through the process when I originally got the letter. Couldn't get through on line, so I called the number and was verified there. Now I'm evidently suspended. The IRS representative assured me that all was OK at the time. Why can't they even deal with their own procedures?

I have a client who is selling about $400K of stock to a Chinese entity. Are there any reports that have to be filed? The client has no interest in the foreign firm.

Thanks Max. I thought that was the case, but I always feel better if I can get some confirmation. I guess I just don't trust me!

I teach Federal Income Tax and Payroll Accounting classes for a junior college. Is it possible to get CPE credit for this? I used some of those hours a number of years ago, but haven't in the last 2 or 3 enrollment cycles. I get the feeling that the rules may not allow this now.

I need a bit of direction from the board. We have a client who just purchased the stock of a small trucking company. They want to continue the corp, but want to change the FEIN. I tend to think that such a change would require the closing of the old corp and forming a new one. Does anyone know if a FEIN change is possible without closing the corp?

Thanks. I always get turned around when I look at this issue.

This is an accounting firm that is owned by a person who is not an accountant and does no work directly related to the accounting and tax prep performed. The firm may be sold to an accountant who currently works for this business. At the current time, the corp is an S-corp as the lack of performance by the sole shareholder does not trigger PSC status, My question is if the acquisition of the stock by a staff member will trigger a termination of S-corp status to a PSC or whether S-corp status may be continued. This is not a CPA firm but a accounting, bookkeeping, and tax prep office.

I just need confirmation here. If the stock in an S-Corp that engages in personal services but is owned by a non-participating shareholder is bought by an active member of the business, then the Corp changes from an S-Corp to a PSC. Am I correct?

Thanks, I knew I could count on this board.

We have a church in our area that recently changed their name. The corporate charter has been changed with the Secretary of State's office. Is there a procedure to notify IRS of this change as the EIN would not match to the new name? The church does not file any returns except for possibly 941. Is it even necessary as the church does not file any 990's, etc? A lawyer client asked me this question and I'm not able to come up with a definitive answer.

A number of years ago, my wife's brother managed a supermarket. One day I came to the checkout line and noticed a display bin full of cans of pork & beans labeled "Manager,s special. 3 for $1. This display only. Regular price 33 cents each." He got a real kick out of seeing how many customers would go back to the shelf and replace the cans in their cart with the special price items. Is math a foreign language?

My 2 remaining brain cells are on a break, so i need a bit of support here. A client sold their personal residence on contract 5 years ago. The gain was excluded at that time. Buyer walks away from the house and it was repossessed by the client in 2015. Client sells again in a regular sale soon after. Is the gain on the re-sale still subject to the exclusion on sale of a personal residence or do I need to re-figure the basis and report as gain for 2015? The home was never rented out. Too late in the season. I just can't get my head around this.

In Drake, you can enter a return as MFJ and label each income and expense item as Taxpayer or Spouse or Joint. You then hit the "split" icon on the top toolbar and the program will calculate the results for both methods. You can change to MFS at that point if you want to.

You are correct in saying that they cannot file MFJ. Filing status is determined by their marital status as of the last minute of the year. Local judges cannot change that.

We use Drake at our office, and once again there has been a problem caused by the update process. Another preparer had printed a finished return last year and waited for the client to come i and sign. After the client signed, the 1041 was transmitted and accepted. Unknown to us, Drake had an update that changed the balance due on the Illinois form. When you mark a file to transmit, the program re-figures the return before queing it up for e-file. The update was applied and the return was transmitted with the new numbers and the preparer did not notice the change. When the letter came to the client,we checked the file on the program and the printed file copy. They were different. The problem that I have with this is that when a change is made in a completed return by an update, there is no notification. If a change is made to a completed file in ATX, the file locks and an error message appears showing a reject status, I wish Drake would implement something like that. This is the third time in the last few years that this has happened here. The clients are not amused. I've talked to Drake about this and they do not seem to be concerned. I just thought that I'd mention this as a heads up. I'm also wondering if anyone else here has experienced this.

That's my take on this also. I have no information on the spouse as we don't work with that employer. Thanks for the confirmation. .

I'm totally stumped by this one. It was dropped on me by a co-worker in this office. Employer pays insurance for his employees as a benefit. If the employee's spouse wants coverage, a deduction is made from employee pay for the additional premium. We now find out that one spouse's employer has been reimbursing her for the insurance paid by her husband by our employer. Spouse's employer wants to directly pay husband's employer for this premium and not route it through the spouse's check. I tend to feel that this is an attempt by spouse's employer to avoid showing the reimbursement on her pay or something like that. I'm leaning heavily towards the opinion that this is not allowable. Any thoughts on this?

I'm using the same browser and computer that I always have. I just thought that there might be a problem with the site.

I've been trying to get an account transcript on E-Services. The system lets me in, but the record shows only a half page at a time and will not let me print. Anyone else having problems?

CSA has been getting quirky with us lately. The cost is another factor along with the cumbersome nature of the setups, etc. We recently contacted them about an error in our bill and later received an invoice for a $21 time charge for the call. Our bookkeeper had fun with that one! ( She's mean!)

Does anyone here have any experience with converting from Creative Solutions Accounting to ATX Client Accounting Suite? We are considering a switch away from CSA, but don't want to get tied up in repairing data shifts on conversion. I'm needing some opinions on the process. We have about 125 accounting clients and 50+ payroll accounts.

Actually, the taxing bodies do have the authority to do this. I've had several cases where the client has sent the payments to the wrong agency. The last time it happened, the IRS deposited the IL check and sent a bill for the remainder and Illinois sent a refund of the overpaid amount. IRS can even adjust a check down in amount if it is made out for too much. I found the authority in the regs several years ago.

On screen 1, did you mark the state of residence as "PY"? This will cause the NRs not to produce if not marked. I make this mistake all the time.

Our office has a client that died in late 2010. One of our preparers did the final return and the daughter(executor) filed it. Daughter then proceeded to pay a little over $10K in estimated payments for 2011. (She gets a bit confused.) We've been trying to get the IRS to refund the estimated tax that was paid in error. Calls and letters produced no result. A 2011 return was filed showing -0- income and the estimated payments asking for the refund along with a 1310. Still no result. Now the daughter comes in with a notice claiming that a 2014 return was filed and declined due to the TP being deceased and that the account has beeen locked. We're wondering if someone tried to process the 2011 return as a 2014. I guess I'm asking if there is anything that can be done to straighten out this mess. The preparer is going to our local field office with a 2848 again, but with a fraud indicator on the account, I don't know how much she will be able to accomplish. Suggestions?

Just wondering if anyone else has been seeing a large number of IRS notices regarding unfiled 941 forms. We've had 8 or 9 clients in the last 2 weeks receive these. All are clients who make monthly deposits and who are very good about mailing these in. I'm beginning to think that IRS isn't opening their mail.