Gail in Virginia

I hope your dad gets better soon! Thanks Taxbilly! You are very thoughtful!

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Just for argument's sake, it could be a 1099-INT, and it could not make a difference because the taxpayer had sufficient deductions to put her in a no-tax situation. And if the case is something like that, I probably would not bother to amend it.

I am not sure I understand your question. Is you client living in the foreign country as a bona fide resident, or for 330 days a year? Are they working for a foreign employer in a foreign country, or are they living and working here in the US and providing services to a foreign employer? If they are in the US, then no, the foreign earned income exclusion does not apply. And most foreign employers do not report anything to the US, because they are not answerable to the US tax laws but only those of their own country. That does not mean the income is not taxable in the US if the recipient is a US citizen, even living abroad.

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I took the EA exam several years ago, and the format has changed considerably since then. However, the Virginia Society of Enrolled Agents has offered review classes in the past which I found to be very helpful. To the best of my knowledge they still do (I think they are partnered with Gleim now for this, but I am not sure.) You might check their website for information about such classes. Also, I don't know what part of Virginia you are in, but there are several local chapters throughout the state that meet regularly to discuss tax law and might have members who can offer suggestions about how they passed the exam. Good Luck!

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This is mentioned in some earlier threads, but ATX has asked TRX to stop using their name in their advertising. The ATX product is the last two columns shown (unless the page has changed again.) The first two, with TW in the name, are TaxWise. According to the TRX people who have been posting on this board, they are still selling ATX and will even guarantee that is what you get or your money back.

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Joel, have you looked at ArkWorks? I don't know what you want a document manager to do, but we bought this one last year, and so far I am pleased with the software. It organizes documents in a filing cabinet type of arrangement and comes with a template for tax preparers but can be modified for other lines of business too (we do some real estate management, and it works for leases, etc.) My favorite feature that it had and other comparably priced did not was the ability to create a PDF document and password protect it for emailing. They were also super to deal with in terms of helping us get set up and started.

I use a spreadsheet to manage our files also, but it is rather different in some ways. We don't enter the clients in advance, instead we use it to log in work as it comes in the door. Then there are columns for the date it came in, the date we promised it back, who is working on it, etc. etc. When everything is completed, (we are paid, the e-file is accepted, and the client picked up their copy) we highlight it in yellow. I also have tabs for each month to keep up with information returns for bookkeeping clients such as tax deposits, sales tax, quarterly reports, etc. I like the easy way excel can sort information based on any column that you choose.

Thank you for spending that much time looking our for us, KC! It is appreciated! :wub:

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I am not an expert on this, but I think you have to be in the foreign country or countries for 330 full days in a 12 month period to be considered to meet the physical presence test. In this example, since there are 365 days in a year, and you were in the US 42 of them, you were only in the other country for 323 days, which is not enough.

I have had it happen a couple of times, but only because the client mailed it in without signing it first. So it can happen!