Gail in Virginia

That was the answer I gave but then I second guessed myself. Thanks PapaJoe!

This is a personal question, sort of. Our church has a house that we were using as an office complex for the church. We build an addition to the church where the offices are now located, and have decided to rent the house as a residential rental. Would the income from that be considered UBIT? My first thought was yes, but when I look at the instructions for a 990 i see: Exceptions to UBIT Even if an activity meets the above criteria, the income may not be subject to tax if it meets one of the following exceptions: (a) substantially all the work in operating the trade or business is performed by volunteers, (b) the activity is conducted by the organization primarily for the convenience of its members or (c) the trade or business involves the selling of merchandise substantially all of which was donated. In general, rents from real property, royalties, capital gains, and interest and dividends aren’t subject to the unrelated business income tax unless financed with borrowed money. Then I looked at IRC section 512(b)(3), which seems to say rental of real property is excluded from UBIT unless it is either 50% or more personal property being rented, or the lease payments are based on the income earned on the rental, or it is debt financed. So now I am thinking that it is not, and the church would still have no filing requirement. Does anyone have any other information that contradicts this? Or confirms this?

It sounds like H and W meet the requirements for the full exclusion - they both lived there two of the last five years, and W owned tow of the last five years. However, I agree that an attorney needs to be involved to determine portion owned by estate of B, and how the property basis and proceeds have to be treated. Was this considered a gift to B at the time he was put on the deed? Is the estate gifting the property back to W ? Too many questions unanswered.

I believe the filing fee for an OIC has increased to $205 for the IRS. Then any available funds have to be used to pay as much as the IRS thinks is collectible towards the tax. I suspect if the kiddos got the money from grandma, the IRS is going to look at whether they can pay the taxes in determining how much the offer can be, and so they will wind up paying the taxes anyway. I am not sure about that - I have never done an offer in these circumstances. Then there is the fee for someone to prepare the offer unless they are willing to do it themselves. I don't have any idea how organized they would be as far as getting the numbers together, and I have always charged by the hour for an OIC. I can't imagine it would be less than 2 or 3 hours, even if they do most of the heavy lifting by giving you everything you need in an organized manner. Someone more familiar with offers will hopefully chime in - they might be faster at preparing them than I am.

I am envious. I would love to be able to work for someone else doing just taxes from late January through April, and then leave the bookkeeping and payroll issues to someone else the rest of the year. Congratulations, Possi!

I have had what i think is the same problem a couple of times. I get a text page that says something like error - unable to to log in at this time. Then there is a button to try again. Sometimes that works, sometimes I need to go all the way out and come back to the page. Nuisance, but I always get in eventually.

For two children, I think the amount would be $600 per month, so it sounds like they based it on the MFJ return with 2 kiddos and gave her half and him half. Maybe? I agree this sounds screwed up, and somehow it will likely be my fault - everything always is.

If I understand what you are saying, the RE company is buying the house by paying the mortgage, taxes and maintenance expenses. At the end of the mortgage, they will assume the title but until then the title remains with your client. And they have a contract to this effect. I don't know how long the mortgage has to run but there has to be interest reported on the sale. If none is stated,you will have to used imputed interest. So it sounds like there is a good possibility that there is a loss on the installment sale and ordinary income from interest on the installment sale. So that leaves the question of whether the loss is a non-deductible personal loss or a business loss on a rental property.

About time!

Virginia has gotten pretty sticky about talking to anyone other than the taxpayer without a POA. I have not had any luck with faxing while on the phone; I usually fax the PAR101 and wait a few days to try to call. I have attached the VA form for POA in case that helps. I am not sure what they mean by poorly or incorrectly formatted - I have not had a return reject for that reason. But if you need someone here in VA to help, Possi has offered and I will too. par101.pdf

As long as I don't wind up with a target on mine - especially if Catherine has the gun!

Good suggestions, Lion. We don't have any truly large banks in this area, but I am sure somewhere within driving distance there is one. We used to have Bank of America, but they closed all of the nearby branches.

I have a client who filed jointly with his spouse last year (2019 return). He was the only one that had income and withholding. The check for the refund was finally issued in both of their names. She is out of the country and they do not have a joint bank account. (i think they filed jointly in part because he is trying to get her a visa to come here and also trying to get her a social security number and/or ITIN.) The return was of course paper filed. He can't cash the refund check because her name is on the check and she can't endorse it because she isn't here. Is there any way to get the check reissued in just his name? Would writing to TAS accomplish anything? Having filed jointly, I don't think he can change to filing MFS. Any suggestions?

I did look on eBay and they seem to be available there. Like I said, some people seem to get away with printing them but I have not personally ever tried it.

Can you order them from the IRS? I know prior year forms are available on the website, and some people actually use those to file even though the instructions say to NOT use the red copy A that you can print from the website. So I am wondering if you can call the IRS and order the 2018 form 1099-MISC from them for free. Of course, it would probably take 10 days or more to get it that way.

The federal notice is a bit different than the Virginia notice. The federal notice does give a time limit of 30 days to respond, although I don't know what happens after the thirty days. I have an older client who hasn't filed for a few years who got this notice. To do the online verification requires an email address, which he did not have. I set one up for him for this purpose. But then you have to have a credit card or mortgage as part of the verification, and he does not have that either. WIthoug that, you have to call the number given in the notice to verify your identity. We have tried three times when he was here, and could not get through to anyone any of those times. Nor could we remain on hold - we were told they were too busy and to call back another time. I don't know if or when he will get his refund so if anyone else has suggestions, please post them.

I have had several that have not received their refunds after 6 - 8 weeks. I wish IRS would do something to update their website information and actually provide some real information that would be helpful to the taxpayer who has been patiently waiting.

I am trying to understand the question. It sounds like a parent who had a sole proprietorship passed away, and the business passed into a trust. But the children are closing the trust and putting the business in their own name. Now, did the trust set up an S-Corp, or did it set up an LLC and elect to be taxed as an S-Corp? Which structure are the children setting up? Members sound like an LLC, S-corps usually have shareholders.

I would add installment sales to that list.

I think individual chapters must have different partners, then because the NC site specifically mentions Gleim.

Terry, I don't know if you checked out the North Carolina Society of Enrolled Agents website, but hey have a SEE prep class coming up in July using the Gleim materials. I don't know how the price compares for the class and materials, and just the materials, and I don't have any idea how it is taught or how you learn best. I am sure you will do well either way!

I am just curious about how you can tell whether or not the marriage is legal. Virginia recognizes all ceremonies performed by a licensed minister, I believe, and any one can become licensed to perform weddings as long as they can get any clerk of court to recognize them for the purpose. Is there a central listing?

I did not think that investment income, such as appreciation on stocks, was subject to UBTI unless it was debt financed. Most of the organizations that i deal with sell stocks as soon as they get their hands on them, however, so I could not say for sure without research.

If he has income under the table and is not willing to report that income, then wife may prefer to file MFS rather than sign a return that deliberately under-reports income.

If they sell it as soon as they receive it, then it was a contribution of property and not investment income or UBTI. If they hold it until it has appreciated in value considerably, then the gain would be investment income.