Gail in Virginia

I will give this a shot, but I am more used to resident than non-resident Virginia returns. * Typically, VA starts with federal AGI, so I don't know why the amount is different. I would do a "pro forma" separate federal for just the federal income if I were doing this by hand, to see if he or she is eligible for section 179. From the amount I would say that if eligible on the federal , will be on the state. Mostly VA has conformed with section 179 except for the last big bump in the limit. *Fixed date conformity depreciation is any depreciation differences caused by differences in what is allowed on the federal and what VA allows. Typically, this will be the bonus depreciation which has never been allowed in VA. Depending on the year of depreciation, this could be an addition to income (line 2A) or a subtraction (line 6a). * For filing status, I would probably use MFS and only file on the taxpayer that has the partnership interest to keep the AGi as low as possible. Unless one spouse has all of the income and the filing spouse can benefit by using their exemption and increased standard deduction. I hope this helps, but if I am not clear, perhaps one of the other VA preparers will help out or you can ask again and I will try again.

I have gotten some of them that were filed before noon Monday. I don't think I have gotten the ones filed late in the day yet. But I am sure they will eventually arrive.

None of my Virginia or NC returns or extensions that I filed Monday have received acks for the state. I use ProSeries, so if you use ATX it must be a state problem rather than an issue with software.

If I have to do returns for anybody and everybody, whether I feel like i can trust what they tell me or not, I quit. Some days I am ready to anyway, but that would definitely be the end of this for me.

I agree with Possi. By the end of tax season I was navigating the new form fairly well, but I know that it slowed me down A LOT. And it seems like every year the brokerage firms get just a little bit later sending out their information and I wind up more crunched at the end trying to get things out for people. I hate to set a deadline for getting paperwork, because many times it is out of my clients' control. But I don't think I am going to have any choice but to announce that if information is not received in full by the end of March, returns will be place on extension as they arrive just to keep my sanity.

You know me, Rita. I have had health insurance my entire life, mostly with the same company. My premiums were getting completely out of sight, and I am still 5 years away from Medicare (if nothing changes). When ACA came into effect, my cost was cut in half even though I am paying the entire premium and receiving no credit. It has been going back up every year (just like it did before the ACA) but it still has not reached the high point that it was at before. I agree that there are some problems with this particular piece of legislation. but instead of trying to fix it one side wants to eliminate it and the other side wants to get a pie in the sky impossible to pay for plan. Who is on my side?

If father died in 2017, I believe you can either elect to report the interest on his final personal return or file a fiduciary return and report the interest there. If the income is all distributed from the estate account, the beneficiaries would get K1s for the part of the interest distributed to them and pay the tax on their share. You can elect the fiscal year for the fiduciary return with the filing of the first return. So if dad died in, say June 2017 you could elect a fiscal year ending May 31. If there was no income for the fiscal ending 5/31/18, no return would have been due. If the bonds paid interest sometime in late 2018, they could be reported on the fiscal year ended 5/31/2019, and would go on the beneficiaries return for 2019. Just as an example, and I think it would work this way. Hard to say without actually know all the facts and circumstances. And someone may know more about this and why this won't work.

My clients are all calling to see if I forgot to let them know their taxes are ready, After all, they brought their stuff in a week ago.

Around here, where housing costs are relatively low, and climate is moderate (plus people heat with wood, at least partially) the simplified method can actually be better in terms of just OIH deduction. But only sometimes.

But if the space is not used regularly and EXCLUSIVELY, then they can't take home office and therefore don't have to depreciate.

I think you are both saying the same thing - just looking at it differently. if i understand Danrvan, the owner died in a year prior to 2017. Estate inherited rental property, with a stepped up basis. While in the hands of the estate, income was received and reported on a 1041 but no depreciation was taken. Now it is 2018, and the return (i think another 1041?) is being prepared by Danrvan and he notices that depreciation has not been taken and is going to take in, and file a 3115 to catch up the years that were missed while the property was in the estate. There is no second step up in basis when the property is transferred from the estate to the final beneficiaries. I don't know if that is any clearer, or if I misunderstood Danrvan's posts.

I agree with Randall and Pacun as to our responsibility. However, I don't think that it is a bad idea to just tell her that if this loan was really for the benefit of her husband and he is the one who defaulted on payments, she should discuss this with her lawyer in case it impacts the settlement in any way. kick the ball to the attorney - that is why they get the big bucks. But our clients don't always realize what is important and I would prefer to err by advising them to consult the professional.

We are going to have more extensions than ever, but we will be trying to finish those extension by July 1 this year. The Virginia general assembly set that as the deadline to file your return and share in the rebate they are giving taxpayers since they did not get around to revising Virginia's tax laws to coordinate with the federal changes until late in February. So we just swap one deadline for another. Like always.

I have had a couple of retired ministers, and I do it basically the way JASDLM describes. I do ask them for their actual expenses/ rental value as well and use the lesser of the three, just like with a working minister. Usually the portion they have designated is the least but it doesn't hurt to be sure. As far as I know their are no clergy worksheets to go with the 1099R, at least not in ProSeries.

Isn't this a common time to use Form 3115?

You can't NOT report income just because you got it in cash and did not get a form for it, although I have had people tell me that they can. So i don't generally get suspicious just for that reason. Now if that was the exact amount needed to get them in the sweet spot for EIC, I would definitely want to ask more questions. Or I had a potential client this year start to hand me his papers and tell me how much he wanted his income to be total since he was applying for a loan. I handed the papers back and told him that was not how we did returns here.

Or you may be able to e-file a stand-alone VA return. Depends on why the federal rejected.

I am of two minds about this subject. As a preparer I know how hard it is to quote a fair and reasonable price without actually doing the work so that I know what is involved. And if I have done the work, I want to be paid commensurate with my effort. And yet as a consumer, I hate to agree to pay for services when I don't have any idea of what it is going to cost. My preferred method earlier in the year is to tell them that if they bring me last year's return I can tell them what I would have charged to prepare that. Sometimes I will quote a price range, emphasizing that this is based on the return only involving blah, blah, blah. But I don't have a good solution that I am happy with, and I probably lose business because I have gotten short changed so often that I tend to quote high now, figuring that they won't complain if it is cheaper than expected but boy do they if it is higher.

If the mother and father lived together until December of 2018, then neither of them can claim Unmarried Head of Household for 2018, regardless of who claims the children. They would have had to live apart for at least six months of the year to qualify for HOH status. Their choices for 2018 are MFJ or MFS. For 2019, they will have lived separately for the required six months, so it will depend on who the children live with (who provides the household) as to who can claim HOH. But it is possible the divorce will be final by the end of the year and the other parent can file as Single. OOPS! Just re-read the post from ILLMAS. If the divorce was final in 2018, then parent who pad the bills for the house they were both living in would have the better claim for HOH. If they were split evenly, then I don't know what to tell you. They both lived with the kids, they both provided the household - this is why I hate these situations.

I would have expected the partnership to pay VA tax on his behalf. Unless he has a lot of income from this partnership, I would not expect him to have a filing requirement in VA since he doesn't live here.

I am seeing most lawyers around here include a substitute form 1099S in the closing packet. Then the client tells me they never got a tax form, and even if they look through the packet they will most likely overlook it because it doesn't really look like a tax form. I usually just put it on the return figuring what can it hurt?

I would agree. But I am not an expert.

I am inclined to agree with you although if the litigation resulted in compensatory damages, I would not have though it would be taxable or reported on a 1099.

I used to have a client that stapled a color coded scrap of paper to every form that she brought me labeling the form (W2, 1099, I don't know what this is...) I guess she thought she was helping me.

I thought you used that syntax intentionally to emphasize your point