Gail in Virginia

My dad passed away last Wednesday. A lot of people are on extensions this year. Anyone that objected was told they were welcome to go elsewhere. Only one person gave my staff any trouble about that, but she left her stuff for me to do. I am going to get what I can do done this week, although payroll reports are going to get priority, and then I am taking next week off. Some things are more important than others. Always.

If she doesn't make estimated payments, is that because she chooses not to, or forgets/loses track of the paper? You might be able to suggest having the estimates automatically deducted from her checking account, which you can set up when you do the return. Of course, as late as you are getting information and preparing the return, I don't think that will work either.....

If the kids choose to let their parents bring in their stuff and pick it up, I am fine with that. But once they are 18, I usually insist on something in writing to let the parents pick up the kids return. They are entitled to confidentiality, and I am required by law to respect that.

Actually, working helps. I can't go see him all the time - he needs to rest and that is hard enough to do in the hospital. But the hospital is close enough that I can duck out a couple of times a day and check in with him. But thanks for all the good wishes - and Catherine, I can't tell you how much your offer means to me! I love this group of people. Now I might just have to go and have a good cry before I go back to work.

You have my sympathy, Terry. My dad is 88, and was admitted to ICU yesterday with pneumonia, and possible CHF. I wish I could close shop but I have several tax returns to kick out before Tuesday is over.

Rita, I am so glad someone is still able to have thoughts....

And super glue does not sting like that liquid bandage stuff does.

A kiss is fine, but better still is wine! That is the specific remedy for paper cuts, I believe. Unless it is the cause....

And even if she has, it sometimes takes IRS a little while to be notified.

That's pretty much it. He already is writing off all the costs - taxes, insurance, etc. He can't write off what he would have charged - unless he includes that amount in income and then writes it off. Waste paper.

My suggestion would be to ignore it, unless it is more than your client reported in total sales. Then my suggestion would be to fire the client.

I think the way it is worded is that it has to have been his principal residence for two of the last five years. If he filed a resident Virginia return for 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 it would have only been his primary residence for one of the last five years. I think. If he filed part-year for 2013, then maybe but i am still doubtful. I don't think that 1 1/2 is the same as two.

If your client is filing a farm return (sch F) I would put it on line 4a, Agricultural Program payments. And unless you have information that says otherwise, I would treat it as taxable income.

Publication 926 deals with household employees, and it covers this situation: Not withholding the employee's share. If you prefer to pay your employee's social security and Medicare taxes from your own funds, don't withhold them from your employee's wages. The social security and Medicare taxes you pay to cover your employee's share must be included in the employee's wages for income tax purposes. However, they aren't counted as social security and Medicare wages or as federal unemployment (FUTA) wages. Report the social security and Medicare taxes that you paid in boxes 4 and 6 of your employee’s Form W-2; also add the taxes to your employee’s wages reported in box 1 of Form W-2.

No offense, Rita, but I would rather have a real expert for the tax issues - a hair dresser, or someone from church. You could obviously do the section on Hugging.

Maybe they plan for him to live in the woods and be entirely self-sufficient and completely off the grid.

I am glad I am not the only one that thought first about trust issues between client and preparer! Maybe it is the time of year, but I am trusting my clients less and less.

Is the taxpayer over 70 1/2? Is this RMD? And which would be worse - 50% penalty on RMD or paying back advance premium tax credit?

If you find a really good, detailed reference material please post. I would be interested too. Like you, I don't do enough of these to feel really confident. Sometimes the problem is not knowing what you don't know so that you don't look up something you should have, however. I need to do CPE on this again soon. It has been too long.

I suggest filing a 1041 for the income, making your fee exactly equal to the amount of the income, and closing the books. Just kidding.

And I remember learning to flow chart as part of the programming process. Only part of it that I still find helpful, although I don't usually use the different shaped boxes. This thread is reminding me that I need to clean out and throw away somethings that have become useless over time -including old programming discs ( some 5.25, some 3.). I remember my first home computer had a hard drive with something measured in MB, and I thought it was huge and would never run out. Ha!

Terry, the example in Pub 17 specifically mentions a daughter who lived with and was supported by her parents the entire year, who filed jointly with her husband, cannot be claimed as a dependent by her parents. So I don't think you should check the box on the daughter that she can be claimed as a dependent on someone else's return. And i don't think that the AGI matters at all. That used to be used as part of the tiebreaker rules, but I think that as long as the child lived with a parent, the parent gets to claim the child no matter who in the household had the highest income. This is because the IRS simplified the rules several years ago and created qualifying children and qualifying relatives. Doesn't this seem simpler to you? (/s) Just remember, reality has nothing to do with how tax returns are filed and who can claim who as a dependent.

Judy, I think the couple can file MFJ if they choose to. The parents can only claim their daughter if she does NOT file a joint return unless the joint return is filed only to get a refund. I think that the filing status supersedes the exemption test, and that is the point that Pacun is trying to make.

Nothing like locking the door after the horse has been stolen. Also need to watch that these K-1s are not in their IRA account. I get two or three a year, with minuscule amounts, but they are in the IRA account so we just ignore them. If they had larger amounts, they could result in UBIT.

VA asks for DL info, but it is not required. However, if you put it on the return and make a mistake, they will kick the return out and require proof at that point.