Gail in Virginia

I love how they call these wordy, contradictory statements "guidance." I did notice this statement in the Forbes article: "The guidance makes clear that the penalty does not apply to a plan that has only one participating employee." Now I am not sure which guidance it refers to, but if the church's plan has only one participating employee (the pastor) and only one eligible employee (since everyone else works less than 30 hours per week), does that mean you are okay? I don't know.

I think the purpose was to prevent employers from having their employees buy insurance on the workplace that was subsidized by taxpayers, and then reimburse them for that cheap insurance with tax free dollars. Or maybe they intended to make my head hurt. I get paranoid this time of year.

Until we see how long this is going to take and where most of our customers fall, we are going with our hourly fee.

Rita, I am not as sure as Jack. If the pastor is the only one that qualifies as a FTE, then paying his insurance could be considered a group plan. However, if the policy he has is not MEC and/or was purchased on the exchange, I don't think it would qualify as a group plan no matter what. This article, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/can-employer-reimburse-employee-health-insurance-20554.html seems to say it is okay but this is not substantial authority and I just don't know. I am not nearly as worried about doing tax returns this year as I am about preparing W-2s. Fortunately, the one church that I do W-2s for does have group health through the conference. Can you even purchase a group plan if you only have one employee that qualifies? I know that you used to be required to have at least two employees that took insurance through the plan to be able to get group coverage. I would be inclined to give you at least a definite maybe.

I don't know what I can add to what everyone else has said. I cannot imagine the pain of making that decision for a spouse; but as John said, your wife actually made the decision and you are simply honoring her wishes. Sometimes all that we can do is cope the best we can one day at a time, and depend on our friends, our family and our God to get us through the process of grieving. This is not something that you will get over, but I trust that you will learn to live with the pain and to remember the good times. What an honor that you choose us to share your pain.

In Virginia, SOL can be either the steaming pile or the Standards of Learning. Wait - is that the same thing?

What a stressful time of year to be dealing with an illness in your family. I will also pray for you and your wife.

Ain't we got fun? I can't imagine why everyone doesn't want to be in this profession!

Judy, the only thing that I see on the right when I click more reply options is -Enable emoticons? -Enable signature? -Follow this topic? with the appropriate check boxes. Is this where you see the option to start a poll?

Usually check the box authority works with IRS as long as you are calling before the due date of the next return. Unfortunately, as slowly as they send out notices that rarely happens. Even with 2848's I have heard horror stories from other EA's about agents that look for any reason not to talk to us about the return. For example, the box for licensing authority should be blank for EA's, but occasionally an agent will refuse to accept the POA because it is blank. Another EA told me of having a POA rejected because they signed before the client did according to the date (you can't accept appointment before being appointed.) Anything to avoid talking to us.

I have typed so many more posts than I have ever posted. Sometimes, once I have it typed I decide it contributes nothing worthwhile to the discussion and does not need to be added. The easiest way to delete is to never post. Once posted, I don't think I have ever had any reason to go back and delete the post particularly.

$14 per hour to handle an audit? Really? I don't think so, at least not in my office.

I assume that if we notice a glaring grammatical error 6 minutes after we post, we can still beg one of the moderators to fix it for us. Usually I notice them as I hit post, but you never know.

The only thing that I remember about fees from Circ. 230 is that we cannot charge a contingent fee for return preparation, and we can't charge an unconscionable fee. We have charged a fee for e-filing when we used a software that charged us a fee, but otherwise I think it is cheaper for us to e-file than paper file so I would prefer to charge a fee for paper filing.

With Judy's post, I think she put this issue to rest. Pubs, and opinions by instructors, are not substantial authority. Code is the highest substantial authority.

From the website Health Reform: Beyond the Basics, a project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Do Social Security benefits received by a dependent child count as part of Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI)? Whether the Social Security benefits received by a dependent child counts towards MAGI depends on whether the child is required to file a tax return. A household’s MAGI is the sum of the MAGI of the taxpayer, the spouse filing jointly, and dependents who are required to file a return. Dependents who have income above a certain amount ($6,200 in earned income and $1,000 in unearned income in 2015) must file their own tax return even though someone else claims them as a dependent. (Social Security benefits do not count toward these thresholds.) If the dependent with Social Security benefits is not required to file a return, any Social Security benefits he or she receives are not counted. I would still like to see an actual cite that I feel comfortable with. What I see on the IRS website also seems to say that dependent income is irrelevant if they have no filing requirement. But none of these sources is actually considered substantial authority. Jack, do you have a cite for your position?

I thought that I understood that children's income did not have to be added to household income if they did not have a filing requirement. Is SS received by the child an exception that has to be added back even if they don't have sufficient income to have a filing requirement?

Thanks, Judy. This should be very helpful!

Judy, I am feeling not too bright today. How do I use the link to get the $ amount of the insurance? I found my county on the list for Virginia but I am not sure what to do after that. Are both links supposed to be to the same page? TIA.

When I fall flat on the floor, I take that as a sign that I needed a five minute nap anyway and just go with that while I am down there!

CONGRATULATIONS! Way to stick with it!

I used CFS this year, but i did not realize ATX sold the payroll module that cheaply. That might very well be what I use next year.

22. It must be nice to only work from January through April.

15. But all the money in my 401(k) was money I put in - why should I have to pay taxes on it to get it out? 16. Just put down the same mileage as last year. 17. But the guy I work with makes the same thing I do and he gets a big refund.

I thought that for 2014 it was only the 1095A that would be issued. Do I have that wrong? I hate remembering form numbers.