Gail in Virginia

It does not have to be a degree, it can be another recognized education credential. This includes most trade school certifications, which is what she would get from Cosmetology School.

It depends. Is this a repair or a rebuild of the engine? If it materially extends the useful life of the asset, you might be supposed to depreciate it.

I believe that you get an error message telling you that you can only have one 5405 per return.

I don't think you should call your wife a moron, even if she did not know that Janitor Bob always speaks the truth. It just isn't nice. I hope she doesn't read this board. ;)

I would be inclined to file in the new state just to show that we did not make any money in that state. Otherwise, how do they know?

All we have here are a lot of stinkbugs. For some reason there has been a plague of them this winter. :angry:

One tool that I find helpful is to sort the e-files by status. If I click on the word status at the top of the list, the returns sort themselves according to their status rather than alpha by return name. This makes it easier for me to be sure I have found everything that has a status of created when I am getting ready to transmit returns.

We have a client (who I keep trying to convince to go somewhere else) who has three corporations. One is wholly owned by the husband (call it Hubby, Inc.) one is owned by the husband and wife (call it Couple, Inc.) and one is owned by the husband and an unrelated third party (call it Sucker, Inc.). Sucker, Inc. doesn't have anything to do with this particular question. All three are S corps. Hubby, Inc. bought a piece of land, which they then sold to Couple, Inc. Couple, Inc. spent some money fixing it up, and Hubby, Inc. did some work fixing it up for which they were not paid. Couple, Inc. then did a deed of gift to return the property to Hubby, Inc. Hubby, Inc. has the property for sale. How do I determine basis? Is there such a thing as a gift tax return for corporations? Why are they doing this to me? What forms do I need to file?

ATX works the same way. I think the check box is on the top of the page, above the form, on page 1 of the 8606. If you want to count it all this year, you mark the box. If you do nothing the program assumes that you are splitting it half in 2011 and half in 2012.

But even after today's program update, I still can't create an efile for a form 4868. I have a client leaving the country until after the 18th of April , and I want to file his extension before it slips my mind! I guess once the corporations are done, I devote an afternoon to calling ATX and straightening out some problems.

It is strange. I have the new version also, now, even though I had tried about 4 times to update this morning and nothing had changed as far as the program. And I could not find any place on the support site that actually told you what the current version should be. I hope whoever is watching will keep it up.

Just wondering - MY program version is 2010.3.6 Does anyone have a later version?

I have not been able to create an e-file for 4868 either, but had assumed I was just to early this year. I update manually every day on my computer, and the other two do the automatic update whenever they sign on. But it has been a long time since I have been told that they update requires me to restart the program. I am concerned about that.

I am doing a return for a North Carolina resident. According to the instructions, private retirement benefits included in federal taxable income that do not exceed $2000 are deductible from NC taxable income. My taxpayer took an IRA distribution and rolled it over into a ROTH IRA. The total amount is less than $2000. Is this is excludable on the NC return? He also has a small amount from a settlement on a mutual fund formerly held in his IRA. If I am reading this correctly, since he cashed the check instead of forwarding it to his IRA trustee to be put in the IRA, he must pay tax and penalty on this amount. Is this excludable from his NC income?

This is a hard field to compare value. Most preparers, me included, don't like to give prices over the phone because that simple return isn't, and unless someone you know recommends their preparer to you, I can't give you references that you can contact because I can't give out the names of my clients. And a lot of it is taken on faith - someone can sound knowledgeable, but unless you are equally educated in that field you really can't judge. And if you are equally educated, you would probably be doing your own return.

I have never been able to, but I think that is because I have not had the correct EIN for the W-2. And if I am not mistaken, you have to wait until April sometime even if you know that a w-2 is not forthcoming.

I am glad that the challenge came out the way that it did, but I would personally have been curious to have also compared an experienced, unenrolled preparer's fees and out come, and would have loved to have seen a mention of Enrolled Agents as an option.

Technically, it is a wash sale, but since all of the stock was sold you add the cost of the shares involved in the wash sale to the basis and end up at the same place as if it weren't a wash sale because it all was sold. I am assuming that more than 30 days has passed since the sale and the taxpayer did not purchase this stock again. At least, that is the way that I understand this.

No. The state is not accepting any pass through entity filings electronically at this point, and the list of software vendors approved for regular C-Corps is short, and ATX is not on it. You can upload the Virginia K-1 through Virginia's website if you wish, but that seemed like more trouble than it was worth to me.

Kea, I never assume they can actually count pages, or identify form numbers. I make a separate e-file for documents to be signed that just contains the 8879 and VA 8879., Then I create a file with the rest of the tax return in it. This does not eliminate the ones that print both files and get confused, but it helps.

Return must be paper filed. In addition to the HUD statement, I recommend sending paperwork showing a utility bill sent to the new residence and a copy of the driver's license with the new address; this helps demonstrate that the taxpayer lives there and this is his principal residence. Taxpayer should also be prepared to wait.

That was great! Sounds like some conversations that I have had where I finally tell them I will write a letter that says nothing, and they think that is wonderful.

You can also just type over the name on the return manager to change it.

SaraEA, I think you may have misunderstood. The sales tax on a new car is no longer deductible by itself - you cannot add it to your standard deduction or add it to the state income tax deduction on schedule A. However, you can still add the sales tax paid on the purchase of a vehicle, boat, etc to the amount of sales tax deductible according to the general sales tax tables in determining the amount of sales tax deductible instead of state income tax. And unlike the stand-alone sales tax deduction that was only available Feb. 15, 2009 through Dec. 31, 2009, this does not have to be a new vehicle, it can be a used vehicle.

But apparently it is happening. I just checked on the one that I have already e-filed - accepted 2/17, and refund can be expected 3/15 according to website. Ridiculous!