Abby Normal

Is the third monitor in the middle and long side vertical? That is the setup my son, software engineer, has his workstation. Contemplating a third myself. The vertical monitor allow a whole page to be seen at once.

No but I would try making the middle one vertical if I had that option available. Next time I buy monitors I'm going to look for adjustable height and rotatable mount. It might be worth the extra money! Scrolling is a pain.

We interview and input client information using dual monitors, but they NEVER walk out with a return. After they leave the interview, we finish, assemble, scan, invoice, etc. behind the scenes. They return to pickup when called.

Dual monitors? That's so 2012. I have three monitors and still wish for a fourth many times.

Yes, you missed these:

Find the form you left in the copier.

Curse.

Take out the heavy duty staple.

Run another cover sheet because you wrinkled the old cover sheet, plus you will never hit those holes when you staple again.

Try to staple.

Realize you are out of staples.

Curse.

Reload heavy duty stapler.

Put a bandaid on finger stabbed with staple(s).

Realize that you stapled the 8879 to the preparer copy.

Curse.

Run another 8879 because it's a PITA to remove heavy duty staples with a injured finger.

Recreate the e-file because ATX thinks the return changed.

Curse.

Get on here and defend your honor.

Aaaahhh! I see the problem. For us, assembly just means scan the client's records, do the envelopes, staple the clients paper copy of the return in a folder, and burn a CD of return and records. It goes even faster for those clients that are happy with just the CD and not a hard copy of the return. I charge $10 less if you forgo the paper copy.

Any copying we do (which is almost none) is part of the prep or intake process, when the client gives us records that are not scanner-friendly. And we don't scan the return, we print it to a pdf, and that's the only copy of the return we keep.

I review the return on screen and that's part of the prep, not assembly. Only a really complicated return might be printed out for review.

We're always looking for ways to be more efficient and we almost always improve our processes every year.

If it went into the S corps books, the S corp sold assets, tangible or intangible. How you take the cash out depends on many other factors, but the income will flow thru your K1.

I would lean to taking it as a distribution, taking into consideration reasonable compensation rules and compensation history, the nature of what's being sold, etc.

Each additional state would be $75-$100 depending on the state. Plus the home state would be more for the credit for taxes paid to other states. I'd quote her $700-$1000 and if it comes in less than that, she'll be pleased.

I do some returns (10%) with the client there, including a few businesses. It's great to be able to ask them questions and have them call and get info faxed while I'm working on the return. Sometimes, they're missing info and the return can't be finished.

I'm actually not "face-to-face" because I turn my back on them to work on the computer.

The only annoying ones are the ones with loud obnoxious cellphone noises, but that's just one or two.

It was hard when I first started doing it, but I got over the feeling of being rushed (which I was just doing to myself) and now I rather enjoy it.

My office manager can scan their records and assemble their return in 10 minutes, during which time I either chat with the client or ask them to wait in the lobby. I can't imagine how that would ever take 45 minutes. Although, I took over clients for a retiring CPA and one return she did took her 8 hours including 1 hour of "copying and assembling". Even the first year, the entire process took me and my less than an hour. She was billing at $80/hour and I bill at $260/hour and my bill was less than hers. I actually doubled my bill to this client and they were thrilled that is was less than last year. And I was thrilled to make $520/hr!

Only if the return was filed on 10/15. If you file early - before 4/15 - the return is considered files on 4/15 and you have three years from 4/15. If you file after 4/15 with an extension the return is considered filed when you filed it. So file it July 1st and you have through 7/1/14 to amend.

I don't think that's right. At least, I know I've filed amended returns close to 10/15 before and never had a problem. You may be right about the rule but the IRS computers aren't rejecting them.

You can also elect to treat some of the capital gain from the sale of the land as investment income to allow you to deduct the investment interest that's suspended on the 4952.

I don't think any of us follow the Interest Ordering Rules completely, either because we don't fully understand them or because it's too much work.

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p535/ch04.html#en_US_2013_publink1000243081

Also, once you elect to treat part of your home equity interest as not secured by the home, you need IRS permission to revoke that election:

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Election+not+to+treat+debt+as+secured+by+a+qualified+residence.-a0110741604

You would have been better off taking it all as acquisition and home equity interest instead of allocating it to investment interest.

I prefer my clients know a lot about their taxes so they have at least a feel for whether something is wrong with or missing from their return. It is their return after all.

But too many questions, or being accusatory that I did something wrong gets old quick.

I save before moving to another form because ATX died a few days ago and it had apparently been several minutes since the last autosave and I had to go back and figure out what was the last entry that was saved.

This lame warning is as useless a warning as I have ever seen in my 36 years of computing!

If the dividends and sales proceeds add up to more than the filing limit, I would think they'd get a CP2000. Do they owe state tax?

I like to file regardless so the year will be closed in 3 years.

Yeah, I probably do 150 returns on extension and save each one 20 times while working on it, which equals 3,000 clicks! (I actually use the keyboard so it's 3,000 presses of the Enter key. Makes my pinky hurt just thinking about it!)

If they wanted to warn me once when opening an already efiled RETURN, that would be fine. But warning me because an extension has been efiled, over and over and over, is just beyond annoying. If I ever snap and go postal, it will be directed at programmers! And I used to be a programmer.

This warning provides exactly zero safety because it already prevents you from creating a new efile if one has already been transmitted or accepted. And it doesn't stop you from screwing up your original data file. It just gives you the option of not screwing it up after you made a bunch of changes. Hmmm. I wonder if it will autosave with an already efiled return?

She would have to gift him (whoever that is) half of the underlying lease for him to become a 50% owner. But that will only help with future distributions. She's stuck with paying taxes on the whole check that she already received.

Stem to stern ?

Without looking it up, I'm guessing it has a nautical origin. The stern is the rear of the boat.

Employer doesn't know what they're doing. It belongs on the W2, but would be WAAAYY smarter for both employer and employee to have an accountable plan. Employer may be playing "hot potato" with the 50% limit on meals deduction... or they may just be stupid.

I agree with Jack. I've noticed when pulling IRS transcripts that often the IRS never processes corrected forms, and, even if they do, they won't come after you for $25.

It's not a safety mechanism when the only thing already efiled is the extension. It's just a stupid annoyance. 1/10 of a second?! You must have fast hands!

>If you have too much tax withheld but fail to file a return, you usually only have two years (not three) to get it back.

What? I've never had a problem filing close to the three year deadline.

Now that we have efiled extensions for corporations, every damn time we save a return we get an annoying pop up warning that "efiles could be affected by saving" we have to close. Any way to turn that off? It's totally unnecessary because ATX automatically marks created efiles as rejected when you save and accepted efiles won't be changed.

Is it a partnership or S corp? If so, it might be because of Sec 179 recapture. The gain doesn't go on the entity return but as supplemental info on the K1.

malpractice carrier says you should send a letter simple to remind them of any approaching deadlines.

I always extend them too. Sometimes they show up in the fall.

One of the situations I hate with decoupling is when it's an S corp with no basis to deduct the loss and the software wants to have an add back on MD. If it was big enough, I'd override it and keep a cumulative schedule until there depreciation is actually deducted on the federal 1040. Problem would be if only part of the losses were allowed.

Hopefully, most decoupling differences will go away in a few years and we won't be creating new ones.

Go to the next year....

Not much federal deprec to take, but have a large deduction on the MD return. But no income to offset nor carryforward or carry back options. It really sucks.

Rich

It should create a MD NOL to carryback/forward.

Some ATX insider replied on the official ATX form: