Abby Normal

You mean payer info. Payee is your client. Yes, the IRS only validates that it's a valid EIN for efiling. And as long as the total 1099R income equals what the IRS has, their computer won't kick it out.

I would not use fixed assets to do this. In fixed assets, use the disposal code of removed for personal use. Then go to 8949 and enter like any other sale of residence, just enter the total depreciation claimed and pay tax on only the depreciation.

It won't help to install 2011 because the 2011 forms files are offline now, so you won't be able to download any forms... unless you can convince ATX to send you the forms or provide a link to the forms. If you have ATX 2011 installed on another computer, or know someone who does, you can find and copy the forms to the new install. I have the install file if you can't get it from ATX. We'll just have to figure out how to get it to you (Drive, Dropbox, etc.)

It would kill me inside to have to answer calls all day about where's my refund. I'd need a tape player like the IT Crowd had.

Well I haven't seen one in awhile (yay!), so either I'm misremembering or they've changed. But in either case, an IRS notice without a number to call is absurd... unless they're trying to reduce the number of calls they receive, and who can blame them.

If you can't make it a late election effective 1/1/21, then yes the short year return is due May 15 (2.5 months after year end.). In ATX, you use the month/quarter tab to rollover the 2020 return to a short year 2021 return filed on 2020 forms.

I think they're screwed, at the technical level, but it might be worth an appeal.

I've never heard of such a thing. I've had installment sales in S corps before and the realized gains and interest were simply passed out to the shareholders in the normal boxes on the K1 each year.

That's the collection number for individuals. The one for businesses is 800-829-3903. I've used both for years and they're right on the notices taxpayers receive. Although in my Contacts I have the 3903 for individuals and the 7650 for small businesses. Hmmm. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/federal-and-state-levy-programs https://www.irsmind.com/irs-notices/irs-reopens-its-phone-lines-heres-the-frequent-numbers-and-hours/

Well, it seems odd to call something 'deferred' and then not defer it, from a pure logic standpoint. Unless this was deferred from prior years and has to be reported now.

I would think that if any gain actually passed out, it would be in another box on the K1. I suspect those deferred amounts are just informational, so the partners know what's coming in future years. But I'm just guessing.

I don't believe the IRS tracks carry forwards, as crazy as that sounds. And I agree to just correct the return in ATX but not amend. The your rollovers will be correct.

If you don't save the return when you close it, it will still be the way you filed it. This was one of the main reasons I printed so many pages of each return to a PDF. It gives me a snapshot of what the return looked like, should anything ever change.

Tell them to make sure their partnership agreement allows partners to deduct unreimbursed partnership expenses (UPE) then add the total mortgage payment to her outside basis every year and deduct the interest portion as UPE.

Life lessons are fun!

PINs are per individual. I've already gotten my PIN for 2021.

They need to implement several different phone numbers so all the people calling about when they'll get their refund can tie up the main number, but those with actual tax or account problems can call different numbers. Just like with software support, there are those that call at the drop of a hat about things that could be better handled by email and people who actually need immediate support are left to wait on hold.

I've often heard that a partnership is just a collection of sole proprietors, so I don't think the IRS would have a problem with the mortgage not being in the LLC name, but I'd want the property to be in the LLC's name. And I'd just record the mortgage payments on the LLC's books as a credit to partner capital and debits to interest expense and mortgage payable. When the building was added to the books, it would have been a credit to partners capital so setting up the mortgage liability would a debit to partners capital.

https://www.irs.gov/filing/where-to-file-addresses-for-taxpayers-and-tax-professionals-filing-form-1040v

When we set up the server, we learned that you don't need QB on the computer that stores the QB data files. That was a pleasant surprise. I was afraid QB needed some server software like ATX does.

The reason it's needed is to calculate the gain or loss on sale or trade of the vehicle. You see, a portion of the mileage rate is depreciation (about 26 cents per mile), and ATX will calculate and accumulate the depreciation/mile for you, but only if you put in the actual cost (or other basis) of the vehicle. So if you just use a down and dirty method for mileage, then when the vehicle is traded you have to go back and manually calculate all of the depreciation claimed. I suspect the IRS noticed that the gains on many sch C vehicles were being totally ignored by taxpayers and the government was losing out on some tax. If you're going to depreciate an asset, including the depreciation of cents per mile, then one day you may have to pay the piper... or in a case I had recently, the sch C taxpayer had a substantial loss on trading in the vehicle. So you may be screwing your client out of a deductible loss, too.

I always take for both spouses in cases like this.

Out "server" is just a regular computer that no one uses (it's in a closet) because we didn't want to mess with a special server version of windows. We just put one main data folder on the server and shared that folder. Underneath that folder are client name folders with myriad subfolders so everything for that client is in one place. The server gets backed up constantly using backblaze just as every other computer in the office does. There are always going to be some files kept on each workstation like emails or CPE materials, etc. The server also gets cloned every night when no one is working and we keep the last 4 versions of the clone. We haven't figured a way to send it offsite because our upload internet speed is too low for such a large file.

The biggest problem with buying off the shelf is all the crapware that comes preinstalled, and is set to run automatically at startup. Back when new computers came with a Windows disc, I would reformat the hard drive and reinstall just windows to make sure all that crap was gone. But you can use a good uninstaller to get rid of all traces of those Dell or HP (or whatever brand) programs they install. Dell is the most famous for crapware that impacts performance, security and causes other problems.

There are several place in Windows that you can see some of the auto start programs (not services). One of them is the Task Manager Startup tab, but you won't ATX Services there, but you may find some other things to disable. And there are plenty of 3rd party apps for autostart management. The best one I've found is called Autoruns which you can find on Microsoft's site here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns. In Autoruns you can find the services under Sfs.server..., but I don't recommend do this. For services like the ATX servers, you'll want to go to Windows Services. Probably the easiest way to get there is to start with Task Manager, click on the Services tab then click on the Open Services link at the bottom. Once in the Services manager, sort by name, if not already sorted. The services all start with ATX followed the year then 'Service' (e.g., ATX 2013 Service) Right click each one and choose properties. Change Automatic to Manual so you can start them if you ever need to. Just starting ATX should start the service, or you can run the Admin Tool for that year. or manually start them in Services if all else fails. While you're in services, right click again on each one you don't want running and choose Stop. Next time you reboot your computer, bring up task manager and make sure the services aren't running. Easy peasy.