BHoffman

Hi Rich, you are absolutely right that fees depend on many things. I'm just saying that some mighty good tax preparers may not be giving themselves enough credit for their work and their knowledge and experience. The OP seemed stunned at the fee he was thinking of charging. I think it's very reasonable for the work described in the post. That said, I still think it's difficult to learn how to prepare business returns and fees should include the recoupment of all that previous time and effort we've spent.

Hi Rich- I'm totally undercharging this guy. The mess he's in now came from his getting scammed into one of those donor advised things back in the 90s. I guess I feel sorry for him, but my sympathy is wearing thin.

You guys are seriously undercharging for 1120S. I can whip one out in an hour if the info is good from the client. But, it took me YEARS to be able to do that. No Turbox program is out there for these returns. No franchise tax company is going to charge less than $1200. It's not like the competition costs less, and over time these returns are easy for us, but it was LONG HARD WORK for us to get to the point where it became easy.

My PSYCHIC POWERS have activated!!!! The dead horse SPEAKS!!! "Chaaaaarge", he says. "Charge as much as they will paaaaaay!!". He's fading....."If their AGI is into six figure.....chaaaaaarge.....chaaaaaarge......"

Partners receive guaranteed payments instead of a payroll check, so I'll vote to treat the payments as ordinary expense.

I would have charged a minimum of $800 for 1120S including the state return. I would have charged a minimum of $850 for the 1040 and the state returns.

ILLMAS he's way, way over the 400%. Even a max SEP contribution won't bring it down enough.

I've been reading all day with my head tilted back about this BIG thing and have concluded that the drop in FMV doesn't make any difference. They still had the same amount of gain. Figured that out after taking a little walk. When I looked down, the glasses made the ground seem farther away so I felt really tall

I'm going to wear the glasses all day today since I'm just printing and assembling and see how things look tomorrow morning. Glad to know that others have had the same experience. FDNY - no line in the middle. I tried a pair of those and and they were impossible for your same reason! The ugly is worse than the bad. I'm ready to pull the trigger on this BIG tax return.....any advice on that?

Might need to consider the support test. How did the student afford to pay his living and education expenses? If he took out a student loan in his own name, received scholarships, assistance, etc. I think that counts toward him providing his own support.

I can't charge enough to make this worth the stress. He is one of three high maintenance, low paying (because they just don't have enough money) clients I have kept over the years for the plain fact that I just love them as people. One retired and closed up his business, one is probably going close up in the next year or two, and this guy. I am grabbing at straws here, but someone help me out with a question regarding the BIG? The FMV of the assets on the date of conversion was $50,000. The basis was $2,000 (don't ask...). So the NUBIG was $48,000. On the sale date the FMV of the assets had dropped to $25,000. I figured the realized BIG is $23,000. Now I'm wondering if the decrease in FMV between the date of conversion and the date of disposition makes any difference. I'm thinking it doesn't because the tiny basis didn't change....Am I correct? The assets were marketable securities that were not treated as cash equivalents per Sec 731 and I did not prepare the tax return in the year of the conversion.

Good - I thought I would spending the weekend catching up on bookkeeping, but happily discovered that I'd already finished it! Bad - I can't really see well enough out of my new progressive glasses and am pretty frustrated about that. Ugly - Client owes BIG tax on 1120S, 1120S loss is suspended, owes capital gain for distribution in excess of basis, owes ACA subsidy because he went way over 400% on his Sch C. Every year it's a new catastrophe. Deciphering his paperwork is like untying a wet shoelace. I want very much to fire him. I love the guy, but dread doing his tax returns each and every year. He's on the short list to get my gentle farewell kiss.

Maybe SIL should be asked by your client to pay the taxes as a nondeductible gift since she bolluxed up. That would really be nice. Nicer than your client running the SS8 and 8919. And a big hug. I take it your client is probably young and not very wealthy. I'm handing a tax return to a single with no dependents twenty-something youngster who made around $24,000 in 1099M income working free-lance as an admin assistant for several real estate agents. Collected unemployment. No health insurance. She's looking at around $4k in taxes due. Pretty sure she doesn't have that laying around. We'll be talking about an installment agreement. Ugh.

I think it's obvious that SIL should have either paid the client as an employee, or just given her the money as a nondeductible personal gift. Why not put the expenses together and run the Sch C with home office, cell phone, mileage, etc. and see how it comes out compared to reporting it on line 21? What is the tax difference between a Sch C vs. Line 21? If the client receives an IRS notice, will she win her argument? I don't think so. How much additional tax if IRS changes the income to SE? Would she face the accuracy related penalty?

I have reported box 7 on line 21 and noted the EIN of the issuer without the client receiving any notices more than once for these situations. Line 21 Hobby activity income is sometimes reported in box 7, for instance.

Done!

Ok. The SEHI deduction starts out with the total premiums paid (column A), minus the subsidy paid by the government (column C) plus any required repayment or minus any additional subsidy (form 8962). All in the same year.

Repayment of ACA subsidies for SEHI is included in the SEHI deduction in the same year. Client SEHI total before subsidy is $10,000. The subsidy he received in 2016 was $3,000. His 2016 tax return shows he has to repay $2,000. His 2016 SEHI deduction is: 10,000 total - 7,000 subsidy + $2,000 repayment = $5,000 The reason is that the insurance cost $10,000 and he starts out with that amount. The subsidy and repayment are the means of payment.

Don't thank me yet, or maybe at all. I'm not sure now when to deduct the repayment. Drafted ACA and SEHI!

Yes. The PATH Act permanently reduced the BIG holding period from 10 to 5 years.

I know you just file another 1096 / 1099 for only the MISC forms that were missed in the original file, but not sure about the DIV correction and the penalties.

OK. Just to be sure: The SCorp acquired the land on 12/31/13 and in order to avoid the BIG tax, it should wait 5 years until after 12/31/18 to sell. Right?

Dead scorpion in client's "box o' crap" paperwork. Ewwww! Emptied it outside in case there were any live ones lurking in there.