Randall

A lot of people just don't understand what a corp or LLC is about. They are separate entities. Sometimes it seems absurd to file more returns and such, but they should realize what their form of business is and how it is to be reported. If they want to change it, do the proper procedures for dissolving the entity, etc. But until then, you have to file the proper forms.

I agree about the comfort level of getting the acknowledgement. Same with the extensions. I put off efiling extensions until a few years ago, I scratched my head and asked myself why am I sending these in paper. I just efiled all my corp extensions. I'll do 1040s the first week of April. Try to contact clients I think might owe something for a payment to send in but at least the extensions will be filed.

I began efiling 1120s and 1065s last year. I put it off several years because Ky still isn't up on these. But I decided I could still save a little time and paper by efiling the Fed and paper filing the state.

Sometimes I think certified means I'm 'genuine certified', meaning I'm 'out there'. I think CPA has come to one of those things where the initials just mean the initials and the original words carry less meaning. Way back in college, I thought auditing was a real neat thing, then I did some of it and wasn't sure (inside) what the heck it was all about. In recent years, I'm very skeptical it means anything at all. With the scandals of Enron, Arthur Andersen going down, the banks and their nonsense, I just scoff at an audit report. The AICPA almost destroyed the CPA designation a few years ago by trying to move to a new designation, called Cognitor. Ha. The membership voted it down. Wow, over a hundred years of the CPA designation down the drain for a joke like moniker. I'm old and jaded now.

I'm a CPA. Most of you EAs and others do a whopping more business than me. Sometimes I think people avoid me BECAUSE of the CPA designation, thinking I'll cost them a lot more. My fees are probably lower than yours. I wonder what good it's done me to be a CPA. I pay whopping dues to the AICPA and Ky Society of CPAs and wonder why I keep doing it. Ok, my rant is over too. Back to the original post. Why couldn't an investment adviser answer the question about RMDs?

Whew. Sorry to hear these stories. Two clients recently died. Now in the middle of my busiest time, I'm having to deal with my Mom's situation.

This was in 2008. I don't know much about Ameridream myself. I just saw this on the settlement statement. I agree that with the substance over form approach. This amount wasn't paid by the client so it just essentially reduced the cost of the home.

If a person receives a grant (Ameridream program) to help purchase a home, is this part of the person's purchase price for basis purposes or does the grant have to be subtracted? I know logically it wouldn't make sense to include this, but there are some quirky benefits. Settlement statement shows total purchase cost, then the grant as part of the upfront payment.

Add me to the personal situation. Mom (87 in two weeks) fell and broke her hip last week.

We can't efile KY business returns yet. Ugh.

Personal rep signs both 1040 and 1310. On the 1040, I unprotect the form, and type under the signature line where the spouse signature woud be "Personal Representtive".

I've learned that lesson. I qualify it with depending on how many W2s or does he have a savings or mutual fund account, etc. I still just charge a small nominal add on fee.

I got the S500 a few years ago and it's still going strong. No need to update yet. But it doesn't have the twain driver. Does the S1500 have the twain driver. Not sure if I need it right now, but I think I'll want it with my next one for some things coming up.

I think you can efile with a surviving spouse. Even without a surviving spouse if there is no refund. But if no surviving spouse and a refund due, you have to use Form 1310 and paper file.

I have Fujitsu ScanSnap S500. But I wasn't working with my scanned documents. I was just trying to move an ATX return and worksheets over to a Paperless Plus file. Also, move some existing pdf files. Just to see how the program worked.

Can't answer your question. But on the subject, can we file a short year for a 1040 return. Just got word, a client died. I'll do the 2011 but I'm wondering if we have to wait a year to do a final 2012.

Thanks. As always with this stuff, finding the time to get into it is difficult.

From TaxCPANY in another post. "I can't access Intelliconnect to perfect the cite." Any quick tips on using Intelliconnect? I seem to get bogged down when I do a search and get the results. Sifting thru the results to find what I'm looking for gets tedious.

When I get bogged down with a return, I set it aside and do some that I think will go quickly. This lets me get some work 'finished' before going back to the other.

I think in previous years, there was only one option in the client letter option tap. I used to manually delete the word 'sucessfully'. But this year, there is an option to say the return 'has been' efiled or 'will be' efiled. I use the 'will be' wording.

Same here. But I do have the problem. Strange.

Thanks. That's what I was seeing too. I'm waiting for more info on the purchase amounts (wasn't my client in 2008, year of purchase). I think basis will be $7000 (amount of unpaid credit) over 'selling price'.

Client received the $7500 credit in 2008. Paid $500 back in 2010. Filed bankruptcy in 2011, bank took back home. Am I correct in using balance of unpaid loan as 'selling price' and calculating gain or loss on 5405? Or is there a special exception for bankruptcy that would eliminate pay back of credit? I'm still waiting on some info from client and I'm thinking there will be a loss eliminating the pay back anyway. But I wanted to throw the topic out for response.

Same here. Some do, some don't. Most don't. MAS, why would you recreate, instead of just releasing from the efile manager? Seems recreating is more time.

You may not want to charge the $1500. But don't go too low. Even the easy ones can take some time. There's the state return and the local returns. If their two locations are in different local taxing districts (common in my area), then there's the allocation of the two locals. A lot of these local returns are not in ATX. These can be time consuming. Don't make my mistake and go too low. Tell them you turned them down the first year and they chose to operate as an S Corp so this is all part of it. Then there's keeping track of basis, reasonable W2 compensation vs. shareholder distributions. All these things add up in a lot of time that's really not seen by the client.