Sara EA

We use UltraTax for most tax prep, and we can enter income in all the boxes, so I don't think the IRS doesn't allow it.

Oh yeah? I had a client who had self-prepared for years and had depreciation correct down to the penny! I was impressed. Look at the prior year returns to see if depreciation was ever taken, but you don't have to amend or do anything with them. The 3115 will handle all the missed depreciation. Since the adjustment will increase current income, I believe there is an automatic election to spread the income over four years. You do have to calculate the missed depreciation. Every time I do that, I wonder if newer preparers even know how. I think we've all become a bit stupider by having software do so much math for us.

She was single at the time of the gift. Even if he was alive, gift-splitting between spouses is an election so you wouldn't need his SS unless they chose to split their gifts.

Bequests come from corpus. The beneficiaries will not get K1s for bequests. The charity will get the income and the rest of the corpus.

$203 is an odd amount, so this may be what it cost Habitat to come get the furniture (truck, labor, etc). In that case, your client is paying that bill for them so I'd add it to the donation. This s kind of like the fees that credit card companies charge for online donations. Donors are given a choice whether to pay it for the charity. If they don't, the charity pays it.

Normally it's an easy fix for congress to amend legislation to correct oversights like this. With the divisiveness in congress now, however, I'm not confident that they'll agree on anything.

I always preferred live. Hanging with other tax geeks was fun, and some questions people asked really helped figuring out things you hadn't put your finger on to ask. Since I moved to VA, however, live seminars are so far away that they would require overnight stays or hours on the road. I've adapted to online and find I get a lot out of virtual seminars if I keep taking notes and stay focused. I dropped my membership in NAEA this year, after almost 20 years. Seminars were way too far away, the online blog was sometimes informative but filled with posters just trying to be the smartest person in the room, and I realized that all I got out of my membership was a quarterly journal. The state chapter fees increased this year, and I decided that paying $365 for nothing but a journal wasn't worth it. In CT, at least I got to go to live seminars and network. They were expensive though, as NAEA spends a lot of its funds on lobbying and doesn't grant much to the state chapters to offset the cost of seminars. NATP seminars were more reasonable in price, but often they were a little too basic for me. I have retained my NATP membership.

I too will read a lot more. So many books out there to get into. I'll know everyone at the library on a first name basis. Revive the gardens. Organize the old photos and clean out the old files (could take a year). Birding sounds fun, and I'd love to be able to identify bird songs and calls. Think about all the fairly local places you haven't really explored and go see them. I've know a few movie buffs who finally got to binge on the oldies but goodies when they retired. You'll have more time to socialize--invite a neighbor for coffee or go to lunch together regularly. Join the Friends of the Library or Trout Unlimited or Quilters or whatever group that interests you to meet new people and have new opportunities. You could always volunteer for AARP or VITA during tax season if you miss it.

If there ends up being an estate tax, it is paid by the estate. As for the beneficiaries, it depends on what the estate does with the assets and what it distributes to the heirs and when. If it both sells the farm and distributes the cash in its final year, the heirs pay any cap gains tax on their portion. If it sells and doesn't distribute in the same year, it pays any cap gains. You can't really answer the client's questions because there are too many unknowns here. I'm not sure I'd like a client who is counting her money before her parents pass away. Hope my kids aren't doing that.

Since the returns will be paper filed, no point in using the estate bank account because paper checks will be issued anyway (no direct deposit). There must be an EIN because a bank account couldn't be opened without a TIN. It doesn't go on the 1040 unless there is income paid after the death but reported to the decedent. For example, a brokerage account may report the whole year worth of dividends to the decedent, in which case you put the whole amount on the 1040 and then back out the amount paid after death, using the explanation "IRD to be reported by EIN...." That won't be an issue until 2023. Don't worry about confusing CT or IRS. IRS doesn't pay much attention to state entries, and CT won't complain if you report income to them.

If court appointed, no need for the 1310. The refund will be payable to the estate. In my experience, though, the IRS always asks for the 1310. You will have to use the admin's address so any correspondence doesn't go to the deceased's old address. On the street address line I usually put c/o [name of admin] and then his address. The forms should go to the IRS address used by CT residents. I have never had to file a death certificate. Since refunds will go to the estate, you should get an EIN so son can open a bank account. Better find out if there was a will. If the person died intestate and had no spouse or children, CT law says the parent inherits all.

Is there an actual estate and court-appointed administrator? If so, the estate gets the refund and the admin directs it to the heirs as directed by the will or state law. If the heirs want the mother to get it all, the easiest way is just to give it to her themselves when they get their distributions. Sometimes all the deceased's assets were titled TOD or with named beneficiaries so there is no Probate estate. In that case a responsible party signs the 1310 and agrees that the funds will be distributed in accordance with the will or state law. One person can't just decide to claim the funds and keep them. If there is a court-appointed admin, all the returns with refunds have to be paper filed with a copy of the court appointment attached. (It's not on the list of the forms that can be attached via 8453 or pdf.) All of the CT returns must be paper filed as well with a copy of the Federal 1310. If there is a balance due, go ahead and efile.

In all the years I have used it and the client had an issue, the IRS still demanded the 2848 before they would talk to me. Our software automatically checks it, but in practice it's useless.

It sounds like it should work IF the systems are up and running properly. I remember the first year of the economic stimulus payments, when the IRS didn't have time to reprogram its systems so any return that claimed the credit had to be hand verified. Many of those people had indeed gotten a stimulus payment but "forgot" or didn't notice because it was direct deposited. The ones who actually didn't get a stimulus check had to wait months for their money. For the EV credit, zillions of dealers will have to be educated and trained, and eventually have to start asking about AGI, while Congress is taking money away from the IRS. What could go wrong?

How is the buyer of the used vehicle to know if the credit was claimed before? The new EV rules make the credit easier and at the same time harder for everyone. Easier for us is that we no longer have to search to see if a certain vehicle qualifies. The rules are so complex about this or that material being sourced here or there in what percentages that now we can just tell clients to ask their dealer for credit eligibility. Harder for us are the rules that will kick in later that the credit can be claimed at the dealership to lower the price of the vehicle if the purchaser chooses. How many will take it when they buy and then "forget" when we do their tax return? Will the IRS systems detect the double dipping? There will be AGI limits too. How many dealers won't even ask and give the buyer the credit to cinch the deal? Will the IRS systems notice that? Credits taken at the dealership are out of our hands, but of course any rejections will be our fault.

The income will go on her return, as the IRS says it should be reported by the person who received it. The withholding, however, is in his SS number, not hers or the estate's, and he can't file the year after he died. Following the good advice from other above, I asked the client to get corrected 1099Rs with her info on them.

The problem is not the income but the withholding. It was reported in the decedent's SS number. He died the prior year and can't file for 2022. Spouse or estate can't claim the withholding because it was reported in his SS, not hers or the estate's EIN. I'll go the route of trying to get the 1099Rs corrected. Thanks everyone for the suggestion.

A dear client died in 2021. The estate is on a fiscal year, no problem there. His spouse will be filing Single in 2022. There are three 2022 IRA distributions reported to him under his Soc Sec number. IRS says the person who received them should report them; they were deposited into their joint account, so they go on her 2022 return. There was state and federal withholding on the 1099R, under his SS so I can't put the amounts on her return. The 1310 doesn't cover this situation. Any ideas how to get the withholding back?

A restaurant burned down and the plight of the workers came to light. Some had worked there for decades and could retire. Since they were paid partially or completely off the books, they were shocked that they were entitled to little or no Social Security benefits. Others paid the same way were eligible for little or no unemployment. Years ago SSA sent statements to workers a few months before their birthdays each year projecting their benefits if their inflation-adjusted incomes remained the same. Amazing how many of our small business owners making $10 or $20k a year found religion when they saw in black in white that their SS would amount to peanuts.

This is the most terrifying hack of all. Not only do the hackers have all your personal data, they have your physical description. Unless you are 4'5" or 6'6", it won't be too hard to find someone who looks like you and can cash those checks. Make sure that you have a credit freeze and not a credit alert (which the companies recommend because it still allows them to sell your credit scores).

I lived most of my life in New England, and I still would never accept being grouped with the guys--those creatures who find bathroom humor funny and gorge themselves in pie-eating contests. I've been a Southerner for less than four years and have taken to y'all as an inclusive, respectful, grammatically acceptable term. I went to undergraduate school in Boston and if I wasn't careful I could have come home with a Brooklyn accent. Half of my dorm was from Neu Yok.

I have always resented that term. Living in an all-male household, I definitely do not want to be grouped with those who eat over the sink and consider armpit noises hysterical. I chose my pronouns long before it was the thing to do.

In the old days, before MACRS and possibly before ACRS, accountants could come up with any length of time they thought a piece of property would last, guess its scrap value, and depreciate based on that calculation. These liberties ended with the adoption of the formal depreciation systems, yet over the course of my career I have encountered several older accountants who haven't kept up with their CPEs and continue to invent their own depreciation rules.

"All y'all is used in the Southern United States when a speaker wishes to include everyone being addressed. Y'all may refer to an indefinite set of members of a group, but all y'all definitively includes everyone in the group." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/all_y'all Having fairly recently moved to the South, I hear y'all all the time. I thought it was cute until I read a linguist's take on the term and now I think it's wonderful and am trying to adopt it into my lexicon. She explained that it's nothing more than a contraction for "you all," is gender neutral, is respectful to young and old alike, and is friendly and inclusive. While many (including some Southerners) view the term as boorish, it sure beats the New England "youse." A guy I know who grew up in CT and moved to WV now says "all" instead of "oil." If you've been to Boston, you will be amazed how they have removed the "r" was every word and still manage to communicate (Pak your ca in Havad Yad). John Kennedy took language lessons to try to enunciate the r sound, with limited success.

When Roths were first introduced, the law contained an enticement to convert from an IRA: Convert all at once and spread the tax bill over four years. I did that with mine, and two years later the tax rate went up so I ended up paying more than I bargained for. Now the rate is even lower than it was back then. On the positive side, the IRA didn't have that much money in it so while the tax percentage was higher than it is now, actual tax dollars paid weren't that great. So yes, it's a crapshoot to decide whether to convert or not. Who knew they would change the rules for inherited Roths? Who knows what tax rates will be in the future or what other rules will change? The fact that RMDs are not required is a big benefit for those who may not need the money, but that's the case today and it too may change. Still, I have no regrets about converting mine. It's nice to know it's there and I can withdraw from it if I choose but never have to withdraw (for now).