mcb39

They absolutely ARE employees as opposed to the stylist or cosmotologist who rents a chair in a salon and runs her business herself; including hours of work, appointments, sale of product. I have a client who started out as an employee such as you cite. She left and rented a chair in a salon. She now needs not only an operators license but also an establishment license. Of course, these are WI laws and I imagine other states have other rules. However, as far as the IRS is concerned, she is a schedule C Sole Proprietor, pays quarterly estimates and makes a lot more money than she did under the percentage setup that your friend runs. She also buys and sells her own product.

What a relief for you. I was taught many years ago to always look for the simplest things first. I was about to suggest that you check to see if you had chosen the correct printer in print setup for Word. But, am glad that you solved it on your own.

I had the exact same situation with one of the 2007 claimants. He GOT the $7500 refund, but they wanted him to pay it back because he had paid property taxes on vacant land. I know we faxed them everything once and then called the person who had generated the Letter of Collection....the second time. We mailed them everything including the tax statement that clearly showed the words "vacant land" and the tax transfer paper showing when he sold it to his brother. It took about a year before he received a letter of apology. Of course, by then he was sorry that he hadn't waited another six months to purchase a home as in 2008 they got to keep the entire $8000 with no 15 year payback.

Oh my! Where is your rifle when you need it? About ten feet out of reach. However, the lion just looks curious. Let's hope he stayed that way.

Isn't the husband technically an employee of the S-Corp and therefore ineligible for the SE Insurance deduction?

I am successfully using Ghost 2010 to backup entire hard drive to a portable external hard drive.

This answer is correct. I would just like to add that nowhere do they appear on the 1065. These are strictly business expenses of the individula partners that are not paid for by the partnership.

I HAD to work with what she brought me and she brought all of the deductions in her reports from her computer. She did not bring a mileage log and I did not take mileage. As far as depreciation goes; the rentals are governed by residential rental rules. Business property is already in my depreciation log and they had nothing new to depreciate. I called him yesterday and told him that I would not be able to prepare their taxes this year if she insisted on driving the bus that she tried to throw me under. He is in agreement with me, or so he says. Things are pretty likely to get nasty and unless they are divorced before the end of the year, I am going to be out of it.

If it becomes apparent that somebody might go to jail, your first responsibility is be sure it's the client.

Thank you, Gentlemen. You agree totally with my take. When she said "amended", I shivered internally. I would not have done it for her in any case. This was always a nice return, three businesses, seven rentals, two kids in college, etc. Now the marriage is going South and I would just as soon be out of it. I will print your replies so that when she confronts me again, I can show her more explicit facts and circumstances. She is being advised by her sister who is a "financial planner", and, supposedly, a man-hater. The sister keeps telling her that her husband's business is just an expensive hobby. NOT the case. He is a taxidermist and naturally things are slow as they are in most luxury oriented businesses. I am having no issues with the husband, but cannot split allegience unless they divorce this year. Lots of assets involved here as well as lots of debt. Thanks again.

Have a client's spouse who is unhappy with the preparation of their return as she thinks the self-employed husband should not claim his deductions in order to show more income. The bank is looking at their return for a refinance. The bank isn't liking the numbers. I told them years ago that as they have several rentals which they have been busy paying off, thus creating a rental income gain; that they should be paying off some of their personal debt and let the rentals stand on their own. As it turns out the bank is not even going to consider the value or income from the rentals. Wife is living apart from her husband and is quite upset with him (for not making enough money) and me (for not giving him a larger profit.) Just what are the ethical and responsibility concerns here for me as a preparer? Is it common for a taxpayer to ask to show more income and more tax owed? I don't feel right about it and will step aside if she insists on taking a stand. She even asked the banker if they should amend and he told her that would just make it look worse. This couple is almost certainly headed for a divorce. He is very happy with the returns that I have prepared for them for many years. I want to know, though, what my moral stance should be here. We all know that the IRS doesn't allow deductions to be over-declared. How do they feel about under-declared? I feel that I would be preparing a false return with the intent of duping a financial institution. I won't do that. :scratch_head:

Yes, that is a great price. I have two Red Iomega ego external drives and one of them, in reality, is a Seagate. I did get one from Buy.com and got them at some great prices, but now that I do a search, instead of going down; prices have gone up. Free shipping on this one, too.

Pretty much the same here as I work alone. I have the ringer shut off in my office, but can easily hear the ringing from the kitchen and one glance tells me who is calling. I rarely answer the phone when I am with a client unless it is someone that I have called and really "need" the information. Then, I excuse myself and keep the conversation brief. My clients also like my accessability, the research that I am willing to do for them, and the time that I am willing to spend with them. (Even on Sunday, as Lion said.) I was pleasantly surprised to see that more and more of them are using e-mail contact than ever before. They leave it up to me to make the call, which I do asap. Many more are being done by mail, fax and e-mail. But, there will always be the ones that like the "chat" time and I give them as much of that as I can. Many times, I never see the spouse. 8879s are mailes, faxed, scanned or dropped of, but they get them to me. I really never thought about it until Lion said it. I am really more focused on service than price. Yes, John, it is great when they say "You are the Best!" or "I have to hug you before I leave!" and/or any of those other kind words of appreciation and small tokens such as a small boquet of flowers. I am moving into the third generation of some of my families and that must mean something is right.

You could always do it on the Indiana.gov website. I left you a link on the other ATX Community board.

Software is no substitute for a good preparer........You cannot say that often enough. I just finished amending a 2009 return for a Wisconsin resident and client who had done work in two other states. His W2's were correct. The tax return was not. One of the states has reciprocity with Wisconsin. That part was OK. The other state does not and had the proper amount of income broken away and taxed. Hence a tax return for Iowa. It so happens that Wis, as I would imagine many other residential states might, has a credit for taxes paid to another State which is calculated on a Wi Form OS. This is because a full year resident's entire income is taxable to Wi. In other words, tax paid to two states for the same income. The Preparer totally missed this and probably knows nothing about it. In addition, she attributed Wi Unemployment Income to Iowa; making the Iowa return incorrect. Instead of oweing Iowa money and a penalty, which they paid; they should have gotten a refund. So with the Wisconsin credit of over $600 and the Iowa payback of $200, I thought these were some fairly serious errors. Am not claiming to know it all and am sure that I do not. However, I do a lot of research and I am not above telling a client when something is beyond my realm of knowledge. I think that the ATX software is excellent, but agree with Joan that the Preparer HAS to know what goes where and why it does. If something is not where I know it should be, what did I do or not do to cause the glitch?

I am wondering if this Mother would like to adopt me.

I have a client who is from Wis, but has been attending UMI for several years. In 2010, he was sent to UAB on a fellowship to do research. He is working there on a grant called a T32. We had to file a part year MI, part year Al for 2010. He will be in Alabama the entire 2011 year. He is now, as of this morning, questioning whether this fellowship is taxable to Alabama as it is to Federal. He has been having some discussions with "some other postdocs at UAB and they say that that he may not be required to pay Alabama state taxes." I cannot find anything in my resources to bear this out. Anyone out there from Alabama or familiar with this type of situation who can help me out. No taxes are being withheld from the Fellowship. We have set up automatic estimates for both Fed and Al for 2011. This is a new wrinkle just e-mailed to me this AM.

Having been through this, that is my take also. But, wouldn't a POA allow the daughter to access the money NOW if that is what the monther has in mind.?

First I watched the video. How Impressive! Then.........I looked at the picture. You actually have a floor. I can't find mine at the moment. And, you have room on your desk for a plant!!!!! Pretty awesome, girl.

It will be interesting to see how and when the IRS works their way out of this entire Adoption chaos that they have created. They can't even find my clients' return even though she sent it certified. Wisconsin has it, but the IRS claims that they don't know where it is.

I agree with KC. I also had an adoption in 2005 of three children. (special needs). The 8839 used up very little credit in each ensuing year. 2010, of course, would have been their final carryforward year. I, personally, would do all the amendments. All they really want is the carryover worksheet for the 8839. Since these have to be paper filed anyway, I would put everything in one envelope and mail it all to them. Do tell your clients not to hold their breaths as there seems to be some IRS snafu in processing these returns. It is nice that they changed the rules this year for those, like us, who would lose the credit after this year.. However, they did create a headache. Even though I had filed 8839 each year, my credit had to be calculated on the allowed credit for 2005. I made up my own worksheet starting with the beginning credit and how much was deducted each year and the balance left. They had a little over $7000 left for 2010. So far they have not gotten their money, but there is no reason they shouldn't.

The Syncronize works when restoring files for 2010. I haven't tried any other years. But, every time I move from desktop to laptop, I have to "sync" if I want the efile info to be correct.

I checked it out and signed up also. Gosh, Rita, I wish my spare bedroom office looked as neat and tidy as yours. I don't come to work looking like that either. Congratulations!

Sounds like you have been sniffing more than roses! BTW, I just got mine filed and I don't owe anything either; for none of the reasons that you cited in the previous post.