Oh Baby!

I am interested in renewing my subscription to MAX / ATX. I am trying to do this on-line and the web page is asking for a Quote Number. does anyone have such a number that they can share/

Company has a full time employee who is not a resident of the US and does not live in the US. Works remotely from his / her home country for a US Company. I've read IRS Pub 515 and the instructions to 1042-s. but it's still pretty confusing, so maybe someone here can help. when the employee is hired, what forms do they complete? W4? W9? the employee does not have a social or a TIN? I read in 515, that the company would be required to withhold a flat 30%. but that amount seems outrageous? does the company withhold only federal income taxes or FICA too? And how would the employee get the money back at year end if s/he does not have a social or TIM to file a return? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the advice. I called the IRS and actually got some good advice. They told me, that since the employee does have a pay stub which shows withholdings, the taxpayer should file SS-8, 8919 and 4852. Also to send in the 1099 that was issued so that the IRS will not (mistakenly) come after the taxpayer for ht "unreported" income shown on the 1099MISC.

Taxpayer was receiving a salary and taxes were being withheld. At the end of the year, taxpayer gets a 1099. Apparently, the boss was short on cash and was not remitting the taxes withheld from the employees paycheck. instead, the employer just issued a 1099 for the net amount actually paid to the employee. What is the employee's recourse?

Thanks! but I think I was looking for something more. I want to be able to deduct all the costs of his trading, such as his computer, subscriptions, home office. I believe that a regular individual would include all of that as 2% itemized on Sch A since their stock trades appear on Sch D. I was under the impression that there is a form where I can make an election for the taxpayer who does nothing but day trading to be treated as a "professional (day) trader" and then make it easier (not limited to 2% of AGI) to deduct associated expenses.

I know there is a form for those who trade stocks to register with the IRS as a "day trader" and then the reporting requirements are changed. does anyone know the form number?

But, the "spouse" should be able to appear on the return as a dependent.

If someone was married in a religious ceremony (by a member of the clergy) but does not have a formal marriage certificate from a civil court, are they considered married and filing jointly?

Funny thing is that a year or two ago I had the exact same question....and I got my answer right here on this board.

You file the form that is in place at the time of the year end. So if the year ends during 2008, then you file the 2007 form.

First timer here with a 1031 exchange. Getting real frustrated. Client sold one property for $4.8M. Property had an adj basis of $4.2M with a loan of about $4M. Client identified (with an intermediary) a new property on the same date of sale and purchased closed on the new property within 60 days. New property costs $6M. Seems like I should not have any realized gain. But my system keep spitting out a 4.2Million gain. Can someone help!

Far more complicated. though I hope you are not confusing GAAP with Tax. I'm going to go ahead and capitalize.

Interest on a construction loan is generally capitalized to the cost of construction while the property is being constructed. I know this is correct, but I keep doubting myself. Can someone please confirm.

Does anyone know where i can locate form 1040-VI, which does not seem to be on the IRS web page?

Can someone give me info on how to file a combined corporate return for multiple S Corps that have common ownership. I don't need all the details right here. Can someone just point me to the correct IRS publication? Thanks!

Since I am the one who started this thread and I see that it has moved off course a little bit, let me steer this back in the direction I was hoping. My problem with the EIC (as well as many other government programs for the poor) is that it clearly encourages people to either 1) cheat on their taxes or 2) keeps them poor. The money received from the EIC is rarely used to actually better the family's life. rather, the funds are used frivolously. Want to better a poor family's life? instead of giving them $5,000 a year from the EIC, give them a $5,000 voucher that they can use for college tuition at any college they can get accepted into. In all my years of doing tax work, I have RARELY seen anyone get off of government programs. Whether it be the EIC, food stamps, medicare, subsidized housing etc. So to me, it is clear, that these programs, which in theory, are designed to help poor folks get a better life, do just the opposite.

Just received an e-mail from a client of mine who says he needs to know the status of his refund (EIC). You see, he's off to Europe with his wife later on this week and needs the money to pay for the trip. Was there ever a government program that was more abused???? every year that I prepare an EIC return and I see the EIC amounts increase, I cringe! It's ME, who's working my butt off to pay for these losers to go buy themselves a new flat screen tv from Walmart!

Can anyone tell me if individuals living in the Virgin Islands pay taxes like those in the states or if there are any benefits for those living in the VI? I know they have to file a regular 1040. thanks!

Thanks for the link!

I know it's early.....and I generally don't begin filing returns so soon.......but I have a few requests for returns so I started doing them. NY used to have a form IT-579 which the taxpayer had to sign authorizing the preparer to file electronically. It says that the 579 has been replaced with the 579-IT. But the 579-IT is not available on the ATX download or the NYS web site. Anyone have any info on this?

Does an individual who receives charity have to pay tax on that charity. how about the organization that made the charitable gift, do they have to issue any form of a 1099? Let's use as an example a church that helps one of it's (poor) members by giving them, let's say, $500 to help them through the holidays.

I'm running Vista with a 64 bit system. first, not knowing better, I should not have purchased a 64 bit system. But it appears, that that is what's needed in order to run 4 GB's of RAM. now on to your question. I was able to reinstall my 2004 - 2007 ATX programs fine, but not my 2003 and earlier. not much of an issue. But funny thing happened when I woke up the next morning. The programs were there, but all the data was gone. Every morning, I would have to re-install all the tax returns from the prior year. I called ATX, who told me that the prior year programs are not supported by Vista but did give me the following advice. In the control panel, under "User Accounts and Family Safety" you need to disable turn off the User Account Control. I did this, and now everything runs nicely.

Thanks to everyone for their responses. I only gave "sample" terms and clearly left out many of the important details. I only was looking for form numbers and not much more. Either, way, I actually realized that for this taxpayer it would be better to just recognize the income each year that each property was sold rather then go into the 1031 world and accumulate the earnings all into one year. This is because the TP has 4 children and on a $100K gain, most is eaten up by his standard deduction, 6 exemptions and 4 child tax credits. So what's left as really taxable is very small. But if I rolled over all his gains through a 1031 exchange ($300K in total from 3 properties) into the final year that the last property was sold then he would pay tax on most of his income because only about $60K would be taken care of via the deductions and credits. and the remaining $240K would all be taxable. One of those instances where the typical tax planning (1031 exchange) was actually not the best advice.

Client of mine purchased and sold a number of properties in the last few years. The first sale was structured as a 1031. I need some help with the documentation required. In year 1 when Property A was sold and Property B was purchased (1031 exchange) is there any documentation required to be included with the personal return? all the properties were bought and sold in the taxpayer's name. There are no corporations or llc's involved. In year 2 when property B was sold and not replaced, which form(s) are used to show the gain on the sale (should be capital gain). Thanks for your help in advance. Although I'm doing tax work for 11 years now, none of my clients have ever dabbled in real estate.

Client brought in a 1099-A, Acquisition or Abandonment of Secured Property, which shows that the bank took back a property that had a mortgage of $184K (box 2) and a property fair market of $145K (Box 4). Can someone please tell me what the tax ramifications are here? Does this alone constitute income to the taxpayer or does there also have to be a 1099-C, cancellation of debt?