TexTaxToo

I don't see any specific residency requirement for RRC (as long as they meet the normal requirements needed to file a 1040 and claim dependents). Citizens living abroad would qualify. The 6-month requirement is for refundable CTC, but only requires one spouse to be resident in the U.S., so they would qualify for that as well.

Brokerages are now required to ask for a "trusted contact" when an account is opened. (It is not mandatory that the client provide one.) https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/general-resources/news-alerts/alerts-bulletins/investor-bulletins-30

The phone number for EIP trace is different. Fax numbers can be found here: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/questions-and-answers-about-the-third-economic-impact-payment-topic-j-payment-issued-but-lost-stolen-destroyed-or-not-received#howdoitrack

In this case, tiebreakers do not come into play unless they both claim the child on their returns. In any case, I don't think vacations would affect anything as they are considered temporary absences as far as residency is concerned.

Do they? In the Taxpayer Advocate's report to Congress last week, the first recommendation was:

You are correct - it's in the law. You must reduce QCDs by any IRA contributions made after 70 1/2 (it is cumulative - not just this year's contributions). The recently released draft 590B has a confusing worksheet for QCDs that is not well explained. It's not surprising that it's not yet implemented in the software.

I agree. There are plenty of examples in Pub 501, starting on page 15. mcb39 should look at example 8.

That is mostly true. But a non-parent (like a grandparent) can only claim a child if their AGI is higher than any other person (including a parent) who qualifies to claim the child. It doesn't matter if the others agree, it's not allowed if the non-parent's AGI is lower. (Between parents, they can agree to let the lower AGI parent claim the child.)

Under 2017 proposed regulations, what they are doing is allowed, under the concept of multiple households sharing living quarters. The rule is that to claim HOH, dependents must be in the household of the person who would win the tiebreaker. So its only allowed in cases like yours where there is a child of a former spouse. She could not be HOH based on claiming a shared child (e.g., if they split two of their own children), since he would win the tiebreaker (assuming he has the higher AGI). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/19/2017-01056/definition-of-dependent

Well, it is close this year. For example, a single person with $10,000 self-employment income would owe $1413 in SE tax and get $1419 in EIC for a refund of $6. The "optimum" to get the maximum EIC of $1502 would require income of $10,545 with SE tax of $1490, and a refund of $12. Much income above that and the SE tax is higher. But anything lower, and the EIC would (just barely) cover the SE tax.

The IRS will only accept e-files for the current year and the two prior years. So 2019, 2020, and 2021 at the most.

Several senators wrote to the IRS last week questioning the legality of the service: https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-colleagues-urge-irs-to-investigate-enqs-pay-for-service-scheme

The current incarnation of the Build Back Better Act would extend the CTC changes to 2022, but that is far from law at this time.

There is a difference between e-filing and direct deposit/pay. You can e-file and still pay by mail. Of course, if you send them a check, they still have your account information. Ask them how they are paying. Maybe they want to take cash to a local IRS office??

Yes, you can treat the withholding as having been paid in four equal installments corresponding to the four "quarterly" periods. Note that you do have the option of treating withholding as being paid when actually withheld (see box D in part II of Form 2210). This can be beneficial, for instance, if the RMD was taken earlier in the year, and spreading it out would result in underwithholding for that period.

Actually, 2019 can be used again in 2021. But 2020 cannot be used in 2021. So for 2021, you can use 2019 earned income to calculate EIC if it is higher than 2021 earned income and if doing so is beneficial (you don't have to use it).

You are allowed an automatic 6-month extension to recharacterize or withdraw if you timely file. For this and other rules, see: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590a#en_US_2020_publink1000230693 It is too late to make a new contribution for last year. The conversion can be done anytime.

You can convert from TIRA to Roth as often as you like. Once done, you cannot undo (or recharacterize) a conversion. If you have ever made tax-deductible contributions to the TIRA, you must pay tax on a portion of the amount converted (in proportion to the amount of tax-deductible contributions). You can recharacterize only regular contributions made during the tax year, NOT conversions or rollovers. The contribution must be moved (recharacterized) by the due date of the tax return (including extensions) for that year. Can you recharacterize a contribution multiple times? I'm not sure - I don't see anything prohibiting it if done before the due date and the trustee is willing to do it. But if you ever called it a conversion, then no. You can also simply withdraw any contribution made during the tax year by the due date (you must also withdraw any income due to the contribution and pay tax on it).

No criticism intended! The point is just clarification that the number of returns under manual review was only 780,000 - not the entire 8.5 million backlog. Even so, it will take the rest of the year to clear them.

I don't think that's correct. Current status of the backlog is available here: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-operations-during-covid-19-mission-critical-functions-continue which is where the 8.5M number came from. Further details were communicated here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/operationsstatus.pdf Highlights:

Sara, the only point of annualization is to avoid penalties for underpayment of estimated tax. If the cost of preparing the form is more than the penalty, you're right. Christian, what deductions are you talking about? As Margaret said, pretend that the period is a 'year' and you are preparing a return for that 'year'. What deductions would you include? If you are cash basis, only things that you actually paid during the period. There might be a few things such as the sales tax deduction from the tables where prorating makes sense, but for most things, it is when they were paid.

Line 1 contains only income, expenses, adjustments for the partial year only. That is, items which were received or paid during that period. Similarly, line 4 contains only deductions paid during that period. The column periods are not quarters, they are year-to-date. These are then annualized so everything after line 6 is based on the full year (as if their AGI for the year was the amount in line 3). Nothing gets divided by 4. The annualized self-employment tax is calculated separately in Part II.

I wondered that too, but it would take a lot of kids to get a $3000 advanced payment! Due to an error, ITIN holders were not sent July payments. Their August payments were increased, as the plan was to split the missed July payment among the remaining months. That plan got criticized, so the new plan is to issue the remainder of the July payment separately, and go back to the normal amounts for the remaining months. Just so you know.

Anything's possible this year. Any idea why it was held up? Is it possible that ACTC was disallowed in the past and they are still banned or you did not file Form 8862?

If stimulus payments are based on a joint return, the IRS considers each spouse to have received half the amount, so I think they would expect her to report receiving $1,450 on the RRC worksheet. If she claims the incorrect amount of Recovery Rebate Credit as a result, they will consider it a math error and correct it, but this will delay the refund.