kcjenkins

That's the way I want it to do it, too. But I know a lot of folks have asked for automatic updating "like many other programs do".

Tax law changes - both in volume and complexity - will make this season more confusing for taxpayers and preparers alike. "Taxpayers will be in for a surprise at how much is new," revealed Barbara Weltman, a New York tax attorney and author of J.K. Lasser's tax books. "They may think that because they didn't buy a home or a car, their returns will be simple. But there's so much there that could complicate matters." Read the whole thing here. http://tinyurl.com/yewblsf

great

Terry, is it a loan or is it equity? Can't be both. If it's a loan, then the amounts taken would be repayments, and neither taxable to him, except for interest, nor deductible for the business, except for interest. If it's equity, its not taxable to him nor deductible by the business. For the other member, if he had no investment in the business, I'd assume unless you have some good argument I can't think of that this WOULD be not only taxable income, but also subject to SE tax, as the only logical reason for paying him would be for work done. What am I missing?

But you do understand the point that you can only take child care expenses for the time that the TP was either employed or in school, right? So there is no question that you MUST question her about the time that she was getting Unemployment. Let's face it, this is what is so hard about writing tax problems, there are just so many different factors that must be covered before you can finish the question.

Well, I was not at all aggressive, I did nothing at all, and I've gotten all three now. I think we need to just remember that they don't print them too early, in case the Congress makes last-minute changes, and then when they do mail them, it's in the middle of the Christmas mail flood. And they come from Wolters Kluwer- Kleinrock, not from either CCH nor TRX.Nice change this year is we do not have to unfold the section dividers. I remember a number of complaints about that last year.

A note from Commissioner Shulman to all IRS Employees: I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. With the arrival of the New Year, I am pleased to announce an important milestone in our work on the Tax Return Preparer Review project. When we published our five-year strategic plan a year ago, we highlighted the need to ensure that tax return preparers were part of our overall game plan to strengthen the U.S. tax system. Today, we are recommending some important changes to our oversight of the tax return preparer community, including: * Requiring registration for all paid tax return preparers. * Establishing mandatory testing and continuing education for paid tax return preparers who do not already have this kind of requirement (i.e. exempting attorneys, certified public accountants and enrolled agents). * Developing a public database so that the public can ensure that their tax return preparer is registered with the IRS. * Making all return preparers subject to the ethical standards of Treasury Circular 230 and subject to discipline by the IRS. * Increasing our enforcement presence in the tax return preparer community. The IRS has engaged the public and stakeholders since last summer in a wide-ranging review of issues involving tax preparation, and we have received more than 500 thoughtful recommendations from employees througout the Service. With the findings and recommendations outlined in the Return Preparer Review <http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/54419l09.pdf> final report, the IRS is taking a big step toward meeting our strategic plan goals of increasing taxpayer compliance and ensuring uniform and high ethical standards of conduct for tax return preparers. Clearly, it's going to take some time to put these important changes in place, and they do not affect the current filing season that starts today. However, we are taking immediate steps to help taxpayers during the 2010 filing season. We want to make sure return preparers are doing the right thing and filing returns accurately. Starting today, the IRS is sending letters to approximately 10,000 paid preparers who have large volumes of specific types of tax returns where the IRS typically sees frequent errors. In the coming weeks, thousands of preparers will be visited by revenue agents. And throughout the filing season, we'll be working to provide taxpayers basic tips to help them select a reliable preparer. Implementation of the Return Preparer Review recommendations will require considerable work and effort and will affect employees from across the IRS, but I believe these changes will transform the American tax system. As we implement these changes, we will be seeking your assistance and will keep you informed of our progress. Thank you to all of you whose hard work brought us to this point, and thank you in advance to those of you who will implement these important changes. I look forward to this effort continuing, and I look forward to working with you in the new year. --Doug Shulman

I don't know what state you are in, but I do know that here in AR, the dealership first sells the car to the leasing company, the car is titled to the leasing company. then the lease is signed and the leasee then gets the keys. The leasing company holds the title, during the lease period. The dealership handing the keys over is acting FOR THE LEASING COMPANY,at that point.

IRS Issues Proposed Regulations Adjusting Use of Some Taxpayer Information IR-2009-121, Dec. 30, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service today announced the issuance of proposed and temporary regulations and related revenue rulings addressing the use or disclosure of tax return information by tax return preparers. The regulations and related revenue rulings under section 7216 enable tax return preparers to more effectively provide a range of services that taxpayers would ordinarily expect from tax return preparers. Generally, these services benefit taxpayers, increase voluntary compliance and improve tax administration. The proposed and temporary regulations enable tax return preparers to use or disclose tax return information without explicit taxpayer consent in certain limited circumstances. Tax preparers can contact their clients regarding tax law developments that may affect the clients. They can also disclose information in connection with the potential sale or purchase of a tax return preparer's business and during the process of conducting client conflict-of-interest checks. Before these proposed regulations are adopted as final regulations, consideration will be given to any written (a signed original and eight (8) copies) or electronic comments that are submitted timely to the IRS. The IRS and the Treasury Department request comments on the clarity of the proposed rules, how they can be made easier to understand and the administrability of the rules in the proposed regulations. All comments will be made available for public inspection and copying. A public hearing will be scheduled if requested in writing by any person that timely submits written comments. - 30 - Rev. Rul. 2010-4 PURPOSE This revenue ruling provides guidance on whether a tax return preparer is liable for criminal and civil penalties under Internal Revenue Code sections 7216 and 6713 when the tax return preparer discloses or uses tax return information under the circumstances described below. ISSUEs (1) Is a tax return preparer liable for penalties under sections 7216 and 6713 when the tax return preparer uses tax return information to contact taxpayers to inform them of changes in tax law that could affect the taxpayers' income tax liability reported in tax returns previously prepared or processed by the tax return preparer? (2) Is a tax return preparer, who is lawfully engaged in the practice of law or accountancy, liable for penalties under sections 7216 and 6713 when the tax return preparer uses tax return information of taxpayers whose tax returns the tax return preparer has prepared or processed to determine which taxpayers' future income tax return filing obligations may be affected by a prospective change in tax rule or regulation and to contact the potentially affected taxpayers for whom B reasonably expects to provide accounting services in the next year to notify them of the changed rule or regulation, explain how the change may affect them, and advise them with regard to actions they may take in response to the change? (3) Is a tax return preparer liable for penalties under sections 7216 and 6713 when the tax return preparer discloses tax return information contained in the list permitted to be maintained by the tax return preparer under section 301.7216-2(n) to a third-party service provider that creates, publishes, or distributes, by mail or e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, or similar communications to taxpayers whose tax returns the tax return preparers have prepared or processed containing tax information and general business and economic information or analysis for educational purposes or for purposes of soliciting additional tax return preparation services for the tax return preparer? Rev. Rul. 2010-5 PURPOSE This revenue ruling provides guidance on whether a tax return preparer is liable for criminal and civil penalties under Internal Revenue Code sections 7216 and 6713 when the preparer discloses tax return information under the circumstances described below. ISSUES (1) Is a tax return preparer liable for penalties under sections 7216 and 6713 when the preparer discloses to a professional liability insurance carrier tax return information required by the insurance carrier to obtain or maintain professional liability insurance coverage? (2) Is a tax return preparer liable for penalties under sections 7216 and 6713 when the preparer discloses to the preparer's professional liability insurance carrier tax return information required by the insurance carrier to promptly and accurately report a claim or a potential claim against the tax return preparer, or to aid in the investigation of a claim or potential claim against the tax return preparer? (3) Is a tax return preparer liable for penalties under sections 7216 and 6713 when the preparer discloses tax return information to the preparer's professional liability insurance carrier in order to secure legal representation under the terms of the insurance policy or to an unrelated attorney for the purpose of evaluating a claim or potential claim against the tax return preparer?

I agree that if you don't want to bother with selling them, giving them to the local library is the thing to do. If they are valuable to them they will keep them, and they will sell the rest to raise money to help the library. If you do want to at least consider selling them, eBay is the way to go. You can list them by both Author and Subject in the description, and if someone wants them, you get some cash easy, and it's easy to mail them in the free Priority Mail flat rate boxes. If they don't sell, then donate the rest to the library. Real collectors often have saved 'searches' for favorite Authors and/or Subjects, so you should at least consider doing that with any nice books. You'd be surprised what you can find on eBay using a simple search!

I wish I believed that was all it was. But frankly, I expect that if they make ALL professionally prepared returns efile only, they won't need to fool with the problem of registering preparers. They will have the ability to eliminate any preparer they want to eliminate, without any reason given. Because they have that ability now, over your EFIN. I don't mean to sound paranoid, but I've seen it personally, as I mentioned. And that was scary, to see them just cut off his EFIN one day, with no notice until after the fact! And researching to determine the proper way to appeal it was even scarier, as THERE IS SIMPLY NO APPEAL PROCESS FOR THIS IN THE CODE. Raising ethical standards is fine, but when they have the power to decide, without notice or a right to appeal and get their decision reviewed, that you should lose your right to efile, and efile is the only legal way you can operate your business, it's Big Brother at his worst, IMHO. My point is that in the case I was aware of, there was, in fact, no violation of any section of the code. And they did not even tell him who made the decision. They simply cut off his EFIN. Then sent a letter a week later, stating that he had been suspended from efiling. That was ALL. How would that make you feel, Jainen, if you got that treatment? I agree that efile is beneficial for the IRS, economically. But most professionals already efile as much as they can. And if they want to, there are other ways to encourage it than making it totally mandatory.

Very glad to hear it went so well. Not only for you, but because my husband is having his first cataract surgery on the 14th.

DITTO !!!!!

Thanks for posting this one. This is going to be a MAJOR issue for some of my clients. It's clearly going to require a 'trip diary', rather than a general diary, for all those who win occasionally, since many of them go several times with no winnings for every time they come home with extra money. It's not going to be at all popular, because it really is not fair, but we'll have to live with it.

http://tax.cchgroup.com/books/books-title.htm?cm_sp_o=PBBLl%20ZBFw%20VzTwCjCPBBLl%20VzTw%20-k5tzCjCebwc%20abfkwl Here's a link to where anyone can buy any of their Express Answers books.

And how did you determine that the leasing company never had possession or control, Jainen? And what do you mean by 'nominal ownership'? Are you suggesting that the leasing company did not have legal title to the car? Where did you get that info?

Two things. First, you can always go into the 08 program, enter the asset, and make a copy of the asset history, then delete the asset. As for the asset manager program, it's useful for those clients with large numbers of assets, but probably not needed by many preparers.

John, I think the real reason for this push is simply to give the IRS total control of ALL tax preparers. The huge majority of preparers are already doing most of their returns electronically. The largest number of paper returns are done by individuals filing their own returns. Think about it. If you can only efile, and to efile you must have an EFIN, and the IRS totally controls who gets an EFIN, they can put anyone out of business in one day, just by freezing your EFIN. And there is no recourse at all for you if they do that. There is no standard procedure for appealing such an action by the IRS. NONE. I know of a preparer who actually had that done to him, after a run-in with an agent, and it took almost a year to get it corrected, even though they had no legal reason for freezing his EFIN. Only after he got his Federal Congressman involved did he even get a response to his many requests for information. Then they finally re-activated his EFIN, without any explanation given.

http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/blog/_archives/2009/12/24/4410734.html

Well, probably should sell the house if he has any equity at all. Then try to get the debt classified as 'currently uncollectible'. He can still do an OIC, even if it is for $100 only. But given the situation, he may not need to do that to get it classified as uncollectible. OIC may be overkill.

Merry Christmas to all! Well, if you want to do it the easy way, since Catherine did the hard work already, just cut and paste her work, like I just did!

She can file a separate OIC. She should file it for the entire debt, though, since the return that created the debt was a joint return. However, she should make her offer based on her ability to pay. Sure, if it will make her feel better you can always try to make the argument that she should only be liable for her half. But don't put much weight on that, because legally, each of them is liable for the entire amount. So just put your effort into showing her limited ability to pay, as that is what will count.

:bday:

:bday: Sue. Hope you have a great one.

:bday: Mel. Hope you have a great one. Are you still working on our new software? We're still interested.