kcjenkins

Your client is OK. Here is what the IRS says about co-owners: If two or more unmarried individuals purchase a principal residence, the credit may be allocated among these individuals in any reasonable manner. A method is reasonable if it does not allocate any portion of the credit to a co-owner who is not eligible to claim that portion of the credit. Reasonable methods include allocating the credit based on the taxpayer's contributions towards the purchase price of a residence as tenants in common or joint tenants, or allocating the credit based on the taxpayers' ownership interests in a residence as tenants in common. If an individual is eligible to claim the entire allowable credit, it is also reasonable to allocate the entire credit to that individual. Notice 2009-12, 2009-6 I.R.B. 446. EXAMPLE 1: Dan contributes $45,000 and Brian contributes $15,000 towards the $60,000 purchase price of a residence, with each owning a one-half interest in the residence as tenants in common. The allowable first-time homebuyer credit is limited to $6,000 (10 percent of the purchase price). One reasonable method to allocate the credit would be to divide the credit based on their contributions to the purchase price: $4,500 to Dan and $1,500 to Brian. Another reasonable method would be for Dan and Brian to divide the credit based on their ownership interests, with each claiming $3,000 of the credit. If Dan is ineligible to claim the credit because he is not a first-time homebuyer, it may be reasonable to allocate the entire $6,000 credit to Brian. EXAMPLE 2: Jillian contributes $75,000 and Krista contributes $25,000 towards the $100,000 purchase price of a residence, with each owning a one-half interest in the residence as tenants in common. Jillian's modified AGI is $100,000 and Krista's modified AGI is $60,000. Because Jillian's modified AGI exceeds the $95,000 cap, any portion of the credit allocated to Jillian would be reduced to $0. However, Jillian and Krista may allocate the entire $7,500 credit to Krista.

To qualify, they must have not owned a qualifying principal residence during the 3-year period ending on the date of purchase of the principal residence for which a first-time homebuyer credit is being claimed. A principal residence for purposes of the credit is the same as a principal residence under the exclusion of gain provision of §121. That section says that a principal residence can include not only a traditional house, but a houseboat, mobile home, condominium, or stock held by a tenant-stockholder in a cooperative housing corporation if the dwelling the stockholder is entitled to occupy is used as the principal residence. So clearly, your clients did have a qualifying principal residence, so they can not qualify for the credit on the new place.

OK, here's the deal. IF he is working "as an employee of the U.S. Government or of one of its agencies" then the exclusion does not apply. But if he is working for a business, then the fact that the job is on a military base is not relevant, and he can use the exclusion. You confused us about whether he was a government employee and that led to us thinking that he could not take that. Enjoy your Canadian vacation.

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Have you looked at the folders from CFS?

Hope you have a great :bday:

A very :bday:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes...xWriteOffs.aspx

#2 is the correct reading. Note the bolded words. 36©(3) Purchase (A) IN GENERAL -- The term "purchase" means any acquisition, but only if - (i) the property is not acquired from a person related to the person acquiring such property, and (ii) the basis of the property in the hands of the person acquiring such property is not determined -- (I) in whole or in part by reference to the adjusted basis of such property in the hands of the person from whom acquired, or (II) under section 1014(a) (relating to property acquired from a decedent).

You are correct on the taxability of the distributions. Roth distributions that are not taxable should not affect his SS tax status.

You can use funds from a 529 account tax-free for tuition, fees, books, supplies and required equipment. But there are also some lesser-known expenses that you can use the money for, which may help you during this last week before she leaves. The economic-stimulus plan temporarily expanded the rules to allow tax-free 529 withdrawals for a computer and Internet access in 2009 and 2010 (in the past, those expenses qualified only if the school required them). And you can also use the money tax-free for room and board, as long as your daughter is at least a half-time student. The full cost of room and board counts if her housing is owned or operated by the college. Off-campus housing costs can qualify, too, up to the allowance for room and board that the college includes in its cost of attendance for federal financial-aid purposes (your college financial-aid office can give you that figure). For more information, see the "qualified tuition program" section of IRS Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education. While you're deciding how much money to withdraw from the 529 for her college costs this year, keep in mind that the stimulus plan also expands the rules governing tax credits for college costs. The new American Opportunity credit replaces the Hope credit for 2009 and 2010 and increases the amount qualified education expenses for which you can get credit from $1,800 to $2,500. The credit offsets your tax bill dollar for dollar. You can claim the American Opportunity credit in the first four years of college (not just the first two years, as was the case with the Hope credit). And the income limits to qualify have increased - from $58,000 to $90,000 if you're single and from $116,000 to $180,000 if you're married filing jointly. You can't double dip on tax benefits, so money you use to pay for college from a 529 or a Coverdell education savings account (both of which can already be used tax-free for college bills) doesn't count toward the American Opportunity credit. The tax credit is based on 100% of eligible college costs up to $2,000, plus 25% of college costs of more than $2,000, which means that you'll need to pay at least $4,000 in college costs for the year from a source other than a 529 or a Coverdell to qualify for the full credit. Tuition and fees count toward the American Opportunity credit; room and board do not (which was also the case for the Hope and Lifetime Learning credits). And course materials, such a textbooks, are now eligible expenses for the American Opportunity credit, too. See www.textbookaid.org, a site that was created by the National Association of College Stores, for more information about how the credit applies to course materials.

There, I knew someone who had made the switch would chime in soon. Thank you Karen, for giving some specific feedback on the switch. And Becky, remember that if you want to ask Karen something directly,, you can use the Private Message feature of this board to send her an email directly. Just click on her name, and you will see Send Message as one option on the drop down menu.

Talk about hi-jacking a thread! You guys crack me up!

There are many of us on here who love the ATX program. But there are also some few here who use Proseries, [most of us do NOT like Intuit very much] and some who switched to ATX from it, often due to cost. I'm sure some of them will chime in within a few days with comments. Other than that, I'd say the best way to decide is to get the free demo, which is actually the full program from 08. Use it for some of your extensions, if you have any left. Or reenter some of your typical returns, and compare. Also some of your complex returns. Only you can decide if you like it enough to switch. But if you do try it, feel free to ask us old-timers about anything that confuses you, because it's a great program that has a lot of semi-hidden features that can save a lot of time, once you learn them. We're happy to help.

Here's wishing you a wonderful :bday:

That's good thinking for a 9 yr old.

I don't see any way to export the depreciation info. Although there is a way to import from the ATX Fixed Asset Manager program, so perhaps you might call CCH and ask them if it is possible to pull info into that program from the tax software. If so, they could get that, [it costs only $400], then use the FA Manager to create the spreadsheet?

That is great. I knew you could handle it.

:bday:

I think it has to be paper filed, but you could try creating an efile. If it could be efiled , it will work, and if it can not, you will get an error message.

That is correct, I was just trying to explain what she meant about Canada. I agree, given his job, it's not relevant in this case.

Talk about locking the barn door after the horse has escaped! I suggest you tell him he is wasting his time. The only way to keep a recipe secret is to keep it secret. You can not teach others how to make it, or let them watch you make it, then later try to declare it 'secret'. The best you can do is to have someone sign, IN ADVANCE, a confidentially agreement, and even those are hard to enforce.

Obama's health care plan will: Be written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it. Be passed by a Congress that hasn't read it (but exempts themselves from it). Be signed by a president who smokes (and also hasn't read it). Have funding administered by a treasury chief who did not pay his taxes. Be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese. Be financed by a country that is already broke. What could possibly go wrong? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What could possibly go wrong: The phone rings and the lady of the house answers, "Hello?" "Mrs. Sanders, please." "Speaking." "Mrs. Sanders, this is Dr. Jones at St. Agnes Laboratory. When your husband's doctor sent his biopsy to the lab last week, a biopsy from another Mr. Sanders arrived as well. We are now uncertain which one belongs to your husband. Frankly, either way the results are not too good." "What do you mean?" Mrs. Sanders asks nervously. "Well, one of the specimens tested positive for Alzheimer's and the other one tested positive for HIV. We can't tell which is which." "That's dreadful! Can you do the test again?" questioned Mrs. Sanders. "Normally we can, but the new health care system will only pay for these expensive tests just one time." "Well, what am I supposed to do now?" "The folks at Obama health care recommend that you drop your husband off somewhere in the middle of town. If he finds his way home, don't sleep with him."

I'm guessing she means he will stay out of the states so as to not have too many days "in country".

The agreement on UPE can be a verbal one for the partnership, although it should be written into the LLC Op Agreement. Yes, for 2007 they have a partnership. Do a 1065. Transferring those assets to the LLC in 2008 is simple, just roll over the 1065, duplicate it, then change the name on the duplicate to the name of the LLC and go forward with it. Don't forget to mark the 2007 1065 as a final return, and don't bother with the one month in 2008, would be my choice, unless they were very busy in that month.