kcjenkins

She will probably get the 2 yr minimum and the fine, which will never be collected.

Correct.

Can't do that with a laptop!!! NO, NO, NO. But, what you can do is buy a wireless keypad [which can cost as little as $10. ] and remove the whole problem, plus work faster. http://www.ebay.com/bhp/wireless-numeric-keypad

LOL ! Night, JB.

Well, I see your point, Jack. On the other hand, if you have multiple keyboards laying around, it makes sense to me to take a bunch of them and do one wash of them all, on the weekend, then let them dry for a week, test them, and you now have a useful backup supply, or even sell the excess on ebay. If not, why keep them at all?

I think the relevant sections of CIR 230 would be § 10.20 through § 10.22.

Will the 'donation' be considered taxable? If so, it's deductible. I am guessing it will be added to her W-2, and thus taxable. But I'd want that confirmed.

What gets me is they started investigating her in 2009, and it took them FIVE years to charge her?

Philadelphia (February 12, 2014) By Michael Cohn An Internal Revenue Service employee who also prepared taxes on the side has been charged with tax fraud and aggravated identity theft. Sherelle Pratt, 49, of Philadelphia, was charged by an indictment, unsealed Tuesday, with filing false tax returns, aiding and assisting other individuals in preparing and filing false tax returns, theft of government property, and aggravated identity theft, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger. Pratt was arrested Tuesday. Pratt is an IRS contact center representative who allegedly prepared federal income tax returns for a number of individuals from tax years 2006 through 2008. She caused the refunds, and stimulus payments that the filers were supposed to receive, to be deposited into her personal bank account, according to prosecutors. In some cases, she gave the filers a portion of the refunds and stimulus payments. In other instances, according to the indictment, Pratt kept the refund and stimulus payments. She allegedly stole nearly $29,000 in tax refunds intended for nine tax clients, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer . She also allegedly filed for a $3,524 tax refund in another client's name without telling him. If convicted, Pratt faces up to 33 years in prison, including a two-year minimum mandatory sentence, a fine of up to $2.25 million, a special assessment of $900, and two years of supervised release. The case was investigated by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Philadelphia Field Office and the IRS’s Criminal Investigation unit and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Floyd J. Miller. They began investigating her in 2009 when the father of one of her clients became suspicious about a missing tax refund and stimulus check. An indictment, information or criminal complaint is an accusation, Memeger’s office noted, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

oh, I misunderstood. only way I know is to do three returns, one MFJ for the feds, then duplicate that twice, renaming these two for the two clients, delete one client's info and change status to Single , and then on those two you file just the state only.

https://etax.dor.ga.gov/pressrel/DOMA.pdf 6) How to File: If the person is in a same-sex marriage and a married filing jointly or married filing separately status was used on a Federal return, the person must:  For Georgia purposes, recompute Federal Adjusted Gross Income (including adjustments such as imputed income on employer-provided health insurance, etc. that would be required federally if the person was single) and itemized deductions (if applicable) as if the person had filed a single Federal return.  On Georgia Form 500 use single filing status or, if qualified, head of household filing status.  Use the single/head of household exemption amount and the single/head of household standard deduction (if applicable).  Use single tax rates, or if qualified, head of household tax rates. This applies to all taxable years. Although amended returns may be filed for Federal tax purposes to change the filing status to married filing jointly or married filing separately, no amended returns may be filed for Georgia to change the filing status.

From the GA E-File FAQs: Q: Does Georgia accept state only returns? A: Yes, Georgia accepts state only returns. Please refer to your software provider for instructions on how to transmit a state only return. Q: Do I need to mail a copy of my Federal forms when I file my Georgia return electronically? A: No, your Federal information will also be transmitted electronically with your Georgia return.

Probably 50/50 odds

loved that one.

Basically, at the start of the season, it actually makes sense to me to buy a new keyboard, which as you say, are not expensive, even if it sits in it's box for the net year! What you want is to be able to get back up and running in ten minutes, if anything happens to your keyboard. I kept an extra mouse for the same reason. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126096

IRS Releases the Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2013 http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Releases-the-Dirty-Dozen-Tax-Scams-for-2013 Cost of Improper Earned-Income Tax Credits: $10 Billion Improper claims for the Earned Income Tax Credit continue to cost the government more than $10 billion a year, and there’s not much more the IRS can do about the problem with existing methods, a new report said. The EITC is among the federal government’s biggest anti-poverty programs of any kind. It often wipes out federal income-tax liability for low-income working families, and frequently provides a cash payment of several thousand dollars over and above that. Unfortunately, it’s also a case study in the problems that can occur when Washington delivers benefit programs through the individual tax system. The EITC’s complex rules help lead to high error rates by taxpayers and even paid preparers. It’s also vulnerable to fraudulent claims, despite some elaborate safeguards that have been built in over the years. The payments paid out improperly for 2012 were at least 21-25% of all payments, according to the latest report from the IRS inspector general. The report estimated that improper payments totaled between $11.6 billion and $13.6 billion for 2012, out of total EITC claims of $55.4 billion. That’s better than a decade ago, when the improper payment rate was between 25% and 30%. But the IRS “acknowledges that further reductions in the EITC improper payment rate will be difficult to achieve,” says the new report. The inspector general’s report urges the IRS to consider alternative to its traditional compliance efforts. Improper payment rates for non-tax benefit programs such as housing and some nutrition programs are often much lower than the EITC’s rate. Republicans suggested the same problems could crop up with the new individual tax subsidies created by the Obama administration’s health-care overhaul. “Refundable tax credits are a nightmare to administer and lead to far too much of the American people’s money going out to those who aren’t eligible. That the IRS can’t figure out how to rein in the improper Earned Income Tax Credit payments doesn’t bode well for the $1.1 trillion in ObamaCare subsidies,” said Sen Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) in a prepared statement. Acting IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel said at a congressional hearing last summer that the EITC and health care credit are designed differently. That will be “helpful in reducing the instances of fraud” in the health-care program, he said. One big difference is that taxpayers don’t get the money from the credit – insurers do – Mr. Werfel said. The IRS said in statement Monday: “Every year, the IRS conducts 500,000 EITC audits as part of a broader enforcement strategy, and EITC claims are twice as likely to be audited as other tax returns. The IRS protects nearly $4 billion in improper claims each year and is committed to continuing to work to reduce improper claims. As the data in the TIGTA report shows, there has been a significant decline in the improper payments since 2010.”

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I have to agree with you, because you have the docs and the info, so if you say that, based on what you know, it should have been reported as a sale last year, then you should amend and report it that way, assuming it makes a change to the amended year.

Yep, the thing that bothers me is not that someone gets the benefits of our 'safety net', but that so many of them not only take it for granted with no gratitude, but actually gripe about it not being enough. When the 'safety net' turns into a hammock, you know it's grown too much, or needs repair.

JB, if she had no sales, how can you justify even reporting that as a business? Sounds like a hobby to me. She's obviously just trying to milk the system, which unfortunately is easy to do with the current Code. I'm glad it makes you mad. That is how it should make every honest taxpayer feel.

If an installment contract does not provide for adequate stated interest, the amount of interest to be reported for a taxable year will be determined under the provisions of the Code dealing with imputed interest or original issue discount. That is section 7872(g) of the Code, http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rr-99-49.pdf http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7872 (e) Definitions of below-market loan and forgone interest For purposes of this section— (1) Below-market loan The term “below-market loan” means any loan if— (A) in the case of a demand loan, interest is payable on the loan at a rate less than the applicable Federal rate, or ( in the case of a term loan, the amount loaned exceeds the present value of all payments due under the loan. (2) Applicable Federal rate (A) Term loans In the case of any term loan, the applicable Federal rate shall be the applicable Federal rate in effect under section 1274 (d) (as of the day on which the loan was made), compounded semiannually. http://www.law.cornell.edu/search/site/section%201274%20%28d%29 Every tax professional should really bookmark this link, so you can quickly find the rate for any date. http://apps.irs.gov/app/picklist/list/federalRates.html

No idea, but have you checked 'Preferences'?

Also on Line 21.