NECPA in NEBRASKA

I have gotten a lot of hugs. So has my husband. He also got 3 seedlings yesterday for his garden!

We haven't had any for years.

Most of my older clients that bring me good stuff have all passed away or are in a home and I have to deal with their kids. A lot of my younger clients, just want to push me to get their freaking returns done before anyone else's.

I have rarely found myself on the phone with my rep the last few years. Apparently, they quit or just don't give a damn about my piddly business. I think one did call me last year right before 5/31. After that, whenever I sent emails to her email address, I didn't hear a word. Technical support has been great, the few times that I have needed them.

I just got an email from Drake. I haven't read it, it just starts with Change for the Better.

Judy, Thanks so much for that link. I should have used better search terms on Google or something. I relied on the pubs and instructions too much. After reading a bunch of garbage, I did find that my client's partnership ended up being terminated. It would have been nice, it they would have just put them in their packets or easily found on their webpage. I would be so lost without this website!

Thanks, Judy! I was pretty sure that I could not use the losses this year. I will read up online on this merger and see how these PTPs handled it. All they have ever done is spin off losses.

Two PTP's merged, the original filed a final K-1 and there is a 1099B for proceeds received by my client, a limited partner. There are $5,900 of prior year loss carryforward from the original PTP. I keep reading and everything that I see says that these can only be used when the entire interest in that PTP is disposed of to an unrelated person in a fully taxable transaction. Yes, they are paying tax on the proceeds they received on Sch. D, but I don't know if this is considered being totally disposed of. If not, how do I get these losses transferred to the new PTP? Do I just move them over on the worksheet? I just hate these things. They are such an PITA and slow me down. I have a bunch of them and I could just cry. I need some easy returns to pop up in the drawer. Thanks to anyone that understands these better than me.

I will make room for new clients, but they want them done now. I turned away two today, because they wanted them done before the 18th. I don't even have my head above water with the ones that I have. I still have a little over 100 in house that I have not started. There will be some extensions and 10 of those returns are past years and will be done after 4/18. It seems like this year I am missing lots of information or the returns are just way more complicated than normal. Lots of people starting businesses that didn't ask questions before they did it.

Thanks, Judy. I was sure that was the case, but I was hoping that I was wrong.

In reading the instructions for line 9a, it says that you can deduct the investment interest expense included on line 14 on Schedule A. There is a 7K amount there, but they had so much of their deductions limited, that they ended up with standard deduction. So---they don't get to deduct any of their investment interest expense on form 8960? That seems like a ripoff to me, but then nobody asked me what I thought about the ACA. Thanks! Bonnie

I am so glad that my son made it through with very little debt. He busted his rear and got a great scholarship and worked a lot the entire 4 years. He did take out a small loan the first year, because we told him that if he didn't live at home, it was on him. He hated his roommates, so he pretty much lived here anyway. He is amazed at how much student loan debt most of his friends have. Some of them even took out loans to travel-not to study abroad, just party.

I just finished a return today where I actually told the guy that I had never seen a good reason to smoke before this. If he didn't smoke, the insurance was affordable and he owed approximately an $800 penalty, since he smokes, the insurance was unaffordable and he got to keep his entire refund. He had insurance previously through work, but they dropped it due to ACA.

I'm trying to be finished seeing most of them today. I'm trying to wean them from seeing me twice and having my husband help them with signing and paying. I'm getting really crabby and pretty much hate everyone thanks to some people that keep bugging me constantly about their returns. They should have gotten their crap to me sooner and they wouldn't be stuck behind the hard ones that came in earlier and take forever. Warning-Not tax, self-pitying Mom I guess I'm also crabby and depressed because my son will graduate from college on May 6, leaves on May 8 for his Airline Transport Pilot training in Atlanta for a week, comes back for a week and then leaves for Salt Lake City for 5-6 weeks training on the CRJ that he will be flying. I'm not able to spend much time with him, because of taxes and it's really getting to me. After he's finished training we may seen him a few days this summer, but then he will be moving to his hub, which he hopes is Colorado Springs. I'm so happy for him, but he is my only child and we have always been close. It's going to suck! I have much older step-children, but they have their own lives and we don't see them that much. Thanks for listening. I can cry here and no one can see me. LOL

I know that I have to rough up the ones that I put on extension. I normally overestimate and have their extension payment be large enough to cover their first quarter estimate. I know that it's a pain, but I add up what I can and throw the numbers on the returns as estimates. Most of my extensions will be for S Corp shareholders and partners. Most of them are just too big for me to get done by April, and after I explained that I would rather spend more time and get them done correctly, they have all agreed. If the people are just late, then I will normally go from the last year's return if they haven't brought in their information.

Judy, giving a discount if they use the dropbox is a wonderful idea! I definitely am going to start doing that. The less time I have to talk to people, the happier and more productive I am. I'm as much at fault as they are, because so many of them have become dear friends over the years. Some of them have been with me since I was in college which was many moons ago.

I totally agree, John. Unfortunately, a lot of my clients get very upset about extensions. I seem to have lost several that I extended last year after I sent out my engagement letters with a deadline of the 15th. Most of them were small ones that absolutely should have been here the first week of February. I just need to value myself more and charge more. I'm slowly getting better about it.

That is what I had found. I'm sending her back to Wells Fargo. They were begging her to put the money in the Sep-IRA and I want them to check the plan document. It was originally from a public school system and she doesn't know where the paperwork is. They told her that she can't pull the money out and roll it, because she's not with the school district anymore. If that's the case, why could she put money in it? Why is it that every return I start this year, has problems and I have to start and stop?

Is it possible for an individual to contribute to a SEP IRA even though they don't work for the employer that they used to work for and haven't for years? Does it still work as their own traditional IRA? I read the IRS FAQ's and they said if the plan allowed extra contributions, but I thought that it looked like they still had to be an employee. Wells Fargo allowed her to make online contributions and I'm just checking to make sure that it is allowable. Everything that I have been finding says that they must be an employee or self-employed. I am already making her change her ROTH contribution to 2016, because she contributed over the $6,500 limit already for 2015. Thanks so much!

I just looked up the ATX Advantage package after looking at the notes from today's program update. Do they seriously think that I'm going to want to pay an additonal $1,320 for the ability to have my out of state credits prepared automatically? It's pretty nifty but I'm pretty sure that Drake's does that without an upcharge, unless I misunderstood the seminar. I know that it includes six users, but I already have five with my Total Tax Office and I only need one. Maybe I'm doing something wrong and should downgrade my package or see if I can build my own package. I never hear from my rep. Emails and phone calls are never returned. I think that all of mine must quit as soon as they get my to renew.

My client got that one and he doesn't have anything to do with e-services. They are really getting obnoxious.

One of my clients received this today. Dear User, Your e-services associated with ??? email address will be suspended due to that fact that we where unable to verify your PTIN for the 2015-2016 filing season. Verify Your e-Services by logging below with your username Follow instruction below: Log In (edited to remove link) Sincerely, IRS E-Services+ You'd think that they would at least try to find someone that had a PTIN. Strangely enough, I received a form 5122A from the IRS today, saying that they can't verify my professional status and if I don't send them my credentials within 10 days that they will remove me from the online Directory Website. Boo Hoo! I don't want my information out there anyway. It does go on to say that it won't affect my PTIN anyway. I'm not sure why they can't verify my status. I have my certificate right here along with my individual permit and the one for my P.C. I'm doing to check to see if this is real and then fax them what they want.

I have one that's over $6,000 with large amounts of SS withholding. It pisses me off that I just had to fax all of their 1099's and W-2s to the IRS just now. My client's freaked out, because they got the letter from the IRS and I don't blame them. Their return was accepted on 2/25. Why didn't the IRS just check the 1099's that they should have received. It's not abnormal for people to have SS withholding. Now it will take them weeks to look at the fax to see that the return was correct and they stressed out old people that are already stressed enough. Not to mention making me an even bitchier person than I already am these days.

Done! Thank you!

I'm scared to death to have one now that I work at home. There is really no place for me to put anyone else in my office. I would have to stick them out in the family room with the treadmill and they would have to use the bathroom/laundry room with the cat boxes.