Naveen Mohan from New York

One lady called and showed up at my office. She had hand prepared "self-prepared" her return and she wanted me to just efile her return for her. I told her that I need to redo her return in order for me to efile and I told her my fee will be $ 250.00. She got very upset. She said to me that she is a licensed attorney in New York State. she had done last six years of return herself and IRS has audited her for all those six years and they could not find anything wrong with her work. and that I should be ashamed of myself for trying to expand work to get extra money from her and here she was trying to support a local business. she works for Legal Aid Society of New York State so she expected me to charge similar to what she charges her legal aid client. I tried to explain to her that every firm has a fee and that is my fee. She replied that I operate from my house so my fee should not be this high. I could not make her understand that I could not efile without doing my data entry plus she did it with pen and paper, how do I even know her arithmetic was correct and also there was liability issue. It was 1040 with two W-2, on simple schedule C, Form 8839 adoption credit form and New York State. I live in a rural part of New York State. She finally walked out without even saying good bye or shaking my hand. Was $ 250.00 fee quote out of line here? How do I avoid situation like this in future. Thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

A new version of the same scam. One outfit left a message on my answering machine "Federal Charges are pending against you. Please call us back right away to resolve the charges".

I have a client with three shareholder C corporation. One of the shareholder is leaving so they have decided to close the existing corporation and start a brand new C corporation in order to have a clear delineation of liabilities and obligation. My problem is that existing C corporation has NOL in all three years of its existence. so there is a sizeable build of NOL in this corporation. Since a C corporation is not a pass through entity what happens to this NOL. Does it completely lapse or do shareholders accrue any benefit out of it. Thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

I had to represent a client Auto CArrier Company in a New York State Workers Compensation Audit. New York State Workers Compensation is one of the most difficult organization to work with because they are semi governmental organization. The focus of this audit was payroll subject to New York Sate Workers compensation Audit. This is a single owner with 5 auto truck carrier so it is a relatively small company. I had my quarterly payroll returns and client had given me a print out of his Quickbook check register. All numbers tied in and there was no discrepancy. Toward the end of the audit the auditor stated that the payroll is only coming up to 10% of gross sale while industry standard is 40% of the gross sale. He said that he will compute payroll subject to Workers Compensation rate at 40% of the gross sale so the premium is coming out to be quadruple of what is borne by our records. How do I handle it? Are there any fellow members out there who handle Auto Carrier trucking industry? Is 40% of gross sale is the going rate. How do I rebut this auditor's claim? Thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

I need help in locating a simple user friendly software package that will do IFTA and HUT calculations for me. I only have one auto transportation trucking client. Thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

I am trying to calculate Solo 401K plan maximum contribution calculation in ATX Max program but it its not working. It is not giving me solo 401 K option. The worksheet for line 28 Self Employed self simple and qualified plan is only available option is simple 401 K that somewhat matches with what I am looking for. How do I make program compute maximum contribution calculation. I chose the right option from the drop down box on line 1 (compute maximum contribution) of the worksheet but there is no button that says compute and the program is not computing. What am I doing wrong here? thanks Naveen Mohan

I have a client. They have their home in Albany, NY. Wife is the primary wage earner. She earned $ 100,000. Husband is an adjunct professor. He elected to teach a course in Pittsburgh. The university gave him a $ 10,000 on 1099. This is his only income for 2013. He wants to charge off his flight expenses and his living expenses against that income on schedule C. His position is that the family as a whole had earned 90% of its income in Albany, NY. Their house is in Albany, NY which they do not have any intention of abandoning. He is back in Albany because his adjunct contract did not get renewed. Is his position appropriate/defensible? thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

Can a single member PLLC (disregarded entity Schedule C) opt for S corporation tax filing status by filing 2553? I think a LLC can do that but I am not sure about PLLC? Also if this is allowable then will PLLC just file 1120S or does it have to do anything else because of it being a PLLC. Thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

I have a client who could not claim schedule E rental losses because his income was over $150,000. Now he is selling the property. I was under the impression that he would be able to pick up all suspended losses. However I am not sure I am doing it right. I went to my ATX Max and in fixed asset I clicked disposition tab and entered sale data and sale amount. Then I opened 4797 but the program is not picking up prior suspended losses from 8582. How do I capture that suspended loss. Thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

I have a client who came to me last year to handle his payroll and tax work or his convenience store located in New York Sate. Now he wants me to take over his Payroll and tax work of his Maryland store also but he is uncomfortable telling his current CAP that he wants to leave him. Instead he wants me to contact his soon to be former CPA, and telling him that this particular client wants to leave him and ask for a copy of his records. Should I do it? IF so what kind of record transfer form should I use. If any one of you has a sample record transfer form that I could take a look at that would be great. thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

I am based in New York. I have a client who has a store in New York and a store in MD. I have been handling tax compliance of his New York Store. Now he wants to bring his MD store to me also. However the CPA who has handled his MD business in MD before will not release me this clients's MD sales tax user name and password. Is there a way for me to get a new username and password. IF so where do I start from? thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

I had a new client visit me today and she brought a copy of her last year tax return done by HRB. HRB usd 1040 form for her. Shouldn't she be using form 1040-NR. She has been on H-1 visa for 5 years though so I am not sure whether ot use 1040 or 1040 NR. Thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

The default setting is that if I type zero on a field, nothing is written on the field. ATX leaves the field blank even if I have typed zero in that field. How do I change setting to make sure that when I type zero on a field, zero actually appears on that field, instead of field being left blank. thanks for you help. Naveen Mohan

I have a situation that I have never encountered before. I have a new accounting client and I have to file his sales tax electronically with New York State but prior CPA will not release me client's username/password that he has created with the New York State Tax Department because he says that he has not been paid for some of the work that he has done for this client. My problem is client does not know the user name so I cannot even go and setup new password for him. Can he legally do that? What are my options here? thanks Naveen Mohan

HV Ken: I am in Albany, New York.

New York U.I. Audit is not the same as workers compensation audit. Here is what is involved: Auditor WILL visit client worksite as part of the audit program. You cannot prevent it. There they will observe number of employee working. They will also look for weekly work schedule posted and they will copy name listed on that schedule. they will look at general ledger/ tax return, quarterly payroll return and most definitely they want bank statements. Paychex/ADP do not handle this type of audit for their clients. I had several NY U.I audit and this is the standard operating procedure that they have followed. Naveen Mohan

I did parent's return in which I put the minor daughter as dependent. I then did 1040 EZ for the daughter in which I checked the box where it said that taxpayer can be claimed as dependent on parent's return. However I efiled parent's return first and next day I efiled daughters return. Parent's return got accepted OK but daughter's return got rejected. The rejected error message says: "Taxpayer TIN in the return must not be the same as a TIN of a previously accepted Electronic Return for the return type and period indicated in the return" I don't understand it. If I did not claim daughter exemption in the daughter's tax return then whether daughter TIN is included in other return should not be an issue. What am I missing here. thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

I am doing a sub chapter S efiling for a texas corporation. ATX is only creating efile for TX EZ franchise tax computation report. Form 05-169. It is not creating an efile for Texas Franchise Tax Public Information Report Form 05-102. How do I get Texas Franchise Tax Public Information report filed electronically or do I have to do a paper report for that form. thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

Judy: what about the inside convenience store inventory of convenient goods. doesn't he has to pay personal property tax on this inventory? thanks Naveen Mohan

I am based in New York and this is first time I am doing a MD tax return with Schedule C. I believe that in addition to MD 502 I also have to do MD-1. My problem is that when I review last year ta return number do not make sense. It is a convenience store with gas station. Last year balance sheet on MD Form 4A is showing $ 20,000 cash and $ 41,800 other asset and $ 186 in equipment. NO inventory. These number do not make any sense. the way I understand is Maryland is defining inventory as all product available for sale including gasoline and all furniture and fixture inside the store is also taxable personal property. My question is that before I start saying that other accountant did not do a good job, am I understanding the instructions correctly. If my understanding is correct. How do I rectify this situation because there is going to be a huge variance between current year and prior year return. for example prior year return is showing zero inventory while the wholesale value of inventory in the store is close to $ 100,000.00. thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

He has interest income

I have a client he brought in interest income from private mortgage but he claims seller will not give him payer tax id number. Is there a way to do electronic filing if 1099 does not have tax ID number? thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

I have a client where wife last name is different from husband but she has three words in her last name. As a result ATX system is truncating her last name but that in turn is causing IRS to reject the return because of no match between name and ss number. How do I shorten her name to pass IRS system? thanks Naveen Mohan

I submitted a return where the spouse had ITIN issued by IRS. I got the reject by agency. the error message says: Spouse SSN and the 'Spouse name control txt' in the return header must match the E-file Data base. How do I take care of this problem? Thanks for your help. Naveen Mohan

One of my client is going through divorce. He paid his ex-wife $ 10,000.00 by check to buy out her interest in their jointly owned primary house. He is also paying his ex wife alimony payment. His lawyer told him that since he paid cash to buy out his wife's interest, he can add it to his alimony payment. I cannot find anything to support the lawyer position. Is his lawyer right? Thanks for your help. Naveen mohan