Jake

Thanks Catherine I was looking in the wrong place.

Is there a way to e-file an extension and have a payment taken out the clients bank account? Thanks

I had a client come in today to pick up his taxes. This is how the converstation went: Me: You owe nearly a quarter million dollars in federal taxes. Client: No problem Me: You owe nearly 30k in state taxes Client: OK Me: I calculated your underpayment penalty to be around $7,500 Client: ya ya whatever Me: BTW it appears as though your exwife claimed your son but it really is not going to effect your taxes not to claim him. Client: THAT B***H SHE CAN'T DO THAT I AM CALLING THE IRS I GET TO CLAIM HIM THIS YEAR. Me: (as I pretend to look through the return) My mistake you claimed him. I figure what he dosen't know won't hurt him.

I thought I have seen a tab in ATX that allows you to copy and paste information from an excel spreadsheet to populate the Schedule D. I can't seem to find that tab now or maybe I was wrong. Does anybody know what I am talking about.

When I respond to a CP2000 notice I usually prepare a 1040X and all of the supporting schedules. I do label the 1040X in a red pen "work paper do not process". I also include in the cover letter a statement indicating that the 1040X is included as a reference only and it is not to be processed. This was the procedure suggested by an IRS employee at the year end update seminar that I attended last year. He also suggested that we, if at all possible, use the original mailing slip and return envelope that the IRS provides when replying to the notices. Since I have been doing this I have noticed that the notices are being resolved in a more timely fashion. The only time that I could see the benefit in filing an actual 1040X in response to an IRS notice is if the IRS assesed addional tax as opposed to merely proposing additional tax.

I have a client that received a 1099-Misc with an amount in Rents. The payment was from a pipeline company that is putting an oil pipeline through their backyard. My inclination is that this should not be taxable rather it should be an adjustment to the basis of the property. I don't want to just ignore it because it will certainly cause the taxpayer to receive a CP2000 notice. Any sugestions on how to handle? Thanks for any help

Client sold a house in the State of Washington last year. He was charged an excise tax (over$10,000) My research seems to indicate that it is not deductible as property tax on the Schedule A. But I want to make sure. Thanks for any help.

Thanks for the input. That is helpful.

A client died in late December of 2007. His wife received his final paycheck in 2008 and has now received a W-2 under her late husbands name and SS#. At the time of his death he also had a small loan on his 401-k. This loan was never paid back and was reported as a distribution in 2008 again under the deceadant's name and SS#. Normally I would include these items on the taxpayers final return, but the final return has already been filed (2007). I am hoping not to have to establish an estate for the deceased. Any suggestions. Thanks

I noticed that ATX is not scheduled to release the 941-X until 2/3/09. Does anyone know if I can still use the 941c or will that be rejected by the IRS.

When you are in the 1040 return click on Returns and then Import K-1 Data. The program cross refrences SS# and EINS and pulls up the appropriate K-1(s) data. It seems to work well.

I just used the K-1 import feature for the first time and it worked perfectly. This will save some time this year.

I realize that health insurance expense for an S. Corp owner/ employee is reported in Box 1 and 14 of the W-2. My question is the expense reported as wages on the 941 and 940. I can tell you that I have never included the expense as wages and have never had any problems with that treatment. I just don't want to start receiving notices from the SSA indicating that the W-2's and 941 don't match. Any ideas on what the correct treatment is? Thanks Jake

I finally hung up and called back and got through to the first level of support in just a few minutes. Of course I waited another hour plus to get through to someone that could actually help me. BTW I did turn my phone down so I didn't have to listen to the music. I only had to listen to the lady tell me how important my call was every few minutes.

Thanks for the response. I did get the problem resolved it was an intranet setting that I failed to make properly.

Has anyone been able to get through to ATX Tech. Support Today. I tried yesterday and just kept getting a busy signal. I called at 8:00 this morning and have been on hold for over 9 hours now. I wonder if I am in some sort of loop and will ever have my call answered. Thanks Jake

Since I can't seem to get through to support (I have been on hold for almost 1.5 hours) I thought I would post my question here to see if anyone might be able to help me. The problem is with document manager. I am installing it on a new computer. The installation seems to go allright but when I go to open it I get an error message that Document Manager has stopped working and that windows is looking for a solution. Of course no solution is found. I have a small three computer peer to peer network in my office the program is installed on my "server" computer as well as the other computer in my office. All three computers are Vista Machines (the new one is Vista Office). I have not had any problems with the ATX tax software or any other programs. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Jake

I use the Document Manager Program and I do like many of the features of it. For example, in ATX when you print the the document to a PDF it gets filed automatically into the client folder in Document Manager. You can scan other documents directly into the program but we have found it easier to scan to a file and import it into the program. In order to get your files from windows to the program you will need to import and assign each file individually. A couple of things I don't like about the program is that it runs a little slow on my network and everytime I have installed it on a new computer I have had problems that I had to get resolved through tech support. By the way a good scanner makes all the difference in the world. Hope this helps Jake

I would probably send a letter to the last known address indicating that the client has an unfiled tax return and offering my assistance in getting the 07, 08 and 09 tax returns filed. I would put a copy of the letter in the clients file and put it in the back of my filing cabinet and never think of it again unless I actually heard from somebody. A couple of years ago I had a client die that had a payment plan established with the IRS. At the request of the clients significant other (non spouse) I called the IRS to let them know that he had died and that they would not be receiving any more payments. The IRS allredy knew that he had died.

The tax organizer in ATX has engagement letter. I like the wording in it. Jake

Thanks for the response Ed. I have no interest in doing the Canadian Taxes I just wanted to get them pointed in the right direction and let them know what questions they need to ask a Canadian Accountant. BTW I spoke to them again today and I have found out that they have contacted an accountant out of Washington State that will help them with the Canadian filing. Thanks again

I saw that Mr. Levy has found this Community and I f I remember correctly he is very knowledgeable on US/ Canadian Tax issues. I am hoping that he or someone else might be able to help me out with a question. I have a client that is a company with three owners and all of the owners are employees of the company. It is set up as an LLC and has elected to be treated as a Sub Chapter S Coproration. For about the last 8 months the company has been working on a contract in Canada all three employees/ owners have been working exclusivley in Canada. They have continued to draw a salary from the company and have continued to file 941's and the state employment tax forms. They only plan on being in Canada for 12-24 months. All three have maintained thier homes in the US and they come home about every six weeks for a two week visit. I was speaking to one of the owners and they indicated that the the organization that is paying their company is withholding 15% for Canadian Taxes. My question is what if anything does the Company or the owners/ employees need to do on the Canadian side. Does the company need to file a tax return do the owners/ employees need to file a tax return. My assumption based on my limited understanding is that they will get a refund from Canada or else they will get a credit on thier US return. Thank you in advance for any help that you can provide.

Keep in mind that an HSA needs to be coupled with a high deductible health insurance policy. It does work well with S.corps in that the insurance is 100% deductible (assuming there are sufficient wages) and the HSA contributions are also 100% deductible. Also, I am not awre of any phase out limits for higher income individuals

Does anyone know of a good worksheet or other source to help calculate the NOL Deduction for the AMT. Thanks for any help. Jake

When I was shopping for insurance a few years ago I found that many of tax prep policies would not insure CPA's regardless of the amount assurance work that the firm did. I ended up going with the AICPA program and it has been fine. Hopefully I will never have to use it.l