Catherine

lock the door on the 18th; give existing clients a password for entry....

Tell her to get a weekly pass *and* keep the records - else no dice. FastLane/EZPass (whatever they're calling it this year) sends an annual statement. Or makes it available for download. Not so the T passes. Hike their bill.

Commuter expenses, small deduction on Schedule XY Line 15. However - WEKKLY or MONTHLY passes for MBTA or commuter rail. Not including employer reimbursements. Not load-on-demand Charlie cards. Put in total; amount per taxpayer over $175/year is the deduction and it should subtract that $175 from the total. Hike their bill.

Today, yesterday, and the day before, actually. What is ticking me off about Windows Update lately is that my computer is most definitely set to download and install updates ONLY upon my direct command - yet it is downloading and installing updates WITHOUT my approval. Gotta find the "update" that installed that sleazy step and UNinstall it. In my copious free time...

I am so jealous that I'm not sure I'm speaking to you right now.... Congratulations, my friend!

Oh, and I got a call from an inquirer, too, today. Taking new clients? Only if willing to go on extension. Oh. Was hoping to file on time. Word of advice: anyone competent is ONLY doing extensions for new clients this week. If they say they can file you on time, they are NOT competent. Oh. Huh. Click. (me thinking: good riddance; what a bozo!)

Email from a client today, with questions about the partnership return filed in early March. Wanted to know why figures differed from what they gave me in a couple of places. We went through it all *at the time* - personal estimated tax payments are NOT a deduction to the partnership. Assets are depreciated, NOT expensed (increasing income every year or we might have gone Section 179), etc.... Told them by return email I am NOT answering any questions about already-filed returns until after 4/24. And made a note to hike their fee for next year!

I watched the little video and made four macros to fill out extensions (fed/Mass), PIN screen, and EF screen. Including watching the 2.5 minute video, it took me about 4 minutes total. They are THAT simple. *4868>X>>Y is, (if I recall correctly) the macro for extensions. Goes to screen for 4868, puts an "X" in the 4868 box, two tabs to the "Y/N" box to make it yes. Boom, you're done.

Which do NOT include the loan taken out by the dad and in his name - correct? FBO the son's education, but not the son's loan - just the son's college.

Too late to edit! Supposed to be Massachusetts/Mass. Neither posterior nor donkey was intended!

Sorry for being dense - are you saying that the school loan payments are NOT counted towards total gift given? Or that they are counted? (Except for the one in the dad's name only.)

Gift tax return needed for a client who gave his son $$ towards a house down payment. He also paid off the son's student loans - directly TO the lenders, not the son. One loan was in his (dad's name); the other one was in son's name. Do those amounts count towards gift? I know that education costs paid directly to a school do NOT count towards the annual gift exclusion, but seem to remember that loans DO count. But what if the loan is in dad's name? Seems like he just paid his own loan off in that instance. TIA! (Side note: why to the gnarly questions *always* come up in the last week?!?!)

Might I recommend you folks all look at Drake, once we get past 4/18 and the dust settles.

We have already polled our clients and will be filing extensions on Monday. I always do them a week early, and then go back to cranking out returns. Every year there are a goodly number of folks who get put on extension but then file on time. And every year, there are folks whose returns are ready for pickup, who end upon extension because they can't get here in time or don't mail back their 8879's in time. I finished up this week by doing the payroll tax filings for March and Q1 for my business and the one remaining in-house payroll client. Everyone else is on online do-it-for-me payroll. That has been great. Money shows up, and all I do is download quarterly reports and occasionally adjust a w-4 or add a new employee or inactivate a newly-former employee.

All my Ass estimated payment coupons are printing with 4/18 - and that makes sense. That *is* the first business day after the 15th. (Good grief - something about taxes making sense?!?! It can't be! -And it isn't. It's not the taxes that make sense; it's merely the calendar. Phew!)

I have mainly found that, for the bonds that I *could* amortize, I almost never have full information to do it with! For the ones I *must* amortize, there is still, too frequently, that same issue. So I fudge those with excel spreadsheet linear adjustments (kind of treating it like straight line amortization). But if I don't have to, I'd rather not - a bleepity-bleep pain-in-the-patootie at best, and an impossible pitp far too often.

Patriot's Day, April 17th. Returns due 4/18. Extension payments also due the 18th; no one home at MassDOR on Saturday the 15th!

Household employees don't have a 941 filing so there might be a small penalty for late-filing a W-2. All the taxes (federal) are paid on Sch H with the 1040. However, there might be state tax and unemployment taxes that could have late-filing and late-paying penalties. In Mass., those tend to be about 1/2 of 1% of the tax due, per month, and therefore usually in the annoying but not hurtful category.

Also, if the parents have not exceeded the income limits for claiming AOTC, take a look at using some of the 529 distribution as *taxable* income in order to get the credit. And correct for basis (assuming parents funded the plan)! You can take a small income tax hit of a couple hundred bucks in trade for a larger credit.

You can't go wrong with the classics. I thought the original was from HL Mencken.

It's my very FIRST Schedule F, ever! Not many farms in Mass., and this one actually is in OK. My first OK return, too.

Yes, the out of pocket amount qualifies for SEHI. But only that portion.

One point to note is that in such cases the nanny is usually NOT happy to have to report the extra income. Get the client on an employee payroll asap. Paychex SurePayroll has a nice online service for this, for small money. I do some in-house and they are annoying - especially because household employees (and their employers!) tend to be lax about reporting time IN but then want to be paid instantly.

Client inherited 1/3 share in deceased parents' farm. Paperwork includes $144 paid BY USTreasury and copy is labelled "US DOA farm support" - anyone have a clue where I report this? Or where to go looking? Have tried IRS web site and TTB with no luck.

Best phrase I ever heard for this was "ladies of negotiable affection" in one of the Diskworld books by the late (great) Sir Terry Pratchett.