Catherine

Neither! It came through as an email from my web site vendor, and I looked while taking 5 minutes to have some tea before it got stone-cold. Of course, I then had to scramble to finish my tea to drink it still warm once I stopped laughing.

link: https://thebusyseason.com/blog/5-beers-that-should-exist-for-accountants For those who won't click, here are the names, without the other cute label notes: Last-Minute Lager Easy Returns Ale Screams of Perdition Porter Pointless Explanation Pilsner Stout Refusal The descriptions are very funny, as are the "on-label" comments.

The IRS site just says file all past due returns at FinCen and make sure you paid US tax on earnings. Most likely she had no US filing requirement for most of the years in question (a kid in school, some work, then stay at home mom). Would she have had to file a US return with no income just to check the box for foreign accounts even if no FBAR was needed due to low balances?

Your tax software support folks might be of more help in this one. Some software might support debits on amended returns, others might not.

You don't file his Costa Rica taxes unless you know CR tax law. He's on his own, or he can find someone down there. Note that many other countries are not on a calendar-year tax filing year. You may need to put him on extension in order to get final CDR tax numbers from him. Sch E rental reported here should indeed be simple if prior information given is correct. Use Form 1116 to take credit for tax paid to CR. Make sure to adjust for calendar vs fiscal year mismatches. Of course he can bring his earnings into the US legally - best not to try cash, though, but deposit any cash to a CR bank. Then transfer to a US bank, and that US bank will report any transactions over $10,000, but that's just reporting. Wire transfers are the usual method.

That's the better way IF there were estimated tax payments made - because those will be attributed to the primary taxpayer's account from the prior year. I changed them around once for an elderly lady who lost her husband and doggone near lost *her* when she got an IRS nastygram demanding $16,000 in tax, because the computers never think to check the other taxpayer for ES payments. Frankly, I considered that letter as elder abuse and (politely) reamed the agent a new one when I called them about it. Back when they still answered their phones.

That's what I do. I've gotten clients who either mail the form back, or drop it off in person, weeks after signing it. I put "Rec'd mm-dd-yy" on the top, sign it myself with that date, and then e-file usually the same day or certainly within the three days of receipt.

Client is a US citizen. Her family moved to New Zealand when she was a teenager. In 2021 she and her NZ-born husband moved back to the US with their family. She has never filed an FBAR - never knew about the requirement; after all she was just a kid when they left the US. Now they are faced with having to file FBAR forms going back umpty years. Anyone know how many years back she has to file? The standard six, or is it more? I can't find that information on either the IRS or FinCen FBAR filing sites. Oh - and her NZ-citizen husband only has to file for the time since he got a US social security number, correct? (Which means he, at least, will be current when he files for 2022.)

I should think that having a slew of receipts of around $80, plus statements showing others, is reasonable (I know, reasonable and IRS don't match far too often). But in addition to receipts being lost, the $%^& pumps don't *give* receipts (out of paper, broken, etc) more and more often these days, and sometimes they can't give you a receipt inside, either, because the employees don't know how to do that. If you can show a clear pattern and back it up with a preponderance of receipts, and the auditor won't budge, go up the food chain to the supervisor.

I have not, but in my office in the next town, we "rent" a corner of the outer office to a CPA who generally works from home. Perhaps a CPA office in your town might be another option? I'd be concerned in a Regus-style shared office about the higher level of privacy/security that tax pros need, and if they are really up to covering that. Or maybe they are, since their business model depends on reliability in several areas. Just, don't limit your options to one kind of shared space.

Thanks, @DANRVAN for confirming that in this instance my memory was not faulty.

Thank you for your kind comments, but in this case it's simply a holdover from high school French class.

Thanks, @BulldogTom!

Won't find it here; I'll cut the client loose and have him find a CA practitioner. I'm trying to retire, after all.

I have one guy with a W2 who lives mostly in NYC, but has a pied-a-terre in LA where he spends about a quarter of his time. We file a CA NR return for him since CA considers his wages from NYC to be taxable in CA since he works from home remotely while he's in CA. If I have to pay $600 to do his return, I'm cutting him loose for next year. Anyone have a clue as to whether this CA source income thing applies to me in this case?

Payments of nondeductible expenses are considered distributions to the beneficiary, but need not be from income. Could be from corpus; depends on trust document. IIRC, distributions of corpus don't get listed on a K-1. Please correct me if my memory is faulty!

Yes it can go as a PDF attachment. Please note that in my experience, the IRS "loses" Forms 1310 and 56 the first two or three or four times you file it - even when it's on the list of e-filed forms or attachments! To the point where I'm convinced the "you did not send" is a form letter generated to give them more time to deal while making you think you messed up.

Not too bad here. I am vacillating between feeling like "I've got this under control" and "Oh dear Lord how am I even going to get extensions filed in time!" This is my crunch week to finish up. As of next Monday, I do nothing else until everyone outstanding is on extension. Then I get back to work with all the pressure off. I am finally learning, as I try to ease into retirement, that I cannot allow myself to care more about people's taxes than they care. I still do my best, but don't let myself get turned into a pretzel for people who can't be bothered. And I go see my granddaughter (and daughter and son in law) every week for a couple of hours.

Anyone here in Georgia accepting clients? Friend-of-a-friend contacted me looking for help for next year. Accepting new clients is kind of antithetical to trying to retire, so before I answer the gentleman I thought perhaps someone here is looking for a client who is at least in the same state. Couple, she has/runs an S-corp, he has a W2 and does some light coaching on occasion. PM me if you'd like more info or want me to point these folks to you. TIA, Catherine

MA has contradictory requirements. They want the portion of wages earned in MA (by which they then allocate state exemptions) and then they throw a hissy fit when total state wages exceed MA wages. Plus you have to adjust FICA tax (Line ... 14 or 15 of MA Form 1 NR/PY) to what was attributable to MA wages only.

I'm glad you enjoyed my little offering.

Go ahead and share it, and attribution is fine. Yes, on occasion, the muse strikes, and it all just flows without effort. It struck this morning and off I went!

Sent the above to a local colleague, who replied, " Simplexity or Complexity? To be or not to be" To which, in a fit of poetical contemplation and with deep apologies to old Will, I responded: "To be, or not to be, that is the question; Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of contradictory tax laws, Or to take arms against a sea of IRS auditors And by opposing, end them. To file - to comply, No more; and by comply to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That 1040 presentations are heir to: 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To file, to comply; To comply, perchance to amend - ay, there's the rub: For in that compliance of amending what penalties may come, When we have shuffled off this tax filing season Must give us pause - there's the respect That makes calamity of so long a career."

Husband has a consulting business but for 2022 all he had was expenses; no income (too busy with new baby and cross-country move, but kept up web site and webmail). Does that count towards a filing requirement?

I sent out two copies of an estate income return, Priority Mail, about two weeks ago. One to the executrix and the other to her brother (co-executor). One is in NH and the other in CA. I'm in MA and can drive to the NH location in about 90 minutes. Both packages arrived the same day - within an hour of each other! - a week after mailing.