Catherine

That's for sure! One of my corporate clients had a (US citizen) repair guy who flat-out refused to give his SSN - but the office admin there kept cutting him checks without withholding 28%. I finally changed the "Pay to" line in QuickBooks to print "No more checks until SSN has been received!" and that finally worked (the admin didn't know what I'd changed, tee hee). That guy still does work for them - and every nickel is tracked.

Definitely read the treaty - but also read (if available) the trust document. Perhaps it works, essentially, like a grantor trust that is ignored for all intents and purposes since its' function is to make a transaction possible. You could also post this on other fora - taxproexchange, TaxProfessionals, and others. Catherine

#1. Happy Memorial Day (Decoration Day) -- thank a veteran -- specifically THANK YOU to all on this board who have served!!, and read the Gettysburg Address. "...It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced." #2. Under the heading of "these new regulations will fundamentally alter the way we get around them", Massachusetts now requires its Schedule C contract workers to incorporate (so they they don't run afoul of MA's own very strict who's-an-employee standards). So I have a couple of clients who have worked for MA for years as independent contractors on Schedule C, taking office in home deductions. Mid-2010 both incorporated, and still work out of their home offices. And I need to split the office in home deductions between self-employed working at home and employed working at home for their sole-owner corporations. I can't figure out how, in ATX, to a ) STOP the 8829 from calculating whole-year depreciation for the Schedule C (since some of it goes to the Sch A worksheet) and b ) get the deductible mortgage interest/RE taxes to be correct without an override - so should the override preferentially be on the worksheet or the form itself, or does it not matter? Also, on the Sch A home office worksheet line 33, I need to use the date the home office was first used (before 2010) or the deprecation number is way off (as is the applied percentage). Anyone have a clue as to what's going on there? This is one spot where doing it by hand on paper would be easier. TIA, Catherine

Wonderful!

Oh, yum - I'm mildly jealous!! Have another piece for me!

Hope all of our friends in the midwest and south are safe after (and during!) this nasty patch of vicious tornado activity! Sending prayers your way!

Here's a caution with Windows 7 Home (any home) version: you CANNOT back up to a network drive using Windows backup!! We just discovered this last night with my daughter's computer. Online (Carbonite, iDrive, Mozy) works fine; back up to an _attached_ hard drive, CD, or thumb drive is fine. But Windows backup to network drive is not possible unless you have a Windows 7 Professional version. I do not know if outside backup software (Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost, etc.) works as we haven't tried that yet (we use Acronis here). If you want the capability to do a "cold metal restore" (all your executables and peripherals, not just your data), you need to be able to back up properly for that. The online folks only get your data, NOT your programs or peripheral installations. Catherine

Congratulations, Bonnie -- you must be SO very proud!!! Congratulations also to your son, as he has worked long and hard for this. One of my husband's best friends from high school got his private pilot's license on his birthday (the day he was old enough) as well, and he has been a professional pilot all his adult life. Catherine

I'll toss my two cents in here as well, Marilyn. Lack of prior-year listening and following your good advice on THEIR part is THEIR problem. You did not create it. You are not their "mommy" to MAKE them do what is fiscally responsible. The wording by signature line on the 1040 reads "on penalty of perjury" that the return is COMPLETE and correct (to the extent possible with the information available). If the husband's business is a business, then he must report all the income AND all the expenses. One cannot decide to "leave them off" to make a bank happy. You wouldn't leave off income on a Schedule C so that the client qualified for the EITC - this is the other side of that coin. Tell the wife that if she wants to commit tax fraud (and YES, use terms that strong; at the least she can't come back later b!+ching that you didn't warn her), that she needs to find a crook to prepare the returns to her liking, as you will NOT participate in fraud. Sounds like good riddance to me; this is not the kind of client to keep. If they do stay with you for this year, make sure you've got a good engagement letter from them, signed and dated by BOTH. Catherine

I had an IN NR return this year and couldn't e-file. Read the instructions online at the state site; they do NOT accept NR return e-files. Annoying, but that's how it goes. Has to be paper-filed.

The big weakness with ATX that I find every year is with the Massachusetts returns. Massachusetts has some oddities that ATX _never_ gets right and that _always_ need over-rides. (And yes, I've reported these items year after year.) 1. MA deduction for social security tax paid is ONLY for MA-source wages. This must always be adjusted manually, even when the income is clearly coded as being sourced out-of-state (for non-resident and part-year resident returns). 2. MA 1099-HC (the health insurance forms from RomneyCare) -- the penalty pages not only don't calculate correctly, they don't calculate AT ALL. Neither are the supporting worksheets' tables available through ATX; I have to get them as pdf's from the MassDOR site. Yet ANY entry on ANY of those pages requires an over-ride. If you're not going to include the info, that's one thing - but to make me over-ride the _nothing_ that has been "provided"?? 3. MA multi-state income issues: some income is subject to taxation in multiple states. The Mass forms do not allow the (mandatory!) e-filing if total taxable income to all states is greater than the Massachusetts taxable income. Happens with just about every multi-state return. This may be a MassDOR problem rather than an ATX problem, though. There are another half-dozen regular annoyances. If I could find a forms-based package that addressed these chronic Mass problems, I would be strongly tempted to switch.

My thanks as well.

All the midwest, south, adn now mid-Atlantic states getting hammered by these astoundingly powerful storms. Tuscaloosa tornado video: Tornado video

Glad to hear it, KC!! You (and everyone in the line of storms) were in my prayers.

Sounds like a pretty tangle to me...

We can see two of those monitors in the picture that accompanies the article; very slick, very nice! Even far from tax season, however, my desk NEVER looks that clean - I'm jealous!

Congratulations, Deb!!

Much sympathy and many hugs to you, Linda. Happy Easter and a Blessed Passover to all. I will _definitely_ be here during the "off" season, plowing through my extensions, catching up with those prior-year clients (who were told flat-out, "You're years late already, the folks for this year come first"), and generally keeping up with my buddies online. ANYONE who makes it to eastern Mass this year -- stop by! Drop me a note and you'll get directions and a cup of tea (or glass of iced tea) when you arrive. Catherine

Try to correct and re-submit the e-file -- and if it's rejected, mail it in, instead. Print out that error code before you change and re-submit, though! Catherine

Here, here, likewise, ditto, and huzzah! Don't know HOW I'd make it through the season without each and every one of you, my online colleagues and friends. And for one LAST time this season --- LOL!! Catherine

Thanks KC & Lion -- I got hold of the client, and that's what we did. We'll amend later - he supported the son through October, so there is NO question of who has the right to claim that exemption. The client talked to his son, who will amend his return. At some point I'll have to inquire as to whether the son has to amend his Wisconsin return (he wouldn't in Mass -- you get your own personal exemption regardless, here). I told them to have the son wait until the IRS sends an inquiry letter, so the amendment wouldn't be slowly burbling through the system while a letter was demanding immediate action with paperwork likely to be sent to a different processing center. Catherine

Enough is right. I posted a couple days ago about a client who wanted me to claim casualty loss on termites. Got him straight on that one, got his return finalized, sent in Federal and state yesterday. Federal got rejected. Turns out his son who just graduated college claimed himself (state went through because the son now lives in another state). So now I have to explain this to the client, along with preparing the return for paper filing (plus the e-file rejection code and the new form we have to send along when we paper file), and explain _why_ we should do this even though it (a) makes no tax difference for him (AMT) and ( will cause headaches for the son, and © increase his underpayment penalty/interest amount because now his electronic debit payment won't go through today like it was supposed to. I know what is right, I know what to do -- but doggone it, I just don't _want_ to right now!! I am _tired_ and expected to spend this week in my garden. My roses aren't as extensive as jainen's, but they need pruning. My peas need planting. Can I go hide under my desk now, and come out in May? Nope; can't do that, either, as there's a deadline on how long we have to correct an e-file rejection and still be considered timely. What do people think about fixing the return to delete the son's dependency exemption -- and then amending on paper later? Gets the tax payment in quickly -- but files a return known to be inaccurate. My sympathies to you, SaminGeorgia, and thanks to all for listening to me whine. I'm cranky tonight. :wall:

And for those who think we can tax our way out of this particular pickle, here's an excellent video: Eat The Rich, with Bill Whittle

May be too late for this year if you've filed her return, but you can now schedule _Federal_ estimated payments a year out when the return is submitted. Doesn't help with the state, though. And the client has to remember to have $$ in the account that day.

I stop holding state returns a couple days before the due date; better to need to amend than to get a late filing penalty. Release and file 'em.