Catherine

Just saying "hi" to Booger -- I'm back from my trip; you can be comforted now. Catherine

Thanks, TaxBilly -- just in time for me to work some more on the OIC I have in process.

Have a VERY :bday:

Unsupportable, weird numbers, _internally_ -- rather than anything the clients gave me!! No chance ATX is confusing vehicles. There's a lease, conversions to and from personal (different clients), a purchase, another purchase. All separate entities, listed. None of the weird numbers match any of the separate depreciation (or any other!) figures -- they are literally pulled from nowhere I can find, and way too low. Both of these returns had other oddball glitches, too. Forms that would not auto-fill from others, that had to be deleted and then re-added. So I think there's a problem internally. Guess I'll ship them to tech support later today and have them work on 'em while I'm away. Thanks. Catherine

The "search" feature won't take anything less than four characters. That makes searching specifically for EIC or OIC or AMT and the like, very difficult. Don't know what if anything you can do about that. Also, the path to get to your personal messages, signature, uploaded files, etc. is rather tortuous. Either clearer navigation, more complete menus, or accessible help might be nice. Not essential, though. One reason it's hard to recall how to get from here to there is I (at least) don't use those features all that often -- just enough so that I remember it's possible, but not how! Catherine

This is an ATX problem rather than a "how do I handle this" problem. And it's affecting two clients. In each case, there are _two_ business-use only vehicles. One client had a leased vehicle where the lease expired, then he converted a personal-use car to the business. The other client had a business clunker that got sold for just about nothing (what it was worth, too) and replaced with a small pickup. I have purchase price, sale price, dates, mileage, registration fees, etc. -- all the numbers. Both clients have plenty of profit on their Sch C's to offset car expenses. And in both cases, ATX is coming up with completely unsupportable, _weird_ numbers for the vehicle expenses that are lower than either vehicle's expenses individually. Has anyone else seen this and fixed it? Or do I just go straight to tech support on this one? Thanks to all. I was _hoping_ to get these two returns done before I head to Idaho on a one-week bike trip this Saturday, but it's not looking good for that ambition. I may just send the returns off to tech support and let them chew on them for a week. Catherine

No suggestions -- just a "THANK YOU" for all you do! Time for another donation?

Client did owe taxes for all those years.....

Well, the client may have done that the last time he sold, but I don't have the numbers. I have purchase and sale prices only -- but there were some major renovations on that older house, too. That would increase the basis in that house and lower the (deferred) gain. Client may or may not still have that tax return which may or may not include the gain computation. But the client does have records of what he did -- stayed in same area and wanted to track who did good work first time around. But it is surely a lot more recent than a client a couple years ago -- sold a house he'd lived in since I was a toddler and had done lots of major work over the years. And he had every hand-written tradesman's receipt for kitchen and bathroom renovations, roof work, furnace -- you name it. It was a bit odd to total up receipts from days before I knew how to print my name!

Thanks; figured that's what would end up happening. I was just hoping there was some magic way...

Another convoluted question from a client. At least this one came to me first. Client is looking ahead to selling home in another year or so but realized there are basis issues. I've got all of them but one sorted out with cites to back me up, but the answer to this one is hiding. I know that posting the query is the best way to find the answer in my sources! This client had rolled over gain from sale of a prior home into this one -- back around 1991, when you could still defer gain as long as the new home cost more than the one sold. My vague recollection is that this gets no special treatment, and as long as you go over the exclusion amounts, you pay tax on total gain over that excluded amount. But I can't find "proof" of that. I've sent the client off to look for basis adjustments on that first house, but still need to be sure I have proper treatment of that deferred gain in my notes. Thanks. Was this question even coherent? I am _so_ tired I can barely see straight and have been typing with my eyes closed. Thanks all! Night-night. Catherine

Running one of those super-powerful rare earth magnets over the hard drive a few times and _then_ smashing it with a sledgehammer also works. ;)

.... you can shorten your statement to just the above, Jack, with no diminution of accuracy!

"There is _always_ a way, not too sickeningly false, to garner valuta." --Lazarus Long

ditto -- still hoping for some help!

just bumping this up in the queue...

Client has well over 300 stock transactions last year and broker won't give them in digital format, so I'm stuck with hand entry. That's OK, since I learned the form-unprotect trick, I'll be entering everything into excel and then doing a direct paste. However, lots of these "transactions" are wash sale disallowed loss lines. Should I enter them individually or can I net them against the the actual transaction? I'm not sure how ATX would treat individual lines, nor am I sure if netting them is less or more work than just plodding through doing entry by column and working my way down the lists. In the past, I've netted wash disallowed loss against the loss. But I've never had so many before; there are just _dozens_ of the things this year. Thanks. Catherine

Kea -- Why does anything in the partnership need changing? Did the partnership name change? That's what is associated with the EIN. If there wasn't enough ownership change to affect the partnership, I think your friend just takes over her mom's share, and the only thing that changes is the name and SSN on the K-1. For this year, there will be two for that share -- one for the mom, from 1/1/09 to DOD, then another from DOD thru EOY for daughter. Next year, that share will just have a single K-1 for your friend.

That's what I figured, but before I said "yes" definitely, thought it would be good to check. Thanks! They've added quite a bit to that info page since the last time I looked at it in early May (for someone else).

Clients of several years. Citizens of Canada who moved here some years ago. They bought a condo in Canada in which they lived while they were there. Turned it into rental property when they moved here in 2004. Sold the condo last year and paid capital gain as appropriate. Assuming they meet the income requirements, are they eligible for first-time homebuyer credit? They have not purchased a home in the US ever, nor have they purchased a home in which they lived, anywhere, in that same time frame. The change of the condo from residence to rental property was 4 - 5 years ago. I have my opinion, but would like to hear others. Thanks.

Do you mean a keyboard with integrated real-time printer?! :lol:

Thanks for the (somewhat frightening) laugh!

Can we _clone_ this guy?!?!?!

Or the fact that a very good friend of ours would be DEAD right now if he lived in Britain -- he had an aggressive form of kidney cancer. A type that, in the UK, the treatment is they pat you on the head and send you home to get your papers in order. Insurance didn't cover all his care -- but the family held fund-raisers, and, most importantly, HE IS ALIVE TODAY. If we get Obama care, you'd all better start growing your own medicinal herbs. We've seen this story, and it in the long run it doesn't end well. Ever.

I think it's terrific -- thanks, KC.