Catherine

Terry -- The kickback is in your teeth, every time you pay the new, higher price. Ask me how I know this.... But I don't use their payroll; just the ProAdvisor membership and software every year. Which reminds me; in my copious free time I should install the 2009 version. Catherine

Saw this somewhere else last year; another forum. It might even have been the Mighty KC who posted it! But thanks for posting it again; it's a good one. Catherine

Had an S-corp client call me today with a question I can't answer right off, and the first two places I looked didn't help, either. It should be plain and simple, but I'm just drawing a blank on this. This is a small consulting company, only assets are about $9K in cash. Owes the shareholders (2) about $40K in loans made to company. They may close the company this year. They have an accrued pension liability of about $26K. Does it make any tax sense for them to loan the company money to pay off this liability? Would the unpaid, outstanding loan to the shareholders be considered a business loss -- or personal, nondeductible? Please note that I'm ignoring the entire issue of how their SEP is structured and whether or not they _must_ make the contribution. That's a different issue from what happens to the loan to the company. Thanks, all. Catherine

"It's amazing how much "mature wisdom" resembles being too tired." Lazarus Long, 'Time Enough For Love' by Robert A Heinlein

Good luck with your tests, and thanks for the reminder. It's time for me to go retrieve the dry laundry and put the washed laundry in the dryer. And then get back to double-checking these completed returns and printing them out. :P

Normal -- isn't that a setting on the clothes dryer?

I just sent it to a few myself, once I stopped chuckling. Thanks for the post!

Not quite; some of them are legumes. :lol:

We already ate... but there are leftovers if you care to drop by (before _they_ get eaten up)!

You can even print on plain paper.

I think KC should sell tickets to let us all just hear her talk and ask her questions. She _always_ has fabulous information and I have learned _so_ much from her posts here and elsewhere. I want to _be_ KC when I grow up one of these decades. Yay, KC! Rah, rah sys-boom-bah! ^_^

You can still _laugh_ at a three legged donkey. And they don't run away.... at least, not very fast.

I have had to make some furniture changes, because sitting for long hours in a chair that doesn't really fit me was starting to _hurt_. The newer one is better but still not great; I have some shopping to do post-season. I am currently banging my head against a nasty S-corporation return where the balance sheet won't balance and I'm having trouble tracing transactions for loans the shareholder made to the company and payments to the loan to her funding source and back to herself. And I spent an hour today going over info needed for Sch C with someone (returning client) who I thought was bringing papers over but instead wanted a tutorial. Same tutorial I gave her two years ago. Sigh. The good news is I caught up on about 2/3 of the backlog over the weekend and am hoping to catch up some more before yet another slew of returns pours in the door. Another big plus is the local shop had wild salmon today, so we're having wild salmon, fresh bread, and sauteed kale/red cabbage/onions for dinner. Yes, I get to make it --- but it will still be yummy. Thanks for asking! Catherine

Argh! Now you tell me! That warning drove me nuts last year (for the same reason; assets fully depreciated before I ever got the client). I'll remember for the next time; thanks.

Got that, it's getting it to the form that's giving me trouble. I've done these plenty before, but never with sale of a business asset. And it sure seems like they've made some big input changes since last year. Catherine

I have a client who sold a rental property in Canada. He paid a number of thousands of dollars to Canada on the gain. I have the gain itself on Form 4797, but have not been able to get the taxes paid to come up on Form 1116. I've tried a slew of different ways, and I can't the the info from the input and detail pages onto the form itself without over-riding everything in sight. This guy does not itemize here. Any help appreciated. Catherine

A friend has ADD (so do her kids and her husband; it's quite a madhouse -- in the nicest way). In her kitchen, there's a sign: "They say I have ADD, but they just don't understand -- oh, look, a chicken!" We're _all_ there right about now! :lol:

Ooh -- I tried it left hand/left foot after your note and I could do it without reversing!! And when I concentrated REAL hard, I did it right side as well -- but only once out of a half-dozen or more tries. And I mean _concentrate_ -- eyes crossed and like my life depended on it. It's so much less difficult on the non-dominant side; wonder what the neurological connections/reasons are? Catherine

It's still snowing lightly here. We had 15" and spent a couple hours shoveling out. My daughter had the day off school and my husband took off a half-day so he could help with the snow removal. This spring, I'm pulling out a big round yew that is horribly in the way of where we really _need_ to be able to pile snow from the driveway. It's not a particularly nice shrub, and it sure is in the wrong place. Catherine

Even if it turns out to make sense, it will have to be done in two steps. Either convert where it is to a Roth and then rollover, or rollover and then convert. But you can't take a traditional IRA and, IN THE ROLLOVER process, convert it to a Roth IRA. BTW, the income limits on conversions go away next year (for one year). I know a couple of folks who've been waiting for years now to convert some tiny little account with a couple hundred dollars in it... Catherine

Massachusetts' governor, too!! The ninny is trying to get NH stores to turn over sales records of any MA buyers, so he can dun them for use tax. Not only does he have NO jurisdiction or legal standing, but he is forgetting four key items -- we have borders with four other states, all with use tax laws, and higher sales tax rates than we have! And they'll turn around and demand our records. If his nefarious scheme succeeds, it will send MORE money out of the state than it brings in! _Fabulous_ strategic planning, ain't it?

Drive carefully! And make a snow angel when you get home.

The only things I'll add are that, over the years, the ONLY people who have cheated me by not paying -- have been the ones with the sob story to whom I gave a price break. And some of them had been long-time clients (note use of the past tense). These days, I tell folks that my fees are negotiable -- but only UPwards. And that, when there are tons of line items (W-2's, stock sales) over what you would "normally" expect, I charge $1 per additional item. That would add $10 (roughly) for the extra W-2's. But three additional _states_?!?! That's some money to make it worth while. Not totalling expenses? Hourly, and estimate generously. That way if it comes in $20 less than the estimate provided, they've gotten a bargain. But $20 more invokes other emotions. Catherine

In general, pain that can be relieved by movement or change in position is _not_ the heart. But please be careful; my dad eventually died of complications from a heart attack that was much more severe in consequences than it might have been -- he thought it was indigestion and so did not go to the ER for over 6 hours. Catherine

Perhaps because if you don't understand the abbreviation, you don't have enough experience with the subject to express an opinion? I certainly didn't know what CRP payments were. But here in eastern Massachusetts the few farms that exist are far between, and not my bailiwick. I have never seen a farm return in "real life"; just some examples when I was studying for my EA lo these many years ago. I remember being startled (not surprised; on consideration it made perfect sense) by the disparate treatment of beef and dairy cows. I still use that as an example for people to distinguish between expense and depreciable asset. They all get it; it always makes them chuckle, too. Although I've never tried that example with a vegan; I suspect their reactions may be a bit different... Catherine