Catherine

If his name is on it, I'd have him sign.

Trust (decedent estate) sold a property. I have contract price, and FMV as of DOD. Then there are the closing costs from the HUD-1 (or CD, or whatever they're calling it this week - settlement statement). Should those closing costs be added to the FMV, or subtracted from the contract price (with detail listings), or does it matter? Which is less likely to invite unwanted (and unwonted) attention?

In addition to the depreciation report for the current year, it also gives you the depreciation for next tax year.

I miss my Brother printer. When it died I replaced it with an HP, which works well enough but can be very annoying as well. Checking in with the mothership to make sure I'm using "real" HP cartridges, deciding to stop and recalibrate halfway through a print job, waiting up to a minute before printing in case I decide to override which paper feed to use (when only one has any paper in it). They are "improving the user experience" to the point of wanting to take a sledgehammer to the thing on occasion. But the print quality - once it deigns to start - is terrific, as is the speed, and the ease of duplex printing.

The flip side of this is I have one client whose DL expired in 2009-ish. She has not updated it as she has been working all over the world as well as in the US, flitting around like a butterfly. She has an international DL but that is not accepted for tax ID. We keep using the over-ten-years-gone ID and it still works for claiming refunds. She will be settling down (thank goodness; ugh) and will get a new, local, DL this year, she promises.

For this one, I'll splurge on the good, buttered, popcorn.

Thank you, @DANRVAN for the reply. I've passed it along. My "question" was a de-personalized quote from the email I got, and your response was just what was needed.

It was mine, too, but I was too busy to research it yesterday. Thank you.

Hear, hear! Trick: you can put it on autopilot, too.

Question for a local colleague who needs to sign up here. He's wondering what to do, and I don't know. Trustee for an irrevocable trust that has his parents (deceased in 2023) house in it. He and his sister who will receive the house when they choose to cancel the trust are operating the house as a rental property. The trust owns the property, not them. If they use the house they are not paying rent to the trust. Is it considered personal use even though they don't own it, or just a free service?

I've seen three elderly clients in the last couple of years end up with huge capital losses on "managed" accounts. More like "churned" as "managed" implies they have a clue that someone in their 80s or 90s is looking to preserve capital not trade for gains (losses). It is infuriating. These folks are trying to live on savings plus leave something for the kids and grandkids, not lose it all to fat fees to callous churner scumbags. And reporting them gets one absolutely nowhere.

Cash-only in-person payment stations inside banks or other businesses, that then transmit electronically to the intended recipient. Receipt from payment station = proof of timely payment. I've had bank-directed electronic payments get missed, too. Rare; maybe two in 15+ years, but not infallible.

Reminds me of the joke of the IT professional whose only in-house electronic device is an ancient printer, and they keep a weapon near to hand in case it ever makes any weird sounds.

Don't allow yourself to feel like a loser. There was no way safely to predict this; better to file (once) and be safe than to skip it and possibly be open to nasty fines and investigations. Your advice kept them safe. Had it gone the other way, you could have been castigated for callousness or negligence by those same clients.

Most of the clients I've had in assisted living get a letter from the facility annually that states "32% of our charges are considered medical assistance" or "$1,312/mo is the assistance fee" or something similar. Sometimes the letter has to be requested.

What Max W said - there is NO LIMIT for total due on an OIC. There is a limit for automatic full-pay installment agreements. Those are not OICs. Form 656 but the return must be filed & processed. You cannot file an OIC on tax that has not been assessed. I don't know of any state that does not also have an OIC-equivalent program. Names vary. Get federal OIC in process before state OIC; that way they allow 100% of state tax assessed as a legitimate claim. If there is a state OIC there's no tax claim. If there is a state payment plan underway then it's "only" a monthly expense.

Hokey Pokey You put your right BOI in you take your right BOI out, your put your right BOI in, and you shake it all about!

Latest on the rules. Link, then text. https://tinyurl.com/xdstkvmz FinCEN Removes Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for U.S. Companies and U.S. Persons, Sets New Deadlines for Foreign Companies Immediate Release March 21, 2025 WASHINGTON––Consistent with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s March 2, 2025 announcement, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is issuing an interim final rule that removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information (BOI) to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act. In that interim final rule, FinCEN revises the definition of “reporting company” in its implementing regulations to mean only those entities that are formed under the law of a foreign country and that have registered to do business in any U.S. State or Tribal jurisdiction by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or similar office (formerly known as “foreign reporting companies”). FinCEN also exempts entities previously known as “domestic reporting companies” from BOI reporting requirements. Thus, through this interim final rule, all entities created in the United States — including those previously known as “domestic reporting companies” — and their beneficial owners will be exempt from the requirement to report BOI to FinCEN. Foreign entities that meet the new definition of a “reporting company” and do not qualify for an exemption from the reporting requirements must report their BOI to FinCEN under new deadlines, detailed below. These foreign entities, however, will not be required to report any U.S. persons as beneficial owners, and U.S. persons will not be required to report BOI with respect to any such entity for which they are a beneficial owner. Upon the publication of the interim final rule, the following deadlines apply for foreign entities that are reporting companies: Reporting companies registered to do business in the United States before the date of publication of the IFR must file BOI reports no later than 30 days from that date. Reporting companies registered to do business in the United States on or after the date of publication of the IFR have 30 calendar days to file an initial BOI report after receiving notice that their registration is effective. FinCEN is accepting comments on this interim final rule and intends to finalize the rule this year. ###

There is a very well-known phenomenon where an obvious solution hides - very cleverly and thoroughly - until one gives up an asks here on the forum. At which point it jumps out just as a colleague reports that hiding place/location. I think we have all been bitten over the years! Heck, I've used this to my own advantage by posting a query in the hopes of flushing out my prey.

Maybe this is where the separate thread here on the forum that mentioned this article on scam theft losses could be of use. https://www.taxnotes.com/featured-news/tax-pros-welcome-clarity-scam-theft-loss/2025/03/14/7rnbr

You log in to your preparer account at the IRS and there is an opt-out checkbox somewhere. I forget the details, though.

Unless such a notice comes directly through the software itself while it is actively in use, tread carefully!

When the amounts are this small, I tell the client to run any IRS letter by me first, to make sure it's correct. Then I can confirm for them to pay the additional tax requested. Way easier than amending, and the letters only come through about half the time. According to Eric Green (TaxRepNetwork; he has lots of contacts in the agency) they are concentrating enforcement in areas where they get a bigger bang for their effort-buck. The folks who owe $600, not $6. The non-filers with W2s in the 100's of thousands, not 24k.

Do you really want to face trying to respond to a letter in the summer of 2026? When all you need do now is file? And who knows how many computers will need to be pacified before you can talk to a person? Do it the hard way, and make it easy on yourself and your client.

No clue, but will follow this thread as I have a farm (not in TN) that may need something similar. They're going to be on extension, so I wasn't worried about it all quite yet.