Catherine

Time machine! or programmer error. pick one?

Just fyi, in Drake there are client copies, preparer copies, and filing (mail-in) copies. (Those last have all the ssn digits, etc.) Banks want those numbers, so they get "filing" copies. Taxpayers get the client copies that also include most of the worksheets, and have ssn's masked. Preparer copies get *all* the worksheets, plus diagnostics and notes and carry-forwards and the like.

How many years? Is husband still alive? Could he be declared dead? Has he changed his name? (Or sex, for that matter, these days.) I'd say that if it's been ten or more years, no indication the guy is alive, and no one the client knows has heard anything from, of, or about him (including maybe a goggle (sic) search for him turning up nothing)... then you could make a very good case for single. Because people who drop off the face of the earth are sometimes literally no longer on it. OTOH, if that search turns him up in Saskatoon, Saratoga, or Santiago - then nope, MFS, and look for a jurisdiction with a quick cheap divorce for next year.

Isn't that against the Geneva Conventions against cruel and unusual punishment?

Sounds like you need to see the HOA agreement. If they are required to provide those utilities to all units equally, sounds to me it's like electricity for common areas, and does make the 90% test. YMMV.

I had signed up for the NAEA message board, getting daily summaries, some time ago. I rarely look, and have never bothered to respond. Well, I responded to one and let me warn you all to stay away from that group! First off, any response seems to reset your daily summary to an email with every. bleeping. message. posted - and I could find no way to reset that (ended up unsubscribing completely). Then, the board seems to be full of full-of-themselves persnickety nit-pickers who have NO concept of taking facts and circumstances and doing the best you can do with the information at hand. Stay here, where we fuss at each other in love, and understand that we're all trying to do our best for our clients, not trying to prove how we can out-cite everyone else. Jeezle louizle I love you guys and just got my nose rubbed in how much. And Rita - there are some folks over on another board who could use some of your hugs. Just sayin'!

Yes, the oddball payments where Q2 is due before Q1. Your government at play! Actually, they're doing a good job trying to keep on top, when the ground is shifting daily and emphasis is on personal 'cuz that's who is visible. Businesses are on skeleton crews, or shut, so they're not fussing very much at the moment. Good luck with your trusts. Wrestling with three myself, that are interlocked (marital and survivor share and whatever the other one is) and sold jointly-held assets in 2019. I was cross-eyed before lunch!

just click out of the return

I've been keeping tax returns open (in Drake) while doing anything for the client. Drake tracks time per return. Helps me decide who gets discounts, and whose bill gets none, and what clients are definitely more trouble than they are worth.

CA service centers are shut due to the governor's decree, and UT centers due to the earthquake. Probably some NY centers, too. That will certainly put a crimp in the works!

I've seen AMT credits in the past. I've also seen instances where MFS works better. Odd, sometimes, how tax rules, phase-outs, and limitations interact.

We are treating them as due April 15th. Q1 pmts due 7/15 Q2 pmts due 6/15.

MA now matches federal for INDIVIDUALS (with Q2 ES pmts still due 6/15 even though Q1 isn't due until 7/15). They've been talking about that for businesses, too, but there is nothing definitive yet.

He doesn't make that much money, so we don't want to do that to him (yeah, we're softies). But at this point, if he paid us triple our current fee I'm not sure we'd still want him. Although maybe for this year's returns we'll hike the price to what the local over-chargers charge him and maybe he'll go away on his own.

Yes, US - we're the pros. They don't call taxpayers demanding immediate payment with no letters sent (for months and months and months) first.

We're thinking of doing that with one of ours. Nice guy - but a clueless dolt who sends stuff in drips and drabs, does not read what we send him, does not answer the questions asked - always pulling hens' teeth to get his returns done. So now, WE'RE done.

Massachusetts is shutting all non-essential businesses for two weeks, starting at noon Tuesday (tomorrow). I wonder if that means people go to work at 8am then go home for lunch? Ill-thought-out but that's kinda standard for chuckles (Gov Charlie Baker).

I am here, but was working at my other office earlier where I don't generally log in to the forum. It has been NUTS. People at home, bored, who call to "chat" since we can't possibly be busy. Text messages. Emailed responses to questions coming one at a time instead of answering several questions at once, so I/we have to pore over multiple emails to dredge out answers. People stopping in - but calling from outside the door for us to meet them even though the door has a note "unlocked - please come in" - and then *they* want to stand there and chat. I would love to know when *I* get to be bored to tears - cuz it ain't happening. Prayers offered for your cousin's boyfriend, @Possi and I'll get my church's prayer email list working on it, too. How awful - but SO glad your cousin was there, and was armed with that metal pole.

the trick: define "non-essential" using words of less than three syllables.

I no longer use ATX, so I can't help with input screens. However - only US employers get put in as W2 wages. There should be a foreign employer section as part of the 2555. Either way, you then exclude that income later in the 2555. Hope this helps.

He sells stuff to fund his site; it's at the beginning because at the end people skip it. Can't fault him for that, even if I generally don't like anything he tries to sell. His reporting, however, is excellent.

My deepest sympathies on your losses. My husband came home, a few years back, from one of a LONG series of trips to New Mexico, took one look around our house, and said, "We can't do this to the girls; we have GOT to get rid of stuff here." He spent a week and a half to two weeks, every month, for nine months, cleaning out his mother's house after she passed away. His folks had built the house when he was 4 or 5. Somewhere in the attic he found his TinkerToy set, put there when he was 12 - he had no idea why it was still there. We've been slowly jettisoning, consolidating, and making sure paperwork was in place, ever since. It's still a work in progress. Not made easier by all the crap the girls left behind when they moved out, or moved from one place to another and needed to "leave this with you for a little while, till I can come pick it up." Although, frankly, those particular items I have no trouble leaving for them to deal with, as it only seems fair. Good luck to you in your endeavors, and enjoy your camping trip away.

Not really intentional, unless you want to include that one of the agencies decimated by a prior administration (and still run by that admin's appointed leader) that shall remain nameless was the CDC; they were not prepared to get the tests or testing protocols out there. The first test sets sent out had an 80% false-positive rate. THAT is totally useless, and they had to pull those tests and get better tests and testing protocols out. Can't be done overnight - unless you are ready for and expecting a fast epidemic of that particular type of virus. Keep in mind nation SIZE as well; many European nations (and South Korea) are significantly smaller than some of out STATES. Far easier to monitor a place the size and population of Virginia. Not really. The current rate of doubling (2nd derivative - rate of change of change - crucial in physics as well as epidemiology) is already slowing. Please also note that there is a lag in reporting that second derivative, because of delays for testing results. Also because of the expansion of testing is *showing* more cases - but those cases were already extant; they are not new, just newly reported. Bill Still (on yourtub; Still Report) has been doing a good job tracking and reporting on this.

Interest and dividends in excess of $7,500 only. NH doesn't recognize S-corp election, and has special rules for p'ships. Your client is clear.

My contribution to the pool: March 27th, 4:30pm.