Catherine

@Max W - you don't want a Lamborghini anyway. My husband got to ride in one once. long ago, he said it was like siting in a recliner, three inches above the highway, going 90mph. Not fun.

It changes when he hires himself out to non-related parties to do the same work. A friend, many years ago, spent several years unemployed while living with and caring for his grandparents (keeping a promise he'd made as a teen). Once both were gone, he discovered a new profession: elder care advocate and consultant. But he wasn't taking care of his grandparents for profit as a job.

Good. Then my comment served its purpose, to draw people back to this being taxable income. Line 21; the guy's not in the business of doing this for profit.

Else it's called "retirement" which I hear actually works for some people. No one I know! All the retirees are busier than ever.

Then call it "as good as it's gonna get" and tell the client he's lucky that's all that was dis-allowed. He learned a lesson not nearly as pricey as it could have been. (And yes, I knew the IRS wouldn't - note the use of the conditional. "Should" and not "will." But there are lots of places where we see clearly what they *should* - but don't - do; we talk about those all the time here on the forum.)

For these folks, I would NOT recommend "filing *something*" just to get it done by 9/17 with the intent to amend later. Once the pressure (of monthly penalties) is off, you won't see them again until 9/1/2019.

I'd call it a gift from the parents. "Here, son, we're taking a lot of your time and want to thank you."

I like John's suggestion, and Max's. I'd call the RO and leave a message that you will call supervisor TOMORROW if you don't hear - certainly not more time than another day or two. This has gone on long enough. And I'd change John's last line from "worried about protecting client's interest" to "my responsibility is to protect the client's interest" because that is accurate and carries more weight.

From the 16th Amendment (that legalized income taxation): "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived....." If it's income, it is subject to taxation, unless specifically exempted. Your return question should be why she thinks it is exempt. Yes, it might be interest on a settlement. Yes, the settlement might be exempt - but NOT what it earns. Get her to tell you what she thinks and you'll know how to debunk her error.

My husband ran into the *same* thing. Somehow I got all the digits.

Yup. I detest those with a deep and immovable loathing. Three a day? There have been days when I'll get six or seven. Sometimes the house and the office phones ring within seconds of each other. The only thing that slowed them down (and it might have been serendipity) was waiting until a human came on the line and making gorilla noises into the phone until THEY hung up. I did enjoy that - but generally it takes too long to wait through their stupid spiel and get put through to a human.

Bank withdrawals showing sufficient cash to pay said sub? The IRS guy should accept the deduction, and open a new audit on the sub who didn't report - with thanks to your client for the tip!

You actually seem to have made a good start already. I might recommend that you keep a bottle of your favorite tipple at hand while working on this one. If they kept Excel records, ask for those at least. Bank statements (they have a separate bank account, I hope!) for the years in question. Maybe back to the beginning. Mr 60 needs his K-1 and amended return for 2016 regardless of when the buyout happened. Mr 40's might be OK for 2016, unless he ended up taking 100%. ONLY do this one on a retainer basis. It is a royal mess, and you need to be paid to fix it. If they won't do a retainer basis, give it all back now. In addition to the headaches, you are putting your professional reputation on the line by presenting returns completed on incorrect and insufficient prior data. Never worth it.

I'm absolutely giddy. (stated completely deadpan)

I asked Drake for the prior-year programs. They gave them to me, gratis, for the prior years that I needed.

Do it by hand once or twice. At least you'll *think* you understand it - and you *will* be both upside down and backwards!

Based on just what you showed, and looking up nothing, I think you're right. I may (we both may) be wrong.

My sympathies, @Edsel! Those complications just make it all worse. First time I did an NOL/1045 I did it three times with the same info and came up with three different answers (on ATX). Finally did it by myself, on paper, and then strong-armed the software to come up with *that* result (because I knew how it calculated, I decided that one was right - it had the other advantage that the result almost matched one of the three by computer). Then I took motrin and had myself a lie-down for a while, to deal with the massive headache. Either I've gotten more used to them, or Drake makes them easier. Maybe both!

I just LOVE the movie "The Princess Bride!" In the same vein are both "Undercover Blues" and "Real Genius" neither of which get the attention they deserve.

Patrick is right; the macros are HUGE time-savers and super easy to write.

Me too. He wants to ask questions, fine. Speaker is willing to answer, fine. I don't want to listen during my break time.

Please also note that the entire bottom half of the screen Judy posted gives details for reporting (asset management), dispositions (removal from service, sales, and group sales), and some state-specific fields. You can also - in the top half - access the bonus depreciation elections. Unless there's a pressing need, I elect OUT of bonus depreciation for all my clients. The state doesn't allow it, and keeping one schedule is hard enough for most clients to deal with. Telling them there are two (and then explaining why the numbers are different on the two returns) is more trouble to me than most savings are worth to them. You can choose a specific class, all classes, or a specific asset, to customize depreciation.

And you'd be wrong about that. Remember where I went to college. The *eponymous* nerd source!

Absolutely! I have one such file, on an encrypted drive, password-protected, that I use to keep the historical info for all those sites where you have to keep such records. Last time I checked, it was over 27 pages long. I've had that one file for over twenty years now. Page and a half a year?

I wouldn't store those passwords online, or on a hard drive I need the passwords to access! I do have them backed up accessibly (online and physically but not in my sock drawer) but all encrypted in some way or other.