Catherine

Good luck, @Possi!

I will trust the folks here to provide a correct answer to the question asked. Whether the question asked is the actual issue is a different problem! Plus we sometimes get a half-dozen answers which might all be correct depending on minor details. From there, we extrapolate (Bulldog Tom's "do my own research" equivalent).

Try Zillow. It lists prior sales. Also town or county online records would have that. All you need is the property address to search on. (And I posted this after reading your post, Possi, before seeing that Bulldog Tom had a similar response.)

But it would lead to a depreciation adjustment if the place has been rented.

But none of us will ever complain about OUR @RitaB!

I'll nominate Margaret for her foreigners and their rental issues.

Neither can WE! (Good luck.)

Me too, but I just started in January and we had a bookkeeper who did payroll until around Feb 22nd. (LONG story.) I have had to change payroll completely, get a new bank account, get new W-4's, check addresses (many of the papers dated back to the early 2000's; far too old to assume they were right). Then people rush me and lollygag themselves. The last delay was something that had to be approved by someone who just got back from CA after a family funeral... but yeah, they're going to toe the line. Starting as soon as I have a minute to get out a whip. Hey, Jesus used one, so it's completely appropriate for a church group, right?

Well, that one went poof some time ago and my brain was accessing information from the late 1990's. Another reason I never trust memorized standards - am I recalling this year's figures or the ones from a decade ago? Any chance either of these kids will go to grad school some day? Or take any kind of classes for fun and games? Basket-weaving, history of baseball, philosophy of Cicero? If so, hold the funds in the 529 until then. Else take it out over time to minimize the chances of bumping into a higher tax bracket.

Wait, I thought that once the youngest hit 30, any funds remaining could come out without that penalty! I'll go look that up and report back. As for the UGMA/UTMA - problem with those is the funds become the kid's at age 18. So the kid with the joint is gonna blow the lot on weed.

I needed to do a church payroll by YESTERDAY. Waiting for ONE item - the number of hours for ONE part-timer. I have been asking since Saturday. And of course since pay will be late it will be MY fault, and not the fault of the person in charge of getting me ALL (not just part!) of the information. So I'm not exactly Little Suzy Sunshine myself today. Plus we had over a foot and a half of snow yesterday, and I'm tired and sore from wrestling the under-sized snowblower through that mess. (Doug did all the shoveling, so I'm still better off than he is.)

Sometimes I think that instead of tax prep, I should just hit myself in the head with a brick. It would hurt less, and be over faster!

Judy, that is also my understanding. There may be a requirement in the plan, or it may have been the only way to "buy" shares with a sell-to-cover and what was told to Max was not quite the right situation. These transactions usually end up with a small capital loss due to transaction fees, but I agree that $5K sounds like something is off somewhere.

Glad you at least got it fixed, and here's hoping that the black cloud has now been dissipated!

Will call later today! Thank you.

We love ALL the stories, Bart!

We drop all tax work and start filing extensions around April 7th. Our deadline for paperwork is March 15th but almost no one gives us everything on the first pass so it's basically a way to stop people from complaining. Once extensions are all filed, we turn back to returns and always file bundles of the extended returns by the deadline.

Great nomination, Judy!

Years ago, I decided to refer to ALL of them (local, state, federal) as legis-vermin. There's something very satisfying about that term. And everyone who hears it laughs (ruefully) and gets it immediately. Said it once to a nice female legis-vermin and I thought she was going to fall out of her seat, she was laughing so hard. Said I didn't know the half of it, and couldn't wait to tell her husband.

I found a problem just *reading* your description, Lynn! I think I went cross-eyed about half-way through.

Get the check copy and BOTH brokerage statements NOW, while the clients still knows where they are. Scan or copy, and put them in the file. I had one of these a couple of years ago, and sure enough we got a letter. I already had the letter written - put in the then-current date, printed the letter, check copy and both statements showing within the 60-day window, and it was done.

I am very amused when someone answer the phone saying, "This is Kevin" and you just KNOW that his name is actually Ganesh. I always think of the credit card ad where the guy in Siberia with the heavy beard answers the phone saying, "My name Peggy" (was that an old Capital One card ad? - they've had some good ones). That's a generic someone, not ATX - 'cuz I switched to Drake in the 2012 debacle.

Yes, but it's far easier to try to dun people for money - since many will panic and pay. I have NO sympathy for these states (especially my own); there is waste enough to choke a horse, but they just want more.

Short answer is NO.

And I had it on my list but I had not gotten to it yet. Will now!