Tax Prep by Deb

Cathy, I truly feel your pain! You have to be so carefull now days and suspect everything. I had a client send me an invitation to share her Quick book file, and before I clicked the link I emailed her to confirm. I am email gun shy especially from clients. I've been had one too many times!

Just checked and the max is 18,000 under 50 and an addition 6,000 for over 50 so her HR Dept is wrong by 2,000 and that is what is triggering the error message and why it isn't with jklpc because 24,000 was used not the 26,000. Your client contributed 2000 to much.

If the max deferral over 50 is 24,000 and hers is 26,000 then there does seem to be a problem.

2014 2015 2016

But doesn't this apply in the case that they can't agree and they both claim the same child? Can you direct me to something that indicates AGI is the determining factor if they agree? I have a couple that have three children, and usually the one with the highest AGI claims HH and claims 2 and the other files single and claims 1. The tie breaker rules, I thought would be applied in case of no agreement. I know we aren't suppose to rely 100% on pubs, however there is a discussion of a situation involving daughter and mother, daughter has three children, and it shows how the dependents can be split if the daughter agrees, so why wouldn't this be possible in the case of unmarried couples with more than one child? The example of an unmarried couple shows that they can decide between them, but it only addresses one child. Clarification on this would be greatly appreciated. Example 11—Unmarried parents. You, your 5-year-old son, and your son's father lived together all year. You and your son's father aren't married. Your son is a qualifying child of both you and his father because he meets the relationship, age, residency, and joint return tests for both you and his father. Your earned income and AGI are $12,000, and your son's father's earned income and AGI are $14,000. Neither of you had any other in-come. Your son's father agrees to let you treat the child as a qualifying child. This means, if your son's father doesn't claim your son as a qualifying child for the EIC or any of the other tax benefits listed earlier, you can claim him as a qualifying child for the EIC and any of Example 4—Qualifying children split between two persons. The facts are the same as in Example 1 except that you also have two other young children who are qualifying children of both you and your mother. Only one of you can claim each child. However, if your mother's AGI is higher than yours, you can allow your mother to claim one or more of the children. For example, if you claim one child, your mother can claim the other two.

It's working for me also. I really thought I had blown it on a return because I accidently clicked out of the program, but when I opened it back up there it was with everything just like I had left it.

You will get this message on any return that you do not have full coverage for the full year checked. It is just a reminder of how the client can sign up for the health care, it is not any thing that we as tax preparers have done wrong, it's just a reminder that the client needs to remedy the situation for future years. Thing is it is also showing up on dependent returns where we are specifically told not to check the box. I have had several of these, don't lose any sleep over them.

About 30 seconds, just have to go thru garage to get to my office, sometimes a minute depending on traffic!

Glad to help!

Also make sure you have not marked the return complete. I had this happen once to me and I put a check mark in complete instead of select.

This is what I do for a number of clients, or if they don't write checks, I ask that they leave me a copy of their debit or credit card with approval to charge it on a certain day. We write out an agreement and they sign it. I have never had an issue and have been doing it this way for 20 years, but if you let them leave without some sort of payment, I chase them all year long and usually do not have them return until they think I have forgotten about it which of course never happens. When they do finally return I remind them of the past due and require payment in full for the past due and current due before I even begin, reminding them that they would not go to work and expect not to get paid would they?

If that box is not checked for insurance all year, even if you do the form and claim an exemption you will get that notice. I have several clients that had insurance 10 months and qualified for the 2 month short gap exclusion and they received the same message.

Go to your preference and select client communication and I put a check mark on the box that says will be efiled when 8879 is signed and returned. Otherwise you will have to change it on each client.

Great idea! I have already been hit once, and I am extremely careful now, but then again I thought I was then too! But the second computer would be great, just don't have it connected to the network or it still could infect the other computers.

And keep in mind too, that we are preparing 2016 of which Trump was not the president and had no authority, therefore I do not see how an executive order signed the following year when he began his presidency would affect this filing year. Perhaps 2017, but not 2016 unless he signs something else that will retro-active it back to 2016. Just my 2 cents worth!

I can't create without the checkbox or form. I get the error message also, and yes I have auto set for updates and get them several times throughout the day as well. So I think right now it is just a Drake thing. I do not have a clue how Jack is getting them thru.

There is a way to stop it by going to your preferences, open return, and take the check off the box that says display IntelliConect Tool Tips. They actually posted this fix on their Blog earlier.

Yep! I have a client who moved to Arizona 2 years ago who sent me his stuff and actually questioned it, but before I could get back to him he called me. I guess it was all over the news. I am so impressed that he would catch it!

She actually worked for the same employer, one W2 showing withholding for two states. She transferred to New York hoping it would have more opportunity, but like I said it seems she may be a little homesick.

Ok, I hope someone can help me out. I have a client who moved to New York in August. It's not totally clear at this point if she is going to stay, but she is currently and has been since the day she moved there been working, so therefore I have a New York W2. She is actually staying with some family members and plans on returning to California and has sort of told her mom she probably would not go back to New York when she comes back in August. Thus she still has her car registered here in California, has kept her bank account opened here, and has her strongest family ties here, so I'm 99% sure at least for 2016 she is Domiciled in California, but the question is do I file a part year resident return for New York or a Non Resident return for New York, and if a Part year resident do I file a part year resident return for California? My thinking is that because she is domiciled in California she is still considered a resident therefore they want to tax her on everything earned. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks, I appreciate your help!

Ok, I hope someone can help me out. I have a client who moved to New York in August. It's not totally clear at this point if she is going to stay, but she is currently and has been since the day she moved there been working, so therefore I have a New York W2. My question is what do I have to do to have New York allow me to complete this one and only tax return? I've never done one in the past, and really do not intend on doing so in the future. Any help would be appreciated.

Same here. I though I would lose some clients because of this but so far it does not seem to be the case. I am right about where I was last year at this time. I actually feel that some have procrastinated because of the news and think why bother filing early. I guess only time will tell, but I have a horrific day schedule for tomorrow!

Glad to help. They also said just yesterday, I believe that if you try to create the e-file and your internet service is down, you may get the error, so you will need to recreate and resend.

Make sure you update your forms then recreate the return and transmit again. I read something about this on ATX Blog