HV Ken

When you find that one cartoon that says it all!

There are no dropdowns for any KY localities! I am wondering if there is a separate form that needs to be filed for this withholding like there is in PA. We took care of the schedule A - I am more concerned about KY since there was withholding for these localities.

Client moved from NY to KY. KY W-2 has local income tax taken out for Scott County and Georgetown. I have been searching to see if/where these get reported, but must not be entering the correct keywords. Is there something that needs to be done with these two local taxes?

We combine the state and federal letters. Have no problems. They come out great and I found them easy to customize. I am happy with the client letter function this season.

What's more reliable, "oh about" or looking at the ceiling ?

As a programmer in a previous life (not windows), memory leaks are a problem regardless of the operating system!

Not convinced this is just a windows problem, Jack. Recently one day I logged each activity (open return, print, generate e-file, etc.) interacting with ATX and recorded the memory from the task manager at the conclusion of the task. With each activity, the memory footprint got bigger and bigger. When it gets to about 1,200,000 K, the program will crash and burn. It appears ATX has some memory leaks remaining.

http://tinyurl.com/odx5t2d Enjoy!

We always do the balance sheet.

I posted same question elsewhere, and got this response: Owner probably paid for the auto expense from his own pocket. If it is a legitimate business expense, the owner can be reimbursed for it. Instead of paying the owner actual money, especially if there was no money, the owner put in additional capital. The negative RE is ok since there were losses. The additional capital adds basis for the owner, which will allow him/her to deduct the full loss. Each accountant handles this differently. Some net it against any distributions. Some record a payable to the owner.

Picked up a new S-Corp client. Looking at her books, the previous tax preparer (CPA) created an adjusting entry at the end of each year: Debit Owner's Compensation: Automobile Expense Credit Additional Paid in Capital (Equity Account) using the actual mileage * the standard mileage rate (ex. 15,765 miles * .565/mile = $8,907.23). Prior to the adjusting entry, there were no automobile expenses recorded in the books. This is not something I have seen before. Can anyone help me understand what the CPA was thinking with this entry?

Isn't free college what the current administration is pushing for? (tic)

You may be correct on what HRB should do, but the parent has taken over and wants nothing to do with the inexperienced "preparers" at HRB. We are charging her a nominal fee to amend her daughter's return, and we have most likely obtained a new lifetime client. The p.s. to this - she came to us this year because Liberty messed her return up last year!

Just wondering - have any of you experienced where a client left over price, only to have them return a year or more later once they realized the grass isn't necessarily greener at another tax preparer? I would think that their pride/ego would get in the way. Curious to hear your experiences!

2 weeks here as well. Been telling our clients this since day one. So far we are meeting/beating, but the arrival rate is coming in fast and furious! If all we prepared were simple "plug and play" returns, it would be no problem. But the more complicated returns require thought and even giving clients choices. That takes time! Our college intern remarks on a daily basis that she would never learn in college what she is learning in our office.

We discovered this last year: file an amended return immediately for the college student. Wait about 6 weeks for it to percolate through the system. Parent(s) return can then be efiled and will be approved!

New client came in the other day. Prepared her return with the AOC for her 18yo college daughter. efile is rejected. Ask her (again) about her daughter. Oh yea - she went to HRB. One W2 for about $1,700 (one thousand, seven hundred) with $170 withholding and of course HRB took her exemption, as well as filed for the college credit. These "well educated" kids run to HRB with their piddly W2s to get their $170 piece of their billions back, while impacting their parents who are shelling out (or borrowing) thousands to put them through college. SMH

See: http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USIRS/bulletins/f10edf?reqfrom=share

Thanks Vityaba! Just tried it out on my example in my original post to this thread and it matched it perfectly.

Even worse are all the staples I have to remove. Especially love when someone takes a form out of the envelope and then staples the form to the envelope.

OK - so we have our first affordability exemption test. Here is our calculation - just looking to ensure our thinking is right! 1) Since the cost minus the Premium Assistance Credit (if client had insurance) is less than 8% of MAGI, insurance is considered affordable and penalty applies. 2) Perhaps I have completely missed it, but do we have a worksheet to perform this calculation in the ATX software? (This snipet is from a simple spreadsheet I created....) MAGI $23,064.00 (from tax return) 8% of MAGI $ 1,845.12 monthly $ 153.76 Cost of single lowest bronze plan $261.93 (NYS lookup) premium assistance credit $208.00 (from 8962) Cost - credit $ 53.93 Result: Affordable

Our first 3 clients, we had two with no health insurance and one who had a job, was covered, lost it, unemployed for a few months, got another job without it, etc. Mother is custodial parent but kid is on father's plan. Marriage during the year. Divorce during the year. The permutations and combinations go on and on....

The SE tax alone on a 100k profit can be 15k. The extra expenses for the S-Corp won't even come close to that and the savings will be several thousands. In my opinion, that threshold is a bit too high. I agree, in general, with your statement about a start-up. I would expect a business to be around for awhile and make it from start-up to mature at some point. Long term, big picture thinking! Our recommended approach (not always) is start as LLC and elect S-Corp when the numbers make sense. This provides more flexibility for the business owner.

Gotsta do the math on that one, Jack. There will come a point in time where the tax savings from being an S-Corp will exceed the additional costs that you point out, and at that time the S-Corp becomes the better choice than Partnership.

These are going to come in handy during my next several 60-second commercials at my weekly BNI meeting. Thanks for the list!