MN dhawk

Thanks for the help.

Thanks for the previous comments about whether non self-employment fiduciary fees allow IRA contributions. My next new client had filed his own returns for 2006 & 2007 and not bothered with Schedule D for same day sales of stock options in both years. Why bother with the pesky 1099B when all the income is in the W2 anyway?? I would have just done Schedule Ds for both years but on his way out the door, he asked if the option income qualified for the traditional IRA deductions that he had already made for 2007. For 2006, he had not deducted an IRA and the IRS has sent a bill for the missing Schedule D option basis. Also, he has dealt with Social Security who wanted to reduce his 2006 payments for what they saw as excess earnings. After Social Security found out that his entire W2 was option income, they dropped the matter. For 2006 all that is needed is Schedule D. My only question is about 2007. The entire W2 is option income and he has no other income that would qualify for an IRA contribution. Social Security tax & Medicare tax was withheld. The entire box 1 amount was coded V in box 12a. The option was granted prior to retirement. Is this income like salary which would allow an IRA or like deferred compensation which would not?? Thanks.

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Thanks.

Client acted as fiduciary for 2 seperate estates for his uncle and sister. He took fees of $10,000 total. He wants to put the total into Roth IRA's for himself and his spouse for 2008. Both are over 70 and have no other earned income. I have always entered these non-professional fiduciary fees on 1040, line 21 since they are not subject to self-employment tax. This doesn't look a lot like earned income. Is it earned enough to justify Roth contributions? Thanks.

I guess the question is: are fiduciary fees for family estates IRA justifying compensation. They are not subject to self-employment tax. Thanks.

I saw that as a real slowdown for keying K1's. You have to enter the line number first and then the amount!! Reviewing other programs (Orrtax, Taxwise, Drake & Taxslayer for me) has made it clear why I like ATX best.

I looked at the Drake demo. I am staying with ATX but I very much liked the Schedule D feature of importing a spreadsheet with stock sales. I managed to do it in 5 minutes from an Open Office spreadsheet.

I will be sticking with ATX for next season. I have spent hours looking at the demos for Drake, Taxslayer, TRX and even Taxwise. It became clear why I chose ATX in 2002. I like to see the W2s, 1099Rs, interest, dividends, and stock sales, and K1s in that spreadsheet format. It speeds up my entry time and makes review faster too. If only they would get efiling to work smoothly and fix that awful client letter, I will be very happy. My second favorite is Taxwise, which I used before ATX. No, I do not and never have worked for CCH. Did I mention how well the client letters work in all those other programs?

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I have always used 12/31 for the sale date.

I though that using 2 19" monitors was great until I saw another accountant using a 32" LCD HDTV. My desk is not big enough for that but I am thinking about a 24" monitor. Does anyone know if both 07 and 06 ATX will fit on a 24" LCD without the need for scrolling? That would free up the second 19" monitor for spreadsheets and the 6 o'clock news hour.

Unmarried couple lived together all of 2007 with their young boy. She made 13K & he made 30K. I thought that he with the higher income would be the only one that could claim EIC. She said that if I would only read the tiebreaker rules that I would see that they can choose who gets the EIC. Any thoughts? Thanks.

I'm dividing income between the final return (taxpayer was 104!!) and the 1041. If I create a spreadsheet within ATX that shows the allocation, will it get e-filed? If not, I would prefer to file paper. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for that great help.

New client bought farm in 1980 for 72k. Depreciated 30k of the 72k over 19 yrs for drainage tile. Sold to his brother in 2007 for 240k, which he says is a fair price. Collected 20k down pmt and no other pmts in 2007. Is the 30k recaptured as sec 1250 all in 2007? Can he use the installment method with his brother? Thanks in advance. Dennis

Can't get ACKs or transmit new efiles. Day before yesterday everything was working great. Does anyone know if Taxwise people are having these problems?

I had this same rejection message. I opened the returns, recreated the MN efile, sent them in and got accepted. It should not be this hard.

Thanks for the tip. I see that there is a new update for the state letter.

When opening a federal client letter the state information has not been inserted. I have checked the box for combining the letters in the master forms. I still need to open the wizard, uncheck the box, recheck the box and click finish. It is a minor problem compared with the inability to efile MN returns but after the 99th time, it gets old. Thanks for any tips.