ILLMAS

My clients were all informed in January that my office was closing on April 13th. My children are more important to me than my clients and they are on Spring Break. They are growing up too fast and I want to enjoy them now. I will try to get those done that call now, but if not, an extension is what it will be.

Amen to that, I haven't been spending anytime with my 5 month daughter and I feel so guilty.

Marco

Just wondering when do you quit doing tax returns?? I find myself receiving tons of calls just days before the deadline, but I think this year I might disconnect my phone April 13 - 15, I'd rather lose these clients than work my butt off, then have them pay me months later. What are other tactics do you use, share your story.

If you really want to keep all that, [i don't] then you should invest in a good scanner, so that you can quickly scan in the documents you want to keep, and store them as pdfs, on your computer, not make paper copies which then fill up your file cabinets. The ATX Document Manager will let you easily associate those items with the client's tax return.

But think about it. Why do you want to copy all that stuff? Staple it into the client's folder, behind the return, and let HIM be the one who stores it. It's not your responsibility to store all that stuff for him.

I thought had bought a good HP all-in-one printer, but I hate the damm scanner, it creates a new file for everypage, maybe I am missing something, but I went back to making copies. I will definetly give up on making copies of my client info next year. I will let them keep track of it, and you are right my cabinet is ready to explode.

I am just curious, do you make copies of all of your client info for your copy? I am getting fustrated with so much copying that it takes me longer to assemble a tax return then doing the actual tax return. I am just wondering what other tax prof. do?

p.s. I don't make copies of all the receipts of anything, I just write the total on one receipt and copy it.

I timed myself for one just one tax return for today, simple return 1040, Sch A and state return:

10 minutes entering data

5 minutes reviewed and double checked numbers

20 minutes making copies of the info, making a copy for my file and assembling the tax return.

This a good place, I wouldn't want to see it go. I use to post at the TaxAlmanac but there are a couple of schmucks just waiting to see who misspells words and plus sometimes people are not helpful.

TP has recieved two 1099-A for the same property, one is for the mortgage and the other from the line of credit. Amounts for the Balance of principal out (Box 3) and FMV (Box 4) are different?? The difference on box 3 is $5,208.08 and box 4 is $45,059.74 Do I need to enter both 1099-A and use the lower FMV and principal out?

Thanks,

If a politician gets married and receives gifts from his employees, is this considered (presents & cash) additional income? If so, how would it be reported?

Put in $1? How much can that possibly change anything? This is assuming you want to keep the Schedule C and the associated fixed assets for future years' use. If not, you can print out the asset list for future reference and then dump the Sch. C.

Duhh!! I should of thought about that, thanks that worked. It was too many assests to delete and re-enter, plus client is thinking of selling business, I don't like the double work.

I have TP that a business, but it had no activity in 2008, there is no income and expenses and no depreciation ZERO, he does have a couple of fixed assets, I cannot efile his return because it's telling line 1 of Sch C has to be greater then 0, I wanted to delete the Sch C but I will lose all the fixed assets. Is there a way around this?

Thanks,

A client of mine was building a home to sell, the house was finished and put on the market in 2007, in mid 2008 they decided to move in to stage the house and see if they can sell now that it has furniture. They moved out their primary residence and decided to rehab it. Well since the new home was not going any where they decided to rent thier primary house in late 2008, someone gave a security deposit to start renting in December 2008, however they decided not to rent because the lease was going to be on a month to month basis (client was going to return to home if new construction sold). Now here is where the headache starts:

1. Client took out a construction loan of $795,000, $150,000 of equity from his primary residence and another $150,000 from a rental property, however the contractor swindled $300,000. I asked the client for a copy of the title and he said there isn't one, the $795,000 is now a mortgage loan. My poor client doesen't know what was the true cost of the property because there was a lot of fraud with the contractor, contractor made checks to his family and forged my client signature, the bank investigated but could not do anything because the contractor left the country. This was going to be an investment property, but because of the real estate fall, property might go into foreclosure along with his other two properties. My question is, since in 2008 it was a considered a personal residence, there is no need to capitalize it?, I would just itemize for the mortgage interest and property taxes, the same for his primary residence? In short client had to personal residence in 2008.

2. If things are not bad enough already, client has two other condos, both were unoccupied in 2008, not because he didn't want to rent, but because the area they are in, there are another 500 condo to choose from (new and for rent), he contiuned to pay the mortgage, property taxes and assestment fees, but no rent was coming in, in 2009 he was able to rent one only, would it be wise to report both of them with zero rent, he has proof he tried to rent them, he hired a R/E agent and put ads in the paper. Unfortunetly, he is not a R/E professional, so he would be limited to the 25K, he paid more that in just one condo.

3. Client has a dauther that got married in 2007, however she left the country to study medicine, I filed her 2007 return as married, now in 2008 she is a dependent of her parents because they are the ones paying for her education, and her husband is going to file for divorce in 2009, the daughter meets the test of dependency, my only concern is that she is not officialy divorce yet, and her husband probably filed single for 2008, then she would qualify was a dependent. Parents paid a lot in education, she is older the 24yrs, would the parents be able to claim the education credit?

I am also venting, this probably the worst case I have seen related to taxes.

Thanks,

Does anyone remember the motivational speaker Matt Foley "I live in a van down by the river" played by Chris Farley? My client is the real Matt Foley and was good friends with Chris Farley. Fr. Foley will be leaving to Iraq to serve as a chaplain in a couple of days, he has finished his military training and is ready to go. I have included a link to a video of him, please keep in him your prayers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDICmcxrIEM

Marco

The code would be 813000

No, he can only deduct his offerings if his denomination REQUIRES that he tithe, which most do not. Of course, you should ask him what, if anything is REQUIRED in order to maintain his employment. I have won that issue in an audit, years back, where the denomination had it in their written rules for ordained ministers in their faith. In such a case, it's a 'reasonable and necessary expense of his business', not a 'donation'. And I put it under Returns and Allowances. But I would not take it unless I had that in writing in my file.

Double checked and he is not required and thank you.

I have a TP that is a priest, the church were he resides issued him a 1099 for his service, he also has some expenses related to his ministry (books, training, seminars), he also has some donations, can he deduct those donations on Sch C instead of Sch A, he is not itemizing. Also, what would be the business code for him?

Thanks,

Isn't there a difference between a foreclosure and a short-sale? I thought that once you foreclosure, the bank takes over the property vs a short-sale, bank allows for you to sell for less, forgiving debt between the amount due and sales price. Then you get a 1099-C, here is where you pay taxes on the amount forgiven unless you are qualify for the Mortgage Relief Act. But it would be a good idea to know what going on, a couple of clients are in that situation of foreclosing.

There are a couple of cases - if you have Quickfinder or the Tax Book, they explain the situations.

I will check my quickfinder when I get back to my office.

Thanks

I believe no such cases exist.

Wayne Brasch

Ok thanks, for some reason I thought if you are trying to acquire more business and have to travel out of state, apart from car rental and lodging you were able to deduct 100% meals.

What are the cases when meals can be 100% deducted?

In these two case I had, both TP transfered the stock to another broker in 2008, however they received a 1099-B Broker Proceeds, Barter and Exchange Transaction and if you look at the date of the transfer appears under box 1a "Date of Sale", logically one thinks they were sold, number one because it doesn't tell you it was a transfer or exchanged nowhere on the form. I guess these two particulary brokers don't give enough information to let the tax preparer know they were exchanged and like I mentioned earlier the client is even worst, doesn't know nothing about their account.

I promise next time I get another client that transfered or exchanged stocks and it is not clear on the 1099-B, I will put zero cost and calculate a gain :-) at no charge for Sch D.

I have had two TP that transfer their stocks to another broker and they get a Proceeds from broker, worst of all the client doesn't even know what they did, they want for you to find out. From the 1099-B it looks so much like if the stocks were sold, and there is no reference that it was exchanged. Getting tired of this!!! Just had to get this off my chest.

Did you print it from the 2007 program or the 2008.? Organizers for 2008 need to be printed from the 2007 program in order for numbers to flow.

Ah thanks, I printed out from 2008, 2007 makes senses.

MAS

I printed and mailed out a client organizer and didn't realize the prior year amounts didn't flow through, I got a call from the client saying the amounts were blank. Is there something I need to check off to make the info flow (amounts, not TP name, address ....)?

Thanks

Try this first, see if the "Receive Acks" on your desktop generates a message for the ones you exported, if not I would just export them from your laptop to the desktop and try it again. The EFIN number is the same, so I would think the desktop should receive the the acknowledgement.

The import/export of files should not affect the version of ATX you are using, the problem is that if your desktop has the most recent form update, you would get a message on your laptop saying form XXXX is not available or vise versa. Also, if you just exported them to efile them on your laptop and made no changes except the efile, you should be ok, no forms or amounts should change.

A client got marry in December 2008 and troubles in the relationship started January 2009. she has found letters that belong to spouse that show back taxes owed plus some others issues. She (my client) wants to file MFS but husband will not give her his SS#. I told her that I will find if there is any other alternative and let her know. Has anyone had this situation before? If so, what did you do?

Out of my mind come ideas like: 1) Filing MFS without the spouse SS# and attaching a statement informing that she is unable to get it from husband.

2) Going to an IRS office with all documentation including the married certificate to see if she can get that SS# through the IRS employees.

Any ideas or comments will be appreciated.

Thank you, Lucho

Lucho, don't go through all that trouble, at the end the TP won't value your service and will question your bill too. Easy way would be to file single for 2008, this give your client a year to get the SS# for 2009 tax return. Something I am learning is that don't make your clients trouble your trouble :-)

TP has a condo she bought when she was single, she got married and bought another one with her husband. The first condo is not rented out, her parents stay there when they come to the US. The condo's are only blocks from each other, she really doesn't stay there plus her parents took over the mortgage and R/E taxes in 2008, so I am wonder if this considered a second home or she won't be able to deduct it since she doesn't live there at all during the year?

Thanks

Hi:

Do I need to file zero 1120s if there was no activity for 2008? Client doesn't have money and I wouldn't feel right charging for a zero return. What should I do?

Thank you.

I would just submit the the zero return along with the first return he has any activity and somewhat charge him for your work all together. A client might may think a zero return should be simple to due, but he doesn't know you have to set it up, put in the assets....