ILLMAS

One of my client filed for bankruptcy and he included a rental property in the filing, however the bank the holds the mortgage asked him to remove the rental property from the bankruptcy filing and they (the bank) would take over the property and sell it. To me it sounds more like a foreclosure, but the client insists it;s not. Has anyone ever heard something like this before? I did make my client aware if it is indeed a foreclosure and the bank sells the property he will get a 1099C.

Thanks

I too agree some of those places are expensive, I think I know why they have to charge so much, they do a lot of advertising and somehow they need to cover the cost of the commercials and overhead. Us smaller people don't have the budget to advertise like they do. My advertising budget for 2009 is zero, but I have rent to pay, utilities, telephone etc... then whatever is left over is my profit.

There should be a boxed checked that states box amount above includes amounts for 2009 acedemic year...I think you can use that amount on next years taxes.

Thanks, box is checked off. Need to look closely next time.

I have a client that applied to college in 2008, but started school in 2009. She recieved a 1098-T for the tuition for spring 2009? The TP doesn't benefit from it in 2008, but she will in 2009, would it be okay if it is reported in 2009 instead of 2008, also she started paying in 2009.

Thanks,

Client has four W2s, so, of course, I don't know which one it is. I have deleted them all and re-entered data. Still comes back rejected. Is there somewhere to go to find out how to match EINs with Employers.; such as E-services? Thanks for any info.

Best bet is to has TP verify all W-2's with employers, if this TP is a prior year client, check to see if he had the same employment in the priors years and verify the EIN.

Had this same thing this year. However, I have come to realize that some of this is used as a scam to defraud the IRS and get a whole lot of money back. My scenario, the female client told me she got married and had a baby. I asked about her husband and she said he already had his taxes done some place else and filed as HOH. She knew enough about filing statuses but didn't realize that because she told me the changes, I couldn't file the return the way she wanted. She in turn wanted to file for HOH and asked me what would have happened if she would have never told me she got married. I explained that I would have prepared the return, the route the IRS would take and advised her to bring her husband, the return that was prepared and allow me to amend the return before she got in trouble. She agreed, but that was two weeks ago. Hmmm, I wonder where she is?

I have seen this happening more and more within the hispanic community in our area. Once the IRS begins collections, they flee to Mexico. I have lost several hispanic clients because of this practice which is okay with me. The other thing that happens is if they stay here, and after the IRS sends the "We're coming to get your stuff in 10 days" letter, they usually come back begging for help. I've even seen it where I get them all straight, don't see them again for 3 years and then they come back with the same mess again. Go figure?

Terry D.

Terry D.

Hello Terry, I think I am going to have to disgree with you on this, for some reason the above statement does not make any sense to me and I will tell you why!!! Please explain to me why someone with a valid SS# being Mexican that would benefit from claiming HOH, getting the EIC for the children flee to Mexico when they get an IRS letter vs someone with an ITIN claiming HOH and not getting the EIC because of the ITIN? You talk about defrauding the IRS, to get a whole lot of money back, as you know the IRS does not dish out some credits without the a valid SS#. Someone can prepare a return with ITIN and calculate all the credit they are entitled if they had a valid SS#, but most likely the IRS would catch that and disallow the credits. No matter what race, everyone wants to get more money back and will try to cheap the goverment, not saying this right but the best medicine is to inform someone about the consequences. You did right in trying to correct the situation, however the other thing you wrote is not context with the situation you had witht the client, sounds a little offensive to me.

During 2008, my client was reviewing his books and discovered that a former employee had taken approximatley $15,000 out of his account. The client is a sole proprietorship and most of the expenses were recorded as Draws. The police report has been filed. Does this amount get claimed by amending the 2007 return or claiming the theft on the 2008 return when it was discovered? Also, is there any break from SE tax as the client is really paying tax on money they never personally benefited from? Thanks for any guidance.

Your client can sue the former employee for the theft or issue a 1099 for the 15K to reduce his income. I do work a CPA and he has a client that owns various currency exchange so he has a high employee theft, the currency exchange is going through an IRS audit now and the agent is looking very closely at the "Bad Debt", he wants to see insurance claims and police reports. We consulted with a retired IRS agent, he said next time if the employee doesn't repay the stolen money or the insurance claim is denied, to give the employee a 1099 as additional compensation, and don't worry about the employee coming back and saying "I didn't earn that money, oh wait a minute is that the money I stole..."

Ok, thanks I will give it some time before I amend the return.

Can one cancel an e-file that was accepted 2 days ago? A client forgot to bring additional information, I was wondering if it can be done, or I would just need to amend the return.

Thanks

I have client that does not qualify to itemize, however they qaulify for "The Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 allows homeowners to claim an additional standard deduction for property tax if the taxpayer does not itemize. The additional amount is limited to $500 or $1,000 for joint filers." I have checked off line 39c of the 1040, but ATX doesn't calculate anything, does anyone know what I need to do to activate this line? Or what step I am skipping or missing.

Thanks

Has any of your clients ever come back and say you missed a deduction on my tax return? According to H&R, these are most commonly overlooked credits and deductions:

1. EIC for lower income workers

2. Mortgage Interest

3. Charitable Contributions

4. Student Deductions (Lifetime and Hope)

5. Job-hunting expenses

6. Medical expenses

7. To itemize or Not to Itemize

Source

http://www.napsnet.com/pdf_archive/116/56379.pdf

I agree with #3 and #6, many of my clients prefer not to include these amounts because they don't keep track of them, so they rather leave it out. What makes me laugh if they didn't provide you with the information at first, how are the going to provide the omitted info to H&R to double check??

1) Try rebooting the workstation computer.

2) Do netsetup on the workstation again. Sometimes Windows just gets confused.

3) Be sure to map the folder on the server, as a drive on the workstation.

At my day job, we have a server and 13 workstations. Keeping them up and running is part of my job. So far this year, no problems more than 15 minutes.

Been using ATX for 5 years now. I think I have seen just about every networking problem that existed!!

Thanks, today I had no problem getting in, we restarted everything and it works now.

Today I am getting a run-time error on one of the workstation and it doesn't allow me to open ATX. The only way I am able to open ATX is if I go to the ATX2008 folder and click on the icon. The ATX folder is on the server and not the workstation, I am just afraid something might get screwed up. Has anyone encountered this problem?

I checked the rules and it seems they do qualify because they do meet the five tests [iRC 152©]:

1. Relationship

2. Age

3. Residency

4. Support

5. Tie-breaker test for qualifying child of more than one person

Child Tax Credit

Question: Can I claim the child tax credit for a child who has an ITIN, rather than a social security number?

Answer: Yes, you can claim the child tax credit for a child with an ITIN (individual tax identification number) if you otherwise qualify.

child must live with the worker for more than half the year in the U.S. and must be either a citizen or a resident alien. "Qualifying children" include: sons, daughters, stepchildren, grandchildren, and adopted children

So if the child has a ITIN number but is not a US Citizen or a resident alien, they don't qualify?

Did anyone else recieve a marketing kit from CCH? I received one last week but I think it was sent to me in error, first of all because I am not offering any type of loans or audit shield. I signed up for fee collect, maybe that is why I got kit, but nothing relates to the fee collect. In case anyone is wondering what came in the kit, it's a couple of posters (English & Spanish) offering refund loans and audit shield to your clients. The only thing I haven't recieved to this day is the 1040 Express Answer for 2009? I don't remember if it was included with the ATX Max package I bought, but last year I did get it.

Only one of my IL efile has been accepted, the rest show IRS Cleared?? I update the acknowledgment tomorrow and see what happens.

In no way we want to blame the tax preparer, that is not main issue or focus of the IRS audit in the first place, it just make me wonder if the real estate co. is reporting the fees for tax preparation? LOL it seem you already know this client, he loves blaming the accountants, his employees and even his customer for not bringing in business. I am glad I am not the person in charge of the account, I work under the CPA and I was contracted to gather the IRS auditor requests. The audit is focused on solely the corporation, and one of the request was copies of the shareholder income tax return (wanted to compare wages and interest paid to the shareholder by the corporation), there are 3 shareholder and the CPA prepares the tax return for 2 only because 3rd one doesn't cooperate and the CPA gives up.

One client that I work with is getting audited by the IRS, the IRS requested copies of the shareholder's tax return and for one of the shareholder went to get his return done at a real estate company that does taxes during the season. I notice that there is no info on the business that prepared the return, it just reads "Self-Prepared" and but there is a cover letter that has the business information. Should I let the IRS auditor pick this up or should I tell him that the shareholder did pay to get his return done by this business? In my years of tax prepation, I have seen a couple of these situitions where clients go to a photo studio, hair salon, insurance co. etc..., they pay and there tax return are "Self-Prepared".

What do other tax preparers do that bothers you?

I have a couple, but this one is the worst:

They give their clients a print out of their tax return that looks like a book, all these schedules, forms, etc... for a simple 1040. Talk about not being eco-friendly, but it's nothing more than a scam, making people think their tax return was complicated or what ever to charge a higher fee.

Chicago, IL

1. Ex Gov. Blagojevich

2. Drew Peterson

3. Steve Bartman (Fan who caught the ball at a Cubs game)

4. Ex Gov. Ryan

5. Passing your political seat to your family member or trying to sell one (had to add this one)

I can't think of anything else Chicago is famous for :scratch_head:

I am sorry but I have never heard of ATX offering any type of refund loans. They do, however, partner with some banks to offer the refund loan products. The biggest problem with what this company is doing is placing the words " Refunds in 24 hours", "Rapid Refunds" in three different places in their advertisment.

Terry D.

You are correct about ATX does not offering the loans :-) I understand your concern about all the misleading advertisment, but look at what is the company's target market, many tax payers not understand that they are getting a loan that includes interested, fees etc.... If they only knew that if they efile they can get all there qualified refund back.

Well, I had to edit this post, I now do not think any of my clients will be going to that office. I called to get my MFJ return with the NC state prepared, no itemizing, etc; and it will cost me $198.00. They have got to be kidding?????? My fee for that type of return is still only $79.95. Shame on me for not raising my prices this year.

I believe you can offer those type of anticipated loans with ATX, and the fees are way out there too. I have always wonder what are HRB, Jackson Hewitt and Instant Tax Services (new around Chicago) fees. Does anybody have an idea?

No fees, except the $15 per that they deduct from YOUR Fee. So if your bill is $200, and you want to get paid $200, you have to bill the client $215. Which many will see as a bargain to not have to pay you up front.

Ok thanks

Hello to all, would anyone know if there is a fee to setup fee collect through ATX or a monthly fee if it's not used.

Thanks