Chowdahead

Recently I was talking to a relative of mine who is also a tax preparer and we were talking about the insane amounts of Due Diligence requirements for EIC and now the CTC. and AOTC, etc. Well he uses TaxWise and he tells me that his RI state forms are all ready to file, yet my state forms are still unavailable for ATX. The release date is supposedly tomorrow but I have already to hand-calculate a few dozen clients by hand this past week and it's takes more time than necessary. This is a recurring issue every year and TaxWise seems to get the forms faster. Is this an ATX issue or what? Additionally, PaperlessPlus allows electronic signatures. However, only TaxWise supports having the signature automatically populate on all of the required documents. For ATX customers we have to drag and drop the signature to each necessary page. I am sure there are other functionalities given to TaxWise as well. Why are these two products treated so differently if they are owned by the same company?

I have a client who earned about $31k, 3 kids. She didn't have health coverage for alll of 2016 but her kids did. She does not have legal permanent residency yet in the US but she has a work permit and SSN. Any idea if she qualifies under the "certain non-citizens exemption" of the ACA? I'm leaning towards yes, but I'd like some second opinions. Thanks!

Thanks. I seem to remember putting $1 in Box 1 about 5 years ago but wasn't sure. So that's what I did! Thanks everyone.

Have a client with a W-2 issues by the military (DFAS-CL/IFLP) and it has $0 in Box 1 Wages yet has $768 in Box 2 Fed W/H. They also withheld SSA and Medicare taxes. ATX says it cannot be transmitted unless Box 1 has an amount. Anyone come across this type of W-2 previously? How do you process it?

Thanks, that did it! I sent the few NY returns I had pending last week!!

Anyone have any personal experience with this? I created an account. Not happy about needing to to enter my SSN just to e-file 3 NYS returns per year. Who knows how secure their website really is. Yet even after registering I cannot find my NYTPRIN? How do I find it in my account and how do I enter it into ATX. This is crazy. They should have exempted out of state preparers. Ridiculous.

Bank of America will allow it.

I thought the short coverage gap was actually worded "Less than 3 months" meaning it's actually 2 months of non-coverage. Shouldn't the program generate a yellow warning to complete an exemption if when calculating the penalty, the numbers of non-covered months on the 8965 is 2 months or less? I too have come across the program generating the same penalty for 4-6-7-or 8 months of coverage. When checking or or unchecking boxes on the 8965 to calculate the penalty, the penalty doesn't shift.

Have a client who plunked down $5,000 cash last year for a CDL part-time training program at a local school. Sounds to me like a classic Lifetime Learning Credit situation since it is a vocational school https://goo.gl/3NngEg. TP AGI is $32,000 with 2 dependents. However, the American Opportunity Tax Credit also lists "vocational" schools under "Eligible Education Institution" https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/AOTC. So sounds like the AOTC possibility, which would be much more beneficial. I haven't approached the client yet, but would the institution need to issue a 1098-T, or would his receipt for payment be sufficient?

That's what I though! Thanks.

I've had several clients who do not need coverage because they do not meet the minimum filing threshold. On form 8965 there are two boxes on the input screen that say something to the effect: Check here if filer is claiming an exemption solely because they don't meet the income threshold Check here if filer is claiming a hardship exemption due to not meeting the income threshold. The first option sounds right, but the second sounds confusing, Does it refer to the Hardships that can only be granted by the Health Exchange? Otherwise, I would never check the second box, correct? When I check either box, I still get a yellow error line when I check for errors, advising me that I have not checked Full Year Coverage on 1040 Pg. 2 and that I should file an exemption, which I seemingly did by checking the first box above. Is this a bug or am I skipping something else I need to complete on the 8965?

If the filer had no coverage all year but qualifies for an exemption, yet dependents had coverage all year... do we file the exemption for the filer on 8965, yet also check the box on 1040 Pg.2 indicating Full Year Coverage for the dependents? Or do we leave the box unchecked and the IRS will assume that anyone else on the return who isn't listed for an exemption had full year coverage?

I had read that most taxpayers will not receive these 1095-B forms (or 1095-C) until late-April in most cases. They are not necessary to file the return according to the IRS. However, the local health exchange has already sent theirs out, and according to clients they are not accurate. Most have a few months checked off, when he client says they had coverage the entire year. Others received Medicaid part of the year and paid premiums the other part when their income increased/decreased, so who knows if they will receive a 1095-A as well. It's pretty messy. How much stock should we put into whats indicated on these 1096-Bs? I'd hate to calculate a penalty on a client based on bad info on the form, especially since the IRS says most client's will not receive these forms until later and they are not needed to file the return, except for the 1095-A, which is vital.

I've been using ATX for 13 years and I like to use the feature under Tools>Last Year's Comparison, which helps me compare my client's last year numbers to this year, and they are always interested in the changes. However, for state numbers from the previous year (i.e. refund, credits, etc) I always have to go into last year's program regardless so it kind of defeats the purpose. Is there a way to compare to last year's state return in a similar fashion? Speaking of state refund, is there a way to get the state refund amounts to show up in the top-right corner along with the federal refund?

Thank you all

Just renewed. Thinking of making the leap to eliminate my paper files. Paperless Plus costs $575 up front, and half that each year after. No fee per workstation. The salesperson said that it is integrated with ATX 2015. Can anyone confirm how integrated it is? Is client's digital folder accessible from within ATX? Can the client's documents be easily scanned right from within their return in ATX? Or do I need to open a separate software? Also, can the client's records (W-2s, 1099s, IDs, records, etc) be simply scanned and returned to the client? We need to physically hold onto nothing anymore, correct?

Sorry to reply to this old topic, but I was under the impression from another thread that since the modernized e-file system, the IRS would continue to accept the last three years electronically? Is this not true?

I was under the impression that the E-File cutoff date was October 15 each year. Is this information not accurate?

I don't handle many of these honestly so I'm a bit rusty. I probably haven't see one in 5 years. I know it gets reported on the 1040. I have a pretty simple return. Client is single, and made $8000 in earnings, but has a Schedule K-1 issued to him. Box 1 Ordinary Interest Income he is showing a loss of $2,755. Box J shows 25% profit share. Box 14 shows A ($2755) & C $2,650. Does this $2,755 loss come right off oh his $8,000 in income? Not that it is going to matter, but I want to make sure it gets reported right. Any help would be much appreciated.

I'm not really liking this new Bank Tab, as I think it duplicates work and makes it more complicated than years past. Plus I think that the splitting of the refund into different accounts is going to lead to a lot if fraud by unscrupulous paid preparers, and depositing a refund into an account with a different name leaves the preparer open to liability since the IRS doesn't require the taxpayer to even sign off on doing it.. But my question here relates to the fields for "Account holder First, Middle Initial, and Last name, as well as the Bank Name? Are these fields really required if the refund is going into the taxpayer's own account? It seems rather unnecessary and repetitive. Leaving them blank doesn't even generate a yellow warning during an Error Check. My biggest concern is that I may misspell the client's name in these fields or spell the name of the bank wrong and then the deposit won't go through. I'm not sure why ATX pre-fills these fields when using Fee Collect yet doesn't pre-fill them for direct deposit. It is annoying! Any thoughts?

Yes, I am on ATX. I do remember seeing that DOD box a year or two ago but at the time I didn't have a need to use it and now that I need to use it I couldn't find it...go figure. Even funnier is that it is located right under the date-of-birth box which I obviously look at every day! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! Hopefully the f-file goes through. I'll look some more into the Fee Collection option.

I've completed my first return for a surviving spouse. Husband died in July 2014. I have marriage and death certificates. He had about $19,000 in W-2 wages. Wife was a homemaker. They have two kids. I looked up some procedural issues on the IRS website but as usual it's information overload. All i want to know are two things. 1. Can this return be e-filed? If so, does she sign for the PIN on the e-file authorization? Is there any way to indicate on the return that the husband died during the tax year. I entered "Deceased" in the occupation box. Is there another box to check? 2. She wants to use Fee Collect, which requires both signatures. Can she also sign for both authorizations for Fee Collect?

Yes, I only filled in May - December. You are correct, that Column E is $13. I think you are correct. He made twice the money as last year so it would seem in line with what he should pay, given the fact that they probably based his Advanced Premium Tax Credit off of his 2013 return. Thanks for the second look!

I believe they may still owe a penalty. The income is above the filing threshold. They cannot claim coverage is unaffordable unless you figure out how much coverage for a family of in their count and determine if it exceeds the limits, which I doubt it does. But really, are we as the preparer supposed to figure this out? We'd have to charge more than what the penalty would be anyway. The only exemption they may qualify for is if their state chose not to expand Medicaid. But I think the way the exemptions are carefully worded, if a taxpayer chose not to obtain coverage either through Medicaid or the marketplace, they are penalized. But this assuming the IRS is going to follow up on this morass of minutiae for over 350 million people....

This case is really racking my brain. I cannot figure it out for the life of me. This is a pretty simple return, except for this unique ACA situation that impacts the refund. I've done dozens of 1095-s already and this is the one that has me stuck. Help! MFJ w/ 2 young children (5 & 1 year old) Husband: W-2 $46,925.00 with $4271 in Fed w/h Wife: Homemaker (no income) Standard Deduction. Apparently Husband was under Medicaid with family for Jan-April. Then he was informed that since he hasn't been a US Permanent Resident for at least 5 years, he had to obtain coverage through the marketplace for May-Dec. Wife and 2 kids staid under Medicaid. His 1095-A reflects this accurately and he is the only one listed under Part II: Coverage Household. May-December Monthly Premium Amount: 239.20 Monthly Premium Amount SLCSP: 256.86 Monthly Advanced Premium Tax Credit:213.83 He says he paid $26 per month out-of-pocket. The 8962 is calculating the maximum Advanced Premium Tax Credit (APTC) excess of $600 based on a household of 4 on the 1040, so his return us going down by $600! So refund is $4216.00. This doesn't seem right to me. He is the only one on the 1095-A so why is the 8962 saying he owes so much back in the APTC? My only guess is that last year he made $26,000 so his APTC was based off of that, so he should have been paying more monthly in premiums? Maybe it's just that the 8962 using a household of 4 is what is throwing me off...? Any ideas?