samingeorgia

And by the way, you clearly explained in five or six sentences what the State of California took 10 pages to obscure.

OK, now I see a bunny hop to a worksheet specifically for Column E, and sure enough, it flows right. The actual percentage is 60.81. Thank you!!

OK, I've fiddled with this blasted CA-540NR Part-Year form long enough! The lady moved to California in June; she earned 8,000 in Georgia and 13,000 in California. However, I can't see how I can show only the CA income on her Caloifornia state return. It's all W-2 income. According to what I read, "Column E" is supposed to be CA income and income earned while a CA resident. But the adjustment column is apparently for differences in law. How the heck do I do this, it says she owes several hundred dollars. Since she has moved back to GA, I may tell her to throw the damn thing in the trash can.

No registration requirement in GA, just piggyback with federal. Sorry to be slow in replying. It's nuts out here, I tell ya.

Actually, this is a partnership. I think I'll credit owners' capital....

Right, I'm clear about the tax deductibility, but I'm asking from an accounting standpoint. Assuming I keep a double-entry ledger on the business, the debit is an expense, does the credit increase accumulated depreciation?

Use Page 6 of the Georgia return to determine the portion of income taxable to Georgia. It will flow just fine, you shouldn't have a problem.

OK, let's say that I invested in an oil / gas well. I spent $ 120,000 on tangible costs that I will depreciate and $ 150,000 on intangible costs that I will amortize over five years. Now I begin receiving checks for production. As a small producer, I can take percentage depletion allowance. The debit is to expense; where does the credit go?

As small as this dealer was, they should be able to come up with what cost they had in each of the cars, whether sold or transferred to personal use. Sometimes, car dealers will spend money on cars in inventory (repairs, detailing, etc.) and this should have been added to the cost of the vehicle. They could have some inventory of supplies, but I doubt that it would be in the amount you quoted.

Don't be too sure about bananas! When I was in high school I had a craving for a banana split one Sunday night after church, so I drove to Dairy Queen and ordered one. That was in the days when they kept bananas in a wire basket suspended from the ceiling. Sure enough, they had one banana. The lady said that she couldn't sell me a banana split because they would be out of bananas. "Oh, yes ma'am", I said, "just let me have a sundae". I drove off and thought, "Hey, wait a minute! That didn't make any sense!" That's one of my favorite stories about the human condition.

Companies are getting more aggressive in appealing UC claims and Labor departments are running low on money, so.... I have this identical situation with a client who was let go by a major drug chain. They fought him tooth and nail and he had to repay the DOL. Lucky for him, the 2009 amount was just a hair over the $ 2,400 exclusion amount. A few years ago, in another life, I was treasurer of a company and wasted a couple of hours with a DOL appeal. The employee got into an argument with the company president, and said, quote: "If that's they way it is, I'm out of here!" Gathered up his stuff and left; never came back. Seems to me that he quit, but good old Georgia gave him unemployment.

Wow, the Exxon Valdez had to have been 20 years ago! Our justice system sure is efficient, eh? I would think the taxability would turn on the nature of the claim -- property damage, personal injury, business loss, what? I fail to see how there could have been tax withholding but no documents such as a 1099. I also find it odd that IRS would apply withheld taxes on a current payment to an old debt, even before the return was filed. More information is required. Interesting trivia: during WWII, German U-Boats sank approximately 3,000 ships; many of these were oil tankers. This does not take into account shipping losses in the Pacific. Assuming that these ships were one-half full of fuel, and assuming that the environmentalists are speaking the truth when they claim that the slightest oil spill is catastrophic for the earth, why are we still here?

At my age, everybody looks like a youth! I had surgery on my foot in January and I swear the doctor looks like he's barely old enough to shave, let alone drive a car!

I was discussing this with a colleague today. Assume that Zelda Gotrocks dies with the following: CD's $ 500,000; Residence $ 195,000; land $ 425,000. No spouse, no debts, minimal final expenses. Zelda's niece, her executor, get appraisals on the land. Assuming that the exclusion amount is $ 2,000,000, is there any point or requirement to file a 706 to establish basis? Note: All figures are hypothetical.

I had this happen when I was first starting out. An auditor started on a taxpayer's self-prepared return and there was a significant amount of tax to pay. The auditor and the client agreed that there was money owed, but then the auditor did a disappearing act. At the client's insistence, I called the auditors supervisor and asked if someone else could be assigned to finish the job. No, I was told, Mr. X will be in touch with you soon. The supervisor said that Mr. X was being transferred but had to finish his caseload. Sure enough, Mr. X called within a couple of weeks and set up a time to come to my office. I thought he was going to beat my calculator keys off the keypad. He finished the audit without saying a word, and slapped the report down in front of me and my client. My client wisely shut up and signed. Mr. X got up, threw his stuff in the briefcase, and, as he was going out the door, turned and said, "I just want you to know that calling my supervisor had no influence on getting me down here!" Being young and an ass, I said, "Well, whatever works!" Take an old timers' advice: let sleeping dogs lie!!!!!

Pacun: You're right on two counts. There's no way to do this business without a computer. And having client data out there "somewhere" scares the daylights out of me. Also, I think that if your data is being held by a software vendor, they kind of have you where they want you. Joanmcq: Well, my next purchase will definitely be a new UPS that I can plug the router cable into. I asked the computer people today if the cable was fried; they don't know, but they can make up the length of cable I need. Ironically, I went with a wired router because I was concerned about security. When I put this setup in the house, there were teenagers next door and I thought that they would be just the type to tap onto my internet! The new computer will be ready Friday. Tomorrow, I'm going to call the homeowners' agent. I told the guy I have a home office and maybe I'll get some help there. This episode won't break me, and the loss of production won't kill me, but dadgummit, it's irritating. I also intend to call ATX support to see what their position is on installing the software on two computers. There's only one preparer (me), so it won't be run on but one machine at a time. But if I back up the data regularly, I can switch to a working computer when/if something happens. Redundancy! It works for pilots, why not me?

SAAS = "Software as a Service", where your program and data is "out there" somewhere and you access it over the web.

KC, I have a really nice UPS that seems to have been unaffected. I use a wired router that doesn't go through the UPS, and I wonder if there was some kind of voltage run along the wire? At first, I could access everything except the internet; I had a normal screen, accessed Excel and ATX, but no IE. I switched wires on the router to no avail, and took the machine to the computer people. They said that the port was likely fried and replaced it with a card. Then, nothing! No video, nothing.

OK, here's the latest tale of woe: In November, my old computer died. No complaints, it gave good service for several seasons. So I buy this hot-shot, "Quad-Core" machine. After a couple of weeks, the motherboard went bad and had to be replaced. OK, no big deal. In early February, I got one of those viruses that says your machine is infected and wants to sell you their brand of virus cleaner. A couple of days of lost production and a few bucks and I'm back in business. This morning at 6AM, there was a flash (like a flash bulb going off) and a BIG crash of thunder. My granddaughter's computer, which is here in my bedroom, is, of course, unaffected. That's what I'm writing on now. My work machine? The one with MS Office, QuickBooks, ATX, the bookkeeping/payroll stuff? You guessed it, the motherboard (nice how they call it that) is evidently fried. I'm sick to damn death of being dependent on some mechanical object to do my work! I am going to look at SAAS for next year. Either that or retirement. Thanks for listening. I edited out most of the cussing.

JRS: Thanks, I did that and it worked. mcb39: That's what I had been doing, so now I know that I need to check two boxes under options. Thanks for helping!

OK, I have been using the billing form to create an invoice and I really like showing the forms on the invoice even though I'm not charging by the form. This year, I've checked the block to print the list of forms, but no list. What am I doing wrong?

That settles it -- I'm moving to Lexington, Kentucky!

Thanks!

Early filers who are expecting a refund are anxiously asking about the refund schedule. In prior years, IRS had such a schedule and now I can't find it on their website. Anybody know what's the deal this year?

Why not just show the assets as sold for adjusted basis on the date the bank took possession? That will show no gain or loss, right?