BulldogTom

I have one of those for sure this year coming in. Please post how you get this resolved. Sorry I don't have an answer for you. Tom Lodi, CA

Feburary 14, 2011..... THE SAINT VALENTINES DAY MASSACRE! Over 5 million casualties. Months of blame and finger pointing. No prosecutions, indictments, or justice in the end. Sound like the script from a mob movie? It is just your IRS and congress at work again. Tom Lodi, CA

What is going to be ridiculous is the smell of smoke coming from the IRS servers on Feb 14th. About 5 million returns are going to hit their servers and they are going to melt. I predict it will take until the end of February for the mess with Acks from Feb 14th to get resolved. Tom Lodi, CA

At my day job, I am the controller for a corporation. We are issuing W2's today. Over the last few days, we have been getting tax preparers calling in for our tax id #'s so they can prepare their client's returns from the last paystub. Today, I got the name of the preparer and the company they work for in Sacramento. Would you report this company to the state or IRS? I got the letter from the IRS this year stating that tax returns must not be submitted until all required documentation is in hand. Everyone knows that you must have a copy of the W2 in the file if you e-file the return. CA is a mandatory e-file state. I am just frustrated with these prep companies that flaunt the rules. I feel like reporting them. Would you? Tom Lodi, cA

A few months ago, the CA State Controller stated he would not issue refund checks until the state had enough money to pay them. When the budget was passed, I never heard if he changed his position. Does anyone have an update? I would like to give accurate information to my clients. Thanks Tom Lodi, CA

I don't think so. The contracts themselves are not tangible property either. They have no inherent value without the performance of a service. I would stick with what I said before, Sec 195 intangible asset sold, reported on 4797, flows to the schedule D. That is my best guess. Tom Lodi, CA

Without researching, off the top of my head, and not to be relied upon..... It looks like they sold an intangible asset of the company, ie the customer list. Recorded on 4797 as a type sec 195 intagible asset. Will flow through to the schedule D. Please re-read the first line of this post again. Tom Lodi, CA

JB, that is incredible. You should be proud, and keep posting about her. 20 units, OMG. I took 18 one semester and it dang near killed me. I know personally how hard that is (I graduated Fresno State with a 3.78) and until you put the effort in to make that kind of GPA happen, you don't really know how hard it is. Please tell your daughter we are very impressed. Thanks for letting us in on your daughter's accomplishments. Tom Lodi, CA

Wow, KC is REALLY back. Nice to see a little time away from the board brought back your fire. That is the first post I can remember that you ever called someone an A$$. I am glad I am not one of your clients this year. Tom Lodi, CA

Unfortunately, so do I. Thats what 20 years of marriage (on March 3rd) will do to you. Tom Lodi, CA

KC, Are you being sexist? I am totally offended that you think that women would not understand a baseball analogy. You should appologize to the women on this board for your sexist remarks!!!!!! Just kidding. I will remember that one and use it in the future. It is pretty good. Tom Lodi, CA

On the letter, I think you have to go into the state wizard and click the box for "this return has been e-filed" to get it to show on the combined client letter. It is a pain in the "you know what" but that is how you get it onto that letter. Tom Lodi, CA

If I am reading this correctly, your client sued to get paid for work done on a contract? Legal fees of a business related to the collection of taxable income would be deductible to your client on his (I am assuming here) schedule C. Winning or losing the case is not a precondition on the deductiblity of the legal expenses. The materials, subcontractor payments, etc would also be deductible on his sch. C. Damages paid would also be deductible by the business. Any fines imposed by the courts (or licensing authorities) would not be deductible as a business expense. Hope this helps. Tom Lodi, CA

I have my first client (other than 1099 and W2) coming in today at 2PM. Time to start cranking out returns and making some $$. I am always excited at this time of year to start, and I am always ready for it to end. The switch takes place about March first when the hard returns start rolling in and you have way too much work on your desk. Tom Lodi, CA

We agree that it should have been done correctly. I think everyone on this board knows that. I think we are all ASSUMING (a dangerous thing to do) that the client did not know the correct way to prepare a bonus check and just treated like any other paycheck. So, would you correct it? How do you get the withholding from the employee if you made that mistake? What if the check is long gone and cashed? Tom Lodi, CA

The only way this would come back to bite them is if the employee has underwithheld so much that he owes taxes and cannot pay, and then to try and get out of it, tells the IRS that the company did not withhold enough. That would bring the IRS down on them. Of course, there is also the possibility of a random payroll audit revealing the issue. But if the employee has enough withheld and doesn't make a stink about it, I would let this one go. If you have access to the employee records, take a look at the income and the withholding and see if it looks like there is going to be a problem. Personally, I would just advise the client to do it right next time and move on. Tom Lodi, CA

That is exactly what I did last year. I dumped SBBT and signed up for fee collect. It took about a week to work out the kinks because when you have an application in to the bank, it screws with the fee collect application. I think I had to fax a couple papers to SBBT and ATX to get it going. It wasn't fun at first, but once they got it all squared away, it worked well. Good Luck. Tom Lodi, cA

They just arrived. Tom Lodi, CA

HRB is advertising free tax returns. I heard it on the radio this morning. Only applies to 1040EZ. State and EIC are extra. Offer only good through February 15th. I would hate to work for HRB this year. The commissions on free returns is gonna suck. Tom Lodi, CA

So I sent and e-mail to customer (non)support about my books. Here is their reply: <<Good Afternoon, You can log on to the MyATX customer support center/ Intelliconnect and download the material. If you need further assistance, please contact our customer support department at 1-800-638-8291.>> So, they are expecting me to download the books instead of sending them to me? That is just peachy. Tom Lodi, CA

They did not charge the transmitter fee for Fee Collect last year. I don't think they will be charging it this year. That is why I changed to Fee Collect and dropped the bank products all together. It just does not make sence to pay the bank all those charges. Just MHO. Tom Lodi, CA

I have not recieved my master tax guide or 1040 answers guide from ATX yet. Have they mailed these out yet? Tom Lodi, CA

I knew about the gift splitting. Looks like 1 million exemption in 2010 if what I am reading is correct. 35% rate. Tom Lodi, CA

OK, so I get my first phone call asking a "quick question" for 2010. Background: Client lost his wife last year and moved into a rest home. In order to get his VA benefits, he gave his two homes, one a rental, to his daughters. Title was transfered at the county recorder. Not sure what the value of the houses are. The rental only has a basis of 24K and was their home for many years until the spouse got sick. The other was a purchase a couple years ago to make it easier for him to care for his wife. Question: In 2010, is there still a unified credit for gifts? Are the rules the same as they always were that you can use the unified credit to offset the gift tax? Or did anything change in gift taxes when the estate tax went away for last year? Thanks in advance. I don't do many gift tax returns (because most of my clients don't have a lot of money). Tom Lodi, CA

Some of you may remember a few years ago when the ATX e-file disaster hit. We still had William on the ATX board and this board was not even a consideration. The phone limes were jammed for days and the board was full of "William - where is my ACK?" posts. The most annoying part of that whole debacle was the hold music. The song was by Simply Red and the song title was "I keep holdin' on". You just kept hearing that song over and over while you were on hold for tech support. That was the year they gave us the companion air tickets for all our problems. Did anyone actuall cash in that voucher and use it? Tom Lodi, cA