BulldogTom

That is so FRIKKIN cool. Tom Lodi, CA

My avatar eats kittens. Watch out all you posters with "meow" in your avatar. If you did not know, this is the Fresno State Bulldog mascot. I pulled it off the website. Hopefully they won't prosecute for copyright infringement. Tom Lodi, CA

The tiebreakers come into play in situations where you have divorced parents, unmarried parents, or multi-generational households. Example 1, Mom and daughter live with grandma. Both Mom and Grandma meet the rules to claim the child. Tiebreaker says Mom gets her (parents win over all other relatives). Example 2, Unmarried mom and dad live together with child. Both meet the requirements to claim child. Dad has higher AGI so claims kid (higher agi breaks tie between parents). Example 3, Divorced parents have joint custody of child. Most number of nights the kid slept at each home breaks tie between divorced parents. So when multiple persons meet the rules to claim the child, you start applying tiebreakers. In your case, there is no other person eligible to claim the child, hence, no tiebreaker to apply. Hope this helped. Tom Lodi, CA

Wow, thank you indyscott. Tom Lodi, CA

My pastor stopped me on the way out of church yesterday and asked me to take a look at some 403( b ) material he was reading. He asked me to read it and he will give me a call about it later. I am not in any official capacity in the church, but the pastor and I get along real well, so he leans on me for advice before he talks to the church treasurer. Our church is very small, but we are members of the Southern Baptist Convention and the local Delta Valley Baptist Association. Delta has a 403(B ) plan through Guidestone that our church can participate in. Or we could contact Guidestone ourselves and get a plan, or we can go outside the SBC and get a plan from any commercial source (I assume). My understanding of a 403(B ) is that is basically a 401K for non-profits? The "new" thing that I learned was that the pastor housing allowance is or can be compensation for purposes of any match or employer contributions. Since we pay our pastors so little, it is all designated as housing allowance. We have two pastors (no salary, all housing) and three part time employees (all retired from other jobs, secretary, treasurer, janitor) who receive salary only. We do not pay any health or other benefits. Are there any problems with putting in a 403( b ) plan? I understand the universal access requirements and the highly compensated rules. I just don't know if there is something else we should be looking at? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Tom Lodi, CA

There is no tie breaker here. You client gets the deduction. When the IRS gets your return, they will either a) Deny the deduction for both Accept your return with documentation and start collection on the parents It is a pretty good bet there will be a hassle within the family, but that has nothing to do with the tax treatment. Good Luck. Tom Lodi, CA

Are you trying to get HOH as well as dependency from this child? Or is the return MFJ and HOH is not part of the equation? I can't tell from your post. The child is the dependent of the Aunt - your client. The rules are in §151 or §152 in the code book, but just pull up a pub 17 and walk right through the rules. You only need to worry that the child did not support herself on the dependency tests. I assume the citizenship and age test are met. Since you are paper filing anyway, include the court order of guardianship. It would not hurt to add the school records showing clients home as the official record of residence. You will need to get this info anyways, so you might as well get it now. Be prepared for the IRS to deny and make you prove it. I just did one of these (ex claimed kid) and we sent in the info with the paper filed return and the refund came in as we requested on the return. Sometimes it works out. Tom Lodi, CA

They are going to be sending out their demo discs any day to prospects and they don't want them going to the website and see what a mess the end of the tax year was. Watch for them to clean up any BB material that might not make them look good also. They are cleaning house so the prospective new clients will not see anything out of place. That is my guess. Tom Lodi, CA

Frozen Kahuna Tax (Maine & Hawaii) Big Khuna Tax Frozen Moose Trax Tax PUG (Professional User's Group) Tax SALYS Tax (Same As Last Year Stupid) America's Tax Xchange (CCH will love that one!) IPG (Independent Professionals Group) Tax IHTLBHACCH Tax (I Hate Those Lying Butt Heads At CCH) Tom Lodi, CA

I think there are some check boxes in the beneficiary set up that need to be looked at. Isn't there a percentage that has to be applied for it to populate the K1? Tom Lodi, CA

1. Not me 2. I disagree 3. It has to, it cannot get worse (that is like predicting the sun will rise tomorrow) Tom Lodi, CA

There is a difference between not liking something and something in very poor taste. If you want to pick on someones politics or professional knowledge or software abilities, that is none of my business. Those are things we can fight back about. I think it is in extremely poor taste to attack someones personal appearance. So I said something. I don't make the decisions about what does or does not get edited. Thanks to KC or ERC. Tom Lodi, CA

That is not cool Booger. ERC or KC, can you remove that post? Tom Lodi, CA

I think ERC is going to have a place for us to post our comments about other packages. There is a pinned message at the top of the board. I think he is planning another "room" like E-file for just those comments. I will be looking for your comments. Thanks for being willing to share. Mel, when do I get to see my new software? I want to get started on the test drive. Tom Lodi, CA

I think you have to manually enter it on line 21. Click on line 21 and see if there is a bunny on the NOL line that will link back to the NOL worksheet. Tom Lodi, CA

For you CA practice experts. I normally don't have issues with CA until after a Federal audit or amend, so this is kinda new to me. Sorry if it is very basic, but I just have not had to practice before the FTB very much, and only in limited circumstances. Please help if you can. Situation - Taxpayer says his mailbox was vandalized and he did not get a lot of mail over a 2 week period of time. Apparently, that is the time period over which the FTB sent a HOH questionaire to him. (this happens alot to male clients who claim HOH - not unusual at all). Had he gotten it and sent it in, there would be no problem. The next letter he got was an assessment of additional tax changing CA filing status to Single from HOH. He called the FTB and they said fill out the HOH questionaire, send it in with a letter, and we will take care of it. FTB sent him a letter with the questionaire and a date to reply. He did so, proof of mailing, return receipt, all that good stuff. The next letter from the FTB was a Notice of State income Tax Due. The letter starts out "The proposed assessment of tax year 2006 is now final and must be paid". I now have a POA for CA from the client. I have been looking at the appeal proceedures from the FTB website. It seems to indicate that appeals go to the BOE after all options within the FTB have been exhausted. Then a protest must be filed with the BOE within 30 days. Do any of you have a good CA practice and proceedure book or reference that I can get at a bookstore or download? Do any of you have some good advice for me on how to represent this client? I know all the rules for HOH and what I need the client to get together to prove the filing status, and we are working on that. I am looking for the best way to present to the FTB to make it go as smooth as possible. If this were an IRS inquiry, I would not be asking this. Thanks in advance for your help and input. Sorry this is so long. Tom Lodi, CA

Well I think it ought to be in Hawaii and include a demo of our new software. Tom lodi, CA

Wow. I know we live in the land of fruits and nuts, I just didn't realize all the nuts were in Sacramento. Thanks for the update. At least it is not an ATX thing. Tom Lodi, CA

No problems here. yet? Did they go to the correct address? Tom Lodi, CA

There is an old joke that goes like this - Q. How do you end up with a million bucks being a farmer? A. You start with 2 million. It is not easy being a farmer. There are many years when there are no profits and the bank owns everything. Farmers are the most optimistic people in the world. Next year is always going to produce the bumper crop and high prices. I can see how this happened. It is not that unusual. Tom Lodi, CA

Margaret, It is a "FRIKKIN" banana not a "fricking" banana. I refer you to the thread on 1/29, and especially the post by Jainen about the history of Phrygen banana wars. If this was simply a spelling mistake, I will excuse your typing. Otherwise, please keep up with the terminology used on this board so as not to offend other posters who might not understand your incorrect usage of a very important tax term. (If you are offended by this post, you must not be able to see the tongue firmly planted in my cheek.) ;o) Tom Lodi, CA

In CA, they would have only been able to take the amount they had agreed to in writing. For example, if I borrow 1,000 from my employer and sign a note promising to pay it back at $50 per week, then quit, my employer could only take $50 from my last check. If he was smart, he would write me 3 checks (past week, current week, and vacation) and get $50 from each one, but that is the most he could take from my pay. That does not mean he could not pursue other collection measures, it is just the limit on the amount he can take from my payroll. As for the TP issue, I don't think you can take any moving expense. It does not seem to fit unless he gets another job in that area. Isn't the rule 39 weeks of employment? Tom Lodi, CA

I am just throwing this out because I am interested, not because it applies to anything (or maybe it does). We know that in the year a spouse dies, survivor can still file MFJ. Can the non-minister survivor in the year of death take the same tax treatment for housing in the year of death? Here is a more specific what if - H&W filing joint for 20 years. H is minister and excluding 10K per year Housing. H dies in Jan. after recieving housing allowance for the entire year. Can W file MFJ and claim housing exclusion of 10K. I know, who has time at this time of year to think about made up crap like this? Sorry if it is stupid. Tom Lodi, CA

I think it is somewhere in the 6000 series of the code. I don't have the exact quote, but it goes something like - a taxpayer must maintain sufficient records to prove the deductions claimed on the return to the satisfaction of the Secretary. It is pretty overreaching. The check and balance to this is the right to appeal to the courts as to the sufficiency of the records to prove the deduction. So, if the Secretary says they must have a 1099 to prove the deduction to his satisfaction, then the only recourse is to go to court with your other proof. I am not at the office, so I can't look it up exactly, but I know it has a meaning like that. Tom Lodi, CA

I think it depends on if he has full, unfettered access to the funds, and if he would have to repay them if the deal fell through. Is the deal complete? I think you need a completed transaction before you recognize income. I think you are on the right track. Tom Lodi, cA