BulldogTom

Perhaps you forgot that they SHUT DOWN THE BOARD BECAUSE OF NEGATIVE COMMENTS ABOUT CCH. That was a pretty good sign that they were not allowing negative comments. That is, after all, why we are all right here. How soon we forget. Tom Lodi, CA

I caught that too. And given the "swiftness and decisiveness" of the CCH managment team, this decision could be changed at a moment's notice. That bulletin board is going to be useless if they put it up. There is no way they are going to let anyone put a negative comment about the product on that board. I for one would be kicked off within hours, I am sure. Tom Lodi, CA

The clients relied on JH to prepare their returns. Believe me, these clients are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. They went into a storefront and said "get us the most we can get." JH got the most out of them they could. That is the real crime. Using those who are uneducated to take a clip off the top of a tax credit for the poor. Enough of defending the client. As for the agent. The point was, we went through the first half of the audit proving they were eligible for EIC. Why would we do that if we wanted to file MFS? We would lose the EIC we fought to get? I guess it seems obvious to me, but not to her. The letter is written and will be faxed over today. So she got to beat me down. Big deal, my client wins. But why does she not respect the POA? I have the right to represent and bind my clients to an agreement that I make with the IRS while representing them. It is within the scope of practice to agree to the filing status that is best for the client. She had no right to go around that POA. But I guess it made her feel big and strong. So petty. Just like the IRS. Until you get to the appeal level, the knowledge and professionalism of the staff is severely lacking. Hope that doesn't offend, but it is my observations from dealing with the service for 12 years. Tom Lodi, CA

I agree with Indyscott that the taxpayer should not deduct in 07. No business activity looks like business not started yet. Take them in the year he starts business. Look at his LLC election. He should have checked the box to be disregarded if he is the sole member of the LLC. Tom Lodi, CA

Are you asking about a schedule C? Are you taking the §195 election to expense in the first year of business? Tom Lodi, CA

I have a client under audit for 2006. EIC disallowed on his return. He also married his longtime girlfreind and mother of his 2 kids. She has 2 kids from a previous marriage. Filed single and his wife did too. Gotta love those national preparation companies getting 2 returns out of one. He took 2 kids, she took 2 kids. When they came to me, his return was being audited for EIC. I tell the auditor that there is more, he is married and we want to fix the returns. Fine. Present to auditor POA for him, her, and both. Give auditor all the proof for EIC and copy of the marriage cert. She wants to "study" the returns and will get back to me. That was 6 weeks ago. I called last week to get an update, and this morning the auditor calls me back. EIC looks like it is resolved and that issue will go away. Fine. Then the auditor asks me for a letter signed by the clients that they want to combine the returns. I tell her I will provide the letter under the authority of my POA. She insists that it has to be signed by them. I ask why. She say "I need to make sure they don't want to file Married Filing Separately." I try to assure her that the clients do not want to file MFS, and I will send the letter today to her fax machine indicating that position. Her response "Are you sure they won't change their mind?" Lets see, I have just had the client go through all the trouble to get all the records from doctors, schools, birth certs, rental leases, etc to prove that they qualify for EIC, and then they are going to change their minds, file MFS and lose EIC? What was this lady smoking? Tom Lodi, CA

Yes I did and it is not cheaper than NY. I forget how much the difference was, but I think it was like $100 per ticket. Thanks for the suggestion. Tom Lodi, CA

Is Lenny the Pirate going to be the best man? Oh - maybe we should wait to find out if she says "yes" before we ask about the wedding. Good Luck to both of you. Tom Lodi, cA

Monkeyman, Don't think we can make it that far north in the short time we have. I would love to just go driving up there for a week or two in the fall. Is Kennebunkport a good place to stop for a afternoon and lobster on a wharf? I looked a few webpages and it looked interesting and they said it was a fishing port. Is this all true? And Patty does not drink, so I will be solo on the cocktails, but I have a permanent designated driver. How are the girls? Tom Lodi, CA

And it is a shame that our posturing pols out here will not get off there a$$ and conform. They seem to think they will come up with a better idea. Jerks. Tom Lodi, CA

Unfortunately, the increased cost of flights to Boston vs NY out of SF makes La Guardia the more attractive choice (even at $4/gal gas). But we will be looking at flights again as we get closer. Also, we will be spending one day in NY, so we will be making that trek one way or another. I will sleep on the flight and be fine to drive. Thanks for the post. Tom Lodi, CA

I think Philadelphia is going to have to wait. Not enough time. Tom Lodi, CA

Well then break out your mapquest....here is the tentative itinery. July 2 catch plane at 10PM in San Francisco July 3 arrive at La Guardia in NY at 7:30 AM. Rent Car and drive to Plymouth Ma to see the Mayflower site. Lunch in Plymouth. Drive past Boston to Kennebunkport ME. Play on the beach and have dinner on the pier. (can you camp on the beaches in ME?) Spend the night somewhere between Kennebunkport and Boston. July 4 In Boston. Freedom Trail, North Church, Science Museum, etc. All day doing the Tourist thing. Fireworks that night on the Esplanade. Spend the night somewhere between Boston and NY. July 5 in NY. Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, and if I can talk my wife into it (and if I can get tickets) Yankees and Red Sox. If not, a matinee on Broadway. July 6 fly back to San Francisco and drive home. Anything I am missing or should be adding? I am still open to other ideas. Tom Lodi, CA

How far up into Maine do you need to go? I love the idea of a nice lobster dinner, and cheap too! Maybe the Monkeyman or some of the former ATX employees can give me an idea of a good place as close to Boston as possible? Thanks and keep the ideas coming. Tom Lodi, CA

Jainen you old softy.....are you sure you can't find anything to ruin the client's day? Jainen is right (as usual). So long as the trust is revokable by the grantors, it is ignored. The clients own the home, and can take §121 exclusion provided they are otherwise eligible. Tom Lodi, CA

I agree that you should always create the efile before you export the return to check for errors. We have just found that deleting the efile and recreating at the office keeps everything in sync for the DCN numbers. Tom Lodi, CA

I heard about something where you put a company into an IRA to avoid any tax on the Income while building equity for retirement. Is this what is going on in these cases? Otherwise, why are your clients doing this? Are these legitimate investments in a partnership? The scheme sounded too good to be true, besides being very risky for your retirement money. Tom Lodi, CA

Elfling, We do it a little differently, but similar. We take the laptop to the clients, prepare the return, and create the e-file. After printing the client copy, we delete the e-file, export, and e-mail the return back to the office. At the office, we import the return and recreate the e-file. This keeps all our dcn numbers in tact. It works for us, we have not had a problem the last 3 years doing it this way. Oh yeah, the laptop has a single user ATX installation, and the office ATX is networked. Even when we put the laptop on the network, we do not access ATX from the server on that machine. I don't know if that is important or not. Tom Lodi, CA

They can take their FRIKKIN message "bored" and shove it up their FRIKKIN server hole. They have not done a thing right with MyATX since they bought the company. How much do you want to bet they would throw half of us off the first time their FRIKKIN logon did not work and we complained about it. Do you really think they would let us say anything that makes the FRIKKIN white collar buttheads who run CCH look like the idiots that they are? We got ERC, we don't need no FRIKKIN CCH. Ask me how I really feel. Tom Lodi, CA

I forgot about John. How come he is not on the board? Do you know? Good idea Eli. Thanks Tom Lodi, CA

Start with form 540 and pull up the instructions for the form. Look at the rules for Part Year Residents. You may want to go PY rather than resident, because CA will tax all of her income and then give a credit for taxes paid in another state if you file her as a resident. If you go PY, the form is 540NR. If you go resident the form is 540. Start with this and ask questions as you go. Tom Lodi, CA

I am looking for some help from those of you in New England. My wife and I would like to take a mini-vacation to your part of the country over the long 4th of July weekend. I am looking for some ideas on what is "must see". We are thinking of flying from Sacramento into Boston, NY or Philadelphia on July 3rd and leaving on Sunday, July 6th. What would you suggest to see if this was your only trip to the area in your lifetime? I don't know if we will ever go again, so we want to make it memorable. We will be bringing our 2 boys, ages 12 and 14. Any help is appreciated. Tom Lodi, CA

If you do it that way, I would take the 20 biggest and put them on the return. Add the other three to the gross reciepts not on form 1099 in the revenue section. A short description like XYZ corp 68-11223344 1099Misc would fit on the line with an amount. You have four lines there. Tom Lodi, CA

Warning, this is unresearched, off the cuff. Take it for what it is worth. You know that the basis of this payment is because of the business activity of several years ago. As you point out, the overcharged fuel was included into COGS and deducted in that year. The "refund" is therefore taxable on the Sch. C. If that is the case, the legal fees and interest should also go on the Sch C, because they are based in the same business transactions. It does make the Interest subject to SE tax, but it gets 100% of the legal deducted with no haircuts. What would you have done if rather than a lawsuit, the Proprietor had hired an attorney, proved to Exxon that they violated a contract, and Exxon agreed after 2 years that your client was right and paid the refund, legal fees, and some interest to cover the use of the funds during the dispute. It would all go on the Sch. C, wouldn't it? Another thought is how the Sch C disolved and the Corp came into being. If the corp assumed all the assets and liabilities of the proprietor, then all can go on the 1120. The corp steps into the proprietors place for its claim on Exxon. Again, just thinking (or typing) out loud. Tom Lodi, Ca

I just find it interesting that when it is a Democrat, the story goes "NY Governor implicated...." and when it is a Republican the story goes "Republican Governor of NY implicated...." This morning, MSN does not mention a party until it says Republican opponents of the Governor are looking for his ouster while Democratic allies are waiting for a sign from him. The writing is so slanted. It puts the Republicans in such a bad light, like this Governor is some lilly white angel being smeared by the other party. And his loyal friends are so pure and willing to support him, waiting for the truth to come out before they pass judgement. It makes me sick the slanting of the journalism. Personally, I feel sorry for his wife, who was trotted out by her husband to show support for him at a press conference. The kids have to be mortified. Yet he continues to play political games. I hope they send him to a beautiful alternative housing facility (that is the pc way to say prison) at Rikers Island. Tom Lodi, CA