BulldogTom

Congrats to the 6 people who voted for Jan 22nd. The IRS announced Jan 20th open for efile. Tom Newark, CA

I am surprised that the IRS made this announcement. I thought they would take a couple extra weeks to open up efile. Very surprised. Tom Newark, CA

This is a common occurance in my practice to have children claim their parents in Mexico. Tom Newark, CA

How in the heck do you stay in business doing $60 amended returns? I charge a minimum of $75 and that is if I prepared the original return (oops, I forgot about the brokerage statement that has 28 trades on it). Otherwise, I charge the fee I would have charged for the return plus $75. This bat, oops, I mean pleasant lady, just is not as afraid of you as she should be. You need to scare her like you scare me!!!! Merry Christmas Rita. Wishing you and your family all the best. Tom Newark, CA

Look how far we have come. When I first started in this industry, we could take classes in the summer and learn what was coming up in the next tax filing year year. Now, we have to wait until summer to find out which tax returns we prepared need to be amended. Tom Newark, CA

I agree with everything you said cbslee.....I should have caught that myself. Sometimes I should preview before I post. It would be very rare to see a note from unrelated parties to have no interest. What in the H3!! was I thinking. Tom Newark, CA

Is the loan fully documented? If so, what is the interest rate on the note? The payments A made to TP included interest, whether TP took them into interest income or not. Sounds like TP needs to amend the open years to reflect the interest. It is conceivable that there is no interest on the note, and therefore no interest to report, but the note will tell you that. The next part, the foreclosure, is pretty simple. I assume TP is cash basis tax payer, so the interest owed at time of foreclosure is irrelevant. A owed TP X number of dollars on the note. A transfered the property to TP in full satisfaction of the note. TP has "purchased" the land in the year he foreclosed, for the amount owed on the note and this is his basis. When he sold the land, he has gain or loss calculated in the normal way. There was no sale at the time of the loan being made, it was just a loan, not a transfer of property, so there is no installment sale. There is no sale until the time of the foreclosure. Tom Newark, CA

I like this discussion. Just a suggestion. Send this in to ATX and ask for a way to give read only access to prior years unless you have the password. It seems to make sense that you could "shut off" your software and just make it read only unless you have a password to "turn it on" again. Sounds like a brilliant suggestion to me. I would like to hear from ERIC if he thinks it is possible. Eric is a smart guy. He would know if this is pie in the sky or not. Tom Newark, CA

Feel free to have fun with it. I went a "little" political, but I did it to both sides of the the aisle. Tom Newark, CA

Are the contributions deductible by the contributor? Tom Newark, CA

The next piece of information I am looking for is right after the president signs the bills.....The IRS will give an announcement that the tax season filing will open on XX/XX/2015. We should start a pool as to what the first date of e-file will be. Tom Newark, CA

Doesn't that property get a basis equal to the FMV on the date of the donation? Not sure myself just asking the question. Tom Newark, CA

I apologize if this is political, but it was refreshing to see the President act reasonable on the spending bill and the extenders. He signaled early that he would sign both if they passed congress. It made him look downright moderate. First time I have actually seen him act this way. Refreshing. Tom Newark, CA

I know one person (me) who is very happy to see this bill passed. I have a VA loan on my home and I get to deduct the VA funding fee now. Thank you Congress. Tom Newark, CA

I retract my previous comment. Based on what you just posted, it sure looks like a sale. Tom Newark,CA

Sounds like an involuntary conversion to me. Tom Newark, CA

I was pleasantly surprised by the download and install this year. No hiccups, no real delays, just the normal "first time you open it up" stuff that is normal. Not a lot of forms available yet for my personal return. IRS has reserved some space on the returns for the expected extenders. All in all it looks good so far considering we are only at Dec 8th. Tom Newark, CA

Let me add I would watch for a revised W2 or look for any income included in the current year W2 related to the previously tax free income. The employer may decide they have to include this into income. Tom Newark, CA

I don't mean to be a butthead, but I am going to ask at the risk of sounding like Mr. Obvious. Did you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page? Is your monitor set up to show the whole display of the form, or is it cutting it off and you have to scroll down to see the bar at the bottom. Tom Newark, CA

OK, I will take a shot at this. The only issue that I see is the 23K of W2 income. The other payments were not taxable income, therefore no deduction is allowed against that income. So the only taxable income was the 23K that was included on the W2. I don't think you can apply any of that against a 3903 because it appears that the taxpayer has received tax free income to cover the actual costs. So we are left with the taxpayer having to repay 15K approx. that may be a tax deduction or credit. Since the amount is above 3K, you have the choice to take a credit equal to the amount of tax paid in the year the income was reported and tax paid on it, or take a deduction of the 15K on the current year return. I am stretching here. Going back in my memory banks for the right answer. I hope I nailed it, but you should double check me on this one. Tom Newark, CA

I don't think this statement is correct. Expenses to get a property ready for rental activity are not currently deductible, but can be capitalized and depreciated over the life of the property. Tom Newark, CA

Read an article online yesterday that said the PMI deduction is included in the house bill that passed yesterday. No word on Senate action. The senator from Ohio is pissed because one of his constituent companies lost a credit. The White House is apparently signaling that the president will sign the house bill if the senate passes as well. Only 50 of the 55 expiring provisions made the cut. Tom Newark, CA

I always roll over my appointments in the morning before I start my day. I fill in all the crap like e-file signature dates, preparer, ERO, etc so I don't have to do it while the client is waiting. But I don't roll over any return early but my own. That is the one I test the software on. Tom Newark, CA

Thanks Tom Newark, CA

Does anyone know the form you send to the OPR to notify them of a change of address? Last time I moved, I almost missed my license renewal because it was sent to my last address. Thanks Tom Newark, CA