Don in Upstate NY

That's how I interpreted the ruling. You go to the casino and play all day. When you check out you calculate your net for that day, which is either a gain (gross income) or a loss, but NOT some of both. At the end of the year you add all your daily gains (up to 366 of them) and put the total on line 21. Then you add up all your daily losses (for those days when you didn't have a daily gain) and optionally put that total on Schedule A (limited to the line 21 number.) [strictly speaking, the ruling implies that you do the netting every time you visit the cashier's cage to settle up. Daily seems to be a reasonable assumption.]

Or it could be like the test that the IRS currently mandates for its volunteers (VITA and TCE programs.) Like the proposed paid preparer test, it comes in various certification levels - Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, International, etc. It never gets to the point where it would be suitable for the general paid preparer, but could well serve as the test for the lower level certification. Check it out at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f6744.pdf

I think you've got it. It's all part of the new health care plan. They can replace a $100,000 airport scanner and a $100,000 medical x-ray machine with a single device costing only $375,000. And with the money we save we can afford to raise taxes. Oh brave new world!

The closing is normally when the deed is signed over. At least in this area, the deed reads " ... all that parcel of land ... ". It conveys the land, and any real property that happens to be on it at the time. If the prefab house was not yet erected on the land, it would seem that the rules for the construction of a house would be applicable.

TaxWise shipped the software to their AARP/TCE clients the week of November 23. Don in Upstate NY

Well, at least we're all better drivers now. Because we don't need "curb feelers" to assist us in parking.

But of course this varies by local custom. In upstate New York there is no "escrow" procedure. On the date of the "closing" the principals, the bank (if any) and their attorneys gather around a table and sign all the paperwork. The funds are transferred, everyone gets paid, and the signed deed and the keys are delivered. If the closing is physically at the court house (which often provides facilities for this purpose) the deed is recorded within minutes.

Actually you do get to argue (and not pay the sales tax) if you have your purchase shipped to your home state.

IMHO it's not worth it for $100. But of course that's your savings for THIS year only. There are future years to consider. I'm a satisfied TRX customer. AFAIK they are only offering new clients the program they introduced last summer; the one they have available as a demo. I personally don't like it because you enter data on their input forms, rather than on the familiar 1040 and other IRS look a likes. If you like ATX you will not like the new TRX program. Also based on my talks with their sales people, they will NOT be offering ATX next year to anyone, and will only offer TaxWise to previous TaxWise customers. [Personal opinion - but by then maybe CCH will have merged ATX and TaxWise into a single product aimed at the small preparer market.] Since you only do 50 returns or so and e-file is not a major concern, you might take a look at TaxAct.

They just passed the law, and there are no regulations yet, so who knows what eventually will be required. Right now there are just too many returns that cannot be e-filed to make a blanket requirement meaningful.

This looks like a rerun of the seminar they aired last week. One free CPE hour (at least for EAs, CPAs are advised to check their state criteria). I am a proponent of e-file, but this seminar has very little to offer in the way of technical content. {I think e-file is good. How about you, Betty? Oh yes, and it saves me so much paper. And postage too! And my floors have never been so clean.}

TaxSlayer has always been one of the more aggressive marketers. If you ever respond to a free demo offer or such, you're going to be on their mailing list big time. It's probably been at least four years since I tried a TaxSlayer demo - and I got the "make me an offer" e-mail too. I think that many of the members of this forum have led a sheltered life, because they were ATX clients in the good old days. ATX, like TaxAct and Drake, had a simple marketing plan. They offered a good product at a known price and you were free to buy it or not. Their sales staff was concerned with order fulfillment and customer satisfaction. In contrast, many of the other software vendors didn't even seem to have a list price for their product. You negotiated the price with your salesman, who would offer various deals on packages of features, guaranteed renewal rates, etc. It was not unlike the process of buying a car (new or used). Now add to this the availability of the software through resellers and service bureaus and you arrive at today's market. [My personal prediction - CCH will release a new tax program for the small business market that will replace both TaxWise and ATX. This will happen within the next three seasons.]

I thought it was the same as the federal ... Tax Law § 685, (g) (4) Copy or list to be retained by tax return preparer. Any person who is a tax return preparer with respect to any return or claim for refund shall for a three year retention period described in paragraph nine of this subsection: (A) retain a completed copy of such return or claim for refund, or retain, on a list, the name and identification number of the taxpayer for whom such return or claim was prepared, and ( make such copy or list available for inspection upon request by the commissioner. [from http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us] Is there a more restrictive limit lurking around somewhere?

No. Property acquired from a related party does not qualify for the credit.

Yes, I talked to sales last week to see what's going on. [background - Previously an ATX user, I had used TRX Intellitax for 2007 and TRX TaxWise for 2008. I am also an AARP/TCE instructor for TaxWise. I had renewed for 2009 and opted for ATX before the big flap about licensing restrictions.] The new TRX software is the default choice for 2009, and is the only option available for new customers at this time. Since I was on the list for ATX before the May cutoff, TRX was willing to ship ATX for 2009, but it would be for one year only. They definitely would not be selling ATX for 2010. I was also given the option to revert to my last year's choice and receive TaxWise for 2009. Sales thought that they would continue to resell TaxWise in future years, but only to prior customers. Since I had tried out the new TRX software and found it not to my liking, I opted for continued TaxWise support.

I don't think these addresses came from the IRS. I use an address in my own domain for IRS purposes ([email protected]). The "Tax Coaches" e-mail came thru [email protected]

I did receive an earlier notice - a one page flyer mailed out on August 17. The flyer called it a "training class" - I see now its main focus is how to get set up for RALs. (I guess that's not fair - the afternoon looks like it is devoted to doing tax returns.) The official TRX forum http://community.trxpro.com/ is still "down for maintenance".

First of all, he has to hold the gems that he has "invested" in for over one year, or else his contribution is limited to his basis. Even then, the deduction only has value to the extent that he is above the 25% tax bracket. And that gemologist has to sign the 8283 that is submitted to the IRS, which is more serious appraisal than the usual "appraisals" given to customers in the jewelery trade. If he can actually buy the gems at 25% of FMV, he would be much better off to simply sell the gems at FMV immediately after he bought them. I can offer you a similar deal. I have some GE stock that I'll sell to you for half of what I paid for it. All you have to do is wait till it doubles, donate it, and take that big deduction. No appraisal necessary - just use the price as quoted in the WSJ.

There was never any talk about exempting EA's that I heard of. This is a REVENUE bill - NY needs the cash. NY CPA's and NY attorneys already pay the state for the privilege of making a buck - EA's do not. Later on when they add the continuing education and/or testing requirements (with the associated fees) then we can argue about EA's being exempt from those fees. But until then ... pay the man in Albany. [The good news - there was talk of making tax preparation fees subject to sales tax. That didn't go thru. ] Don (EA in Upstate NY)

For a starter, the deadline is prior to December 1, 2009.

So if the law says the taxpayer does not have to provide a SSN to receive the credit, how is it an IRS problem when they follow that law? Technically speaking, that couldn't happen since the child tax credit is non-refundable. Maybe he's thinking about the Additional Child Tax Credit.

The TRX program from 2008 is actually TaxWise. There was a post-season modification to TaxWise that would facilitate running two differently licensed copies of TaxWise on the same computer, using different logical hard drives. This was a work-around if TaxWise was to be used on a computer with two different EFINs, such as a laptop used at multiple VITA or TCE sites. (TaxWise is the program used by the IRS for these volunteer programs.) The modification was detected as a virus by several different anti-virus programs, but was eventually reported to actually be benign. See http://assets.aarp.org/www.aarp.org_/artic...bertax28_29.zip for the details.

Mr. Jensen is still shown as a software developer on the TRX support website.

3263442. Under two minutes. Yep, I was an engineer in a previous life.

From Pub 523, page 10 ... Decreases to basis. These include any Gain you postponed from the sale of a previous home before May 7, 1997,