Don in Upstate NY

It's not just me. I volunteer at a AARP/TCE site in the mornings and the ERO there reports the same thing.

I'm using TaxWise as sold by TRX, and my acknowledgments have been unbelievably fast. When I run the e-file summary report, it shows that every single one of my federal e-files was accepted the day BEFORE I sent it. In actuality every one of my federal e-files was accepted the same day, and every state e-file the following day.

It's a new law and he probably gets it if he owns his own home and takes the standard deduction. You get to add your property taxes (up to $500 single or $1,000 MFJ) to your standard deduction. So a single person who paid $750 in property taxes would have a $5,950 standard deduction.

I don't think that you get the additional $300 per child unless you also qualify for the basic credit itself. If she earned only $2,900 in 2008 she's $100 short of the magic $3,000 lower limit on earned income or social security.

It takes a lot longer than one day before you can deduct moving expenses. From form 3903 ...

TRX now has their own forum. It's at http://community.trxpro.com/

No membership fee, no secret handshakes, you just pay the money and get the software. I suppose that if you are into RALs and bank products there are signs and marketing materials like that, but I just see it as a less expensive way to buy the software. They rebrand TaxWise with their own opening screen, although the original screen is still on the disk. They have their own support staff and knowledge base, but there is nothing to prevent you from accessing the real TaxWise knowledge base if you wish. Disclosure - I've used/taught TaxWise for several years as an AARP/TCE volunteer, and this is a relatively inexpensive way to use one software tool for both my volunteer and paid work.

Use Form 8888

Diane called TRX, which was a reseller of OrrTax/Inteletax last year, and who is currently a reseller of TaxWise and also the ATX W2/1099 package. I think she was saying that next year TRX will be reselling both TaxWise and the full ATX program.

But since the only non-dependent who can qualify you as head-of-household is a qualifying child, that doesn't apply in this case.

It's quite simple. The mother made $10K. Therefore she MUST file a tax return. Therefore she is a "taxpayer". She has her natural children living with her for over six months of the year. Therefore they are her qualifying children. Therefore they cannot be anyone else's qualifying relatives. Making only $10K it is unreasonable to assume that she is paying over half the cost to support the household. She files single with two qualifying children. At $10K she has no tax liability, but gets EIC. He has neither qualifying children or qualifying relatives who are dependents. He files single with no dependents.

I got my Fidelity 1099-INT and 1099-DIV today. However, I don't have anything exotic at Fidelity, just the usual mix of funds from Fidelity and other major houses and listed stocks and ETFs.

Try this logic: The TRX forum is to TaxWise as this forum is to ATX. Neither forum is owned or managed by CCH. TRX is a reseller of TaxWise; they didn't write the code. As far as I know TaxWise doesn't have a user forum. And TRX has not sent out an e-mail to its customers announcing the existence of the forum, nor is it mentioned on their home page at https://www.trxprotwsupport.com/ I imagine that they're quite busy at this time and changing their web page is low on the priority list. Don

Thirteen states available as of 6pm Tuesday.

I've used both TaxWise and ATX for about five years. (I'm an AARP/TCE volunteer in my spare time.) I think one thing you'll appreciate about TaxWise is the stability. They do about ten updates per season instead of almost one per day with ATX. And of course since they use conventional word processing techniques instead of a spreadsheet for the client letters, customization is much easier and less cryptic. But both products are under new management, and we are buying TaxWise on the cheap from a re-seller, so it may be an interesting season!

Just waiting for the states ... Don

Here's the link ... http://www.tax.state.ny.us/pdf/elf/tr_579_it_1008.pdf

Yes. "Other real estate taxes you paid, not listed elsewhere on this return" Also flows nicely through to an Illinois return, where you get a credit based on the RE taxes on your principal residence, but not on your vacation home. On the other hand, TaxWise does NOT add up your foreign taxes from 1099-INT or 1099-DIV and carry them anywhere, nor does it account for NY SDI deductions from box 14 of a W2. And interest from Private Activity Bonds, which shows up only on a 1099-INT, must be entered on the 1099-DIV worksheet. Guess no program has everything we want.

I'm teaching a TaxWise course this year for AARP/TCE. TaxWise operates as you suggest - the real estate taxes are entered on the Schedule A worksheet (there is a dedicated line for taxes on the principal residence) and the program correctly chooses between the itemized and the enhanced standard deduction. The students are grumbling about this - they would prefer to manually enter the taxes on a worksheet for the back of the 1040, rather than open up a Schedule A that they know they are not going to use. Guess you can't please everybody.

Give 'em a break. They're getting their feet wet by trying out a few forms at a time, hopefully learning as they go. Which is a good idea! Remember ...

One on the weak points in many tax programs and/or estimators is the AMT. Have a go at the 6251.

One problem that I've noticed in converting my 2007 OrrTax returns to 2007 TaxWise returns is in the Capital Loss carryovers. The conversion program picks up the carryover from the OrrTax Schedule D as a negative number, and inserts that into the TaxWise Schedule D. Unfortunately, TaxWise wants the carryover loss as a positive number, so putting a negative number into there makes it a carryover GAIN instead of a loss. The other thing that seem to get lost is the short vs long term designation for stocks with 'various' as a buy date. They seem to all come over as long term. Don

I also received the letter Saturday, but received the software today (Thursday). It came by UPS, not FedEx as they had previously said. The tracking info showed that it was sent out Monday, the 15-th. The states for 2008 aren't out yet. States for 2007 can be downloaded from https://www.trxprotwsupport.com/ Don

I just received my unlock codes form TRX today (Saturday) in the US Mail. Came in a plain white window envelope with no return address. A separate slip said the software is being shipped directly by CCH. The letter says the code is for the 2008 software. Nothing is mentioned about the 2007 software. Don

TaxWise has shipped the 2008 program to their IRS TCE clients.