imjulier

I agree, mine is working much better as well and all I did was install the 12.7 update. No other changes. I'm not doing very complicated retruns but did just work on a pretty complicated 1040 with lots of forms. Julie

Have a H&W who jointly own several rental properties and have them all in seperate LLCs. I have elected to treat them as a QJV and report on Sch E. Their income is above $300K. Would the same $ limitation on deducting rental losses apply if filed on a 1065? I think it would but I can't seem to find that anywhere. Thanks. Happy Sunday! Julie

Wow-it already feels late in the tax season. Client re-fi's a rental property. If I recall correctly, the expenses associated with re-fi can be claimed in the current year but points are amortized. Sound right? Thanks, Julie

OK-just now trying to get this set up. I watched the tutorial videos about printing on the ATX website. Not helpful. Do I really have to go through ALL those forms to set up a client copy that masks sensitive info, prints the tax retruns, cleint letter, and signing documents? I haven't really figured out the best way to set this up yet by watching the tutorials and playing with it for a couple hours. Also, the masking of sensitive info isn't working on mine. Has any one had this work? If you have any great insight into this whole printing, print packets, etc, please do share. I'm finding that I can't figure it out. Just venting maybe but at least that feels good! Thanks, Julie

Yep- You can go standard to actual but not actual to standard.

Got it....Thanks!

Has anyone figured out how to print to pdf with using XXXs for EINs and taxpayer ids? Last year this was an easy selection, can't find it this year. I'll keep looking but let me know if yopu've figured it out. Thanks, Julie

Hmmmm. I'll try to update manually since I have checked my preferences and my forms should be updating but obviously, they aren't. I have it set to update on opening the program and 33 forms were updated today....but still no 8879 for me. I'll check again and hope I don't have to uninstall and reinstall. Thanks for the info. Julie

I'm having the same problem but don't see how to override the automatic download and select things yourself. Anyone? Also, no 8879 yet? Thanks! Julie

Jack- I use ATX to do my W-2s but you have to be registered with the SSA to actually e-file them. Once you know you can submit files to the SSA, you output a file from ATX and upload them through the SSA website. Its been several years that I have done this and it has worked for me fine. I don't recall the steps to get registered with the SSA and I certainly don't recall the steps to create the file from ATX and upload to SSA but I am always able to figure it out pretty painlessly. I hope this helps you at least get started. You still have time to get registered with the SSA as the W-2s aren't due to them for a while yet. Julie

Hi- Just checking if it is required to issue 1099s to LLC electing to be treated as S-corp. Does this make them a corporation so that 1099s don't have to be issued to them? I was just readsing the 1099 instructions and it is not clear. I appreciate your input. I have typically not issued 1099s in this scenario but now I'm questioning that approach. Thanks, Julie

No cite at hand but I had this same scenario a few years ago. I found out in one of the pubs that anyone who is incarcerated for the full year can't be claimed as a dependent. I think you are right on this one. Julie

Joan- The PINs may go to your clients. That's how it worked when I did this a few years ago. I also experienced having the PIN application rejected (not by ATX but by the IRS) if any of the company information you used doesn't match the IRS records, including address and company name (to the T). Just be ready for this to happen. But maybe it works differently now. That would be nice. Julie

I just had a similar situation under audit by the IRS. Repair expenses were high based on low rental income so it was selcted for audit. TP handled the meeting with the IRS themselves and stated that becuase of the repair/remodel work being performed that it was not available for rent. IRS excluded all the expenses related to that period but agreed to put mortgage interest and property tax on Schedule A as a second home. I chose to not fight it since most of the expenses could still be recovered in future years as depreciation. I told the taxpayer they would have to pay the tax now but would recover most of it later.....just a shell game by the IRS. Hope this helps. Julie

...interested in selling your accounting/tax practice. Its not for me but someone I know might be interested. Let me know Thanks, JUlie

Auditor "forgot" to provide for mortgage interest and penalties disallowed on Sch E on Schedule A but after making this adjustment, the taxes due are within the client's range of acceptable. Trying to determine if its worth fighting at this point. Does anyone know if the IRS systems are good enough to trace through the 8582 passive loss carryforward from the 2010 audit adjustment to 2011? Will a notice on 2011 be issued to the taxpayer as a result? If not, this ones probably done without appeals, but if so, its worth taking to appeals. The auditor was not smart enough to know this but are the systems smart enough to know this? Any info is helpful and thanks again for sharing. Julie

After my other post (thanks to all for responding!) regarding an IRS audit of rental property, if I fax a POA to the normal number, how long will it take before I can talk to the auditor? I intend to start with the auditor because their line of thinking is not clear to me even from the notice provided to the taxpayer and if resolution seems unlikely, then ask them to just send me through to appeals. How long will it take the auditor to respond to my inquiry? Any sharing of experiences would be great...I guess you could say I'm an audit/IRS virgin! Thanks, Julie

Thanks for everyone's comments. Lots to think about but I have been coaching the client towards the idea that the IRS stance might be reasonable and they are starting to see that side of it too. Now, I just have to decide if there is any merit in trying to fight it because there won't be any documentation to support that they were trying to rent it during that time and I'm pretty sure they said as much to the auditor. Hmmmm....always an adventure. Julie

I believe Joan is right with the dialog between taxpayer and auditor. What the auditor has done is limit the expenses to the extent of income (all expenses) which disallows a portion of mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, utilities, depreciation, and repairs to the tune of about $16K in total. Also excluded is a carryover loss from the previous year with a resulting reduced carryover loss to 2011 which is not being audited but surely adjusted down the road. The audit result for 2010 is about $2500 in taxes and about $600 in penalties and interest. My guess is the impact on 2011 will be about the same if not a little more. Unfortunately, I was the preparer on this one and didn't think that the expenses could be limited since personal use didn't apply and the property, even though under repair and not rented, was still a rental/investment property so not limiting the expenses was reasonable. As such, I will probably take jainen's positon that the property remained a rental and the sales effort was merely an effort to see if their investment property could be sold at that time. By the way, I understand that the IRS was "audited" and the results indicated that 50% of rental property owners under/over-state income/expenses so efforts toward auditing rental properties will be stepped up. This must be part of that effort. I also saw that the IRS may disallow expenses if ythere is a loss for 3 or more years...much like the hobby rules. Really? I don't have a client who makes a profit on their rental properties because with both interest expense and depreciation create a loss every year. Do your cleints with rental properties generate income for tax purposes? What am I missing? By the way, I appreciate everyone's comments. Julie

Hi- Has anyone out there been through an IRS audit of rental property? Notice of audit from IRS said it was limited to one out of two rental property's repairs that were for about $7K. Taxpayer decided to handle this on his own and met with the auditor. Notice after the audit looks like the IRS is either saying a portion was personal use or a portion was not for profit or not available for rent so most of the expenses are disallowed. Rental property has been 100% rental since 2006 but it was the main home of the taxpayer prior to that. For the year being audited, taxpayer had not rented it for about 6 months while the taxpayer did repairs and tried to sell it. Not being able to sell it, it was rented again. It seems reasonable to me that this has been investment property for 4 years prior to audit and that even through a repair and sell period of 6 months it would remain an investment property. Is there any basis for the IRS to limit the deductions to the extent of income because it was not available for rent? That disallows a lot of expenses. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

I'm taking over an s-corp for an accountant that has retired and I don't know the accountant. The s-corp of course started having financial problems in the economic downturn and has had a couple years of significant losses (>100K). The owner has taken loans from many firends and employees and has taken money out of his retirement accounts to put in the business. His personal return is showing basis limitations even though the s-corp owes him about $87K so the losses are not passed through to his personal return. He'd obviously run out of basis anyway. Any loans that were paid back the accountant claimed as capital gains on his schedule D. Is there any reason the loans or money put in are not basis to pass thorugh losses against? I'm a bit baffled by this one. Any ideas? Thanks, Julie

Had two cleints in the last 2 days questions the security of e-filing since there was a news story about it. One said that it was unsafe to have refunds automatically deposited and one said e-file itself was not secure. They both said it was a news story they had seen which is why they were asking. Anyone see that story or heard of any identity theft from e-filing or problems with ATX in particular? Julie

Thanks TaxCPANY- Your answer is what I thought but am just trying to figure out how to execute it in ATX. I know my figures for allocations to each (of income through the sale date), basis as of date of sale, etc but just can't see how to report in ATX other than to over-ride the K-1 and basis amounts. Any one? Thanks again, Julie

I have an s-corp that one shareholder bought out the other back in Feb 2011. I did the accounting for through the sale date and know the amount of income/loss to report to each. It appears that there is no easy way to do this or I am thinking about it wrong since the K-1 schedule only offers special allocations for basis items....not income/loss? What is the best way to treat this in ATX? Thanks for any insight. Julie

Since I have so few of these I always forget. Does the sale of the vehicle just go to Part I of the 4797? Thanks, Julie