Roberts

My corporate and personal tax returns are done - just waiting to efile.

JMHO, if you are the third party designee you should be able to get instant access to transcripts for THAT year's work. And 3rd party designee should last 2 years, not one.

In my opinion, 3-5 per year is unavoidably going to be categorized as earned income by the IRS. 1-2 per year can arguably by an investment program but there is no possible way the IRS will allow 3-5. Frequency of the flip is very important in determining the characteristic of the sale.

Local banks still do it. They give out sports tickets, I received a "weather station" for opening a business checking account. My in-law received a blanket for renewing a CD.

I've had the same problem over the years. It's a horrifically designed website and the security appears to be taking convoluted steps to NOT use truly safe options. I've yet to see step by step instructions on how to do things on the site (it's not really intuitive in my opinion) and since I do them sporadically, it's like starting over each time. I would pay a fee every year for an easy to use, secure portal using software like Citrix. As a license holder they have already done a background check on me. If I efile a return with the preparer checkbox, I should be able to review that client's transcript data via the secure system until the next return is filed or 18 months - whichever is shorter. It seems like many of the IRS "solutions" are designed to save IRS jobs.

Not green stamps related but my parents still have the Funk and Wagnall encyclopedias they received from the grocery store as a rewards program. Got them back in the late 70's I think. It shocked me to see a local grocery store still doing a similar rewards program. You could get free cutlery, dishes and glasses. Didn't have a clue that was still used.

Crypto currency (bitcoin) as a class will never go away even after the prices collapse. It has more than one purpose and there is a TON of demand for those services.

I was wrong. I read two articles earlier in the week that said only 10 would get an update.

My point was that if you are running Windows 8.1, you are not receiving a security fix. Yes, everyone else will get a fix and I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

From what I read last night there are two different yet very similar security issues. One is for Intel and the other is for AMD and ARM. The security patch is ONLY being issued by Microsoft for Windows 10. If you are using an older version of Windows they will not be receiving a security fix. The slow down of the chips will really only impact high utilization users (gamers, graphics editor types). Normal accountant types using normal business software won't likely see a real slowdown. If you use photoshop, video editors and so forth - you'll see a slowdown. There are no known hacks associated with this threat.

Stinks losing furry kids - I lost both this year. As for work - I did my corp W2s on Friday, did my own corporate return and my rental return on Sunday while crashed in the house. My personal return is about 50% complete - just waiting on a few forms that will come in March - will take me 20 minutes to finish it up. My wife's W2 and a few investment 1099's are all I need.

I didn't know Nebraskans had an accent either. Where exactly is "deepest darkest" Nebraska? Arkansas? I was in a grocery store in Newfoundland one time, guy in front of me was talking away in supposedly English - I honestly didn't understand a single word. They can have such a think Irish accent that it's darn near impossible to comprehend them in some rural towns.

I guess it's all just a coincidence that all the tax software and Quickbooks now require passwords. My software (thankfully) hasn't required the 90 day password update since last May. Hope that continues. I literally have a small sheet of paper on my monitor with the first 5 digits of my software - I keep the rest the same.

The entry of data into software is different for each and each person's mind works differently in how they prefer it handled. Drake is not a forms entry type of system and their forms entry system is not really comparable IMO. I like Drake and it is a terrific value but at times there is data to enter that will take me forever to figure out where Drake wants it. Not every software program works best for all people. I have no clue if NOMOTAXES is really just on here pitching software. We had that several years ago with a company after TRX died. Guy came on here, offered 100% free software and then people complained it didn't have every form they needed and the service was substandard.

Not sure if I understand it correctly but if you pin the program to the taskbar - it'll show at the bottom of the screen. (whether open or not)

Nexus1040 is part of the TRX group and appears to be the focus of their business now. From their website it appears this might be a TaxWise reseller. Get their demo and see what it looks like versus TaxWise.

I turned off Edge being used - didn't see the point. I do still have Opera, Firefox and IE 11 Your Windows 10 still has IE 11 on it I'm sure.

I think you are right but an HSA really should be looked at as a tax avoidance strategy for medical expenses and not compared to a retirement plan. I know many people who had grand ideas that their HSA would grow to pay for medical expenses in retirement but every year they burn through the funds.

I'm sure for you guys that's normal. In my area that isn't!!!! My 26 year old nephew is in Santa Clara and his townhouse has property taxes of $9,600.

The argument is that since they specifically disallowed personal income tax from being prepaid, the lack of clarity could mean the previous law is in place. A lot of websites are quoting tax professionals suggesting people pre-pay. I don't know of anyone where pre-paying would be that beneficial. IMO the higher standard deduction is going to wipe out the benefit of itemizing for a lot of clients. For senior couples it'll be $26,600. That's a lot of my people. In my area the $10k in real estate tax allowance is going to cover most clients if they do need to itemize. Darien Shanske, a tax law expert at the UC Davis School of Law says the IRS will have to make a determination.

Just wondering, for all the excitement about the cuts and whatever else, how come nobody ever mentions the major tax avoidance of the S-corp and possibly doing away with it? It's so blatant for a lot of business owners.

I'm guessing the iRS will have to rule on this but I doubt a business return will be allowed to take a deduction.

primopdf is free to download / install. Basically anything you want to print, change the printer to primopdf in the drop down box and before creating a pdf, hit the pdf security change button and enter the password you want to use. They use AES 128-bit encryption. If you want to turn a webpage, word document or anything else into a pdf - this will work quickly and easily. I've been using it for years. Since I'm cheap, I usually find a free option. My scanner software is now a free program called NAPS2. It stands for Not Another PDF Scanner 2. It's ultra tiny, quick and customizable. I did a 187 page document that was <17 MBs. The program is up and running in 2 seconds on my computer. (NAPS2 is only about 22 mb in size for the entire program - very tiny) I use Foxit Reader instead of adobe reader but you can't encrypt with the free version. Foxit is far faster than Adobe IMO.

Just a heads up (from what I understand). You are prohibited from prepaying your state income tax in an attempt to take the deduction this year. You MAY be able to prepay your property tax and get the deduction - that hasn't been determined. From what I've read, the bill doesn't clarify it and the IRS will have to make a ruling on what Congress meant.

You're right jklcpa. Didn't know this. I wonder how the IRS is going to figure out it isn't jointly owned when the item is 10+ years old and acquired while married? In the OPs case it could easily end up being a 20 year old issue. If you acquire a property with marital assets while married, it's jointly owned property for legal purposes. Wonder if the IRS can really see that as owned by a single person. If in the OPs case he inherited while married, if he used marital assets to pay bills (taxes) on that property, it's considered a joint martial asset in my state (he didn't keep it 100% separate).