Roberts

I'm all caught up and do taxes immediately as they arrive now (really only expecting maybe 7 more). I have a few boxes of returns for people to pick up / pay / efile so they'll wonder into the office over the next week. I have a client who delivered everything except 2 numbers back in early February. His wife will email me those two numbers on April 15 (she thinks that's the filing day) at about 2pm and will expect the return completed by 5pm. She's done this 3 years in a row and they pay $200 more for this "service". All she has is a 1099 and her mileage deduction. Bizarre.

Malwarebytes keeps flagging a second malware program I use as being a threat.

The same company provides her with the W2 and a K1 with guaranteed payments.

I have a client who has the exact same thing except it's for D - retirement plan contribution. I put $1 in box 1. I wouldn't leave out the W2 only because it could generate a letter from the IRS and then I'd have to explain why I didn't include it.

This, not seeing that a 1099r is absolutely required. They aren't going to produce one if a distribution isn't made and if she isn't applicable to RMDs, you can't make the leap that a 1099r is absolutely required.

If they are charging a flat percentage fee on assets in the portfolio, churning is very difficult to achieve. Most likely, they are in a computer assisted trading program which is designed to meet their needs while actively avoiding the realization of taxable gains. What's the value of the portfolio, the income produced within it, services received for the fee, what are the non realized capital gains for the same period?

I commented on this back in February I think. It boggles my mind that someone would take NOW to schedule, review and buy their CPE. Reality is that they are making sales or they wouldn't be calling. Maybe the attitude is to get them while they have the money and haven't spent it all yet. By mid-May, I'll have distributed all my tax income to paying off any loans, retirement plan contributions, tax payments and whatever else. Maybe they are trying to get me while I have cash.

http://docshare01.docshare.tips/files/7860/78608253.pdf It's not great but gives some considerable information. Found it several years ago when I started doing 1041s. Generally on a lot of things, I get confirmation from the attorney because my guess is rarely correct on Grantor Type versus simple versus whatever else. For example I did a return for 6 years as a Grantor Trust because the previous preparer (CPA who worked at the law office) did it that way. Upon death the attorney informs me it should never have been that way and was always a normal simple trust. "Should I simply mark the Survivor's Trust return final, do the return as a Grantor-Type Trust, and report the income on the mother's final 1040? " that's how I'd do it. The new GST could go on for a while so it needs to be separate. Were the 1099s handled properly for the income distribution?

I warned a client about the hobby / loss rules after several years and what we'd need to do the next year. She never came back as I'm guessing the next tax preparer had no problem reporting another loss. Sad part is that she was my most attractive client by a considerable margin. It was always a joy meeting with her!

I've had an error 5x today and the software closes down (not ATX) but the error is for 2015 software only and it appears to be a .net problem.

My client just brought in his mother's return because he's taken over power of attorney. He brought in 3 years of returns and none have a copy of the state. Does Jackson Hewitt really not provide a copy of the State Return when doing a tax return for someone? There is a 2012 from Block and it doesn't have a state copy either.

I just purchased a refurbished computer to operate solely as a quote terminal pretty much. i5, 8GM ram and an SSD instead of HD (I'm only doing SSD from now on) and a new power module - $201 delivered. Bought a refurbished laptop to run as a Plex server and bittorrent sync backup location at home - same information and it was $270 with a brand new battery. Using SSD will change your life. If you are buying a new computer - spend the extra $50.

Judy, my wife has a cousin who makes a very good living still programing in COBOL and FORTRAN languages. It's bizarre but we have a local company that has a few old programs that run those languages and they've determined it's just cheaper to pay her a large salary to keep them running than pay a massive amount one time to replace them. When she retires in 5 years - they'll just declare the programs have died and the clients who use the information it generates are out of luck.

In college we "learned" a version of a word processing program, a spreadsheet type program and a database type program. This was before MS offered any such programs that I'm aware of. All three programs came on a single 5.25". My first version of Lotus 123 I bought used - it was something like 25 3.5" floppies. That computer class was 1 semester and 1/2 mainframe and 1/2 PC oriented. I could do all the PC stuff, my fraternity brother handled the mainframe program. You didn't even have to submit a program - you submitted a printout of the program on green bar paper. Weird times.

Nope, didn't see that - sorry. So does he have a foreign bank account? if so, many have relationships with US banks for an ACH transfer which is what the IRS does. I don't believe it's against the rules to do such a thing. I'd charge a fee.

Good thing I'm still using DOS 3.1

Did you change the address on the return to your address? What are you going to do with the check? I believe that it's okay as long as the check isn't issued in your name. I know for a fact that many attorney's use their office address as the address of record on legal issues and tax returns (estate and individual). I have doubts that you couldn't do the same thing but I wonder what you'd do with the check once you got it. Could you just apply the refund to next year's return? I'm really not sure what you plan on doing with the check once you get it. (I'd have a substantial fee applied if a client wants to use my address)

I believe the CTC requires the child to live with the parent more than 6 months of the year. They technically don't qualify if they didn't live with the parent attempting to claim it.

I wonder if the issue isn't that they can't versus it would be expensive or embarrassing to do so. For example, maybe they put it in an annuity. Oddly, yes people invest in annuities within an IRA.

I didn't quote you. The point he claimed was that the brokers are making huge commissions on THESE particular investments. Since they (by volume) mosty trade on an exchange, I'm wondering how they make more on these particular investments. Age of the client is not an indication of whether a person should be investing in a publicly traded MLP. Many produce large cash distributions that net out in a very friendly tax manner. I have a tax client who invested in NON public traded real estate oriented MLPs. They have been terrific investments the last 20 years. They spit out cash in a very favorable manner - far better than most alternatives.

How did you determine the brokers are making huge commissions versus alternative investments?

In the past 5+ years, I've never had a state return rejected when the FED was accepted. In fact I rarely even check the state returns anymore for acceptance.

In the middle of an audit he's writing up an OIC? jeeze. I'm no OIC expert and they can be done easily with an online service but mid-audit? Yeah - no.

That's how I'd do it.

Client of mine goes to the Masters every few years. He says there are ALWAYS tickets available to buy on the street which shocked me. My wife's cousin did a corporate event at the Masters 2 years ago and confirmed - sponsors get a TON of tickets and whatever is left over get sold to the public. I've gone to the US Open 2x - eventually the Masters will happen but I'm not pushing it with the wife - we do an SEC football trip each season and she never complains. We generally always schedule vacations for May or September. Gotta go when everyone's kids are in school so that they aren't at our destination. Next summer the wife won't be able to get off work - I'm going BACKPACKING!!!!