Roberts

I do also.

None of this was tax information for our tax prep business. I did all that last summer when we had some time on our hands. I'm almost completely digital on that side of the business - even signature authorization. I scan them all when tax season is over to keep just a digital copy. I scanned every client file and destroyed it as I went. This was 100% securities / investment sales. Everything on that side of the business is now digital going forward (pretty much) but we have to wait for holding periods to expire on the old stuff before destroying it.

edit: 96 gallons. Guy from the shredder said we had roughly 1/2 a ton of paper.

Just filled up three 94 gallon trash bins that are going off to the shredder. Each January 1st for the next 3 years I have about 50 lbs of paper that will need to be shredded and then I'm all done. Everything will be online or on a travel drive. Such a wonderful feeling.

They are only deducted on the 706 because the IRS assumes you'll want to pay for your own funeral expenses. If you prepaid it a year ago, that money would be out of the estate long before filing the form.

That seems reasonable. On the PPP I told them they needed to talk to a banker which seemed to confuse them. Paying income tax on unemployment always ticks me off. So many people don't withhold and then next April are stuck unable to come up with the funds because they were unemployed. Grrrrrrr. I know nothing about applying so I tell them to go to the state website but they always think I know.

I'm not an unemployment "expert" and I'm not an expert on the stimulus payments or the PPP loans. Am I supposed to be? People ask me questions but it has really next to nothing to do with what I do.

Other than the iTunes software on my PC years ago, I've never used an Apple product that I know. I have a client who insisted on buying Apple computers and he's had never ending problems with Quickbooks. I find it odd that someone would pay MORE to buy an Apple product and then use essentially an emulator to operate it as a Windows machine. My nephew is a project manager in Cupertino and he tried to sell me on the idea and his own father told me not to do it.

You may still owe a state return even though you live in Lithuania. If 2008 was their last US return, that's where I'd file their trust returns unless someone can give me proof why a different state is better. If you can't determine what state their trust return is due in 2016, how on earth are you arguing their 1040 was incorrectly filed in 2008? I have a hard time believing any state is going to argue that you owe the money to them over another state unless you choose a tax free state like Florida. Unless the tax preparer was hired to do their taxes and didn't, I fail to see how the OP is liable for a tax return not being filed.

I basically walk them through the rules and tell them I'll show a loss for 2 years if you are dead serious they plan on showing a profit. After that I deduct all expenses up to the amount of income and note on the return that expenses were capped. I don't know for a fact their true motive but I've told them the rules and covered my rear.

I don't think anyone at the IRS is in the office. Our local rep is at home. Can you try your local rep? The only time this has happened to me we paper filed.

So that's why they charge a cleaning fee. We rented last November in Prague via AirBnb and they left us with candy, pastries, bottled water and juice to drink. When we stepped into the store downstairs the juice was on clearance for about $.25. In Berlin they left us with a bottle of wine.

You should file a 2016 return if the 1099r was delivered. When you have a check in hand is deemed to have received the funds. It's not when you cash the check. It's a complex return and have the trust pay the tax. Where did they file their last personal US tax return? Boom, you likely have what they feel was their residency at death. Reality is, the state isn't going to come after you if you get it wrong so pick one that just seems the most correct. The check in hand thing is interesting because people threw a fit when I mentioned something before in regards to rent checks. If a renter pays you January 5th instead of December 31st, and it was previously always booked in December - report it on the tax return as received in December. The IRS wants it that way. They'd prefer you do 12 monthly checks every year instead of 11 one year and 13 the next. When you do that it appears like you are trying to manipulate your reported income.

What entails the breakfast and snacks? Are they produced by the owner or are they acquired from an establishment and just provided? I read a report on these years ago and the determination was that you have to consider whether you are performing ongoing services and how substantial they are compared to inconsequential "services". Schedule C was sort of deemed if you cleaned every day, provided tenants with concierge services or cooked them food. If you gave them baked goods you bought at a store when they checked into the place, cleaned only after they left and just left them a binder of ideas where to eat - schedule E. I think how you advertise would sort of dictate it also. I've stayed in many BnBs and I've stayed in many apartment sharing locales. IMO it's pretty obvious which should go on which form.

I'd call you software provider. Some 1041s require a state tax ID number where I just enter all 0's. If it requires an amount, enter $1 - it won't be taxable.

The fax numbers for getting Power of Attorney have been busy for weeks. If they aren't going to process the mailed in forms - how are we supposed to get transcripts to file a return for last year?

When people are sitting at home bored, these are the sorts of things that bounce into their heads and they obsess about. Have a client who has been ranting because he bounced a check to the IRS and they gave him a fee for $80. Guy makes about $130k per year in retirement and he has been obsessed the last 12 months about this $80 and how it is everyone's fault but his own. Thankfully he hasn't decided it is my fault also. Currently it bounces between the IRS, his own son, the bank, the financial advisor and the backoffice people because the advisor threw them under the bus for a while.

I'm confused, you'd have the sister's heirs take the distribution now instead of spreading it over several years?

How about an IRA rollover that is coded as a 7 normal distribution, the client doesn't mention it and when asked says yeah she got the money? You wait two days to efile because it doesn't feel right and 2 hours after it is transmitted they call to tell you their advisor says it was a rollover so non-taxable and says I should have been able to figure that out from the code. Why did it take your advisor 2 days to figure this out? Oh she's really busy. Had another client do a humdinger several years ago but oh she rolled her $150k IRA into a Roth IRA so she can pay the tax over two years instead of one to save a lot of money. When I said that if she had taken out $10,000 per year for the rest of her life she wouldn't have paid hardly any tax at all it amazingly became all my fault. I'm going to wager that next year her new tax preparer didn't include the other half of her rollover.

If it's on Schedule E (which is in my opinion the correct location) I wouldn't enter it as an asset to depreciate. You are likely supposed to enter it but for 3 days?

I'd inform them that a state return could be required if the residency state requires it but since they aren't giving you that information you can file it without a state return. Is there taxable income on the federal level? I would 100% not file a state return unless given instructions to do so. As for old trusts, I do a 1041 which includes a farm income. Every year I get an email stating how much income they receive that is net all expenses supposedly. The original owner died, the beneficiary died, her beneficiary died and now it's a great grand daughter receiving the funds. Nobody knows where the farm is exactly located (they know the county I think), nobody has a copy of the lease and nobody is 100% sure how to get hold of the managing firm and the check they receive doesn't have contact information. The estate attorney who knew all that died well over a decade ago and nobody seems all that interested in figuring these things out. The attorney who has been dealing with it just says nobody is willing to pay him to investigate it. Last thing I heard was that an improvement was made to the land and if they break the lease they have to repay the leaser who paid for it and nobody knows when that period ends or how much it is.

Yes an extra bedroom can be deemed a home office - several of my neighbors do that. They can depreciate any office furniture or equipment they put in the office. Just my opinion but the safe harbor they instituted a few years ago is the best option only because you don't have to recapture the depreciation when you sell and you don't have to keep track of things each month. I've yet to meet anyone who didn't prefer that route when explained to them. A lot of the financial advisors I know who do this sort of thing actually end up signing up for an office sharing arrangement (like WeWork) just so they have a mailing address and a conference room to meet clients. For $200-300 per month they can be a good deal. CPA in my building just switched to that type of office. If you do the office sharing arrangement they lose the home office deduction.

I've been telling people the last few days that they won't have to take a RMD for 2020. All the people who complained about having to take a RMD every year and being forced to pay taxes are shockingly not going to stop taking their RMD because they need the cash. So yes, all that complaining every year was for nothing. Would it be a jerk move to remind them next spring that they weren't REQUIRED to make the RMD when they complain about paying taxes?

I have maybe 40 hours of work to do. 10 for what's in place (just waiting for a few forms) and 30 for what's yet to come into the office. I don't expect to see that 30 until July 1st.

I've only had K-1s from 1041 returns with foreign tax credits from dividends and I always claim them on the 1040. You effectively paid the tax, why wouldn't you get the credit?