Roberts

The password requirements on Quickbooks was forced upon them by the IRS or another federal agency. If you have any banking account information in the program, you are required to have passwords to protect it from someone accessing it.

Having said my minimum is $175, I do one 1120S for $750 and it's pretty easy also. I do some accounting work which I also charge $750.

For those I try to charge based upon my time involved. I have an 1120S which is literally 2 numbers entered, takes me <10 minutes so I charge $175 which is my minimum. I'm fine with the fee but I know everyone else would likely charge $250 or more.

When I downloaded and started the installation process it literally said Drake Tax Software. It was the installation program that I've seen before with choosing the states. I've seen others mention it, I think the price quoted requires using bank products - I don't use bank products. The price for the normal software is $999. I'll try installing on a backup laptop at some point.

Since they are tax exempt bonds there isn't any interest to reduce. What you are supposed to do is reduce the basis by that amount. If they purchased a tax exempt out of state bond - so it is taxable in their state, I think you can reduce the taxable portion by this amortization. I doubt many people actually do it. For example if you live in Arkansas your bonds pay such a low interest rate, it's probably more profitable to buy a portfolio of slightly more risky California or Illinois bonds and still pay Arkansas income tax on the income.

When I look at their demo, it says it is Drake Software. Has anyone used them? Thanks

On tax exempt bonds you are required to amortize the bond premium. Does it show up on the 1099-int? It's box 13.

I'm imagining how few people have anything left from that signing bonus. Always hate it when someone got a nice windfall which they spent and now I'm handing them a $5k tax bill and they have no clue how to pay it. You can say they are idiots but most people live paycheck to paycheck for a reason. Me, I've already paid my 2020 estimated tax payment and anything I make from here on out doing taxes is straight cash to me homey.

I had a dream about doing taxes last night. It's that time of year folks!

Per fax.plus: Data Encryption In Transit and At Rest Fax files at rest are encrypted using 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). To protect data in transit between FAX.PLUS apps (currently mobile, API, or web) and our servers, FAX.PLUS uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS) for data transfer, creating a secure tunnel protected by 128-bit or higher Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption. I don't know if that's good enough but I'm guessing it's as safe as a physical fax line and documents sitting in the fax machine overnight. They are HIPPA compliant, is that good enough?

When you have the online version, you do away with the phone line completely. For us that was $480 per year replaced with a $60 per year fee. You can port your phone number into these services so that you keep the number. We got rid of the number only because we liked the idea clients wouldn't use the old number - they'd call us. It acts sort of like google email and in fact you'll get an email telling you that you have a fax. On mine you have to go to their website and the fax is waiting to download as a pdf. You upload a pdf & give them a phone number when you want to send one. I get 2-3 faxes per month and send 2-3. It takes a little longer but I avoid the phone line.

I use Fax.plus for 100 pages per month billed at $60 per year plus tax. They say they will port in your phone number for free. Since I do maybe 2 faxes per month - 100 pages is far more than enough for us. We used to have everything physically wired and went to VOIP this year (Ring Central) for phones and this service for faxes. It can take several minutes for a fax to go through if that's an issue. My guess would be it is pretty similar process to what Ring Central was at. Our old phone system (with fax line) was $600 per month, we now pay $1,300 per year!

Line 8 of the 1041 "other income" specifically says : Note. “ELA” and its dollar amount are the first entry to make on line 8.•Unpaid compensation received by the decedent's estate that is IRD.•Any part of a total distribution shown on Form 1099-R, Distributions From Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, etc., that is treated as ordinary income.

Other than some odd timing issue, an estate / trust really shouldn't be the beneficiary of life insurance. For the people who are trying to avoid estate taxes, hopefully they'd be smart enough to know not to do this. The reason they likely own life insurance was to bring the value of their estate down low enough to avoid the estate tax with a paid up life insurance policy paid to their heirs.

New client - he said the previous preparer made mental errors like sending him emails meant for someone else and including a copy of someone else's tax form in his information. Three W2's Child Tax Credit - no daycare 1 div, 1 int 1 capital gain entry They charged $520. Including generating a new client entry and running through itemizing, it took me an hour.

As I understood it a stipend like that is income not subject to SS or MEDA and is taxed on the residency state. When I had one I listed it as "Other income". Fulbright grants are considered taxable also but no tax forms are required. I never understand how that happens, the IRS declares something income but the IRS doesn't require reporting of it.

Had a client a few years ago who bought a unit via a tax lien sale, spent about $75k fixing it up for 9 months and then wanted to expense the fix up. When I wouldn't do it he wanted to depreciate it the entire time he was working on it. I told him he was a rehabber while fixing it up, he was a landlord the day he got a residency permit. He fired me soon after. He had this idea that he'd never pay any federal or state income tax and do one of these every year and the tax savings would allow him to buy a new rental every year. On a side note a friend is posting non-stop politics on Facebook and has this odd idea that they pay over 30% of their income to federal taxes. In reality they pay about 8%.

If applicable for each 1099 I do a Long Term basis reported, Long Term no-basis reported, Short term basis reported, Short term no-basis reported. I've been doing that for several years and have never had a problem. Some people may have 4-5 1099s so that still ends up being a lot of entries but nothing like the alternative.

I've had a few hit it under previous rules, can't imagine having another one hit it and especially this client. I'll make a note of the running dollar figure just in case it ever re-appears down the line.

I've inherited a client: They have a passive loss carry forward on rental property. Well that's obvious. They also has a passive loss carry forward on the same rental property listed as for Alternative Minimum Tax which is more money than the normal loss carry forward. I looked back 5 years and it's the same difference to the normal carry forward every year. Is that a thing? My software doesn't recognize this from what I can tell. I can enter it in my notes on the return to show that this is still out there but I don't see another way to report it.

100% other income. Being an expert witness is not something I've enjoyed doing. Attorney's earn their reputation for being jerks.

Every MFS return I've done ended up with me getting yelled at eventually because they wanted it, didn't want to pay me and didn't consider the long term ramifications for why they were doing it. In one case the husband made a TON of money and wanted to avoid paying his student loans but when the wife found out she was P.O.ed because the loans were the excuse for why they didn't have kids. If I were a betting man I'd bet they are divorced by now.

Those messages on email have very little legal impact. The receiver didn't agree to anything so they aren't impacted by it. They do work to remind recipients a copyright may exist, that client privilege may exist and to maybe remind recipients that nothing in email should be viewed as a legal contract. They do zero to aid you in limiting liability because the recipient didn't agree to this when they opened the email. You have to force them to waive this legal right before they open it if you want to take it from them.

Because of their required time out period being so short, I'm logging into the software 5-10x per day. I might use the multi-factor authentication if they weren't so stupid about the time out issue. I'm not a full-time tax preparer and do returns while I'm working our financial planning and investment management. I take a call - logged out. A client stops it, logged out. Wife calls, I'm logged out. If I had to coordinate it with my cell phone texts I'd go crazy. IRS urges tax pros to protect software accounts with multi-factor authentication The IRS and its Security Summit partners today called on tax professionals to use the free, multi-factor authentication feature being offered on tax preparation software products. Multi-factor authentication means returning users must enter their username/password credentials plus another data point that only they know, such as a security code sent to their mobile phone. For example, thieves may steal passwords but will be unable to access the software accounts without the mobile phones to receive the security codes.

I've never once signed (with a pen) a client's copy of the return and I don't think I've ever seen a copy delivered from a client with an actual signature. My name is printed on the line with my preparer information. I think you are required to provide to them a completed copy of the work. The format is up to you. (wait, I do sign if we are mailing in the return)