Lion EA

If the tuition was $4K and the scholarship was $4K and the bill of $4K was paid by the scholarship with no parental cash and the parents can benefit from AOC more than the student will lose by paying tax on income at his lower tax rate and IF the scholarship can be used for more than tuition, then you "use" some/all of the scholarship for room & board or whatever so it's taxable to the child. Then the parents take the AOC. However, 1098-Ts are still unreliable. Use the bursar's statement. For instance, I've seen what you reported, but it meant that tuition was $8K with scholarship $4K so billed $4K. If the parents actually paid $4K toward tuition, you don't have to "move" any scholarship money around.

Does FATCA and FBAR come into play?

Yeah, we're not as sleep-deprived as we think we are. Well, maybe we are, but we're not seeing things! Well, maybe we are, but we're not the only one seeing this particular thing...

Read the terms of the scholarship. If it is for tuition only, then any excess is taxable. If it can be used for room & board also, them perhaps the student has no excess to tax. If it is taxable, the student might have a filing requirement.

I've had both of those happen every time a thread gets moved to a new forum. Even though I've read the thread in each forum, General still showed there are unread threads and I'd get that error message, too. Logging out, restarting Chrome, even rebooting my computer still left the bold General forum suggesting I had unread posts. If I Mark the Forum as Read, it behaves. Took me a couple of "moved" threads until I found what works and doesn't.

If it was a trustee-to-trustee rollover from same kind to same kind of retirement plan, then you won't see any paperwork at all, most of the time. Ask some questions, such as, was that a traditional IRA going into a traditional IRA?, so you can make sure it was actually rolled over in the timeframe, doesn't need to be taxed (think TIRA to Roth IRA), etc. From where and to where was she moving such a small amount of funds, relative to her FMV and usual distribution amounts, anyway?

Yep, multiple items to tick off to qualify to claim own exemption OR to claim AOC if could be claimed by someone else as a dependent OR to claim refundable credit OR.... I sometimes latch onto the ONE item that's the sticking point in one particular situation and don't enumerate all the other points that have to be met. Sometimes, I'm focusing on what I find difficult in the situation and not necessarily the issue the OP wants clarification for.

If the parent(s) could claim the student but do not, the student still cannot claim himself but can claim the nonrefundable AOC. He cannot claim the refundable credit until he qualifies to claim his own exemption.

I just received a K-1 for a client that has a transfer of capital. I'll be back with questions on this topic!

Both eFax that I use and RingCentral that my largest biz client uses will not print unless you choose to print. Both save in their system, available on my computer or anywhere I have internet service. Both allow me to move a fax into a client folder or where ever I choose to save it.

Thank you, Roberts.

I can get a lot of work done after dinner when the phone's not ringing and clients aren't expecting an immediate reply to their email and when hubby stops walking in my office, sitting down, and trying to show me some video or something that could wait until dinner! So, I end up working very, very late. I take few face-to-face appointments, but make them in the afternoon.

But I already paid tax (10%) on my IRA, so I didn't have to give you the form.

Not all scholarships are limited to tuition. Some can be used for books or room & board or... Ask your clients questions. Do the best for the whole family.

Also, check what happened in December 2017. If he used a "short-gap exception" for 2017, it might be inaccurate now that it continued into Jan-April 2018. SSA-1099 could begin as early as 62 with Medicare not beginning until 65, so you have to do the math/look at checks/direct debits to see how many months were paid via Medicare. Document.

Don't try to get around the child paying tax on the excess as income. (Unless the parents are in a lower tax bracket than the child.) It's usually more beneficial to pay at the child's tax rate if there is excess. And, if you can create excess to give the parents the AOC if they qualify, that's going to be beneficial for the child to pay tax at his rate to save the parents via the AOC at their tax rate. You'll find examples and guidance in the IRS Pub about coordinating education benefits.

I started at $63, but then wanted a local exchange and to choose my own number. Vanity, I guess!

I've used eFax for years and love it. It has a free version, but you can't choose your number. If you want to choose your number or want to port over your existing fax number, you pay. I pay annually to get a savings. But, because it's annual, I can't remember it off the top of my head; think it's up to $169/year. I get faxes via email, but can also go to their site from anyplace with an internet connection. They usually have a two-month free trial. eFax or j2 Global Communications.

I think Randall is correct, based on what I've read in the more recent IRS "clarifications" but am just about to dig into my SE clients so haven't confirmed the above. Terry, the reason that those three items Randall mentioned are singled out is precisely because they are NOT on the Schedule C and need to be separately accounted for in the QBI computation.

A two-month gap is an exception on Form 8965 (?). Be careful when the gap spans two calendar years. Medicare will show up on her SSA benefits statement; you can divide it out to see how many months were covered (or might need all 12 "check stubs" for her direct deposits if her benefits differ from the norm). If she deferred SS benefits and is paying for Medicare, you can ask for her bank statements to see how many months Medicare direct debited her premiums. I don't use ATX, so can't help you with data entry.

I don't use ATX, so someone will jump in here with ATX-specific instructions. Used to be a bunny hop years ago when I used ATX for entities at HRB.

I think you have to say No if not everyone on return had MEC for all 12 months. Then entering the 1095s will give them the details.

Your software should have a worksheet to compute the taxable amount when Taxable amount not determined is checked. Document your computations.

It's a great planning technique. It does require that the scholarship can be used for non-tuition items, such as room & board, in an amount ($4,000, for example) that gives the parents the AOC. The child at his lower tax rate pays tax on some scholarship monies, and the parents gain an education benefit at their higher tax rate.

Equitable ownership. Don't know if that works for your situation, but search on that.