Lion EA

I've told clients to send out W-9 requests and keep the envelope with the yellow USPS sticker re the address being no longer good. Done same with recipient 1099-MISC with Refused in the SSN box, keeping the returned envelope. And/or the return receipt requested route, and keep the documentation. Can also request tracking and emailed progress, so client can print out results from email or USPS online. That only shows you tried, and tried after the fact. I've sent the government copy in with Refused, but long ago. Client never got the $50 penalty I warned him about. Probably different now. If the client convinces me he paid and it was for business, I explain the risks and include the deduction if client chooses. The mood of the auditor will be the ultimate judge!

Thanx for the clarification, Terry.

Oh, I missed the 1120-S, just saw the K-1 from an 1120-S. (I really do need some sleep.) My $800 or more was for the personal returns. Another $750 minimum for an S-corp, which might come out to $850 or more in my system and then receive a discount for the multiple returns, again IF I like the client. But, I usually discount heavily when I have multiple returns from organized tax payers, especially when I can export/import.

It's been a while since I've done a CA return with all those schedules. I'd guess about $800 if only one non-resident state and really organized bookkeeping and no calls/emails/etc. asking if I'm done yet. I think my forms-based invoice would come out closer to $1,000 and I'd give a Loyal Client Discount of $200, if I liked the client.

And, is CA's $800?!

You are right. You do NOT charge enough!

Pretty sure it's temporary absence. Probably still lists his parents' address as his permanent address, right?

Not until he sells the property in a fully-taxable transaction. I think. I didn't get much sleep. If the losses were deferred due to his income being too high, can they be released if his income drops while the house is NOT a rental? (I'm heavy into partnerships and S-corporations, so can't think straight about anything else. Don't like the new deadlines!)

Training for a new career is non-deductible. Training to keep up and improve his skills once he's a pro are business expenses. You'll have to do some questioning with your client over what the money was spent on, when, etc. Does he have sponsors?

Are you sure that's all her medical expenses? My elderly clients with round-the-clock care plus co-pays and deductibles and insurance premiums and ... spend about $175,000 per year. Also, has she been paying tax each year on her savings bonds, or did she pay when they matured, so that none or only some of the $86,000 is taxable for 2016?

This is from my sleep-deprived brain, but I think the holding period includes his prior ownership also, so long-term if the two periods add to more than a year. Try your tax research, such as IntelliConnect.

In CT, the LLC fee to SOS was only about $20 (maybe only $10 when I went into business) and that's it, so really a little extra protection for no big deal for a SMLLC that's just the same old Schedule C for tax purposes. Then CT added a $250 business entity tax. That makes all the difference in the world to a small business. Buy more insurance coverage, as others have said. To CT's credit, they now make the fee every other year instead of annually, but still....

Took field trips there. It always smelled great !! (I lived on Bellwood Avenue, one house away from the train tracks.) And, Mr. Normal: "It wasn't that long ago when we went to 10 digit dialing for local numbers. I called it 17 digit dialing because I often called the 7 digit number, got the error message then dialed the 10 digit number." It wasn't long ago that CT had to add an area code, so I know the feeling. My phone number growing up was Linden 4-3541.

I agree about good insurance. An LLC does NOT replace your need for insurance -- in any state.

The LLC is a state entity, so do start by exploring your state website. That said, some limited liability is afforded to LLCs in every state if the entity acts like an entity, not co-mingling monies, for instance. If you have a friendly, local lawyer, do pick his/her brain also. In CT, a tax liaison said at a meeting of tax professionals that if LLCs had been in existence before S-Corporations, that there would not have been a need for S-Corporations. Don't know if a lawyer would go that far.

That's right, I was born in Berwyn, IL. My family moved to Bellwood, IL, when I was about two. Bellwood was home to Eugene Cernan the astronaut and the Sanford Ink Company, maker of Magic Markers. My sister still lives there. I spent about a decade in Santa Barbara, CA, and have lived in tiny Weston, CT, since 1978.

I lived in suburban Chicago, not the boonies. (Boonies now.) So, I guess that makes me older than you.

Including the refundable portion, right?

You need to write Tax Tips in an e-Newsletter to your clients. Especially about bacon!

I deposit via my iPhone. Take credit cards via QB. And, remember when picking up the dial phone (the only one in our house on the centrally located phone table that held the phone book and a chair, because you couldn't move away more than the generous six-foot cord) meant having to listen to see if someone else was already on our party line. Or, when a double-click was how you accessed the operator from my grandmother's phone to have her connect you to the person you wanted to call.

I love the ones that include a magazine article, just in case I didn't know what People magazine said about savvy tax deductions, for instance!

CT: use the same property tax sites for real estate and motor vehicle taxes on the pinned info.

If it was really a favor between close relatives, then your client can ask for the 1099 to be corrected to zero if money was really just a gift for being a help when needed. Your client can offer her help again to file the forms. Then it won't appear on your client's return. And, if under $14,000 (over $14,000 would seem to be a LOT of help) no gift tax return for the s-i-l.

I know lots of people who took any work they could find, especially with flexibility, while they were job-hunting/between jobs. They did it for income or networking or to keep their hand in or not to appear unemployed while they looked for something more permanent/ more "career" than just a job. But, they were jobs. Employee. Or, Schedules C and SE. Probably the latter since all have moved on, leaving your client with a 1099-MISC box 7. Her employer got work done that she would have had to do herself or hire someone else to do. Employer controlled where, what, who (your client couldn't send someone else unannounced, right?), tools, and even mutually agreeable times (I don't let my very, very, part-time assistant come at 3 a.m. or when I'm not in my home office, for instance). By the way, my own VPT assistant is down to about once/quarter as the elderly clients she helped for me have moved into facilities or passed away, so now it's just some filing, shredding, organizing for my business and sporatically for my clients. I still pay her on a W-2.

Are you talking a couple of days, one project, catch up on filing and outta here? Or, an entire tax season. Continuing to file and copy the new paperwork and not just sort the old stack? Only you know if this was a "hobby" or regular and continuous.