Lion EA

Thank you for the update. Don is our family, too. Our prayers continue for Don, you, and his medical team.

Congratulaltions and thank you for your posts sharing your expertise. I too appreciate the support of everyone here. We're all stronger together than any of us could be alone.

By NOT adding the housing allowance on Schedule SE (because it's already included in Boxes 3 and 5) can you achieve what you want? I'd prefer a corrected W-2. Put him on extension and urge the correction.

Sunspots.

Isn't a beanie one of those little skull caps with a propeller on top?!

My prayers for Don, and for you, and for his entire medical team.

I'm remembering they get added to basis, but I don't have a single rental client currently to be able to check my notes. If a refi, amortized over what, the life of the loan or?

Won't your software split the return into two returns for you, using T vs. S to direct the data?

If she has not filed yet and they want to use MFJ, you amend his MFS return to include her information. If his return had been in your system, you'd amend by adding her info. However, when a return is not in my system, I don't try to put the original in my system (sometimes the errors prevent it from working anyway). I put the return as I want it to be in my system, in your case the MFJ (that also gives you a return you'll want to rollover next year). Then I call up a 1040-X but do NOT allow it to transfer data to column A; I want the MFJ info to remain in column C. Hand type the info from his original MFS return into column A. Your software probably handles the calculations for column B, new tax liability vs. tax already reported, etc.

Don't forget to bill him for the time spent listening to him, reading his emails, relearning how to do your job now that he's shown you the light, etc.

My import (ProSystem fx) isn't like ATX's, but I can do what ever I need to in the spreadsheet, add a column for T/S/J for instance. Then when I map the spreadsheet columns to the worksheet input columns, they're already filled in the way I want them. I'm much faster in Excel that I use all year long than I am in tax software.

No, just moving your family and household goods. Some closing costs add to the basis of the home.

It's March, and we all gave up sleep for Lent, or for tax season! One of my clients just wrote (in the same email where she gave me her rental expenses in very round numbers) that it's "almost over for you." Yeah, if doing 3/4 of my returns, my biggest returns, my returns with the Forms 1099-B in the hundreds of pages, feels like "almost." I don't see it as almost over; I see it as buried and no light at the end of the tunnel, just a cave in. I realize that I'm being very glass-half-empty here. And I promised myself that my new motto is "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not get bent out of shape." - Betsy Shirley (Buck Brannaman's foster Mom in the great film Buck).

I'm self-employed, my church is struggling, and my parents and grandparents are dead. If YOU want to contribute to my education, I'll give you my address! But I can't make any of those situations work for me. Just trying to understand how best to serve my clients.

Had an employee with two daughters a year apart in different colleges on full scholarships. Both daughters were selected both years that I employed her. Now she deducted mortgage interest that was greater than her taxable income, but she was receiving child support from a well-to-do ex. Didn't look particulary random to me, either.

So, if my employer pays my school directly, I can still claim education credits for amounts paid by that third party? It's not income to me, but I still get the deduction? Cool. Same if my church paid some to my college toward my tuition? Or, my grandfather? And if I were still a dependent of my mother, she can claim credits for tuition paid by my employer, church or grandfather?

Not there yet. And, starting to get emails such as "...going to the Netherlands 3/31/12...." I'm sorry, but SOMEBODY has to have his return prepared in April, it may as well be you. I'll file an extension for you.

Short answer is you report the sale when client receives 1099-A, and report the COD when client receives 1099-C. They are two separate transactions.

In that case, you better talk to your lawyer. If you have custody of your son, he was released to your responsibility, then the probation officer probably wants to see everything in your son's environment, every place he could hide drugs or whatever his issue was and whatever the conditions of his probation are (maybe no alcohol or no fraternizing with others suspected of joining him in past activities). So, unless your office is really separate from your son's home.... Maybe the court has some guidelines, written or on their web site. Talk to your lawyer.

I had a locksmith install a deadbold on my office door. (Easily a DIY job if you have time, but I was having locks changed all over the house anyway after a divorce, so added a new one for my office with a different key, while the locksmith updated and synchronized the rest of our locks.) One time I borrowed a little plastic toy safe with an electric eye or motion sensor or something from a client's son (he used it to keep his big brother out of his room) for a few days to place where it aimed in front of my computer at a time when my husband swore he did not use my computer. Sure enough, he had to call me at that client's site to ask me how to turn off the alarm! By the way, I wasn't worried about my husband snooping; I was upset that someone was eating at my computer and being sloppy.

Oh, how I missed that. Thanx, KC, for being here for us. Hope we can send some smiles your way, too.

Doesn't the W-2 have to go to the SSA so employee gets credit? The rest depends on your state. (CT wants ALL W-2s but only 1099s w/CT w/h; although, that has changed more than once since I've lived here).

Was your client actually insolvent?

How about a "Replace" on the spreadsheet, Finding "Various" and Replacing with 01/01/2010 or something? Then you can import. Or, does ATX have an L/S column where you just keep arrowing down and hitting "L"? My price is going up and up on these forms!

Did you read the NY definitions of residency? Sunday through Thursday would be greater than 183 days. Does he have a NY apartment? CA may not be your only problem.