Lion EA

I don't use that worksheet, but it appears that it is comparing the FRV from a third party with the HA voted by the church with the actual expenses (line 4f) to arrive at the lowest of those three amounts to use as the income-tax free housing allowance for tax purposes. Line 4f is his actual housing expenses. They are to compare to the other two amounts. They are NOT deducted from anything or deducted anywhere.

If the company is in the best shape for forgiveness after 8 weeks, they might want to just go for it. Especially if they might need to lay off employees later this year or cut hours &/or wages and risk having their potential forgiveness reduced using a 24 week window.

https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/employee-retention-credit

The forgiven loan is not income. However, the expenses used to obtain forgiveness are not deductible. That's why some people are keeping a separate bank account or a separate bookkeeping account for the loan and the expenses paid. You do need to keep the documents for something like seven years after forgiveness or repayment of the loan. At this time, the expenses will be lower, so the profit will be higher. Congress has a bill floating around, but we'll see...

No to either. The old rules are return FTEs by 30 June; the new rule is by the end of 24 weeks or 31 December, whichever comes first. That could be helpful for restaurants and hair/nail salons and hotels who are not open yet or open at 25% capacity and need more time to hire (replacements for those not returning/staying on unemployment).

The term they use is owner-employees. Those appear in a different section of the forgiveness application -- which is due to be revised, so don't rush to turn one in just yet. Probably sole proprietors/ICs/SMLLC members and partners and shareholder/employees of S-corporations. Anybody know if shareholder/employees of C-corporations over a certain percentage of ownership fall into this category? (I don't have any C-corps this year.)

If your client is a clergyperson in a main stream religion, the local, state, &/or national church probably has great resources, including booklets and webinars. Worth and Hammer and Geisler are excellent authors. The IRS has information: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc417 https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-517

Also, BigCharts.

I do what Abby says. I use zero basis and tell the client the results. If that motivates them to search their purchase documents or work with their broker(s) or ask grandma when grandpa died or..., then the client will give me dates and basis. If they need help, I tell them my hourly fee -- IF I have the time.

Until this year with this IT guy, I have not stored anything on the cloud -- for similar reasons to what you state. Because this guy was doing this for other tax professionals that I know and doing it for years, I had him use his preferred three-prong back-up procedure, with one prong being in the cloud. I figure no one would waste time trying to get my little bit of data off one computer out here in the boonies. But, people are probably always trying to hack into the big cloud storage companies. Yes, I worry about that. I haven't gone to the cloud with my tax prep software, not for data security reasons, but because I don't think I'd have easy access to prior year data if I changed software. With my new IT guy and his three methods, I might make the move next season, because I'll have other back-ups.

I paid $71.99 through my IT guy who has multiple licenses. YMMV

I used Parsons years ago for my own and my son's returns. Parsons sold to Intuit, and Intuit offered me a cheap price, maybe matched the old Parson's price, maybe for three years. I did use TurboTax for at least one year. Then I was a controller in a small firm with an outside accountant, so I went into his office for a day each year to bang out our returns on his pro software, Pencil Pushers, maybe. Then, my father's estate got added into my mix, plus IL, and I married a teacher with employee expenses. I decided to take the HRB course and learn what I needed to know. Joined HRB for a decade and prepared all our returns on their TPS. We used ATX for all the entity returns. Went out on my own with ProSystem fx.

Deciphering my IT guy's invoice when he set up my new computer, it looks like Carbonite may've been 71.99 for one year. If so, I consider that just fine for the peace of mind it brings me for my business. (If that wasn't the price, then that invoice might be sitting in my 2019 stack instead of my 2020 stack!!)

Ogden CAF Unit is open and receiving faxes at: 855-214-7522 (Memphis is still ringing busy) Per the IRM anyone in the US can fax to either CAF unit: IRS IRM 21.3.7.1.3 (09-13-2017) Audience-Processing Sites (CAF Function) 7. The CAF Function that receives the authorization is responsible for processing to the CAF, regardless of the state mapping.

The forgiveness is spelled out pretty well in the 11-page application with directions and definitions. But, it is tedious with multiple qualifying periods and multiple calculations by hand on the worksheet, on the schedule, and even off the app. I'm not working through calculations yet for myself or anyone, because we know it has to change at least once to move to the new Flexibility dates. Those dates will remove a LOT of the computations for most borrowers. I don't thing anything has changed for Schedule C borrowers under Flexibility (I've only skimmed it). It's just 8/52 of their 2019 Sch C line 31.

I use what my IT guy tells me to use, which is Carbonite. But, he has multiple licenses and might have my computer on one of his... I got this new computer plus new IT guy about six months ago, so haven't had any renewals yet. Except for Norton Security which had a trial bundled with my computer; IT guy came in and updated and charged me $20 and now my expiration date is a year from now. I found IT guy through another tax preparer with a larger office and multiple computers. IT guy works mostly for CPAs and us tax preparer types and other financial types. My colleague has used him for over 20 years, so I do what he says.

That's how it should be!

She may not be a dependent, but for private insurance -- yeah, I know, the marketplace doesn't have to play by the same rules -- kids can stay on parents' policies, even though no longer dependents, until under 27 or some age like that. I have seen APTC on Forms 1095 as "household" members, but grown child files own return (or ex-spouse). You do have to allocate. But, it can be any allocation that works for your clients.

At this time, it's a long-term loan. Down the road, it might be forgiven in all or in part.

We've been giving HUGE tips when we pick up food and to the UPS/FedEx/mailman who deliver to our house, etc., to show our appreciation. We paid our house cleaner to NOT work. The size tips we give each Christmas, but we'll still tip big at Christmas. My hairdresser opened up this week, but I'm not ready to go yet. I've set aside big tips for her and for my nail lady when I'm ready to go out.

There are people who know more about this. But until they jump on -- from memory -- as long as she's a tax resident here, her reporting is pretty much Schedule E from her standpoint. However, the property being out of the US gets some depreciation differences, maybe no MACRS, straight-line only, longer life (40 years or ADS life?). It's the overseas property that might be different.... I'm sure you've looked at FBAR and FATCA and banking rules on transferring monies into her US account, if she's doing that. Yeah, if she and her sister get along, letting sis report it and paying your client her profit less a property management fee is a good thought.

Years ago when I worked at HRB, I had ONE client who'd tip me. He was a state policeman. Actually, he'd bring his mother for her tax return and tip me on behalf of her, also. I do have clients who bring me flowers sometimes and have had some food from time to time. But, not often, not often at all. This year with no one coming to my home office, I haven't received anything. But, I don't remember receiving anything last year, either. I have colleagues tell me they get a pricey bottle of their favorite liquor each year!

And, you have the potential issue of how much he earned, if the non-profit paid him or if the non-profit's paying all his living expenses while away counts as earned income. I was just brainstorming. But, for $60,000 your client might pay for you to research further. Are you an NATP member with a free research question available? They'll provide you with cites. And, their fee is only $35 or so if you've used your freebie. Could even be worth the membership fee, if you charge your client for research. David and Mary Mellem answer tax questions at a very reasonable price, something around $15 for 15 minutes of their time. But they have an amazing amount of cites on the tip of their tongues.

Is it possible the parents paid more than half their son's support while he was on his missionary year? Was it a temporary absence? Was he gone a full calendar year, or was it a school year? Is it possible the parents qualify to claim their son for 2019 as a qualifying relative?

Thank you, John and Medlin.