JohnH

Leave it to you folks to steer me in the right direction. After searching on Rev Rul 78-38 I found this gem, dating all the way back to 1978. https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0ahUKEwj4ore1lPzaAhXBm-AKHUJBAdMQFggtMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D3009%26context%3Dwlulr&usg=AOvVaw1NMoONCoUbPXKPiXg6vQiS&httpsredir=1&article=3009&context=wlulr After a cursory reading, it appears the issue revolves around the type of agreement under which the store card is issued. Whether a cash basis taxpayer can deduct an expense with a card issued under a "bipartate" agreement is highly questionable, but it is definitely deductible using a card issued under a" tripartate" agreement. Now I'm searching to see if I can find anything more recent to either back this up or negate it. It's beginning to make sense to me now, and I see why there are various opinions on the matter. Thanks to everyone for your input.

Max: That's the issue. I have one reference from a CPA firm that differentiates between open accounts and store credit cards. Their view is that store credit cards underwritten by credit card issuers are essentially the same thing as general-purpose credit cards, because of the existence of the third party. Fact is, the money is owed to the credit card issuer rather than to the store. My problem is finding clear IRS guidance either way.

Can't believe the typo I overlooked. My second sentence should read: When he charges expenses to his credit card (Visa, Amex, Master Card), we deduct December purchases in the year of the charge, rather than the year of PAYMENT. Thanks for the link, Judy. That helps.

From time to time I second guess myself on this one. Taxpayer is a landscaper reporting on the cash basis. When he charges expenses to his credit card (Visa, Amex, Master Card), we deduct December purchases in the year of the charge, rather than the year of sale. He also has open accounts with local nurseries and equipment dealers. Those expenses are deducted when the payment is made rather than when the charge is incurred. But then he also has a hybrid situation. His Home Depot branded charge card can only be used at Home Depot. I have been operating under the assumption that those charges are also deductible in the year of the charge, rather than time of payment. My reason is based on the fact that the Home Depot credit card is underwritten by Citibank, so this is essentially the same as a credit card charge rather than an open account with a specific vendor. Most years the year-over-year ending balances net one another out, so the issue isn't particularly relevant. But in 2017 the end-of-year balance on the Home Depot card is much greater than the opening balance, so it has a significant effect on the tax return. Thus the second-guessing. I've never been able to find IRS guidance on that position, only info from a couple of CPA web sites. Just wondering if anyone here can offer an opinion on when the Home Depot charges are deductible.

After all is said and done, you'll probably spend another $900 worth of your time trying to collect and you still won't get any money. She's a shyster, and pretty good at it. Trying to get clients like this do the right thing is like trying to teach a pig to sing. After all your efforts, all you'll have is bad music and a frustrated pig.

I haven't used ATX since the 2012 meltdown, so I don't know if this is still possible. But when I looked back at 2011, I noticed it has the ability to set up custom fields. So if you set up a custom field such as "Has ITIN", then all you'd need to do is remember to make an entry in that field for any return that has an ITIN anywhere. Then any time you sort on that field (either within ATX or in an exported Excel file), you'd at lest narrow the list down to people who are likely to need to renew. You might even be able to enter expiration dates (or maybe year) in that field to make it sort in a more useful manner. Personally, I'd just use "year" to keep it simple. This won't help much in terms of extracting the info right now, but with a little forethought and time spent in the off season, you might find that a useful feature in future years. And in the process of making the entries now, you'd essentially be extracting current year info, which you're going to have to do anyhow if you want the data now. Of course, you'd need to be sure the program carries data from that field into the next year when it rolls over.

I had the same question. If the date can be exported to an Excel or csv file, you can then sort/select/extract on any information you wish. It's amazing what Excel can do, especially if you know how to use some of the "functions".

We each must use whatever the software provides us, but I give Drake a huge edge on this feature (as well as many others). I write a macro for the 8283 one time, then any time I want to produce the form, its runs with a single keystroke. Once the macro is written, I just modify the name and address info for the next one, so I wind up with a separate macro for Goodwill, a different one for KF, another one for Community Foundation, etc. This helps considerably because I see Goodwill receipts from 4 or 5 different locations. I have to keep a cross reference for the macros, but that's just a matter of filling in cells in a spreadsheet and printing it out each time it's updated. I'd like to buy everything from my clients for what it's actually worth and sell it back to them for what they think it's worth. Wish there was a macro or master form to set THAT process into motion.

I see you did it while causing the minimum amount of loren ipsum dolor. Thanks, Eric.

Wish I'd seen this two weeks ago. I was running a preliminary 2017 return for a client with an S corp, and couldn't figure out why their net profit was so far off my rough estimates. After double-checking my line-by-lne entries, I eventually found depreciation was the culprit. Finally I started looking at the assets individually, and realized there was an asset purchased in November with bonus depreciation being recorded at 100% rather than 50%. Felt a little foolish after I found it, since I had enough information to start there if I'd stopped and thought it through rather than just dive in.

Wow! I was adjusting 37K down to $25K. Compared to yours, mine is little more than a rounding error.

(wrong quote. See next message)

I ran the numbers (via a shortcut), and am positive the change doesn't affect anything on the 2016 return other than the carryforward. Nothing would ever come of this if the 2016 or 2017 return were audited, aside from validating the year-over-year mismatch. I didn't think of attaching a statement to the 2017 return, but that's certainly a valid suggestion.

Long story, but client produced some additional info this year which caused me to reduce the cost basis on a 2016 transaction which had produced a sizable capital loss. The result was a change in the capital loss carryforward from 2016 to 2017. There was no effect on the tax liability for 2016 - only the reduction (less negative) in the available capital loss carryforward. (Don't we just love Limited Partnerships and the smarmy financial advisors who peddle them to clueless clients?) In preparing the 2017 return, I reduced the amount of the loss carryforward on Schedule D line 14 to the correct figure, so the 2017 return shows a figure which does not agree with the 2016 Schedule D Line 16 adjusted by Line 21. I'm wondering, what's the point in amending the 2016 return? I know it would be different if the change in the loss carryforward benefitted the client. But as it is, I don't really care that the 2016 ending and 2017 beginning figures don't agree, the client doesn't care, and why would IRS care since the loss carryforward is less negative? I certainly can't find any instructions to amend in this case, although I find an indirect instruction that implies I don't need to amend. Does anybody have any good reason to suggest amending 2016, aside from OCD?

Jack is right on target. There's more to this, and you're buying a problem by getting involved at any level. Keep pushing her back to the original preparer to explain and correct. That's what they were paid to do. Speculation is just adding to the confusion.

Yes, NC recognizes S-corps. No income tax is due. You'll file the CD-401S (the CD-405 is for C-corps). Not paying the $200 Franchise Tax is not a big deal - you'll probably owe a $20 FTP penalty and some interest at abnout 1/5 of 1% per month. They might invalidate the extension and charge another 5% per month FTF penalty, but I'm not sure about that. But all in all, I'd guess the entire P&I is no more than $40 at present. Incidentally, the franchise tax is not pro-rated for short-year returns. If you don't have any bonus depreciation to deal with, the return is fairly simple. Remember there's the NC-NA to file if any shareholders are non-residents. Finally, don't forget to file the Annual Report. It can be attached to the corp return or it can be filed directly at the NC Sec of State web site. Fee is $25 (or maybe $20 if filed on the web site).

Since the title of this thread is "NEXT YEAR", here's a suggestion. Next year do this -> set a cutoff date not later than Mar 20. Anything coming in on or after that date AUTOMATICALLY goes on extension. No exceptions, no excuses, no caving in. If you have time to circle back to some of them before the 15th, then the extension did no harm. If you don't get back to them for any reason (you got sick, decided to take a few days off, computer crashed, kids/spouse/pet got sick, don't like the client's attitude, whatever...), then there won't be any last day surprises. You remain in charge and you're not subject to the whims of a flaky client or any of the other surprises that jump up at the last minute. Your blood pressure will thank you, and you might even live longer.

Yesterday was every died-in-the-wool procrastinator's dream. It doesn't get much better than this. First the 15th falls on a weekend. Then the filing date gets pushed to Tuesday because of a holiday in only one city. THEN, literally at the last minute IRS extends another day. I wonder how many people heard the news, put their taxes aside last night, and will be rushing to meet the deadline today? It's just a way of life for some people. I was already waiting for my biggest procrastinator to call me and complain because I erroneously told him to pay his payroll tax deposit through EFTPS by 8pm last Friday Apr 13th (I discovered on Friday that he actually had until 8pm Apr 16th but I didn't change my instructions to him). I'm sure he will hear about all this and start griping because I had him violate his principle of "not giving the money to those thieves until the last minute" . It doesn't affect him, but all this extra publicity about extended due dates may make him take notice...

I prepare a few NC Corp returns. It pretty much tracks the Fed return. Franchise tax is fairly easy to calculate (minimum is $200). You can also attach the Sec of State Annual Report to the return if you wish, or omit it from the return and simply file it directly on the NC Sec of State web site. The main problem is that NC doesn't recognize bonus depreciation so you have to do some year-over-year adjustments if you have any on the Fed return. If you have out-of-state shareholders, there's a special form you have to prepare. Is all the income from NC, or will you need to allocate among more than one state? I'll help in any way I can - just post here, PM me, or email me. EDIT-Glad to see that Terry chimed in while I was typing - probably prepares lots more of them than I do.

They should add one additional page - one with concentric circles displaying varying amounts of money, suitable for hanging on a dartboard. Take the average of four consecutive throws and you have the correct amount of estimated tax to pay each quarter.

So I think she can use Mark Twain's line in her opening conversation with SSA - "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Either somebody at SSA made a data entry error, or there is some sort of identity theft/scam taking place here. If I were her, I'd pull my credit reports to see if something fishy is going on.

Done here too (well, except for that one 1120 extension I'll fill out on Monday). But since I'm scaling back, there's no reason not to be done. I have several corps and individuals on extension, but in most cases the ball is in their court. Looks like Mon and Tues will be payroll tax report days. Maybe we will head down to the beach toward the end of next week. Hope everyone has a productive and profitable end to this filing season. If you're still sweating the deadline, I feel your pain (for whatever that's worth).

Why not tell them :"You need to put $XXXX into your IRA by XXXXXX to reduce your taxes by $XXX. Here's your extension. Let us know when you get the IRA done and then we'll put your return back in the rotation in the following 30 days or so."

That picture has so many things to comment on, but my personal favorite is the partially-full garbage can inside another partially-full garbage can. I'm going to do one of those in my office just for the comic effect. Will see if anyone notices when they come in.