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I have not ever had to address this issue. The client is dual citizen US and Eritrea. In order to maintain ownership of family home in Eritrea, they are charging her 2% tax on US earnings. I cannot figure how to exclude the tax paid to Eritrea. This is a $4000.00 tax with corresponding income double taxed. Any takers among this august group of smarter than me folks?

I had been paying into a Sunlife LTD plan through my company. On my W2 from my company they listed at the top. The chart indicates your 2016 voluntary adjustments which are included (+) excluded (-) or did not affect N/A your federal wages. Box 1. They then list the voluntary adjustments Voluntary adjustments YTD amounts Federal Wages Long Term $173.27 N/A The $173.27 I paid is listed no where else on the W2. From Sunlife the W2 I received lists in box 1 the amounts Sunlife the disability provider paid in 2016. I am thinking as the LTD did not affect my wages and I paid it it should be non-taxable. Box 13 of the Sunlife W2 lists it as Sick Pay. How can I determine who paid the insurance. Me or my company. Sunlife says my company screwed up and that their agreement with my company was where it should be taxable.

I need a bit of assistance. I have a new client who has a 1065 for business real estate rental, and a schedule C for investment sales. Her past preparer got into big trouble, and all his computers were ceased, but she was able to give me her last two years' returns. The first thing I noticed is that the 1065 activity is listed on Page 1 of the return and that there are no schedules L, M-1, or M-2. I know for a fact that there is $1.2mil in real estate in that business, but it doesn't appear to have ever made it on to the balance sheet. I'm thinking it probably won't hurt to keep the activity on page 1, although it isn't technically correct, but do I need to file Form 3115 to put the assets on the balance sheet and start depreciating them? Any insight is much appreciated.

2015 was the first tax season for me to use ATX (because of a job change) & after using Lacerte and ProSystem fx it was a nightmare! One of the largest struggles was oil/gas working interests. In the other programs I could enter income/expenses/depreciable assets for each well and the program would calculate depletion limitations/carryovers . I don't see any way to do this in ATX so used excel spreadsheets and then transferred totals into ATX. How do you handle oil/gas working interests? How do you keep track of depletion carry overs etc? any help is appreciated!

I am a new tax preparer using the ATX software for the first time. I am working on a partnership return that has 57 limited partners and one general partner. At 12/31/15, one of partners transferred all of their partnership interest to a new partner. What specific steps do I need to do in ATX to make the transferor's K-1 final and the new partner picking up the tax basis of the transferor's partnership interests at 12/31/15. I know the old partner would receive all of the net increase/decrease of basis, plus all of the allocated income and deductions for 2015, but I need to know how to go about closing the old partner out and setting up the new partner in ATX. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have a client with 40 PFIC accounts. Do I have to report each on a different 8621 or is there a way to combine them they way we do in 8949.

Hello I have this question regarding HSA contribution by greater than 2% shareholder. I know these are reported under line 1 of W2 and box 12 code W for HSA contributions & code DD for health insurance premiums. Since HSA contribution code W amount is flowing thru to form 8889 and software is regarding as employer contributions and disallowing HSA contribution deduction. I searched online but this looks remain unanswered. Does anyone has idea how to get around and have software take deduction. I am posting from IRS notice 2005-8. For employment tax purposes, when contributions are made by an S corporation to an HSA of a 2-percent shareholder-employee, the 2-percent shareholder-employee is treated as an employee subject to Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax and not as an individual subject to Self-Employment Contributions Act (SECA) tax. (See Announcement 92-16, 1992-5 I.R.B. 53, clarifying the FICA (Social Security and Medicare) tax treatment of accident and health premiums paid by an S corporation on behalf of a 2-percent shareholder-employee.) However, if the requirements for the exclusion under section 3121(a)(2)(B) are satisfied, the S corporation’s contributions to an HSA of a 2-percent shareholder-employee are not wages subject to FICA tax, even though the amounts must be included in wages for income tax withholding purposes on the 2-percent shareholder-employee’s Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. The 2- percent shareholder-employee, if an eligible individual as defined in section 223(c)(1), is entitled under sections 223(a) and 62(a)(19) to deduct the amount of the contributions made to the 2-percent shareholder-employee’s HSA during the taxable year as an adjustment to gross income on his or her federal income tax return.

I have been preparing form 1040 NR-EZ for a friend of the family on an unpaid basis. The lady in question is in her late 80s and lives in France. Her tax liability stems from a small survivor's pension she receives from a US multinational for which her husband worked based on the time he worked for them in the USA. He - now deceased - and she were/are both French nationals. I do not sign the returns. I prepare(d) them and sent them to her for review and signature and she files them with the IRS For a number of years everything has been running smoothly. Unfortunately, in the 2014 return, one digit in the ITIN was mistyped (a 2 instead of a 1). To make a long story short, the IRS has notified her that she "needs to take action" but not about what action to take. On her behalf I tried calling many IRS numbers but it is no longer possible to select an option to talk to a person. Today I visited the local IRS office and was informed I needed to submit a PoA on Form 2848 before they could talk to me. Enter the problem: I am not a licensed tax preparer nor do I intend to become one (time would be too short anyway). It appears to me that Form 2848 deals with paid return preparers who do require a CAF number and ITIN. a. How can I get a valid PoA given my situation b. Which form should be used c, What to do about CAF number and PTIN Any help, insights or suggestions greatly appreciated!

https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/137 Something to watch out for. The bill aims to empower the IRS to directly regulate tax preparers, which was the missing element behind the Registered Tax Return Preparer (RTRP) program. The text of the bill (which I can't find again) simply adds "and tax preparers" to relevant sections of existing Title 26 code. The bill seems sluggish so I have my doubts about it passing. But bad ideas have a way of persisting and then making their way into legislation, so be prepared for the IRS taking control of our profession. Then it'll be more and more requirements each couple of years, and higher and higher fees to comply with those requirements.

I can't believe TRX is still in business. For those of you who are new to their software, it is not reliable at all. Last year Tax Firms and Tax Preparers using TRX had a combined lost of hundred of thousand of dollars. Not only that but I doubt that the software issues caused by TRX may have affected return customes for this coming tax season. I dont advise to purchase TRX software since they were so irresponsable last year making changes to their software during the heaviest tax preparation times causing a tremendous loss for all of of us. Their business has not ever been in Tax Software Development. Their business has bee based in retail only...selling someone elses software and providing tech support at a lower price. IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A GREAT TAX SEASON, STRESS FREE, THEN DON'T PURCHASE TRX SOFTWARE. I highly recommend UTAX a reatailer for Crosslink software. UTAX will work out a great price for you. Good luck. Elsa

I have a client come in today with a $100,000+ 1099R from her mother's (who passed away last year) retirement fund. She has decided to give 100% to her son (which is a 9y/o) for college. Her tax bill is over $10,000.00 I usually work with lower income taxpayers and hasn't had much experience with this type of return. I know there is a way to lower her tax bill with a rollover or something but I can't seem to locate the proper info to accomplish this. With this being the last day I need info right away. Any suggestions or info would be greatly appreciated

After dealing with all of the issues relating to the new and improved software I am still unable to e file. My forms are not available according to the software. So I am not only having to deal with the slowness of the software I am still unable to file anything for my clients. Is anyone having the same issues or has had this issues and figured a way to solve it? Any help at this point would be great. I could deal with the speed if I was able to at least file.

My employer has two different companies that I have worked for, so I received two different W2's from him. One had an incorrect SSN, and the other was missing the state ID number. They corrected them and printed me out new ones, but now that I am filing online, I am wondering... Should I mark these as corrected W2's? I know that literally they are, but they are not marked as Form W2-c. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I have a client who became a Pampered Chef associate this year. I am concerned about how inventory and sales are determined. Does anyone have any tips or guidance? Most of my clients are W-2 folks or retired.

Alright, the upgrade is finished, but there are still some broken things that I'm taking care of. You'll notice that some people's avatars are busted, that's first on my list to correct. If you notice anything that seems out of place, please mention it here! Some of the new features aren't enabled yet, as I'm still configuring them. I'm adding a tagging system soon. I'm going to add all of the state abbreviations as tags that can be associated with topics, but I'm looking to you folks to provide me with more tags that would be useful, such as tax terms (NOL, EFILE, AMT, etc) so please list those here as well, especially terms shorter than the minimum 4 characters that are allowed in the search.