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CCH will give you that exceptional tech support as "concierge customer care" with their Advantage package, all for the low, low price of $3,759. But wait, there's more...call in the next 10 minutes and we'll throw in...

For anyone that hasn't yet seen this warning from IRS or your software vendor, the link cbslee provided is safe and goes to a page at the IRS. For anyone that is still hesitant to click on it, here is the contents of that IRS page:

I have always included these in the return, and I, or the firm I worked for at the time, have always coordinated with the other party's tax preparer to make sure the forms match and match up to allocations in the the sale documents.

Yes @Abby Normal, could you perhaps provide the list of enhancements you are reading about? Others that use this forum and that aren't current ATX users can't access the official forum, and someone may find that information helpful when considering ATX for the next upcoming season. I tried to find a list of the enhancements on CCH's ATX products page or blog and couldn't find anything about new features.

You're out of luck on this one. Once the election is made it is irreversible unless there is some change in the tax law that specifically allows its reversal under very exact circumstances.

Yes, ^ that is the answer! In your client case, the contribution of the property didn't trigger gain recognition so the partner's basis in the partnership is equal to his adjusted basis in the property contributed. The partnership's basis in contributed property equal to the FMV though.

David, Old Jack gave you the answer in his very first post. I used hypotheticals for the historical cost of $250K and accumulated depreciation of $150K that you didn't supply, but that arrives at the $100K NBV you mention. In this case the entry would be: Debit of $250K to the Fixed Asset account for the original depreciable basis from the Sch C Debit of $300K to the Fixed Asset account for the excess of FMV $400K over the $100K of current NBV transferred in. This is a nondepreciable cost on the fixed asset schedule. Credit of $150K to the Accumulated Depreciation account for the amount already taken by the Sch C Credit of $400K to Partner Capital You might find this article interesting and helpful so you know how to handle the allocations to the partners in the future: Contributions of Appreciated Property to a Partnership: More Than Just a Nice Credit to the Capital Account

But, but would this not result in the cookie itself being chocolate cookie, not a chocolate chip cookie? Either way, I wouldn't turn some down and would pair them with some bovine water-based butter fat liquid.

Did you try the IRS website? It is the best place to find the forms and instructions. I'd suggest that you print out the EZ form and its instructions from there. The 5500-EZ must be paper-filed, as long as e-filing its substitute isn't mandatory. The instructions to the EZ form describes those that are required to e-file using Form 5500-SF instead and must file directly online using the DOL's EFAST2 system.

I'm here between projects, procrastinating on whichever job to tackle next.

With this being a sale at a bargain price, I don't think we are concerned with the child(ren) picking up basis from the parents. However, that being said, even if it was a 100% gift I still don't think the child's basis would necessarily be the FMV. It would depend on the parent's basis in the lot is, and we weren't told what that was in this hypothetical case. If their basis was $40K, then child would step into that, but it could also be that the parent's basis was $110K with a decline in value to the $100K at the time of the gift. We don't know the parent's basis, but I think in this case with it being a sale at a bargain price, we aren't concerned with that. I could be all wrong, but here's what I think happens: On the parent's side of the transaction, What they did was sell 100% of the interest in the property and the gift is reported only because of the bargain price aspect, so I think the parents will report their entire basis against the sale, whatever that basis is, and they will either have a taxable gain or will have a nondeductible loss under the related party rules. In this hypothetical, it seems that they didn't sell 20% of the interest in the property and gift 80%, so I don't think there is any of their basis that transfers to the child(ren). This is an undeveloped lot, so the 1021 exclusion wouldn't come into play, but it would if it involved the parent's residence, for example, which isn't that unusual. Regarding the gift, the annual gift exclusion will take care of some, or maybe all, of the gift depending on the timing and number of donors and donees involved, as we've already touched on above. If there is still a taxable gift after that, next is the application of the the unified credit, so perhaps there would be no taxable gift, but again, we don't know the extent of the parent's estate or prior gifts in this hypothetical, but let's assume that it doesn't create a taxable gift. What this transaction does is it shifts any future appreciation on this property out of the parent's estate and to the child(ren), which could create taxable income to them in future. From the donee/child's perspective related to their basis, I think that the child's basis will be the amount paid of $20K plus the typical basis additions if they pay anything related to the lot, either POC or at settlement. Basis would also be increased by any gift tax paid that is attributable to the appreciation in the hands of the parents under sec 1015.

This really should have it's own topic so that those that might be interested won't miss it since this thread has the title indicating it is about CT moving to regulate unenrolled preparers and Easytax used his opening post to express his feelings on the regulations of CPAs and attorneys vs those of EAs.

The TaxBook comes with some CPE for no added cost, if you use that product and haven't taken advantage of it. I've been purchasing an unlimited package from Surgent, but that isn't much help for you. Thanks for the alert about the PRIMA site. My y/e for the next review is 8/31/17 and I haven't been contacted by the state society overseeing it yet. The PRIMA site was down when I tried to check it out last night.

I think your due date and extended dates are ok, however the fiscal year beginning date should be the DOD, not the 1st of the month. Sorry, I don't know about Oklahoma. ETA - missed one of your questions, sorry! There is a penalty that can be assessed for failing to timely provide the K-1, even if the overall late filing penalty is -0- for the 1041 because of having no tax due.

I wish that 'spaz' smiley was a little larger. My suggestion was meant as a humorous followup to Elrod's gif.

EAs are required to have 2 hrs of ethics every year. My requirement is a 4-hour course every two years.

...or, if the parents make part of those 4 gifts this year and the remainder in the following year, none subject to gift tax!

Haha, it does fit for a cat for a variety of reasons. Cats rule their world, and they decide on who will be their person or people, so naming one 'Borg' does seem appropriate.

I believe that happens when a Facebook group is set to "secret".

It would be easier for the masses if you would post a link here to the group. Is this group officially related to CCH? I ask because I checked out CCH's official page for their products of ATX and Taxwise, and those pages on the CCH website (not FB) do not have any link to Facebook at all but do have twitter and a couple of others.

Hmm, I searched Facebook for that exact name "CCH Axcess User Forum" and nothing matched, and no match using "CCH Axcess" either.

I'm not so sure of that. I used to work for a CPA who audited government water and sewer operations and he said that while it paid well, the excessive amount of government red tape ate up much more time and profit than he could have made doing tax work for private enterprise. Only that man's opinion, of course; and you have yours. I'll lean toward agreement with this somewhat. Once a CPA takes on audit and attest engagements, and if a member of the AICPA or if the state requires it for licensure, we are required to have peer review every few years, and the level of that inspection is dictated by the types of engagements we perform. I don't do any audits, but I do have review work, and so I'm required to have a peer review that will cost me probably around $1,000 this year for the privilege of generating that work, and that is the barest minimum fee because I'm a solo. The fee is based on the type of work AND the # of professionals in the firm, and it is much more expensive if having employees, and much greater again if the firm performs any audits.

True; I hadn't thought of that, although I'd still like to see a survey of percentages by the types of work they do. All practicing CPAs have to sit through the same hours and in the same classifications whether they are in the audit or tax depts, at least in this state. Those not in public practice, or those retired but still maintaining the certificate but out of practice, have a different level of required credits. Frankly, I'm already bored with the ethics classes that I take every 2 years. I've taken from all the major vendors and done it self-study too, and it hasn't changed, and I'm not learning anything new. I think it's a waste of my time to take the exact same class over and over so frequently.

To add to what is required to become a CPA and maintain the certificate, one must have a college degree that includes courses specifically on taxes, then the exam itself where many candidates will utilize a review course to prepare that will also include extensive tax-related study, and then must also have work experience that again, surprise(!), includes taxes. I don't know about other states, but when I earned my certificate a successful candidate had to have two years work experience in public accounting with certain percentages of that in each of the areas of tax, accounting and auditing, which the employer had to certify in writing to the State Board of Accountancy. Please also keep in mind that we are also required to have CPE to maintain that certificate with credits in tax and ethics. I don't know about the courses anyone else takes, but the ones I take are eligible for credits for both CPAs and EAs, and ARE accepted by the IRS to satisfy their requirements, so I really don't want to hear about our courses being more "generalist", whatever that meant. Also when I said work experience required for me was two years, other states around me had either a one year requirement or none (!) and the successful candidate could hang out a shingle in short order. Now my state and those contiguous appear to be one year, and all have increased and equalized the # of college credits required to be eligible as well. My last year of college I worked full time in a CPA firm as a staff accountant in the tax dept, and so by the time I received my certificate I had 3 full tax seasons plus the rest of those years of off-season work to my credit. I am curious if the EA requires any work experience? Any hands-on at all? Shouldn't that also be considered a valuable requirement toward improving proficiency and to help protect the public from unskilled preparers. I've known people that were very good at taking tests but couldn't apply that technical knowledge once on the job, so I think that the work requirement is a fairly important one in order to show some level of proficiency beyond taking these tests. I will also say that, at a minimum, perhaps a course in bookkeeping or accounting should also be required study before any preparer be allowed to offer work on business returns for clients, because I've seen plenty of questions over the years from preparers with all sorts of fancy letters after their names that were clueless on how to balance a set of books, or how a balance sheet works, or how these relate to the business return, or how to handle a set of books prepared on a method of accounting other than tax basis and where to report these differences when it comes to preparing the returns for these entities. Please also consider that some of the training, experience, testing, and CPE that we CPAs devote to the accounting side of the practice also help us in our work with our business clients, many times whose engagement is, in large part, tax-related work, and we specifically have to advise those accounting clients on tax related issues. Of course, there are the good, bad, ugly, and unscrupulous and unethical preparers no matter what designation that no amount of testing, CPE, or regulation will "cure" if that person is determined to work outside of the requirements. As for the attorneys, they practice law, but the ones around here that I refer to and that call themselves tax attorneys or that have specialized in tax and estate planning have their CPA cert or have a MST in addition to the J.D. I've sat through CPE courses that were taught by local tax attorneys, and I've attended some advanced-level courses that were filled with attorneys practicing in the area of tax and not too many CPAs present. The latest one was an advanced class on the intracacies of structuring sec 1031 exchanges. Our state is really tiny, so anyone that's been in practice any amount of times knows who each other are. Sorry if that sounds snarky, but I get tired of hearing that CPAs aren't as knowledgeable or as proficient as EAs, especially when I read some of the erroneous comments that were made above. /rant