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I use their depreciation program that would be unaffordable to me except that I purchased many years ago and have only the license renewal each year so it becomes comparable in price to others on the market, otherwise I'd be shopping too. I agree about the policy on technical help and customer service. It is not a lie, they really do charge by the minute. I had to pay some ridiculous price for a couple of minutes help one year when their new program wouldn't install properly.

I received an email from one Thompson rep requesting a time to chat or to reply that I was not interested. So far so good. Not interested and I never heard back. Two days later, I received another email from a different Thompson rep, Judith, with the same sort of email. I replied again that I wasn't interested and to not contact me again. I then received "I'm sorry to hear that, let me leave you with these thoughts....". My reply, "which part of 'do not contact me again' didn't you understand?" BLOCKED! Judith is the last type of rep I want to deal with since from my very first reply it was evident that she wasn't listening to ME, the potential customer.

You might want to review the instructions for Form 4797, specifically the chart on page 1 of those instructions "where to make first entries." That will give you your starting point and guide you to the flow of the transaction through the return. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i4797.pdf

My back was hurting and I thought I'd try the heating pad for 10 minutes. zzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZ I had a nice hour long nap.

Yes please.

This week has been like trudging through molasses.

Form 1040 instructions, pub 559, and tax topic 356 all state that the surviving spouse filing a joint return may sign as surviving spouse and claim the refund without having to file form 1310. There is no mention of a return filed MFS in any of those materials. I think that since the MFS status is that of one individual, and that individual died during the tax year, or in cases where the person died after the year-end but before filing, then the person signs in the capacity of executor or court-appointed representative. I also would include form 1310 with that return. I also think she should close that joint account or remove her husband's name from it. How does someone legally have a joint account with someone that is deceased? I didn't research further, this is just my opinion, and since I'm fried and was wrong already this week, you might wait for others to chime in.

Maybe it will resolve itself after the clock touching this coming weekend. I hate the touching of clocks. lol

There was this post from about 2 weeks ago where Don said that his Taxwise acks were coming back like that, where the ack date was earlier than the date submitted to the EFC.

Margaret, if you don't have one, use worksheet 2 from pub 501, page 16 here (safe link from irs): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf I agree with starting the questions in a general way to see if the support provided by one or the other is at all close to the 50% and go from there. Does the daughter have her own car? If so, who paid for that and when? It's possible that it's as Gail says, possibly the bulk of the daughter's assets are being saved for the future, or maybe not at all. There is no way to know this without asking for the details, and with the daughter having significant cash flow in 2015 that exceeds the mom's, the prudent course of action is to ask. Don't be uncomfortable with this. Explain that It is because they are relying on you for a complete and accurate return that you must do this, and that it should be considered each year because each year stands on its own set of facts, no matter what the previous preparer did. Explain that it is especially important to consider this because of the level of each of their cash flow in 2015 compared to each other.

Ok, I missed this part of the requirement to be a qualifying child , and if she meets the other requirements to be a QC, then gross income doesn't come into play. However, the qualifying child rules include a support test. I still think you should go through those calculations to be sure.

Yes, well done, Terry.

Enter the 1099R info, indicate the code 6 and that's it. "6" is a tax-free exchange from a life insurance product. It should show up on line 16a only, nothing on 16b, similar to a direct rollover from a pension.

Which one is 56, the client or the adult daughter? I don't think the mother can claim this adult child as a dependent because of the gross income limitation, and yes, you do need to consider support also. Gross income does apply if over 18 and not a student. Only certain income can be excluded, not all income just because of disability. The exclusion from income is for income paid for services performed at a sheltered workshop. The adult child has more than $4000 in gross income in your example. Also, the TP must meet the support test by providing more than 1/2 this adult child's support, and knowing that this adult child had this $49K of proceeds, you need to complete a support worksheet for the year and for future years too to determine which one of them provided more than 1/2 of the child's support.

Touching picture. I'm so very sorry for your loss. No matter how long our pets are with us, it never seems long enough, and it is never easy to say that final goodbye. I hope the fond memories will once again be at the forefront and not the burden of the last days. Last year I lost two pets CHF and kidney issues, made that final decision for mom's dog about two weeks ago, and now another of my dogs is in the current battle of CHF too. She had 2 trips to the e-vet last week but thankfully, I think we are getting her medicines adjusted so that she will enjoy life for a while longer. It's not been an easy few weeks.

Gonna join you in that drink now. Cheers.

Here are my thoughts, others may disagree. It wouldn't be the first time. Water softener - doesn't benefit the office directly, so it isn't an improvement that could be depreciated for the office. If the repairman came, or you bought parts, and installed those to keep it functioning, then that would be a repair, but because you replaced the unit I'd call this is an improvement. Chimney used to vent the furnace and the electrical service would be improvements that do have benefit to the office and would be depreciated with a portion of that allocated to the office. Stairs - sounds more like an improvement than a repair to me, but your home is 150 yrs old. Were the stairs in unsafe condition, in a state of disrepair, treads cracked? If you could make a case for repair, then also indirect. However, if an improvement, again they must have some benefit to the office or they are not depreciable. Is the office on the second floor where the stairs give access? Patching drywall & painting would be indirect repairs. The gutting of rooms and new drywall would be an improvement, if not in the office itself then it's not depreciable for the office.

In a very general sense, if the expenditure is for a betterment, restoration, or adaptation, then it is capital in nature and adds to basis as an improvement, not expensed. If you are fixing some damage, like patching a leaky roof, or patching holes in siding from storm damage, holes in the drywall, or painting, those are repairs. If you replaced the whole roof or all of the siding, those would be improvements. Repairs keep it in good condition but don't necessarily extend the life or add to the property value.

Yes, to the above. Just don't add the improvements as additional depreciable items unless they benefit the office in some way.

Agree with Terry's first post; I was typing at the same time. If the improvements are made after the home office has already been in service, only those that affect the business portion of the home are added as depreciable assets and depreciated over 39 year life. Probably the only item you listed would be the electric service upgrade because it benefits the office as well as the rest of the home. The chimney might be a possibility if it is used by the furnace, but not if used solely by a fireplace that isn't used as heat for the office.

Send him to lmgtfy.com

Probably not if you are only preparing the one. This is an old topic from 2014 that was revived several weeks ago. You should read through the posts from last month that were posted in this topic found here:

Exactly what I was about to post! We had an EA here that the DE Bar Assn went after. He was doing a lot more than answering questions. He had a cease and desist order placed on him, he continued to practice and incurred huge fines. He is also now a case study in the seminars that are taught by several of the better known CPE providers.

It sounds like a call to ATX may be needed. The software had some problem last year where it wasn't allowing required input until some glitch was corrected.

If you do have to call the (Fed) marketplace now to get any correction, I'd suggest putting the return on extension. I've been waiting almost 6 weeks for a corrected 1095A for one. Corrections have to be escalated to a higher level representative and then weeks later the marketplace contacts the taxpayer to discuss the changes and say whether the change is approved and that corrected form will be issued. Not sure about the state marketplaces and corrections since my state partners with the Federal exchange.