jklcpa

Are your forms up-to-date? If it's this same issue as below, an update took care of the problem:

I just saw another very good reason to use the "report" function here, or at least a very good reason for sending a PM. There was a link posted recently that took me to a site that one of my security software programs indicated was suspicious and cautioned me to not proceed. I've deleted the link so don't worry about that specifically, but what I want to say is that, in future, if anyone clicks on a link that is going to a malicious or suspicious site or that you are concerned about and think we should know, please consider using the report function, or consider PM'ing one of the moderators or Eric directly so that one of us can take a look. That report function doesn't have to mean that the poster has done something bad or wrong; it gives us a heads up to take a look at a post, and it gives us a link directly to the post making it easy and quick for us to find. A PM would also work but wouldn't necessarily get attention as quickly as a report would. Also, if you are the poster and are beyond the time allowed for editing, you are always welcome to contact us to fix a post too.

No problem at all.

​I removed the link that Elrod first provided since that was not the intended link but more because my security software gave me a warning about it being suspicious site and suggested that I leave without proceeding further.

​ I might disagree depending on whether the $300K was included in income in the prior year and what it was for. When things like signing bonuses or other income paid and included in an employee's income under claim of right, meaning it was included in income because he had unrestricted use of the funds and held and treated the funds as his own, if the subsequent repayment is more than $3,000, then that person may be able to take a credit against tax in the year of repayment. In Pub 525, look at Method 2 under "Repayments". Also, your client may be able to recoup the Medicare taxes withheld on the $300K also, and here I'm assuming that since this payment he received was so large that he was already over the FICA limit and FICA taxes were not withheld, so there is no amount of FICA to be regained. If he wouldn't have exceeded the FICA wage base without the inclusion of the $300K, then there may be some FICA withholding to be recovered also. This is also in Pub 525 further down in the same Repayments section. In addition to Pub 525, if you want the official cite, it is Code Sec 1341 and Reg § 1.1341-1. The client will not be able to recoup any excess Medicare surtax from the employer though since that would have been paid on the individual tax return form 1040, and in that case it would be through a tax refund from the IRS by filing an amended return for the prior year on form 1040X.

Lion, were all 66 returns 1040s or, if not, were at least 50 of those 1040s?

Information on claiming the refund just came out over the weekend. There's a FAQ question page on Comptroller of MD website. There's a link on that page to the Wynne Decision Information that goes to this pdf. Amended returns on Form 502X are to be filed for the prior years and 2014 returns already filed. MD will not be recalculation and correcting this automatically. Preparers will be waiting for the software updates to forms and revised calculations of the credit. For 2014 returns have not yet been filed, MD is developing a supplemental form that must be used and that is scheduled for release no later than 6/30/15, so again, preparers will be waiting for this form's release in the software. This decision affects other states as well, and the Supreme Court left it up to the states to fix it. .

​Really?! I really hope that client's return that you called about had an issue to resolve on it, and that you didn't call the practitioner priority line to simply check on a refund that the client thought he should have received more quickly. Here is the IRS page for that service that describes what it should be used for, that should be limited to: Services provided by PPS assistors are: Locating and applying paymentsResolving taxpayer account problems on active accountsExplaining IRS communications (i.e. notices and letters)Providing general procedural guidance and timeframesProviding one of the self-help methods to obtain forms and publicationsProviding transcripts of taxpayer accounts (including income verification), when the tax professional is calling in regards to an account related issueand it goes on further to say: 2014 Changes to Practitioner Priority Services Effective January 6, 2014, the IRS will limit Practitioner Priority Service to responding only to requests from tax professionals who are actively working with their clients to resolve tax account issues.

​I don't think 8 1040s would enough of a difference to worry about unless it was a significant % of the total number of 1040 series returns that you prepare. I hardly doubt that is the case.

​IRS' database may be segregated in some additional way because IRS tracks the EAs' CPE requirements and may have programmed only that section to tract the returns also. Guessing.

More funny stuff. This must be some tasty medicine!

I thought so too, but that was the message it produced. Formatting and bolded text is from the IRS site, not my formatting: Returns Filed per PTIN See the chart below for the number of tax returns with your PTIN processed by the IRS this year. The data is updated monthly and includes only Form 1040 series returns processed through the date specified. If the number is substantially higher than the number of tax returns you've prepared and you suspect possible misuse of your PTIN, complete Form 14157. Note: A minimum of 50 returns must be processed for data to be shown. At this time the data is only available for enrolled agents, but will be expanded to other PTIN holders in the future. Definitions: Processing Year: the year the return was processed by the IRSTax Year: the tax year of the return1040s Processed: includes only 1040 series returns (1040, 1040-PR, 1040-SS, 1040A, 1040EZ, 1040EZ-T, 1040NR, and 1040NR-EZ)No records to show

Interesting and good to know. Presently it is currently set up to report only for EAs, it only reports those that are the 1040 series returns, and only if 50 or more returns have been filed with that PTIN.

Haha, I'm a sucker for pleading dog eyes and with these two, they'd be eye level with the table!

I agree with KC. Any of the general partners would be fair game for levies.

I would also start the depreciation in 2014 for the portion that was paid in that year. I don't have a reference for you, but I believe this would fall under the definition of when the cost was "incurred", and reporting on the cash basis, that would be in the year that it is paid. The only exception would be if the item in question was financed or put on a credit card, and in those cases the contractor was actually paid and the debtor has obligating himself for the payment.

​Rich, thanks for that. I'd already started to look into this. FL didn't expand Medicaid and I don't think her earnings were much, but too much to qualify for Medicaid, and not enough to actually purchase insurance. What I discovered is that a change in income would allow her to purchase a policy now even though open enrollment has ended, that is, if she now isn't qualified for Medicaid. I don't know about that yet. I was thinking that some of the money from a fundraiser might be well spent by purchasing insurance if she doesn't qualify for Medicaid at this point. Am I on the right track with this? Do the social workers in the hospitals counsel on this aspect?

I don't know if this might page from the ATX KB might help: http://cchsfs-atx.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14572/kw/2013 backup location or try seaching the drive for files having the extension " .atxBackup" in the name to find their location. Enter " *.atxBackup" in the search box. It should bring up all the backups for your clients along with formsets, company folder, payers, preparers, hourly rates, everything that the program creates a backup of.

Thank you, Catherine. That is very sweet and caring of you. I've seen the battle a cancer patient goes through first-hand with lots of help and support, and I'm so very worried for my friend that will not have any of that, and it's hit me extra hard this week. She lives too far away to help her in person, so I'll do what I can from afar.

Yes, please, if we could leave the politics out of it, I'd appreciate that. I purposely didn't post her state of residence hoping we wouldn't go down that path because it won't change anything for my friend. I only posted about the lack of insurance so that you'd know how this youngish person ended up stage 4 and how bad off she is financially. She is no longer local to me, she has no family support (won't help physically, financially, certainly not offer emotional support either), and she is totally alone except for her employer/friend, so whatever is set up needs to be simple for her to manage.

Yes, Eric and Jack make good points, and going with PP directly is an idea we hadn't considered. My concern with setting up only through PP and not one of these pro sites is that some might be less inclined to donation if they saw only the PP setup. I don't know though, I've never been involved in helping to this extent.

Here's the situation. A friend of mine was very recently diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, was very ill going through ER, took days to stabilize and have surgery, has been in ICU for over a week, and she has no insurance. She's couldn't afford the premiums and couldn't afford the colonoscopy. It's a case of "if only we'd known sooner", and you know, I'd have paid for her test but I didn't know about it. I'm a wreck over this because my friend is only 45 years old. Anyway, a group of us have raised money so far and bought her a tablet to occupy her while she has chemo and recuperates, but we want to set up a larger fundraising effort that can be opened up to a much larger group of friends and others that know her from her work and social activities. Does anyone have advice on using those sites like gofundme.com, youcaring.com, or any others? We want to make sure that our friend receives as much of the money raised as possible, not going toward processing or site fees, or losing some of it because of not meeting a goal. I have no experience with any of these, but others are looking to me for help getting it set up.

Yes, I understand. I've already checked and my clients were allowed 100% of the DE tax liability as a credit on the original returns. There's nothing more for them to recover even if including the MD local in the calcs.

Thank you, Rich. I, too, remember that local tax being the 50% of the state. Somehow it has worked out that none of my clients' returns will be affected. Those that were MD residents either worked in PA and had no PA tax because of the reciprocal agreement MD has with PA, or they worked in DE and were already allowed 100% of the DE tax liability on their MD returns. When you have an update to this, if you'd be kind enough to post the information, I'd really appreciate it.

E-file the 941s.