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Remember, we don't host discussions involving politics here, and anything like speculating or discussing current or prior administrations' motivations or tactics, the opposition, etc. will be deleted without comment. Please stick to discussing only the law itself as it relates to, or affects, our business of tax preparation and planning.

^^ All of this!

I agree with Lion. Do it through your software and get a signed 8879 for it since it is a tax filing. I wouldn't enter directly on the IRS site based on a phone call without some documentation and signature. How would that be covered by circ 230 or professional insurance?

Please remember that a SEP IRA is an employER plan, and contributions to SEP IRAs are funded with only the employer's funds. It is a defined contribution plan where the employee sets up an IRA account to accept the employer funds. There are no contributions by employees into the SEP, and there is no match by the employer.

In an interview recently with the WSJ, Mnuchin said that those checks to deceased persons should be returned and said that Treasury is working on a method to retrieve the funds by matching up databases. That should have been done before the checks were issued because they won't get money back from a lot of these cases. I received a call from the son of a married couple client. The mom died 3 days ago and the father is in hospice and is expected to pass in a few days. I haven't done the 2019 return yet because I hadn't received any datta, and that was the reason for the son's call, to find out what documents he should look for. Dad is still alive at this point, and I think these people would be a case where they were both alive when the law was passed, and those funds would go toward their final medical and care expenses. I think the funds shouldn't be returned in their case but I'm not sure now.

After your initial search, a page will appear with the results where you can click "more search options". Doing that will bring up another page where you'd click "search by author" that will allow you to enter your name. But all of this requires that you have a specific term that you are searching for. The profile page may work better for you to scroll through the pages to find your posts.

Go to your profile by clicking your name next to your avatar in the very upper right of any screen, then click "profile" from the drop down menu. Once there, it will list activity to include your "likes. " To narrow that down, click on the box at the right that is labeled "See my activity." The other way would be to search for a term of more than 4 letters and that you know was in the post, and then from there you can narrow down the search by you as the member that posted it.

Michael, thanks for explaining. Many of us probably don't know how drastically life for those in and around NYC and other metro areas has changed or the extent of limitations you are dealing with. I knew nothing of buildings being sealed.

There appears to be no way to suppress this form, and I'd guess that it is like that in all the other software too since it is saying this form is a requirement in the community property states. After so many years apart, do they still have community property and community income, or can your taxpayer file as if all of the wages and other items on the return all belong to your client? I'm not entirely sure, but it seems like this may be a possibility from the rules on page 8 of pub 555 under the heading for "Community Property Laws Disregarded" and the specific subheadings of "spouses living apart all year" and "certain community income not treated as community income by one spouse." In that case because the form is still required, wouldn't you report 100% of all the items on the 1040 in column A with allocations of -0- in column B? Would something like that be possible? It doesn't seem that unique a situation. What do others do with this since it is a required form that would have to go with a paper-filed return too if filing MFS?

Ask her specifically if she did this on the IRS site, or exactly where and to whom she provided the AGI. If she was checking to see if her stimulus check was in the works, that site does ask for AGI as part of the i.d. verification process, and it's also possible that she could have filed an EIP return. I've had some calls from clients that tried all of the areas on that site trying to find a way to enter banking information, including where it specifically said that person should not use. Of course, they tried all of that before calling me. Grrr! Did she already have the client copy of her return before you tried to e-file, otherwise where did she get the AGI to use for wherever she did what she did? There are more and more scammers out there trying to get taxpayers' information that includes emails and phone calls that make it seem that providing information will speed up receipt of the stimulus check. Finding out what exactly she did will tell you how best to help her going forward.

Sorry for the edit, cbslee. The person you quoted responded to something other than was asked or something like that, and I was asked to hide those responses. In doing that, the post wouldn't have made sense to leave in where you quoted that person in your post above, so sorry if that caused some consternation. I did the best I could with the cleanup and still keep the correct answers intact.

Thank you! That is good news for some of my clients.

So if it's an SMLLC that reports on Sch C using the owner's name, and it has employees that requires an EIN and wants to e-file the 941s and 940s, and the name is John Brown LLC... is the name control JOHN or is it BROW? Are we all going a little nuts?

Two clients who had balance dues on 2019 returns were able to enter banking information on the site today! I just checked and each of the returns were e-filed on 3/10, so enough time for them to have been processed for the i.d. validation.

Not that I've seen and have been holding off to see if these are going to be extended too.

According to the IRS video below that I launched from this IRS page on discharge of tax liens, you need to file form 14135 and allow at least 45 days before closing. The video goes step by step and talks about the required attachments. I think your client may be waiting until IRS reopens before this can be taken care of properly. https://www.irsvideos.gov/Professional/IRSLiens/LienSeg1_3

If the LLC is the person's name, it would be the first 4 letters of the perons's first name. I'm a C corp that is my full name followed by letters of professional designation, and my name control is "JUDY"

No, that isn't written anywere. You'll have to try it to find out. I can tell you again that if the retun's bottom line shows zero for refund or balance due, there is nowhere on that IRS page to enter that. The page where that is entered has only the two boxes, one for balance due and one for refund. It doesn't allow for people that have neither refund or money owed. It is my understanding that the IRS system can't finish authenticating the person as the real taxpayer.

I'm also rather disgusted by the $10 BILLION that BoA alone made on the PPP loans they've processed.

@Edsel, please don't confuse funds designated for the SBA's PPP loans with the funds that the CARES Act designated for institutions for higher education. The amounts available to each institution was determined by some formula that Congress came up with and this has nothing to do with the PPP.

To repeat: people with a filing requirement that have zero tax due and zero refund are NOT able to enter any banking information. The site gives an error message.

Nope, I've tried almost each day for my mother and this is the first day I got a difference message. Her return was filed almost 2 months ago, had AGI and a significant LTCL that I'm tracking, but after deductions had zero liability and zero refund or balance due. I was never able to get to the banking information to change it and kept getting an error message. Obviously she does get SSA benefits, so I wasn't terribly worried but would have liked to enter banking information. Today I tried again and got through inputting her SSN, birthdate, street address and zip code and got the message shown below. So much for the IRS checking with SSA to retrieve banking information. Her SSA benes have been direct deposited for years!

In that case, they are not able to use the tool. Similarly, those who chose to have overpayments fully applied to next year's estimates and showed -0- refund are also not able to use the tool.

cbslee and Tom, thanks for explaining.

Tom, I agree with you, and it isn't offensive, it is the reality that nonessential businesses are facing. I am curious why your employees aren't getting the extra $600 a week though? I know that may not seem like much in states with higher cost of living like CA or NY and surrounding metro areas, but here I've heard from some laid off employees that are collecting more through unemployment than they were as paid employees, and I think there should have been a cap on that. Why should someone actually be making more from the shutdown being unemployed than when they were working?