MAMalody

Count me in.

It is interesting to me to note that the Secretary of HHS has stated that there is a risk of identity theft in ACA, especially at the start-up. With a projected 14 million working people losing their medical coverage (8 million by HHS) because of the employers adjusting for the increased costs and then going on the exchanges, identity theft could be an issue.

I would like to see the cover page printed before the letter when you print out the return.

FWIIW, I did have a friend who was a fellow tax preparer who did a couple of hundred returns a year who was a barber. He got the greatest kick out of his clients telling their friends his preparer was his barber.

I saw on another message board that CA is considering taxing or assessing a fee of some type for out-of-state preparers who do CA returns. To date I have been unable to locate anything on this. Is this true? Can you provide any info or link if this is so? Thanks.

This is also my recollection.

I saw the 540 booklet info. Missed the FTB Pub 1345 page. Thanks for the input. If CA is similar to the feds, does that mean in place of the deceased spouse (husband) we should indicate in the signature section "filing as surviving spouse?" I am using ATX software which does not automatically do this, and does not allow you to override to do this.

Hmmm. I have a return where the husband died 28 May 2013. So I have the wife set to file the federal and the CA return as a surviving spouse. Not problem setting up the federal. On the CA return I am unable to locate on the CA FTB website whether the return can be e-filed. To my knowledge there is no executor of the estate. I seem to recall that a copy fo federal Form 1310 must be filed with the state return. Questiions: (1) can the CA return be e-filed (2) how do I indicate in the signature section filing as surviving spouse (when I enter the info on the data section it does not print that on the signature portion of the return and you cannot in the ATX program override the cell and type that in). (3) is federal Form 1310 required to be filed with the CA tax return. (4) what else am I missing? Thanks for any info out there.

Have not seen you much on the boards this year, but, wanted to say Happy Birthday

Question 1. What the charity the run was for a qualified 501©(3)? If not, not deduction. If yes, reduce the $40 by the value of the shirt and there is your deduction.

<<<efforts to push overpriced gunk>>> Obviously, a male perspective!

ari, you have two unrelated items there. On the W-2 for clergy, boxes, 3, 4, 5, and 6 should always be blank. I don't remember Form 4361 as being able to be e-filed due to the fact that you need an original signature. I usually have the applicant fill out the form to ensure they actually read it and understand what it says. Remember the statement above. <<<Form 4361 can be filed by clergy with a deeply held religious conviction that it is inappropriate to receive govt benefits (e.g., social security benefits) related to their service as a clergy person. The deadline for filing is the due date of the second tax return on which the person has at least $400 of clergy-related earnings.>>> This is NOT an economic decision.

I just thought of the uncoupling joanmcq, but tried to file it without doing that, one last time.....and it went. I have not clue. Failed six times previously over two separate days.

I have been trying to e-file a stand alone AL return. It will not go. Just says there is an error. I am unable to identify any error. The same thing happened to the federal, however, after a couple of tries it went. Any ideas.

If I am interpreting the OP correctly you are saying that the $6000 in box 1 of the W-2 is their housing allowance. If that is true, the only way to get it off the return, that the IRS can follow, is to list the qualified portion on line 21 of Form 1040 as a negative number. If you talking about how to compute the qualifed amount of housing allowance that should not be subject to income tax I have a worksheet that you can use and then you only have to transfer totals to the 1040 Worksheet in the ATX program. Don't forget the excellent point that JohnH pointed out about what turns out to be the qualifed amount. On the second case, once you determine the qualifing amount you need to use line 21 again after determing the qualified housing allowance. I see these all the time (I only do clergy returns) so we can figure it out. If the above does not solve your problem let me know and we will go at it again.

It worked!!! Cool! Thanks for the input.

I will try this and let you know what happened.

Sorry for the confusion. I thought you were asking whether your minister could have those monies designated as housing, not if he had already received the money and was looking for a retroactive designation. You are correct. The housing allowance must be designaged ahead of time. It can be designated by each entitity he is receiving income from, as long as it is before payment, this would also include church giving him "love offering" for a revival, crusade or filling a pulpit.

An evanglist may qualify for minister's tax treatment, which would include the housing allowance designation.This designation could even include those monies received from the individual churches. RR 64-326, and Letter Ruling 8825025, Whittington v. Commissioner, T.C.Memo. 2000-296(2000) seem to be most on point with a slight allusion in Reg, 1.1402©-5©(2). If this does not answer your question let me know and we can go from here. I would be happy to respond on this board or via e-mail. Whatever works best for you. Remember, if you should elect e-mail, you will loose the peer review this board provides.

I did set up the second property to Schedule E. I thought that was my mistake, too. Turned out it wasn't. Any other ideas?

Okay, I give up. I have a client that started a second rental property in 2012 and for the life of me, I can't figure out how to set up the second property in the fixed asset tab. It is only 2311 and I have been up since 615 but that should not be the issue. Any help would be appreciated. I did check the support portion of the program to no avail.

I have never had a return using the ATX pdf come out without some garbled figures. The only thing I have found that works is to uncheck all the options, including Filer copy, etc, then select the forms I want (unfortunately, this does not give you a print button) then select custom then go back and reselect the forms I want and using my Adobe program make up my file. What a waste of time. I have not tried richcpaman's system yet, I will give that one a try. (I am really tired of getting 43 forms when all I want is the 1040 Clergy Worksheet.)

I will try unchecking the print packets and see what happens.

Boy, the print manager this year is worthless. I create .pdf docs of all returns. No matter what I specify I want printed the print manager prints what it wants to. The only exception is if I print the current page only. I have not upgraded to version 10, however, I do have 9 and should not be having this problem. What a waste of time aksing for three specific forms or worksheets to print and it make 47.

Great! I appreciate the info. That solves my problem. Why can't I find that???? Hmmm.