Janitor Bob

Every year, doing taxes reminds that I really don't like people.

Rolled over two returns this evening. Upon opening and working on both returns, I find that ATX has checked the 1040 line 39a box for "Blind" for one of two taxpayers on each return. None of these clients are or have ever been blind..... what.the.hell

I would follow along the lines of rfassett....Let her know right up front that you can only do this if you ask a LOT of personal questions and get answers in writing and/or signed statements. If she is still OK with it, then start digging...keep asking and requesting proof until either you are satisfied or she leaves and finds someone that asks fewer questions. If it smells funny, it's usually bad......CYA

I am also considering drop box.....but really.....if someone can hack into an e-mail server somewhere and get info from an e-mail, could they not also hack into drop-box servers and get the info from there? I seriously think that there are plenty of people in this world with the know-how to steal anything they want from anybody they want....All anyone can do is try to make it a little more difficult and hope they expend their energy/resources on more lucrative targets.

I NEVER log out....The last time I did, a dude dressed as a bull fighter appeared at my door and smack me with a long piece of black licorice.

Also....It looks like IF you otherwise qualified to exclude the interest used for education, you would need to reduce the qualified education expenses by the amount already claimed for education credits....So if otherwise qualified, we can chose to use education expenses ($2,000 in this case) for either education credits such as AOC OR the exclusion of savings bond interest....but not both. what if total eligible education expenses was $10,000? Could you use a certain amount of that $10,000 to maximize AOC then use the remainder to exclude savings bond interest?

1099-INT is under student's name and SSN. The amount in box 3 is $1,500.00

I'm not saying I would have advised against it.....But He would have been informed of the consequences. Compared to what he had in mind (that the full $8,000 would be completely non-taxable), my news is bad

....but thanks for confirming. I wish clients would speak to me (or some at least some other tax professional) instead on relying on "friends" for tax advice....I hate giving bad news.

Client withdrew $8,000 from his 401k to use as a down-payment on his first home.....because a "friend" told him it would not be taxable if used to pay for a house. Now I get to tell him that it IS taxable and also will be charged additional 10% penalty because the withdrawal was from a 401....NOT and IRA (thus, 5329 exception 9 does not apply).....I am correct....yes?

Jack from Ohio....my thoughts exactly.

Updated 2-18-2013 IRS reject 005 pertaining to Form 8863 NonrefundableEducationCrGroup[1]XML ErrorThe XML data has failed schema validation. cvc-complex-type.2.4.b. The content of element 'IRS8863' is not complete. One of '{"http://www.irs.gov/efile":StudentAndEducationalInstnGrp}' is expected.X0000-005Reject And StopThe XML data has failed schema validation.XML ErrorEF1120,VVV116 The XML data has failed schema validation. cvc-complex-type.2.4.b. The content of element 'IRS8863' is not complete. One of '{"http://www.irs.gov/efile":StudentAndEducationalInstnGrp}' is expected. Solution-- The 8863 will be updated mid-morning tomorrow. Download that updated form, create a new efile, and send.

Do I have a portal? I don't remember seeing one anywhere...although if I left it lying around, Lila the Giant Dog probably ate it....where would I get another portal to open?

Re-check the Education info worksheet and 8863.....on one of mine, the program inserted an additional column beside the existing student and pulled some, but not all of the information to the new column. Once I moved the information back to the correct student column, the extra column disappeared and I was able to create, transmit and get acceptance.

I have several long-distance clients that would like to scan and e-mail documents to me. Does anyone have any words of wisdom about this? Are there any good/free encryption programs that I could suggest the clients install?

Student/client just double checked with her father....he clarified that the bonds owner was listed as "Father OR student/client". It looks like it still does not qualify for tax free because although student can be a beneficiary, they cannot be listed as a owner (or co-owner) of the bonds. I am trying to be sure...because although the student/client trusts and believes me, the father knows just enough about taxes to be dangerous and he is just SURE that this is tax-free because his father that purchased the bonds told him so.

student/client (age 21) redeemed Series EE savings bonds and used the proceeds to help pay for college. The savings bonds were purchased (in student/client's name) by her late grandfather many years ago. I know the interest is not subject to state/local tax, but is it necessarily taxable by IRS? I had thought that there was an exemption/exclusion for proceeds used for college....but in reading the rules for that, she does not seem to be elibible....since they were issued in her name. It appears that the proceeds would have been tax-free ONLY if issued in parent's name and used for her education....correct?

Watch the form CLOSELY....as many have mentioned...I have had no problems when only one student....but on two different occasions I have had 8863s with two students.....I close the return and upon re-opening, ATX has added an additional column (in between parents and students) and moved some (but not all) of the info from the student to the new column.....at the top of the new column is the word "INVALID". On one occasion, I swear....everything was fine when I created and transmitted the e-file, but it was rejected by Agency with errors related to the 8863...I went and looked and there was the new column. Once I re-entered the info back into the proper student column and deleted the information from the new column, the new "INVALID" column disappeared and I was able to e-file and get acceptance. what.the.hell

Client has Sch C business (single-member LLC). He paid a sub-contractor more than $600.00 and thus, needs to send them (and IRS) a 1099-MISC. Can I do that for them through ATX MAX? I do not see the form anywhere...only the 1099-MISC worksheet for a recipient. If not how can I or the client get the 1099-MISC? Thanks, for help.

Unless required, I'm not sure I will update again until end of Feb when all of my "hurry, I want my refund yesterday" clients are done.....My 12.7 is functioning......lots of annoying issues with client letters, slowness, and random crashing.....but at least it is functional. I cannot risk down-time at this point in the season.

I'm almost afraid to try it....every update with ATX is like Russian roulette.....I skipped 12.8 because of the hassles.....not sure if I even want to try 12.9 until I hear from others that have no choice.

Agreed...1 Sch C and potential 1099-Misc to the supervisor

I completed page 4 for all of my EIC clients. The earliest was filed back on Jan 31....all have been accepted....none have received refunds.

My program (12.6) was actually running pretty good on my stand-alone XP machine....just very slow opening the program and opening returns. I reluctantly downloaded/installed 12.7 from within the program. 12.7 installed fine, but since then, It has been slower and crashes after more than a few hours of use. I now find myself shutting down the program and re-starting every few hours. There is a huge memory leak somewhere that grows with time. whenever the program starts acting funny (usually after a few hours of use), I check system resources and find that ATX loader.exe is consuming vast quantities of RAM and CPU......something not right with this. I was hoping that 12.8 would help fix that.

I have been assisting clients with checking IRS web site for refund status (Since IRS nixed the Refund chart). Here is an example that is typical of what I am seeing and hearing from clients: Day 1: Return received and is being processed Day 2-13: Return received and is being processed Day 14: Refund approved will be deposited tomorrow Client received refund on day 15......How is this helpful in any way aside from providing a reason to shout "about damn time" on day 14? I have clients calling me after 4 or 5 days of the same useless status on the web site asking if something is wrong.