Terry D EA

I agree but the client machine would need to update daily and transmit. I wonder if it would be possible to have some type of switch that would allow you to connect and disconnect from the internet when needed. Hmmm

Looking at purchasing a network backup drive. Has anyone been using these? Are there issues with security?. At this time, I am looking at a WD 4TB single drive and considering the dual drive. Opinions and suggestions please. I do work off of two computers and do travel to elderly clients as well as someone who is not able to climb the steps to my office. so, like the idea of remote use.

Sometimes you just can't help it. So tire you don't have a choice you're body caves in.

Thanks Judy and after a good night's sleep I realize that I should have known that.

Thanks Judy, I see where the premiums wouldn't be deductible but still can't find any information if the premiums are taxable or included in taxable income to the partners. Or because the partnership cannot deduct the expense, the expense deduction would not pass thru thus not being taxable to the partners. I am just about burned out and can't think straight on this. How are these premiums shown on the partnership books?

A two member LLC Partnership pays "life Insurance" premiums for each partner. Would these be considered guaranteed payments? I found several articles regarding health insurance premiums being reported as guaranteed payments but not life insurance.

I doubt they will use any cash wisely. NC is taxing us to death. I think they are trying to be number 1 with the most taxes in the Country. Look out MA we're taking over. However, ALL State employees, especially teachers, are at the bottom of the list Nationally in pay scale. Now that's what I call striking a balance.

Just a bit of info that may help. The IRS only looks at the first four characters of the last name. So, if you have a hyphenated name try shrinking that name down to the first four characters of what would seem to be the last name. This situation is true for a lot of Hispanic folks. JMHO.

This is very interesting. So, exactly what documentation could there possibly be to prove a child's actual residence??? I personally find this as almost impossible to prove. Agree with Catherine, sometimes we have to go with exactly what we see. Maybe people should start having their electric bill in the kid's name and have the kid pay for it so now they could prove residency. Oops, wait a minute, I guess we could still have the kid living with grandma and paying mom and dad's electric bill. We spend too much time making our selves crazy over things we really cannot prove. Furthermore, it is ridiculous for the IRS to think we can do this. All we can do is make a good effort for our own peace of mind. I would like to see a court case where a preparer was penalized because he/she failed to prove residency for dependent child, and what evidence the tax court would use against the preparer. I mean really.

I'm a bit confused which is nothing new. To change the filing status you would have to amend the return. Not sure how they were filed but if they were MFJ you can't amend to MFS. The 3115 would definitely be used to correct the depreciation but would affect the original MFJ return if the return was filed using the MFJ status. I looked at the form 3115 to try to find some place where the filing status would change and I am pretty sure that form is not used to change filing status. I'm going out on a limb here so it sounds like your client wants to amend or change the filing status of the originally filed returns to correct the depreciation or take the depreciation that wasn't claimed in an attempt to leave out the ex-spouse to try to offset the 20K owed. I definitely would want to see that letter before I suggested anything. Again, I don't know what filing status was used on the original returns. Assuming it was MFJ then no amendment to MFS is allowed. The only possibility of this type of change is amending the return prior to the filing deadline which in your case is long past. .>>>>>>My question is, can I just jump in there and do the 3115 in her name only? Grab the depreciation and get on with my bad self?<<<<<< I am going with no here but it still depends what filing status was used on the original return.

I have advised my clients that are affected by this that just because the refund may be released on Feb 15th, it could take until the end of the month to actually get the refund in their bank. No one has given me any problems with this. They don't like it, but it is what it is.

Thanks Judy that chart is very helpful. I have been using MS Edge quite a bit and maybe that is why I couldn't open the link.

I bookmarked a lot of the resources some time ago. I just referred to a few of those this evening but I did not go here to get them. So, like others I haven't used them for sometime either. If they were deleted it wouldn't impact me at all. Don't know how anyone else other than those who have already posted feels about this.

One item is the replacement of the AC unit and the other is replacement of the floor which was found to be in need of replacement upon acquisition. The AC unit is a repair and the floor replacement would be an improvement. The cost of the floor would be added to the basis of the property as it had to be replaced before the property was ready for rent. The AC can be capitalized as a separate item. The link you posted doesn't work. I have been reading section 162 of the IRS tangible property regulations but would like to see the charts in your link.

Rental client agrees to a repair that exceeds $2500.00 total. In this case any ticket over 2500.00 under the 2014 uniform capitalization rules, must be capitalized and not expensed. Question is, client puts 50% down and pays the remainder when the job is completed. In my opinion, the total must be capitalized as it is one ticket or receipt and this is not two separate transactions. Correct? I think this client is showing two amounts in an attempt to expense the total. Not sure but it seems that way.

Looking at form 478, 478G for solar renewable energy credits. My client, per the calculations, was not able to use all of the credit in the first year it is taken (2016). Form 478/478G is a bit confusing. Does anyone know if there is a provision to carry unused amounts forward for a non-business credit? I see for business purposes you can carry the unused portion forward. The IRS does permit this as well. Maybe this is just another one of those NC pesky rules.

I agree with John and Judy. Sounds like a good plan to me.

It's okay to disagree with each other which is what makes this board so good. Why did they put that box (didn't rely on any documents) on the 8867 if you shouldn't use it? I appreciate all of the different positions taken. On the first link below there are examples to follow. The one that mentions the mother who wants to claim an infant does not make any reference to documents needed to prove the infant is her child. The question is rather the mother who lives with her parents is a dependent of her parents and if so disqualifies her for the EIC. The statement regarding the preparer being required to ask for additional information and documentation is based on whether the preparer feels the information received from the TP is accurate. Please understand I feel being completely diligent to protect us is paramount but do asset that common sense plays a role here as well. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2012-title26-vol13/pdf/CFR-2012-title26-vol13-sec1-6695-2.pdf https://www.eitc.irs.gov/Tax-Preparer-Toolkit/dd/lawandregs

In some cases I suspect we are overthinking this. You still have the option to choose "did not rely on any documents" for all three credits. If I have a new client whom I know nothing about or if I suspect an existing client who is fairly new is not being honest, then I would ask for the documentation. The reason behind all of this is for us to attempt to determine the legitimacy of the credits the client is claiming in an attempt to prevent EIC and CTC fraud. It only makes sense that a client who has been claiming a dependency for the same kids with identical last names for 10 or more years is not committing fraud. Some folks are just stupid. I had a client once that tried to claim kids on a MFS return (lied about that too) when those same kids did not exist on their MFJ return which I prepared for a couple of years and then supposedly they split. We did not have to do any where near the due diligence then that we do now. I refused to prepare the return simply because I knew. Those are the ones we are to look out for. Personally, I would not ask for the documentation for each and every client in my data base. But, most definitely for a new client whom I have no prior experience. I would like to think that as professionals we know our clients and do not take the attitude to just shove them thru to get the revenue as some of the big corp preparers do.

John, Like you, I am new to Drake this year as well and do like a lot of the features. Especially the support, it is fantastic. The link below might be helpful. This is a list of hot keys to use in the program. For instance, I did not know how to remove a form that I had already made entries and then deleted the entries. The form wouldn't go away. One call to support and I got the link below. Will be very helpful for me. http://kb.drakesoftware.com/Site/Browse/12130/Drake-Hot-Key-Shortcut-List?Keywords=hot+keys

I wonder what the effective date is???? If this is an immediate change and the IRS has to implement for this year, what a mess that can cause. I'm all for getting rid of the penalty and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I gotta agree with Catherine. My experience with Drake so far??? Excellent and as it stands, if the rest of the season goes like it is now, then there will be no questions at renewal time.

The OP is Win 7 and the error is called a smart error. It literally was a window that gave a warning that windows had detected a hard disk failure and to immediately backup the machine. My understanding is this is something that windows has to give you the opportunity to back the machine up before it crashes. This computer was purchased in 2009 so is safe to say it was not a major surprise. Just wish it hadn't happened in front of a client. You said you purchased computers every five years. Probably a good idea. But....I purchased a new desk top machine this year and it came with a very noisy hard drive that had to be immediately replaced. So, backup, backup, backup is all I can say.

I have found that older versions of QB will not work with Windows 10. For some odd reason, QB 2010 will work but anything going forward will not. Intuit will not address this at all and only suggests you upgrade to the latest version. So much for the backwards compatibility of Windows 10. Don't know if you use QB or not but thought it might be something you would want to consider.

I always had issues with ATX and the late approval of the State forms. Once I left ATX, that problem has not existed. I am now with Drake and all the State forms I use are approved including NC which was notoriously late with ATX. So, I can speak for the last 9 years but prior to that it was an ATX problem.