Margaret CPA in OH

Are you a diver, Karen? Cabo is a place I really want to dive. My dive center went last year but the timing wasn't right - tax season you know.

Made me laugh - thanks!

My Inconclusive Travel Plans for 2012 I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone. I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there. I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport, you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my partner, work and politicians who affect my life. I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore. I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go, and I try not to visit there too often. I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm. Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older. One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age I need all the stimuli I can get! I may have been in Continent, but I must've been sleeping while traveling through. It's an age thing. PLEASE DO YOUR PART! Today is one of the many National Mental Health Days throughout the year. You can do your bit by remembering to send an e-mail to at least one unstable person. My job is done! Life is too short for negative drama and petty things. From one unstable person to another... I hope everyone is happy in your head -we're all doing pretty good in mine!

The Light Turned Yellow The light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.. He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally....I assumed you had stolen the car." Priceless

Thanks for the smiles - hot here in Cincinnati, too. Supposed to get to 93-94, already in mid to upper 80's.

Unfortunately not all 1098T forms have the details about what the charges were for what year and when payments were made. University of Cincinnati is one of the few that I note has calendar charges and payments listed. Often Box 1, I think, has charges billed for future terms but not necessarily payments made in that year. I advise details listing charges paid for appropriate expenses.

This is true. I have a 99 1/2 year old client who made it so as to shelter the several millions from her late husband.. With the federal $5 mil threshold and no Ohio estate tax, the family will have a nice inheritance.

Just in time: The Internal Revenue Service said in an email to tax professionals Friday that it plans to retire and remove its Disclosure Authorization and Electronic Account Resolution applications from its online eServices on August 11, largely because of low usage and budget cuts. http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/IRS-Closes-Disclosure-Authorization-Electronic-Account-Resolution-Apps-67046-1.html?ET=webcpa:e7215:134105a:&st=email I am so bummed as I use this several times yearly and find it incredibly more convenient than the old way.

My main computer has a link on my desktop to access my clerical person's computer. She has a link on hers that accesses just one folder on mine to scan and save client data but no access to anything else. The guy who built my computers did that. I also have a link to the simple computer that answers my fax line. All incoming faxes are saved as pdf. I can then transfer to my client files or print or delete the junk faxes. I am curious about this Wormhole switch, though, for a handful of things on my laptop which is not used for my cpa business. Thanks for the suggestion!

Guess I got lucky again. Updated, no problems with opening program or returns or adding new forms. The program still opens slower than I would like but I found it opens much quicker for me if I close out of it and reopen. I don't do it often, just checking. I strategically hope that I have not now jinxed myself. Although I have had very very few issues KNOCK LOTS OF WOOD I decided for the first time to not renew early. The 10% discount with another paltry 5% maybe added by the rep was not enough to sway me this time. I can live with this another year if it doesn't get worse as my practice is small and my patience is fairly abundant. YMMV...

I do have some cites but won't get to the organization of posting until probably tomorrow. However, it seems to me fair market value is the market value as of a specific date - dod - regardless of prior use. The entire property was sold as a unit. Good points, though!

Thanks to you both. I have since consulted a local tax attorney who has dealt with such matters. Her research and opinion is that, upon death, the residence became an asset of the irrev trust, valued at fmv at dod, and the potential depreciation recapture goes away as the trust would not have benefited from the deduction. Along with the selling expenses, there will actually be a small loss to flow through to benes. This actually seems very reasonable to me but, as we know, the tax code is not always reasonable. Any comments on this interpretation?

Thanks, KC. On the Sale of Principal Residence tab, though, there is a place in Part 2 for allowed or allowable depreciation taken on the property after May 6, 1997. I thought that was where the information related to the rental portion would be accounted for. No? I still don't understand why the max exclusion does not populate in the field of the Sch. D. Any ideas? I will keep digging.

Client's mother passed away, principal residence in trust. Residence was sold to outside party. Half was rented beginning in 1952 and I have all depreciation schedules to date. They are wrong (5 years for the property depreciation) but I can recalculate the allowable. In 1041 Schedule D it does have sale of principal residence data entry but the maximum exclusion does not fill in and has no link. I did check the box at the top tha the decedent would qualify. If not, then it would be the reduced exclusion, correct? Would not this property (adding back depreciation taken) still qualify for some exclusion? The selling price was $123,500.

Indeed, to both! Good chuckle this morning, thanks!

cheering, go to the atx website download center. The second one listed is Payroll Products. There are also updates to that after you download. I have MAX but assume that you would also have access to that with your product. Let us know if you got it.

Please don't ignore the 'sistren' along with the brethren

It's in the Payroll module. I have already prepared 3 and efiled one. Have you even looked there?

That was fun! And yes, I did all those things including the sharing. Thanks for sharing with us, KC!

I laughed out loud at this one...hilarious. Guess they calls 'em as they sees 'em.

I've had the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 for a few years now and cannot imagine being without it. It is so fast and scans both sides. It has a sleeve into which you can put small or multiple pieces to scan. I also have 2 mfc for flat scanning. One has a document feeder and is laser (Brother 7820N), the second also doc feeder but color inkjet (Brother 5460CN). Both Brothers came with ScanSoft software and the Fujitsu with something that, for me, works great. I am virtually paperless with my fax coming to a dedicated basic refurbished computer. I 'print' from there to Adobe and save in my client files. Love it and my dual monitors.

The only other thing I can think of is on Sch. D Part III, make sure to put the cg in column 2, trust's share, 100%. It then should flow to the beneficiary as allocated from cg when divs and interest are exhausted. In ATX is did flow there but I could also input as it is a blue field. Also, on the K-1 input, I did not enter anything to do with tiers as not applicable, just Beneficiaries percentage, in this case, 100%. Since paper filing is required, I think you are correct to prepare it correctly whether or not you use software.

I have the capital gains go to the trust. Only if distributions exceed the dividend and interest income should there be cap gains that flow through to the bene. One of my CRUTs fairly often must distribute cap gains but the K-1 shows on lines 3 and 4 the amount which then, as you note, is treated as appropriate on the bene 1040. I don't know the terms of the CRUT you are working with, but I think that typically cg and cl are kept within the trust as much as possible. Check page 3 of 5227 and you would see Line 58b even keeps track of undistributed cg. I think the issue is that the Sch. D is for Form 1041 and you are preparing Form 5227. I hope this helps!

Hear, hear! And thanks for the reprise, jasdim. Needed smiles this evening.

Bob, you and I just got lucky, I guess. For that I am grateful, too. I had a few issues more than before but not much and only one thing that hasn't been solved - still hoping by the time I file in October.