Max W

That's the third time in the last 18 years that HRB has been fined by the FTC. They were also sued by the state of California, for which they had to pay $1.6 million.

I think we have a little fraternity going here. I owned an auto parts and repair shop for 24 years. I was put out of business by two chain stores each a block away. This was about 6 years before I go involved with taxes.

In Alabama, and abandoned spouse can file for a divorce. Client should see a family law attorney.

When it's high call volume, the recording will say High Call lloume, go to irs.gov, bla bla bla.

I finally got through. I called PPL and they transferred me to ACS collections, who then connected me to Special Circumstances Dept. It only took a few minutes.

I've made several calls to the Special Compliance Dept. and the message asks what I'm calling about. Reply - Installment Agreement. Voice says," I can help you, goodbye. did same with ACS business line, and got the same message. Does anyone know what is going on?

Some people have all the luck!

It's amazing what some tax pros try to get away with. I had an a CPA, more than 30 years ago who was an ex IRS Criminal Investigator. He though he knew what he could get away with. He and his assistant, also a CPA, inflated expenses on clients business returns. One of the clients got audited and it led to the IRS looking at other returns that had been prepared by them. It ended up with hefty jail sentences and fines.

I've used Foxit Phantom for about 15 years to create pdf's. It can also create new, or existing fillable forms. It's fairly easy if there is an existing form, but if you start from scratch it can take up a lot of time. It has a loto of other features, not quite as much as Adobe, but it has served me well over the years.

I don't know if this still holds as the rules and laws are constantly changing. It used to be that for an SFR, you would file the original return as an Amended return by printing AMENDED across the top of the 1040. This used to allow the return to be included in Bankruptcy if that is ever needed. However, I read recently that if a return was ever an SFR, it is not dischargeable.

FASB has 10 years for amortizing Good Will, intangibles, etc. CA does not legally recognize non-compete agreements.

Non-compete clauses are not legally enforceable in CA.

If he doesn't have his Vanguard stmts for each year, V should be able to supply him copies. He can also get the information from his IRS transcripts of form 5498 and figure it out from that.

FL state bar has a referral service. Lawyer Referral Service – The Florida Bar 1-800-342-8011

This is a pretty clear cut case of someone who knew what he was doing, was one of only 2 persons in the company to sign check and basically admitted to these facts. Here is a pdf of the case. It's only 8 pages long, but the first 2 will give you a complete picture. COA 365480 JEFFERY C MERTZ V MICHIGAN D... - Per Curiam - Unpublished 06_12_2024.pdf

I had omitted this link - " https://webapp.ftb.ca.gov/INC/Contact/Ind " It will allow you to email the FTB and get an answer on 21 days, or so they claim. I had to put quotes around it, otherwise it prints the title and not the link.

DUNNO IF THIS'LL WORK. BUT IT IS WORTH A TRY. O/WISE PHONE COLLECTIONS AND GO UP THE CHAIN IF THE THE PERSON ANSWERING CAN'T HELP. (PARDON THE CAPS)

One way to do it is to use the IRS calculator. irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator Otherwise, doing it on the form is enough to drive Einstein up the wall.

@Catherine Hmm! I just typed in the same thing on Copilot and got 6 very logical items to check. The did miss one thing, though - it didn't ask if the gas bill had been paid. Oh well. I'm sure it will learn.

It is supposed to be a simplified plan, but I didn't see anything significantly different than the old plan.

A state that is making money? That sounds good to me. It's far better than missing $1.8B.

" Georgia CPA Pleads Guilty to Promoting Syndicated Conservation Easement Tax Scheme Involving Fraudulent Charitable Deductions Friday, June 14, 2024 Share For Immediate Release Office of Public Affairs Defendant Helped Clients File Tax Returns Claiming $14M in False Deductions, Causing Nearly $5M in Loss to the IRS A Georgia man pleaded guilty today to conspiracy and filing a false personal tax return related to his participation in the promotion and sale of abusive syndicated conservation easement tax shelters. According to court documents and statements made in court, Herbert Lewis was a CPA and return preparer at an Atlanta-based accounting firm. Beginning at least in 2014 and through at least 2019, Lewis promoted and sold tax deductions to his wealthy clients in the form of units in illegal syndicated conservation easement tax shelters organized and created by co-defendants Jack Fisher, James Sinnott and others. For their involvement in the scheme, Fisher and Sinnott were sentenced in January to 25 and 23 years in prison respectively. According to the superseding indictment, the scheme entailed the creation of partnerships that would purchase land and land-owning companies and then donate conservation easements over that land or the land itself. Appraisers would allegedly generate fraudulent and inflated appraisals of the conservation easements that frequently valued the easements at amounts at least 10 times higher than the price actually paid by the partnership for the land or land-owning company – often just months prior to the appraisals. As the superseding indictment charged, the partnerships claimed a charitable contribution tax deduction based on the inflated value of the conservation easement, resulting in a fraudulent tax deduction flowing to the clients who purchased units in the partnership. According to court documents and statements made in court, Lewis knew that, contrary to law, the transactions related to these illegal tax shelters lacked economic substance; that his wealthy clients participated only to obtain a tax deduction and that his clients received only a tax benefit for their participation in the shelters. For example, a client who purchased units in a partnership had a “vote” ostensibly on what to do with the land the partnership owned. However, Lewis knew that the “vote” held by the partnership each year was just for optics and that the land invariably would be donated largely as a conservation easement. In some cases, to make it appear that his clients had joined the partnerships before the date of the conservation easement donation, which was necessary to claim the tax benefits, Lewis also instructed and caused his clients to falsely backdate documents – such as subscription agreements and checks – related to the partnerships. In 2019 alone, Lewis assisted 15 clients with claiming false deductions on their 2018 returns. In total, Lewis assisted in the preparation of tax returns that claimed nearly $14 million in false deductions based on backdated documents, causing a tax loss to the IRS of nearly $5 million. Lewis earned over $1 million in commissions for his role in promoting and selling the illegal tax shelters to clients. Lewis also concealed the amount of commissions he had earned from selling units in these shelters by not fully reporting the commissions on his personal returns and instead fraudulently reporting commission income he had earned as income on the tax returns of nominee entities in his children’s names. Lewis is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 16 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the conspiracy charge and three years in prison for the charge of filing false tax returns. Lewis also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. To date, in addition to the convictions of Fisher and Sinnott noted above, eight additional defendants have pleaded guilty to criminal conduct related to the syndicated conservation easement tax shelter scheme, including appraiser Walter Douglas “Terry” Roberts, CPAs Stein and Corey Agee, CPA Ralph Anderson, CPA James Benkoil, CPA Victor Smith, CPA William Tomasello and CPA and Attorney Randall Lenz. Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia and IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Guy Ficco made the announcement. They thanked U.S. Attorney Dena J. King for the Western District of North Carolina for her office’s assistance. IRS Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. Trial Attorneys Richard M. Rolwing, Parker Tobin, Jessica Kraft, Grace Albinson and Nicholas J. Schilling Jr., of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Huber, Deputy Chief of the Complex Frauds Section, for the Northern District of Georgia are prosecuting the case. Updated June 14, 2024 from https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/georgia-cpa-pleads-guilty-promoting-syndicated-conservation-easement-tax-scheme-involving

"Speed" and its various synonyms are not in the gub'ment's vocabulary.

You might want to check this out. https://eforms.com/rental/

Iowa State has a section dedicated to filling out Schedule F. They give line by line explanations and examples. This is ideal for tax preparation. Much easier than reading the 95 page Pub 225 on farming.