Christian

Very true cb. My instructor in the H & R Block class I took many moons ago made the following statement. As best I can recall it went like this " Now that you have completed our course any of you who would like to work with us this coming tax season please let us know. I can guarantee that if you do you will find the biggest can of worms you have ever been involved with in your life." No words I have EVER heard rang so true.

A now divorced client is doing back flips over not getting her stimulus payment. Her former husband filed his 2019 some months back as a single man the divorce being final in January 2019. She of course has not filed and is trying to get the payment based on her 2018 married filing status. I told her to file her 2019 return as head of household (two dependents) but as usual she hems and haws. I do not know what the rules are but I am wondering if she refuses to file the 2019 to correctly report her changed filing status and since he has long filed his return if they will pay her based on the 2018 return. Do any of have any insight into this as I clearly do not.

I guess he would sign as personal representative. I am always concerned the Service will kick it back with no court document. If he merely adds the dividends to his return how will you square his mother's social. Some sort of additional entry on his Schedule B such as reported under and indicate his mother's name and social security number ? That appears to me a simple solution if it works. Of course, I am his taxman as well. He could get the broker to issue an amended 1099 but they will likely balk since his name was not on the account until late March.

Thanks so much for your info. She does not need to file a final 1040 as her income level is below the requirement. However, after death a brokerage account received some $3,900 in dividends which means I'll need to prepare the 1041. Now comes the real head scratcher. She passed her entire estate to one son by TOD. I am sure his POA lapsed with her death. What do I do if he simply moved the assets over TOD and there is no executor. Who will sign the return ?

A client died on January 13, 2019. I get a bit confused about estate tax years but as I read it her year would be January through December 31, 2019. Is this correct ? Any income received after January 13th would fall into her estate as well ? I really dislike a 1041 and do very few of them.

In looking at a client letter from another firm I noted the federal tax rate schedule was printed at the bottom of the client letter for the tax filing status. Thinking this a good thing I looked to see if I could add it to my own client letter but find nothing in ATX that would allow me. If anyone knows how or if this can be done I would appreciate knowing how to do it.

This is just a sideline he and wife are not giving up anything. Her teenage daughter is interested in going to veternarian school after high school. She is raising registered goats ! Who knew there were such things. Apparently some immigrants who now live in the area eat the darn things !! My grandfather used to sponsor a local baseball team in our tiny community. In one season they lost. He evidently had an annual dinner for them a picnic sort of. He had an ageing billy goat on his farm so he cooked him up. I am told the meat was as tough as shoe leather.

P. S. Well after a barrage of material relating to the risk of having a hobby farm supplied by yours truly and one of Black Bart's "Come to Jesus" talks the client "Saw the Light" and has agreed that he must show a profit with his farm return at least every other year or so. This will surely lay this to rest. Thank goodness.

It would have been nice to have had prior notice of this and not get these " Where is my refund. I mailed my return two months ago." calls from clients.

The Where's My Refund Site has instructions as to what to do. Too bad for him they too are down for now. He will just have to be patient as this is the quickest option and but for the shutdown would have provided a timely solution.

A client's tax refund was returned to the Post Office as it was addressed to his former address. On the annual organizer he received he failed to advise the change. I have not had this to happen in ages and am rusty on the procedure to get it corrected. is there an IRS number or area of notification where this can be taken care of that any of you know ?

I'll give you odds that the check I am sure will be sent with my return will be processed before a year has passed.

In conclusion I'll pass this along. Years ago I had a small farmer who kept perfect records but for 15 or more years never posted a profit. If he got near one he ran out and bought a piece of machinery. Coming in one year he said a lady had come to see him and I asked why he had not called. He explained she sat at his kitchen table and after some two hours prepared to leave saying they would be sending him a check for $54 as he had a gas tank on his property and bought gas for his tractor having it delivered onsite (something he never bothered to advise me or my Uncle his former taxman about) and that he owed no tax liability for the year in question. He never heard anything more.

Well he is advising he is going to sell tomatoes by the bushel in the city's farmer's market. Who knows maybe he will expand and sell them to Kraft Heinz. I am going to outline to him by letter my concerns and keep a copy for myself. He does have some time to get this business up and going and if he posts a couple of thousand dollars in income he could in fact post some yearly profits. After all who am I the geat grandson of a poor German immigrant who did extremely well after coming here to attempt to prejudge and crush a budding entrepreneurial spirit. After all this is America ! Truth be told if he can post some profit even a slim one judging by all these other small time operators I have seen over time he is safe on second heading home.

I have prepard his mother and father's taxes for about 25 years and his some likely seven or eight. Bart's reply is precisely what I had anticipated as I myself have seen this as well an ongoing small operation losing money year after year and never and I do mean never questioned. I have no intention of kicking the guy out. I've advised him of the risk he is taking and if the Service will not enforce their own rules I am not a paid federal employee. If they call him in for a little chat well he will owe some tax but I willl print out what Lynn has referred me to and give it to him and send him on his merry way. Well that is an audit guide which I doubt he would fully understand so I'll review it and perhaps can make a few points. Unlike my concern for a single mother making a poor health insurance judgement through the heathcare exchange under pressure this guy is loaded and if audited he will not miss any taxes imposed.

Some tomatoes he can raise and a goat from time to time. Seriously Lynn how long before the Service takes a close look at this farce. In truth I have known folks here who raise a few cows to go on for years losing money and never hear a peep out of the IRS. He has just inherited a considerable fortune from his mother and will be reporting significant dividend and capital gain income going forward. He hatched this idea to cut his taxes. To me it is self evident but I wonder if they will in fact ever check him. Just curious to know what other preparers have seen in this regard in their experience with this sort of thing.

A longtime client married two years ago (third wife). They both sold their respective homes and relocated to a ten acre lot outside the corporate limits of the city. When he came in last year he had hatched the idea of declaring his ten acres as a farm indicating he would raise tomatoes and goats. I was so astounded as he and wife both hold full time jobs he in HVAC work and she a registered nurse that I burst out into such laughter I had to cover my face in embarassment. He is already renting a house from a previous marriage. Despite my advice he proceeded apace buying a $50,000 tractor which was set up for depreciation and buying a few goats.This year he has come in with no income and has bought an old pickup truck for his farm plus some additional thousands of dollars of depreciable equipment. Many of you have much greater experience with this sort of thing and just out of curiosity (as I strenously tried to talk him out of this) I am just wondering where this is going.

I was mistaken. Her query was for the EIP supposedly entered on the IRS website. She used her 2018 agi and feels strongly that this is the cause of her problem. In any event I prepared her a copy to mail in as well as the Form 14039 with attachments to fax to the Service. She has worked for the government from time to time and I am certain her employee file was acquired in that hack of the OPM some years back. I advised her that her refund would be a long time coming as it will sit in a trailer in Kansas until the Service is back up to snuff.

No she files every year. She says she filed out some document concerning Covid 19 which needed her adjusted gross income. About all I have.

A client return has been fraudulently efiled and I of course have got the rejection notice. Does anyone have the IRS number for her to call to discuss this ? The WK rep of course did not provide it. I have printed a paper copy for her to mail along with the reject notice with applicable code attached. This is a first for me and unnerving to say the least.

I too usually renew in May of each year and get the 10% discount. I've never seen where anyone on the forum got a better deal by waiting and I am always concerned they will not discount the price after May although other members apparently have received them late in the year.

I reviewed the Form 1040-ES in our ATX software and found the first quater payment shown as 7/15/20 and the second quarter as 6/15/20. It looks to me to be an error of some type as both the first and second quater payments have a deadline of 7/15/20 this year right ?

Well I got teed off trying to do what I considered best for the woman and then when confronted by the facts I lost it briefly. I would never have sent anything in. It's very frustrating (as you all know) when you give sound advice which is ignored and try your best and sota get the finger from an old client. I am comforted by the thought she will likely be doing the Futterwagen with the IRS for quite a while once she submits that form with no 8962.

Advice taken Lion except I needed an excuse to go to our state liquor store and get me a bottle of Kentucky bourbon. Hey this is Virginia guys. Or gals.

Well you are probably correct. I ought to bill her a diagnostic fee or such but will likely just cool off and chalk it up to experience. I was really concerned she had made an error and was really surprised to discover she had acted purposefully. This after cautioning her repeatedly about using counseling from the exchange.