Christian

Viele Danke sounds ok to me Max.

I think the certificate would indicate who the parents are and would tie him in that way. I may call the division of vital records but am just about shot on this one. I really love my little tax business but I simply now lack the ooomph to deal with these compllicated situations as I once did when I was spry and willing.

Thanks for your input. I have a sneeking suspicion he listened to the former wife. The same grand wizard who got him into a tax problem years back ! This time he is really going to pay big time as I feel almost certain they are going to want $8,000 plus back. They may write some off as his reported income is less than $15,000.

I checked out obtaining the records from the DMV and examined their required form. I found it inline with what Max stated in his comment. Unless I am greatly mistaken the relatives have to be kin to the grand children genetically. However if you will check their form DMV Virginia Birth Certificate Application and find you agree I would greatly value your opinion. I thought to add it to this comment but find I lack the tech skill to accomplish it. ETA - Link to vital records at VA DMV - https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/general/#vital.html And the form itself with page 2 listing required i.d. and documents acceptable:

Exactly so Max. I ran into this stone wall when I reviewed the requirements of the audit. Without the birth certificates I see no way to tie these children to the step grandfather. The step daughter was such a complete ingrate she refused any assistance after having lived in the guys house for nothing for about a full year ! Well what is to be expected of a mother having three minor children all by different fathers. He should have known better.

I appreciate all of your replies. I have retained Rita's reference for future possible use. I informed him today I can do him no good (regrettably). He is a good man and was truly attempting to help that family but the audit indicated birth records for those kids. He had a misunderstanding with their mother when she moved and neither she nor the former wife will raise a finger to help. He himself cannot get the records so I can see no way to keep his filing status or credits intact. I did WARN him of the real possibility this very thing might happen. Now he will learn a difficult lesson.

In some 37 years of helping folks with their taxes this is the creme de la creme of tax messes. A male client 59 yoa and single came in this year stating he had taken in his former wife's daughter and her three young children providing them with a home since June of 2018. He insisted on claiming them as dependents despite my objections. I took a pass as a result and some family member filed his taxes claiming the three kids as dependents allowing him the HOH filing status along with receiving the EIC and Child Credits which resulted in some $9,100 in refunds. A very happy camper until he received a mail audit notice requiring proof of his connection to the kids all of whom are by a different father with resulting different last names. As best as I can determine he will need birth certificates for all three as well as the mother's birth certificate tying her to her mother his former wife. These along with his marriage certificate and divorce decree might do it but I doubt it. Are step children and step grandchildren allowed as such after you have been divorced from your wife for several years ? I have no clue. So much for having a kind heart for a family in need. Now his former wife has refused any of the birth certificates he probably needs. Whether he can obtain them from the State of Virginia I really don't know. Even so there remains the question of whether the Service will recognize these people as relatives since he is no longer married to their grandmother and has not been for several years. Anyone have any suggestions?

I don't routinely include this form in my client copies. I have done so this year for a couple of folks who came to me this year and had them in their former practitioner's copy. I find the one provided by ATX really lacking when compared to the competition. The state comparison is not provided. I suspect ATX tech support has been appraised of this and likely with no result.

This was a personal error (go figure). A malware software product identified an ATX file as a possible PUP and I deleted it before checking the source identifier. My bad .

Is the server at ATX down at this time? I can't seem to connect through my program. 7:37 10/5/19

I very much appreciate your clarifying this for me. He did not understand the presentation made to the stock holders last year by management and ask me why income he did not receive and reported on his return as taxable income should be taxed. I have no answer for this as I myself do not understand why this is so. I referred him back to management to explain this.

A client came in and included in his info a Form 1120S which was not received in prior years. He had bought stock in a local assisted living nursing home complex some years back and normally an annual Form 1099-DIV for dividends is received. Last year the corporation converted to an S corporation so he got the usual Form 1099-DIV and the additional Form 1120S. Since he has no active participation in management of the corporation I would usually assume the income items reported are passive in nature. What got my attention is a statement from the corporation stating the corporation is a "specified service trade or business" for purposes of computing the qualified business income deduction. This being the case do I need to change the client's status to active ? I prepare a tiny number of returns having K-1 forms and usually in cases of things being unclear I send them to someone else but this client is a longtime client and friend so I need to go the extra mile. Any input is appreciated.

I recall and having time to rehash it I remember that they combined the IRA and pension lines from the former Form 1040. On the IRA line only the taxable amount was shown whereas on the pension line the gross and the taxable were shown even if both numbers were the same. This accounts for the seeming error. Thanks for your input.

I am finishing up. Will someone refresh my recall on why on entering IRA and pension distributions I need to delete the IRA checkbox to get the program to correctly show the total distributions on line 4a and the taxable amount on 4b. I know that cannot be exactly right and for the life of me can't remember the correct way to enter the info or was this an error on ATX's part corrected in later updates? Down to my last three returns.

It is 11:34 PM and I have spent all day fooling with this computer. I contacted my local isp tech who explained that new computers should be updated immediately as many times they have been on retailers shelves for months. I finally got this done with much prayer and a few unmentionable words. Sure enough the machine got to humming along. I then made another attempt to download Chrome. After a promising start it had stopped yet again. I left the download in place stuck as it was and typed in the Cortana search module Windows 10 has "Chrome will not download" and almost IMMEDIATELY the Chrome browser popped into place. Do you suppose Abby Microsoft had anything to do with this? I activated my existing account and all is well and I am now ready to face the 2020 tax season. I have survived yet another Microsoft OS learning misery.

You know I get the uneasy feeling you are absolutely correct. After trying to download Chrome on booting up the next day you get this handy reminder from Microsoft about how great Edge is and you ought to give it a try.:} Well it's a downloading. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It's creeping along but not quitting. I think I'll run to the liquor store and when I return it will have Chrome downloaded.

I have now moved almost my entire 2018 program to my new machine. The Microsoft Edge browser seems glacially slow compared to Chrome. I will be moving to a new provider in about a month increasing my speed to 10 mbs which is a huge upgrade for me in this rural area along with the wi-fi capability it will provide. Someone in the forum suggested sticking with an ethernet connection to the computer for increased security which I plan on doing. The current lack of speed seems to be the reason the Chrome download will not download. Oddly I have had no problems with other downloads and do not yet understand how to check the activation box in the Windows firewall which is likely blocking the Chrome installer.

Thanks to Abby I am now going to use the ATX transfer protocol she so kindly provided. I have a flash drive with 28.6 gigabytes available. Is this enough space for this? The ATX program itself is what 250 million bytes?

Well happy days are here again. The transition to Windows 10 is moving along pretty well considering my advanced age. It seems I will now be able to confront the new tax season with renewed zest and vigor. Would this were the case in other aspects of my life. This . Instead of this I thought y'all might need a little humor today.

I am going to delete McAfee as I actually prefer Windows Defender which has been getting great ratings for some time now. I formally used Zone Alarm which got so bad it blocked the ATX program.

Well the new machine is up and running. As yet I cannot get the Chrome browser to successfully download to replace the default Microsoft browser. It starts downloading and then simply stops uncompleted. Do any of you know of a solution to this? I am using the Mcafee security software furnished and suspect it is somehow blocking it.

I simply cannot let this opportunity go by without adding my two cents. A longtime client who is forever a couple of years behind in her filings called me last year after three years of not hearing a word from her. We got her 2014 and 2015 filed last year 2016 early this year and needed to file 2017 and 2018 this year as well. She and hubby have one of those wonderful hobby farms and have always gotten refunded and as a result no fines or penalties until NOW. She called me earlier this year concerned about a notice she got. She brought it in and on examination I burst into laughter as it was for some man in Colorado. We basically dismissed it. Unknown to me she had received notices concerning her 2017 return which was unfilled. She finally stirred herself to action and brought me her 2017 info along with a threatening notice from the Service. It was addressed to her husband. On checking the info and computations I noted no info for the wife. The Service computed the tax due on a single man over age 65. The couple has been married for 58 years. To my astonishment they computed tax and penalties due in excess of $8,000. I prepared their return and immediately efiled it (2017) showing tax due of $566.00. They will be penalized of course but were happy to find they did not owe over $8,000 !! I contacted the Service at the number provided and advised the agent the couple had efiled their return a day prior to the deadline outlined in the notice further advising that the return was on file at the Andover Service Center for their inspection. I frankly expect another crappy notice from the Service to arrive and the client will simply have to call them this time around if it does. It really makes you wonder how many poor souls panic and pay these notices off even though they surely are riddled with factual inaccuracies.

I think I used killdisc on one some years back. It completely destroyed the OS.

I now have two older computers to dispose of. Some years back I used a software program to destroy the Windows OS on one of my computers I gave to charity. I plan to give both of these to Goodwill but am uncertain if a software solution is the way to go. I am not knowledgeable enough to remove the hard drive and destroy it. Any ideas?

Well I went ahead and bought another Compaq which I have never had any problems with. Of course, that is an HP. I really hate having to relearn a new OS. I am going to contact ATX tech support to see if I can download my 2018 program to the new machine as I like most have offsite (flash drive) backup. I'll keep the old Windows but will leave it off the net. My thought was I could move needed files over by a USB cable but evidently not.