Lee B

Well, no start up expenses. Be sure to do some basic cost segregation and capitalize appliances, furniture and perhaps landscaping separately from the Land and Bldg.

Margaret, my final thoughts on your client's situation are: 1. The rental of one house is a passive activity, which clearly does not constitute a trade or business 2. Your client's 2020 expenses are investment related expenses not business expenses 3. If your client's activities reached the level of being a trade or business then of course they would be currently deductible.

I don't have a problem with capitalized business start up expenses being amortized starting in January 2021. Prior to January 2021 your client does not have any assets placed in service. What would be the justification for deducting any expenses prior to that date?

If it was my client, all 2020 expenses would be capitalized. Are the 2020 expenses i.e., ipad, phone, phone line personal ?

Since you are preparing returns in an office located outside of Oregon, the Oregon requirements don't apply to you. Therefore, you have program issue to overcome.

Oregon requires licensing for every tax preparer since 1973.

Why is their health insurance so much? I am 74 and my wife is 71 and our combined insurance premiums, Medicare Part B, Medicare Supplement and Medicare Part D is about $8,000 per year. Even adding Dental and Vision coverage for both of us the total annual would still be less than $11,000

When I still used ATX, I always excluded the ATX Program and all related files from the scrutiny of my firewall and my antivirus program,

You have 2016 and 2017 returns that you are waiting on?

Copied from The Taxpayer Advocate Blog: "But the 2021 Filing Season Has Been Challenging At Best Some additional complexities this year necessitated manual reconciliation of returns, slowing down processing times. For example, any inconsistencies between the IRS’s records for the EIP and the recovery rebate credit (RRC) reflected on a taxpayer’s 2020 Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR, U.S. Tax Return for Seniors, require manual review and corrections before processing. A manual review of a tax return is also required if the taxpayer elected the 2019 “income lookback” to calculate the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC). More specifically, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, signed into law on December 27, 2020, included a lookback rule allowing taxpayers to elect to use their 2019 income for the purpose of calculating their EITC or ACTC on their 2020 tax return. Due to the late passage of the law, the IRS was unable to timely adjust its forms and computer systems before the start of the filing season to allow for systemic processing of returns where taxpayers elected to use 2019 income. Thus, the IRS had to create a manual process instead. Any corrections to the RRC or verification of the 2019 lookback election is being manually processed by IRS’s Error Resolution System (ERS) unit, and the IRS is placing the associated return in “suspense” until an IRS employee can review it to verify the 2019 income or the prior EIP. Essentially, the return is in a queue waiting to be reviewed and processed, and during this time, it is not evident on IRS systems why the return is being held. Holding returns has resulted in a significant increase in ERS inventory and delays in taxpayer refunds. As of the week ending April 9, 2021, more than eight million individual returns (Form 1040 or 1040-SR) were in suspense status awaiting review and manual processing. For context, during a normal filing season when the ERS unit is fully operational, it does not suspend returns, as it is able to review and process them as they come in. In addition to the eight million returns of individuals in the IRS ERS unit, there are millions of other returns in other IRS units also awaiting manual processing: 5.3 million individual 2019 and 2020 paper returns; 4.7 million individual returns with processing errors or fraud identification issues requiring responses from taxpayers; and 11 million business and other returns. In total, the IRS is now holding over 29 million returns for manual processing. As one would expect, IRS employees are stretched thin working through the manual processing of these returns, so if a taxpayer’s return is pulled for manual processing, there will be delays."

See Pub 946 - Since the GVW of an F550 is over 6,000, it is not listed property and 280F limitations do not apply - 5 year life.

Year ago before I stopped using Norton, I had a Norton Program Software update that corrupted my Windows Registry twice before my Tech Guy did a system restore twice to get me going again.

Eligible retirement plans that can make coronavirus-related distributions include all plans that are able to receive plan rollovers. Eligible retirement plans include: Traditional IRAs Roth IRAs Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRAs Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) IRAs Salary Reduction Simplified Employee Pension (SARSEP) IRAs Profit-sharing plans 401(k) plans Pension plans 403(b) plans Governmental 457(b) plans 403(a) plans If her distribution was from a qualifying plan, it doesn't matter what she used the money for, she still gets the 3 year spread.

It sounds like she qualifies for the 3 year spread on her retirement distributions. I would deduct the attorney fees, but the architectural fees are in limbo to be capitalized if and when the project comes together.. I would also deduct the business expansion related travel expenses. I have seen this before with clients who emotionally can't let go of a business failure.

I don't recall this being discussed before but the FFCRA Credits are also available for the Self Employed. See FAQs 60 - 69 https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/special-issues-for-employees#specific-provisions-related-self-employed-individuals

schiralli, I really appreciate you stepping up and taking one for the team with this client. I know the law of averages kicks in at some point, but I have been really fortunate so far this year.

This is a minor expansion of the FFCRA credit claimed when you file your quarterly 941. What's unclear is if you offer this optional benefit are you required to offer all of the other covid 19 2 week sick leave benefits?

I did check with one client and her balance due was debited in the correct amount on the scheduled date.

"The Internal Revenue Service is providing penalty relief for an employer’s failure to deposit employment taxes with the IRS on a timely basis. In Notice 2021-24, the IRS amplified prior guidance from 2020. The new notice provides relief for employers who are required to pay qualified sick leave wages and qualified family leave wages, along with qualified health plan expenses that can be allocated to those wages, as mandated by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which was amended by the COVID-related Tax Relief Act of 2020, along with the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021." https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-21-24.pdf

I don't believe it's an IRS requirement since Drake rolls over DL details every year.

That's what I have done. I have scaled back to the point where it's sustainable, a bit less than half time. I plan to keep working as long as my health will let me, since I still enjoy what I do and I like almost all of the clients I have left. Admittedly, it's much easier to do this, since my practice is small business write up, payroll, and business entity tax returns. The only personal tax return clients that I have left are people that I like.

If ATX still worked like it used to prior to 2012, I would have never left for Drake.

Yeah, I am back to working 3 1/2 hours a day now

Refundable Credits usually go through what is sometimes called "enhanced electronic screening" looking for indications of fraud or other malfeasance. If your clients check"Where's My Refund?" and the status is "processing" that means their return has been designated to be reviewed by a live person, and there is no way to know when that might happen.

Rita, when you are looking the pdf, save it in a different format, if you use Word then save it as a word document. then print it out. There also several other formats that you could also save it as.