Lee B

Well since I have already raised my fees and cut back over the years, my tax season has gone fairly well

I totally agree with the exception of small partnership returns.

Copied from The Federal News Network: "The IRS is preparing for its first wave of nonvoluntary layoffs, as part of a government wide reduction in force (RIF). The IRS has begun implementing a Reduction in Force (RIF) that will result in staffing cuts across multiple offices and job categories,” the agency told employees in an email Friday afternoon. “None of the reductions were made today based on individual performance. Employees laid off through a RIF notice will have 30-60 days before separating from the agency. This action is being taken to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the IRS in accordance with agency priorities and the Workforce Optimization Initiative outlined in a recent Executive Order,” the IRS wrote. With limited exceptions, all actions with an effective date after April 4, 2025, will be canceled." It appears that my previous "Return to Work" post was a temporary response to Court Orders

What do you mean by it's monthly duty cycle is only 3,000?

I dropped my fax line several years ago due a lack of use and I switched my land line to Google Voice back in November, thanks to Abby. I have used both HP and Canon printers over the years although I think my next printer will be a Brother based on everyone's posts.

My understanding is that the IRS uses the DOB information in the SSA Database?

"Acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause said in a call Wednesday that the agency will give these employees the option to return to their jobs by April 14 — the day before the tax filing season deadline — according to IRS employees familiar with the call. The IRS also sent an email Wednesday afternoon, notifying the approximately 7,000 probationary employees it recently fired. “You are receiving this email as one of approximately 7,000 probationary employees who were separated from service and have been reinstated in compliance with recent court orders,” the email states. “At this time, while you remain on administrative leave, you will soon receive instructions for how to return on full-time duty by April 14." It will be interesting to see how many actually return to work? I am somewhat encouraged that they are following the court orders.

Depending on the laws of your state, to the extent that the assets of the deceased spouse exceeded her liabilities the surviving spouse was obligated to pay the credit card bill.

"Accounting software company Open Ledger has launched a new product in time for tax day. Meet PokéTax, a game that helps make tax filing quite fun. Instead of tax forms, users take on Tax Trainers — gym leaders — representing different parts of a tax form, such as income, deductions, and credits. Each leader asks questions that help players complete their tax forms. Once you finish your PokéTax run, we guide you to the IRS Direct File site to officially submit,” Open Ledger co-founder Pryce Adade-Yebesi told TechCrunch. The game is an adaptation of the open source Pokémon game called Pokémon Showdown, and he promised this was not an April Fool’s joke. The game has an AI assistant that helps organize users’ responses, and players can win badges — discover new deductions — as they take on the Tax Trainers. " Darn it, this game is in Beta and cannot be used to file a tax return

Voluntary reporting of income with an ITIN is going to dry up like a river in the Mohave Desert.

Form 1040 instructions page 33: " Recapture of an education credit. You may owe this tax if you claimed an education credit in an earlier year, and either tax-free educational assistance or a refund of qualified expenses was received in 2024 for the student. See Form 8863 for more details. Check box 3 and enter the amount and “ECR” in the space next to that box"

Statement from New York: NYS will reject e-filed returns if the DL or ID card information is not included with the tax return. This applies to all main form submissions and standalones (Forms IT-201, IT-201-X, IT-203, IT-203-X, IT-214, NYC-208, and NYC-210). This applies to both the prime taxpayer and spouse taxpayer (when present). The user can also indicate that they do not possess a valid driver license or state-issued ID. NYS requires that the DL or ID card information be collected when available for extensions and estimated tax payments (Forms IT-370 and IT-2105). The user can also indicate they do not possess a valid driver license or non-driver ID card or they did not provide a driver license or non-driver ID card. NYS will reject e-filed returns if the DL or ID card information is not properly formatted when issued by NYS. NYS-issued DL or ID cards contain only numerics and are 9 digits in length. This applies to all main form submissions, extensions, and standalones (Forms IT-201, IT-201-X, IT-203, IT-203-X, IT-370, IT-214, NYC-208, and NYC-210). NYS will reject e-filed returns that do not include the three-character document number for the prime and/or spouse(when present) when a NYS issued DL or ID card is entered. This applies to all main form submissions, extensions,and standalones (Forms IT-201, IT-201-X, IT-203, IT-203-X, IT-370, IT-214, NYC-208, and NYC-210).

Probably because the I D requirements are state specific?

Echoes of Jim Morrison singing "The End"

I use Drake and I had to use a 5329 last week although it was for a premature distribution penalty exception. I had to click on a link in the 1099 R entry worksheet.

Tax Notes has an article about this: https://www.taxnotes.com/featured-news/trump-border-czar-says-hes-hopeful-irs-agrees-share-data/2025/03/25/7rt6r

Yes except that there is a very long backlog for processing amended returns. I agree with Bart

You probably have a worksheet for Form 5329. The details flow through Part VII of 5329.

Pub 502 "Qualified Long-Term Care Services Qualified long-term care services are necessary diagnostic, preventive, therapeutic, curing, treating, mitigating, rehabilitative services, and maintenance and personal care services (defined later) that are: 1. Required by a chronically ill individual, and 2. Provided pursuant to a plan of care prescribed by a licensed health care practitioner. Chronically ill individual. An individual is chronically ill if, within the previous 12 months, a licensed health care practitioner has certified that the individual meets either of the following descriptions. 1. The individual is unable to perform at least two activities of daily living without substantial assistance from another individual for at least 90 days, due to a loss of functional capacity. Activities of daily living are eating, toileting, transferring, bathing, dressing, and continence. 2. The individual requires substantial supervision to be protected from threats to health and safety due to severe cognitive impairment. Maintenance and personal care services. Maintenance or personal care services is care which has as its primary purpose the providing of a chronically ill individual with needed assistance with the individual’s disabilities (including protection from threats to health and safety due to severe cognitive impairment). "

Yes, I and some of my clients use it to make our estimated payments and it works quite well

"T" informs the IRS that the holding period was not met, but the distribution is exempt from the penalty for early withdrawal because it has been paid to a beneficiary. The initial withdrawn contributions are tax-free; however, distributed earnings are taxable." You would have to go back to the issuer of the 1099 R and find out why they used a Code T?

For years my electricity bill has been paid via automatic debit from my checking account. Two years ago, I received a past due notice. I had to do some detective work and my utility didn't want to admit what had happened. It turns out they had been using a third party service to handle all of their automatic payments . The third party service had computer problems which skipped 2 days worth of automatic payments. It made me mad because our utility co had never notified us of the use of a third party service. So electronic Payments can malfunction too

If he deposited the paychecks, he could go to his bank and get a copy which would give him a name and address.

It highly unlikely that the SSA hasn't finished processing 2023 W 2s. Perhaps filing Form 4852s for these 3 W 2s would be the best solution.

How would anyone know whether a QM PIN is legitimate or not?