Gail in Virginia

I am going to the forum in Orlando and would love to hear from anyone else who is going to be there.

If I am not mistaken, housing allowance is only available to ordained clergy, and it doesn't sound like he is ordained.

Maybe with 1000 posts, she is still an ATXaholic - she just isn't anonymous anymore!

I have a client who is a Canadian citizen, and works and lives in the US (minister!). When he came in to get his TDF90-22.1 completed this year, he asked me what I knew about social security/ RSP offsets. Well, nothing. I have looked at the social security web site at the summary of the agreement between the US and Canada and I don't see anything about offsets. Is someone out there aware of any thing like this? Is there any offset that would benefit him?

Congrats, JB! "May you live as long as you love, and love as long as you live!"

Me neither.

Actually, if the price on Quill for this particular cartridge is about average, you could afford to buy the machines and throw them away if this is the cartridge you use - they price a replacement cartridge at $76. So even if you can afford the printer, you might mot be able to afford the ink.

I always heard that anyone who represented himself had a fool for a client. :read:

But isn't that pretty much standard licensing language for all software? Most of them basically say that you don't own anything, they just let you use it.

I don't think JB posted over the summer last year either - but I don't want to wait until tax season to find out if she said YES or not. The suspense is killing me - this is way more interesting than American Idol!

When my son was little, he used to go with both me and his father to vote, and then usually he would go with both my parents when they voted. I always told everyone I was raising him to be a good Democrat - vote early, and vote often! :lol:

I have a long way to go - but I am working on it. Maybe by this time next year...

I love the new things I learn on this board. This looks like a great way to quit wasting paper on those ridiculous faxes that come in every night and are waiting for me in the morning, offering to buy the business and send all the employees to Hawaii for 1.99 or some such. I will have to look into this.

Me Too!! :spaz:

If I use that strategy, I can save a lot of time, because most of my clients would never call again. I wonder why I didn't think of that before? I can really work efficiently now!

I like the coconut chocolate chip cookies my sister used to bake for me. She moved, and I don't get really good cookies any more.

BTW, I do not offer this as fact, but I read somewhere the other day that XP is only going to be available until June, then Microsoft is going to insist that computer sellers go to Vista. This might not affect your local computer seller, but probably will affect the biggies like Dell and HP. If you do have to go the Vista route, get as much RAM memory as you can - Vista is a hog when it comes to RAM.

It is not only a matter of whether you know enough to transfer your data, but how efficient it is for you to spend your time doing it. I am pretty geeky, but when it comes to the office computers I find it more efficient for me to do enough tax returns to pay the professionals to come in and do the grunt work on our network. They charge more per hour than I do, but they can troubleshoot and fix a problem faster than I can and any time I am working on hardware/software issues is time that I am not working on taxes and accounting - the things that I earn my living doing.

When I applied for exempt status for a couple of local PTO's I was told that box 12 was the more favorable status by the agent processing the applications, so I have continued to use that and to provide the support information. I think that I would go that route if I were you, but I would also try to get a look at which they checked when they initially applied for exempt status. I was under the impression from the agent I spoke to that organizations covered under box 13 might not necessarily be 501 (c ) 3, but might instead be covered under a slightly different code section resulting in contributions not being tax deductible. Not all organizations that are required to file 990 are charitable organizations.

Has this PTA applied for exempt status? Normally the answer to that question on schedule A should match whatever was put on the original application unless it has changed. And as a rule, I would use box 12 unless the organization could not show that the degree of support they get from the community qualified them for that category. This is a stronger argument for being a 501( c) 3, but does require you to complete the support schedule in the next section every year. I suspect that the organizations who are checking box 13 and putting the name of the school just don't want to be bothered with the more detailed information about where the money comes from that is required by box 12.

Just guessing, but were both children under 17? Was her total tax paid less than $600? If her tax was $453, and she got $300 each for the children, that would add up to $1053. I really have not studied stimulus payments and their interaction with EIC, etc enough to be sure of an answer to your question. You might try the IRS rebate calculator and FAQs for information.

You probably need to wait and see how the employer/stock broker reports everything. In my experience, which is something less than vast, the ordinary portion is usually in the W-2 and gets into ordinary income that way. The LTG portion is usually reported on a 1099B just like any other stock sale. The basis is what he paid fof the option initially plus the amount that he paid ordinary income tax on (the 15%.) But until he gets his paperwork, you cant' be sure how it will be reported.

Interesting. I had the same experience. I always save the activation code in case I need to reinstall the software, and yet it did not work when I tried to log on to ATX support. I wonder if they were all different? I also am leery of growing to depend on ATX's bulletin board after having it jerked out from under me so close to the end of the tax season. I have no reason to think that ERC would do that to me, and every reason to think that ATX might if it suited them to do so.

We used Drake one year, and I have to agree they have excellent support. They have the forms needed to do most income tax returns. However, they do not have the payroll forms (941, 940, W-2, 1099, etc.) and they do not have unusual forms like the treasury form for reporting interest in or authority over a foreign bank account. I have to say that I agree with ChrisCPA's attitude. I think that I will probably go ahead and renew before the deadline to get the discount. I have not seen anything that I like better, and even if Mel comes up with a program in time, I will probably run both programs the first year his is out.

It is the first year for the procedure for the IRS as well, and apparently the person you got did not know what they were doing. You should not need a new EIN, you just need to be set up on the system for the e-postcard. And you should not have to file for recognition if you are a 501 ( c) 13 because donations to it are not deductible anyway. Good luck with finding the right person to talk to - and if it should turn out that the IRS website is wrong about what to do, please keep us all posted! :dunno: