Gail in Virginia

However, I just looked at the instructions for Form 8615 and they say: For Form 8615, "unearned income" includes all taxable income other than earned income. Unearned income includes taxable interest, ordinary dividends, capital gains (including capital gain distributions), rents, royalties, etc. It also includes taxable social security benefits, pension and annuity income, taxable scholarship and fellowship grants not reported on Form W-2, unemployment compensation, alimony, and income (other than earned income) received as the beneficiary of a trust. So I think is is taxed at the parents' rate.

If a student drew unemployment this year, would that have to be included in the amounts of unearned income that are taxed at the parent's rate if that student is considered a dependent?

Facts and circuses, IMO. If they are using the same internet and cell phone they have always used, I would find it hard to justify deducting it this year, However, if because they have to stream video and do 'Zoom" type meetings with classes,and therefore they had to purchase more bandwidth, pay overages, or otherwise change their plan to accommodate a different type of teaching, I would. YMMV.

Yes, if you file a tax return and have marketplace insurance, you have to include the 1095-A information on the return even if the policy is shared by the whole family. However, you can allocate those costs any way that works our best for everyone. So even though you put the policy information on the kids return, you might allocate 0% of the premiums to the kids and all to the parents. Or the other way around - whatever results in the lowest tax bill for the family. Or any combination thereof. On my software there is a space at the bottom of the 1095A entry form for the shared policy allocation information. I assume ATX has something similar.

Good question. I don't know. My guess would be not because I don't think they are eligible for base housing or considered to have rank unless they carry it over from previous military service. But I cannot say definitively. Curious to see what others say.

I am wondering if you actually saw the letter, or he just told you what it said over the phone. My GUESS is that he did not get one or both of the stimulus payments from the IRS for last year because his account numbers was incorrect. If that is the case, the 2020 tax return is the place that is reconciled and he would file to get the recovery rebate credit now, which would result in a refund and the bank information being transmitted with the return when you electronically file. I would put in the correct amount of his social security, and any interest income he has because I don't think you can transmit a return that has NO income whatsoever. You may need to put a $1 entry in somewhere, I am not sure. I have not actually had to file one for the recovery rebate credit yet.

I did not think this was in Biden's proposed bill. I thought this was a separate proposal by Durbin and Axne. I feel sure that Biden will go along if the bill gets any traction but i think it is a separate issue - or did they propose it as an amendment to his bill?

The 1040 SR is a regular tax return only the print is larger. It is only available if you are over 65, I believe. I don't use ATX so I am not sure how it works in that program, but in my software there is a box on the info page to check if you want the return to print out in the 1040-SR format.

There is a difference between income and support. Gifts received are not income, but may factor into support calculations. Food stamps are not income, but they are support. Child support payments are not income, but they are support.

That's what they say - but I bet most of have instances of someone deceased before 1/1/20 receiving at least the first payment. My mother died 2/1/18, and received the first check payable in HER NAME DEC"D. We must not have notified them in time.

I think that Margaret is correct - part of the act allowed people who had already taken their RMD until August 31 to recontribute their RMD back to the same plan or roll it over into another plan. I think this was covered in Notice 2020-51 but I don't see offhand the specifics for how to show it on the return.

I have had many clients tell me they did not receive a 1099S but when I ask for the closing packet, lo and behold! there is the 1099S. I had an interesting one this week where the homeowner was deceased, and the mother was the sole heir (no will.) The 1099s was made out to mom, sole heir of son's estate and did not show any tax identification number! I had to call the title company to see whose tax id they actually reported this in - mom or the estate.

ProSeries also allows filing of the FinCen from within the program, although it isn't very intuitive for me to get to the form. But I agree that if the foreign assets are enough to trigger the 8938 you might as well go ahead with the FinCen form. I do wish the information carried from one form to the other though. That would make it a piece of cake.

I do a couple but they are relatively straightforward expats (one from Canada, and one from Jamaica) who provide all the information and i just enter it on the form for them. If it was anything other than bank accounts, I am not interested in spending that much time on something I will do that seldom.

So far I have not had any luck with e-filing amended returns. The only amended I have had since e-filing become available was a chenge in filing status and apparently that is not eligible for electronic filing.

Especially if it is one of the people that kept bugging me all summer about where there check was, because they did not want direct deposit but wanted this free money right away, then I will certainly charge to put the amount they got on their tax return.

This time of year with software being updated every day or two, I can't imagine that you won't have to recreate the e-file anyway because the version of the software it was created with is out of date by the time you file the return if you create the e-file ahead of time.

I think that I would put it on a schedule C and make COGS equal to the amount received. Not accurate, but this is a personal loss not a deductible one, and will at least hopefully stop the IRS from sending a letter

Is there adjusted gross income above the $150,000 threshold where the phase out begins? I still would have thought it would come down in even $100 amounts. The payments were not supposed to be offset so other than that I have nothing. Maybe someone else has an idea.

I know it is hard to believe, but I actually know people who do not have a cell phone or who have a cell phone with no data plan. Do companies that require tokens on a phone or a certain software installed pay anything towards the monthly cost of the data plan or the cell phone? Can you require someone to own a cell phone as a condition of employment?

The EIN for Railroad Retirement Board is actually on the RRB-1099R and the RRB-1099. It is 36-3314600 so it is different than the number Max provided for SSA.

That's for people like me that see their typos only after they hit Submit Reply.

You make some good points, Sara, and I am sure that is part of it. But I agree with Possi that the attitude of the IRS towards preparers, and the difficulty of getting information or resolving issues in a timely fashion contributes to the retirement fever I have been suffering from the last couple of years. My husband is a bit older than I am, and has been retired for a while now. I have hobbies that I have not participated in for a couple of years, books I want to read and new hobbies I would like to take up. I want to travel while I still can (although that isn't looking so hot for the next year either.) But mostly I am just tired of being expected to audit returns for the IRS because they don't have the time or the money or the staff to do it. That is not what I signed up for. If it weren't for the cost of health insurance, I probably would have retired a few years ago.

You should be able to file the 990 now - that is not considered an individual form. Is the date of the signature in 2021 or is it signed in 2020? I would check the signature date, and then re-create the e-file and see if it works.

I think that you can only have one set of 1099 forms per 1096. Since they now use different 1099s (MISC vs NEC) I believe you will have to do separate 1096s. I believe if you are printing the forms and not e-filing, you can print the 1096 from within the 1099 print manager and get them each to print. I don't know how you can e-file if you have both forms within the same file. Maybe someone else can answer that one.