Gail in Virginia

If he goes to the job site, and then has to go to the office, the distance from job site to office might be deductible. But I agree with you as far as deducting drive to job site - commuting.

Also, as far as I am aware the IRS is not matching 1099k's yet because they had so much trouble with them the one year that they tried.

Really, I think we all have efficient and inefficient clients. Some will be organized and concise no matter what format the data is in, and some can't organize their way out of a paper-bag no matter how much help and instruction we give them. I like technology, but given a choice I will take an organized client with paper copies over an electronic copies sent by the organizationally impaired any day.

I went over the bookkeeper's head and got the information, but really.

We (reluctantly) agreed to do someone else's W2s this year. I suggested they send me a back up of QuickBooks. instead they created a PDF report of the employee earnings summary. Apparently that means it goes to 1 page no matter how much information is on the report. I had to blow it up to 600% to be able to read the information. Why won't people send the information in the format that you ask for?

I am pretty sure we are all safe with Rita unless we give her a reason to hug us....

Am I the only one that thinks Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty every time I see SALT? Just wondered.....

My fees are almost identical to Black Bart's, which surprised me. Basic 1040, one W2, no CTC or EITC, and one state is $75 unless dependent child and I do parents' return, in which case $40. Extra forms, extra fees. Piss me off and you get your papers back at no charge. Make me nervous about your ethics and you get a referral to to elsewhere. Life is too short to put up with nonsense.

It's FIve O'Clock somewhere......

I think the IRS is limited in the collection methods it can use to collect the penalty, but not in their ability to enforce the penalty. Therefore, if he is ever due a federal tax refund, I believe that they can keep the refund as payment on the ACA tax. I have not had this situation, and I did not research, so this is just from my not necessarily reliable memory. And I also agree with ILLMAS, you should tell them they owe the money in a way that lets you keep a record, and if they choose not to obey the law, they are responsible for the consequences.

It sounds like the only problem is finding where in Drake you enter that the brother is disabled. I don't use Drake, so I probably can't help but is there a questionaire for due diligence that asks that? Or a box on the 8867?

The cutlery and dishes that we use here in the office are some that I got from a local bank back in the 70's - a place setting for every $50 I deposited into a savings account. Been a long time since I have seen a bank give a premium for making a deposit.

I received the following information from the Va Society of Enrolled Agents, as provided by IRS Stakeholder Liaison for our area: Key IRS information for tax professionals Message From Ley Mills, CSO - Stakeholder Liaison - Field Please read this IRS Message to the Tax Professional Community. It details how the IRS continues to review its procedures to better protect sensitive taxpayer data. As part of this effort, the IRS will request additional information from tax professionals who contact us through the Practitioner Priority Services or any toll-free IRS telephone number. We also strengthened protections for IRS e-Services and made updates to Forms 2848, Power of Attorney, and 8821, Tax Information Authorization. These changes will require you to inform clients if you are using an Intermediate Service Provider to access client transcripts via the Transcript Delivery System. Please share this message with other tax practitioners that may find it beneficial to their business.

I will bring my appetite and a spoon!

I thought that he could only do this if the parents CAN NOT claim him, regardless of whether they do. And if he has no income and fully relies on their support, they can claim him. Just out of curiosity, in 2018 when there are no dependency exemptions, will the situation be different?

I am so glad that your son got a second opinion! Sometimes it makes all of the difference.

I use ProSeries, and if my computer is idle, I have to re-sign in. And I have to change my password every 90 days (or something close to that, I don't really track it.) It is a nuisance and I don't think that it makes everything that much more secure but I try not to get upset over things that I cannot change.

I have never had this situation and I did no research, so don't take this as a definitive answer. The money received was income in the year of reimbursement and at that time the TP was a VA resident so VA could claim it as taxable income since they begin with federal AGI. If TP paid MD tax on this same income, they would be allowed the credit for taxes paid to another state on the VA return. I can also argue for the way the return was done and taking it as an adjustment. Or even that since VA and MD have reciprocal status, all of the income should have been reported on the Virginia return since that is now the state of residence even though it was taxable due to a deducted taken in MD. These kind of things are what make tax interesting. Is VA contesting the adjustment? If you take off the adjustment and put on the credit for tax paid to other state, how much tax difference does it make? In other words, is this a fight worth fighting with VA?

Merry Christmas! This community is such a gift - thank you all!

I have sent them in a #10 envelope for several years with no known issues.

Actually, I had difficulty with most of the information they requested and wound up having to get the activation code mailed to me by snail mail. The first credit card I tried to use was in just my name, but in fairness had only been open since August. The one in my husband's name as primary, with me as a user worked fine. Then when I got to the cell phone, which is with Verizon, and has been in my name since 199?, that didn't work at all. Not sure what the problem was but I am patiently waiting for the code in the mail.

Yeah, I find it difficult enough to do tax planning with the information my clients give me even when we have an appointment to go over their information and there is no major pending legislation. I am sure as heck not going to start giving planning advice on FaceBook. And especially not in anticipation of legislation that has not been signed into law. My crystal ball and tarot cards and psychic abilities combined are not that good. Maybe if I had rune stones too......

Maybe if you send them a message through Twitter.....

Also, after holding for three hours the average person is not going to be in a good mood when they talk to the representative that they finally have on the line. So as a courtesy to the representative, they don't put those people through.

If I am keeping the books using QuickBooks, I use that for the W2s. I like the way ATX works for W2s and 1099s if I just do them at the end of the year and don't already have the information on QuickBooks. I have used CFS in the past, and it is adequate as well. I may check out efilemyforms based on Catherine's comments.