Gail in Virginia

Three years from now.

You could make an election on the SE to report $1600 of self employment income even though they had a loss of $75 on the schedule C, subject to certain conditions, and that would have given them "earned" income for purposes of EIC. However, I don't believe that you can use gross income from a schedule C and ignore expenses to get an earned income figure for EIC purposes. That is one reason that due diligence includes checking for expenses on self-employment.

I think that you are on the right track, Michael. 1040NR is for non-resident aliens, and while he was not here legally he was resident. I think that they could file MFJ for 2014, but if it doesn't make very much difference I would probably protect her by doing MFS.

I have never had a conversion program that converted EVERYTHING. Usually it does a great job on taxpayer information, which is helpful, but so far I have not had a program that actually carried forward installment sales, capital loss carryovers and NOLs in a manner that doesn't require a good bit of manual entry. Estimated payments and balances due/refunds from state returns are also problematic. Having the new to ATX person input everything on last year's return does three things: trains the person on ATX, eliminates any problems with conversion, and double checks that those returns were done correctly on UT, and would have been handled correctly on ATX. Of course, if three were more clients or more complicated returns, it might not be worth the time involved.

They did a story on this on the CBS Sunday morning news show. I loved it, and would love to go see the contest someday.

And that reminds me - I know that a few places we went to when I went with the middle school field trip, the boys wearing boots had to remove their footwear to make it through the metal detector. Rich's point about the bags is a good one, and I would avoid large metal objects on your clothes (belt buckles, shoes with a metal shank) because of the metal detectors at a lot of tourist sites. I am assuming they are still in use; I don't get to DC as often as I would enjoy.

It has probably been 30 years since I was there, but I remember the National Zoo as being one of my favorite places to visit in DC. More recently, I went with a school field trip to the museums and national monuments Plenty to do and see, I am sure your family will have a great time and the only problem will be that it will go by so quickly!

Does this result in your basis in the corporation potentially being greater than your basis in the assets placed in the corporation? Or less? Been a long time since I studied this.

I think this is one of those cases where intent actually matters, as Tom pointed out. And being military, there out to be some evidence that they were separated as well as under separate roofs. For example, while his wife was deployed was he the emergency contact for her, and while he was in the hospital was she the emergency contact for him? Did they actually agree to separate in 2010, and the deployment and hospitalization in 2011 were irrelevant to actual living arrangements? Or were they living together until circumstances separated them and they decided that they liked it that way? Facts and circuses matter.

I just returned from Jamaica through the Miami airport. I did not apply for Global Entry, but as far as I could tell all US Citizens were eligible to use the automated kiosks. And I was TSA pre-check on both the outgoing and incoming flights just through the luck of the draw since they randomly select people for that . At least, as far as I know it was a random selection. As always, your mileage may vary.

The ones I hate mix number 2 with number 3 - they don't call, they don't bring in their stuff when they say they will. Finally, two weeks before the deadline they show up with a mess, dump it on my receptionist and then call back every day to see if we "need anything else." Code for 'Where is my return?' And they never understand why they have to go on extension.....

According to Publication 3112, you must submit a new application if the "structure of the business has changed, requiring use of a new or different Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN),"

When we changed from sole-prop to S Corp, we had to get a new EFIN. We actually talked with someone at one of the IRS forums that summer, and they got us all squared away while we were there.

I don't know if they will get a separate form, but I understood that employers had to begin showing on the W2 the cost of health insurance provided. I thought perhaps that would be sufficient information for the ACA coverage requirement.

I think some people will milk it for all it is worth.

Try this link, Pacun. http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2009/12/jerry-springer.html We want to be sure you get the point of this rather large deduction.

An instructor I had recommended using your favorite song lyrics to generate passwords by using the first letter of every word to create the password. For example, if you like the song "Let it Be", the first line is "when I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me." This would generate the password wIfmitotMMctm. Not something likely to be randomly guessed. And if numbers or special characters are required, you can always substitute 4 for A, or 3 for E, etc.

I wonder if there is some correlation between people who like to play with words and people who like to play with numbers. It seems like this tax board has an exceptionally high percentage of people like me who love puns and other fun with words. Maybe it just correlates with intelligence.....

Thanks, everyone. No, 2013 was not the first year and normally she is very good about remembering. However, her husband had a tumor in his esophagus that the doctors were sure was cancerous, and in the stress of dealing with that she forgot to make the withdrawal. My one experience with the penalty for failure to take the RMD did not go well. We filed the form, paid the penalty, and then wrote asking for abatement of the penalty. Instead of abating the penalty, they kept billing the taxpayer to pay the penalty again. Every year, she got a letter abut this penalty and I would call the IRS and explain that a) it had been paid and we had requested abatement. Every year, they said send us something in writing - we did not get the first letter. So for 7 years, we tried to deal with this problem annually when she got a letter. And every year, someone apparently put a hold on the account for a year but did not resolve the issue. Finally, the woman died and we just ignored the letters after that. But it has left a bad taste with me for these penalties. I hope the procedures have improved in the last 15 years. At least i know enough now that I would take it up with TAS or attend an IRS forum and take it up face to face with someone if i started getting this run around again. I just really hate dealing with this.

I have a client that missed taking her 2013 RMD by about 20 days. She made the withdrawal in January, and went ahead and took this years also to make sure she did not miss it again. She wants to go ahead and deal with this now instead of waiting until filing her tax return next year (actually, she doesn't usually have enough gross income to file.) Should i go ahead and file a 5329, with a letter begging for mercy? Or how would you handle this?

Excellent article, Jack! Thanks for sharing.

And I had a client whose return we had electronically filed for several years using her current married name. All of a sudden one year, it would not file and the name that actually worked was her married name from a previous marriage. Sometimes the system has indigestion.

My biggest hesitation factor for OIH in the past has been that if you plan to sell your home within a few years, you will have to recapture depreciation instead of having the entire gain excluded. If I remember correctly, now that you can take a "standard" OIH deduction based solely on square footage, depreciation recapture is no longer a factor. I would not hesitate to take it, especially it the income earned in that space is significant.

You like to live dangerously, don't you Jack?

Just curious. If a person is incapable of performing necessary self-care, and would qualify for a nursing home but instead stays in a private facility, would the responsible parties need to do a 1099MISC to the private facility owner? I don't think it would be a W2 if it is not in their own home, and they are providing care for multiple persons. But if it is not a corporation, would a 1099 be required since it is not for services paid for 'in the course of your trade or business'?