Gail in Virginia

I think that I could come up with several pages of things I would change if I could, but being president does not provide enough power to change most of them. I like Jainen's suggestions for tax reform, but I think the first legislation I would introduce would be the Robert Heinlein Plain Speaking Bill: If legislation or regulation is not written clearly enough to be understood by someone with a sixth grade reading ability, it is not to be considered constitutional. It should not be so difficult to understand the laws that we all live under. And this would apply to tax law and regulation along with everything else. Heinlein had some other good ideas also, although some of them were mutually exclusive! And by the way, I think I would change the time one way or another and leave it - if you want to get up earlier in the summer, go for it!

If the garage is heated/cooled, I would be inclined to allow it as it will increase the efficiency of the building envelope. If the garage is not heated/cooled, I would think that the door between the garage and house would be the one that should be insulated.

Karen, I am sorry for your loss. I hope someone more knowledgeable than I about this will chime in. Is there a website that offers any information about the tax treatment of the amounts received for the class action lawsuits? The ones that I have seen this year have had that and I have found somewhat helpful information there. As far as the name problem goes, my guess would be to try Hernandez as the last name but I don't know that either.

Good job, Ken! Glad you were able to help Ken out. Once upon a time, this child would have qualified her for HOH, but that was before the Qualifying Child and Qualifying Relative rules were established several years ago. Could the other bus drivers have been in similar circumstances 10 years ago?

I assume this is the definition you mean My link and not the one listed in Wikipedia.

And I label everything possible also because it can affect the way the state income tax is calculated here in Virginia. We used to have a Married Filing Separate on a Combined Return filing status, which has morphed into the spousal tax adjustment and is dependent on both taxpayers having income. Therefore, it can be important to distinguish joint, filer and spouse when entering interest, dividends and stock sales. I had not even realized their was a diagnostic for this because I am so used to putting it in for everything.

Thanks for sharing this. It would be nice if IRS would make an official announcement, even if just to say they don't know when people will start getting refunds in this situation.

As I said, "This is an optional coverage that the employee pays for." The premiums were paid with after-tax dollars.

Client is an employee for railroad. He received a payment from United Transportation Union Discipline Income Protection Program. This program provides a set amount of pay while an employee is unable to work because of certain disciplinary charges. This is an optional coverage that the employee pays for. The payment is reported on 1099MISC in box 3, and a letter came with the payment explaining that it is not subject to self-employment tax and that payment should be reported on line 21 as other income. However, there is also a letter that gives the amount he has paid each year for this coverage. The letter also states that in furnishing this information they have no knowledge as ti whether or not he may have utilized any portion of the total amount. Even though the letter talking about taxes does not mention excluding this income, I am wondering if he can exclude it to the extent of his cost of the premiums. Any one have any experience with this, or opinions?

Margaret, the obvious answer is that their 2009 tax return was wrong since no rollover occurred that year. Therefore, the 2009 should be amended to take the rollover off. The taxes that were paid can be forwarded to 2010 tax return, where you will report the rollover normally. To me, the bigger problem is that they have non-deductible contributions with no clear trail of 8606 forms to show what was put in after-tax. Good Luck!

He lived in the US for the whole of 2010, and yet was considered a non-resident. I don't see how he could be a resident of Virginia if he is not a resident of the US.

That is going to be a bit tricky since when I try to add a second 5405 on ATX I get an error message that says the form may not be duplicated. :wall:

And when you fill out the 8948 for reason you are paper filing, you can put that the husband's name/SSN did not match IRS records and he refused to provide information regarding the problem. If you let him know that is the reason you are using, maybe he will cooperate. Maybe not.

I am a dilettante - I like to do a little bit of everything. Unfortunately, for the last few years I have been trying to work and go to school, so most of my hobbies have been abandoned. But when I have time I like to sew, embroider, cross-stitch, crochet, refinish furniture, latch hook, cook, and I want to learn to knit. But church activities take a lot of my time, and even though my son is no longer a boy scout, I am still active as a Merit Badge Counselor. And during tax season, who needs a hobby?

The break does not present a problem - that is why the law phrased it as "any 5-consecutive-year period during the 8-year period." However, from May 2005 until July 2009 is only a little over 4 years. They do have to own a home for 5 consecutive years sometime during the 8 years before the purchase of the new house.

It does not have to be a degree, it can be another recognized education credential. This includes most trade school certifications, which is what she would get from Cosmetology School.

It depends. Is this a repair or a rebuild of the engine? If it materially extends the useful life of the asset, you might be supposed to depreciate it.

I believe that you get an error message telling you that you can only have one 5405 per return.

I don't think you should call your wife a moron, even if she did not know that Janitor Bob always speaks the truth. It just isn't nice. I hope she doesn't read this board. ;)

I would be inclined to file in the new state just to show that we did not make any money in that state. Otherwise, how do they know?

All we have here are a lot of stinkbugs. For some reason there has been a plague of them this winter. :angry:

One tool that I find helpful is to sort the e-files by status. If I click on the word status at the top of the list, the returns sort themselves according to their status rather than alpha by return name. This makes it easier for me to be sure I have found everything that has a status of created when I am getting ready to transmit returns.

We have a client (who I keep trying to convince to go somewhere else) who has three corporations. One is wholly owned by the husband (call it Hubby, Inc.) one is owned by the husband and wife (call it Couple, Inc.) and one is owned by the husband and an unrelated third party (call it Sucker, Inc.). Sucker, Inc. doesn't have anything to do with this particular question. All three are S corps. Hubby, Inc. bought a piece of land, which they then sold to Couple, Inc. Couple, Inc. spent some money fixing it up, and Hubby, Inc. did some work fixing it up for which they were not paid. Couple, Inc. then did a deed of gift to return the property to Hubby, Inc. Hubby, Inc. has the property for sale. How do I determine basis? Is there such a thing as a gift tax return for corporations? Why are they doing this to me? What forms do I need to file?

ATX works the same way. I think the check box is on the top of the page, above the form, on page 1 of the 8606. If you want to count it all this year, you mark the box. If you do nothing the program assumes that you are splitting it half in 2011 and half in 2012.

But even after today's program update, I still can't create an efile for a form 4868. I have a client leaving the country until after the 18th of April , and I want to file his extension before it slips my mind! I guess once the corporations are done, I devote an afternoon to calling ATX and straightening out some problems.