Gail in Virginia

Does her social security card show the hyphenated name? If she has been paper filing, there may have been a mismatch all along. In my experience this match does occur when e-filing, because often my mis-matches are women who go by their husband's last name but have never actually changed their social security record from their maiden name (or previous husband).

No matter how hectic it gets, you need to remember to take care of yourself along with everyone else. You mean a lot to us here on this board, KC, and I hope that you can take enough time to hug the grandkids, love your husband and tune out the fighting so you can de-stress yourself. And remember, de-stress can be arranged to spell desserts! So have a frikken banana pie and smile :P

:bday:

I assume this is a state return. IRS cleared means that IRS has passed it on to the state; when it is accepted it should show accepted.

A belated :bday:

A belated :bday:

And if the return is being filed using a power of attorney, I believe that you can electronically file but must complete form 8453 to send the power of attorney form to the IRS each year.

"Question: Patience Scrivener, a rising star among tax preparers, is known for getting her tasks done quickly and efficiently. She has prepared the returns for Acme Machine for the past five years. In 2007 Acme purchased four new machines for $100,000 each. To save record keeping time, Patience recommended that Acme group the four machines and depreciate them under the General Asset Account (GAA) rules for five year property. Unfortunately, business slowed down and Acme had to sell two of the machines for $10,000 each at the end of 2008 to raise cash. The machines which were sold had accumulated depreciation of $52,000 per machine, with a remaining basis of $48,000 per machine. How are the realized losses of $38,000 per machine reported in 2008? Answer: The realized losses are not reported. Acme must report ordinary income of $10,000 per machine on Form 4797 in 2008. The machine sales are reported showing a cost basis of zero. The group of assets is depreciated in future years as if the sale of the two machines had never occurred. According to IRS Publication 946, How to Depreciate Property: when you dispose of property included in a GAA, neither the unadjusted depreciable basis, nor the depreciation reserve account of the GAA, is affected. You continue to depreciate the account as if the disposition had not occurred. The property is treated as having an adjusted basis of zero, so you cannot realize a loss on the disposition. Any amount realized on the disposition is treated as ordinary income, up to the total of the unadjusted depreciable bases of all the property in the GAA." The question and answer above is from NATP's You Make the Call feature in their weekly newsletter. According to them, if you have grouped everything as one asset, you are stuck with that and cannot make a partial disposition.

:bday:

Hooray!! Thanks for the heads up! :lol:

We last used TaxWise in 2004 before switching to ATX. At that time, TaxWise was a forms based program, not input sheets. We switched because they were not responsive to complaints about how forms worked. We had tried Drake and did not like the input sheet based software. Did TaxWise change to input sheets?

:bday:

:bday:

The rate changed on October 1, 2009. For the first 9 months, it was $52 for transportation workers, and for the last three months it was $59. You can't use the $59 rate for the whole year until 2010. For 2009, you have to either use the lower rate or break it down between periods.

I am not sure what you are asking about. Was the rental condo in joint name? If it was not, if he owned it separately, did he have a will? If he did not have a will, did he have a previous marriage and did he have children from that previous marriage? I would be concerned to find out why the interest came with that designation. Whose SSN or EIN was on the 1098? I can't say that I have had a similar situation, but this is not enough information to have any opinion about anything.

Thanks, Catherine, that one is one of my favorites! :P

Patton staggered home very late after another evening with his drinking buddy, Paddy. He took off his shoes to avoid waking his wife, Kathleen. He tiptoed as quietly as he could toward the stairs leading to their upstairs bedroom, but misjudged the bottom step. As he caught himself by grabbing the banister, his body swung around and he landed heavily on his rump. A whiskey bottle in each back pocket broke and made the landing especially painful. Managing not to yell, Patton sprung up, pulled down his pants, and looked in the hall mirror to see that his bum was cut and bleeding. He managed to quietly find a full box of Band-Aids and began putting a Band-Aid as best he could on each place he saw blood.. He then hid the now almost empty Band-Aid box and shuffled and stumbled his way to bed.. In the morning, Patton woke up with searing pain in both his head and bum and Kathleen staring at him from across the room. She said, 'You were drunk again last night weren't you?' Patton said, 'Why you say such a mean thing?' 'Well,' Kathleen said, 'it could be the open front door, it could be the broken glass at the bottom of the stairs, it could be the drops of blood trailing through the house, it could be your bloodshot eyes, but mostly ..... it's all those Band-Aids stuck on the hall mirror.

I know there is a lot of uncertainty about estates and stepped up basis right now, but it might be to his son's advantage to inherit the business IF stepped up basis is available at the time that the father dies.

This is not a personal residence for client or son, if I am reading post correctly. Therefore, you must be talking about taking this as investment interest on the schedule A. If the father is not the one who will profit from the investment, I am not sure he can take the deduction even though he pays the interest. Instead this appears to be an additional loan to the son.

Shooting from the hip, Catherine, I think that mortgage companies only report points on original mortgage, not on refinances because the points on a refinance have to be amortized over the life of the loan. Also, a hardship withdrawal from a 401(k) should be defined within the plan documents and refers to the ability to withdraw the money without a separation from service. It will still be subject to taxation and penalties for premature distribution even if the plan document has a provision allowing her to make the withdrawal as a hardship. Someone else might be more knowledgeable, but this is my opinion for what it is worth. :dunno:

:bday:

This is the first year that Virginia has accepted business returns at all through its e-file program, and so far they are only accepting C corporations. However,while CCH and Taxwise have both qualified to efile business returns, ATX has not. I was rather disappointed in that, and I do hope that it is not a sign of what we can expect over the next few years. <_<

Try page 2 of form 8853. Most likely, the cost of the nursing home was more than this amount and it will not be taxable but this form should answer that question.

I use the client # field on the return manager to help identify information. For example, if I file an extension on a return, I type EXT in that field.

He looks mostly beagle - how big will he get with the 1/4 lab added in? Should be a smart, trainable dog with that mixture.