RitaB

If you have identified the one student for which they claimed the AOC five times, and you want to amend 2016, I think I'd just focus on the one student, and not send anything regarding the other two.

Well, I can now... Hahahaha, thanks, Judy.

It would on actual expenses.

That may be for the "Prospective Look at 18" thread. And I hope it happens closer to 2018 than 2118. And call me pessimistic, but I'm not sure our institutions of higher learning will get that right either. Do you guys not entering total miles never have an occasion to use actual vehicle expenses? Or Like-Kind Exchanges on vehicles?

Yeah, I couldn't really think of much you or Rich hadn't covered. In general, education credit problems and ACA problems are the most frustrating to me. I suspect many, many returns are sliding thru with incorrect credits, exemptions from SRP, etc. You just do the best you can to prepare correct returns and watch business go down the street to preparers who don't know or don't care. And let's be honest here, most people don't want their returns prepared correctly. They want their taxes won. And until it is a problem to submit a crappy return, we are walking into the wind. Oh, well. Walk on.

My biggest complaint with ATX was that I couldn't enter a zero on Form 8606 Line 19 for a client with a ROTH distribution Code J. He had a qualified distribution that included earnings. Code Q would have been appropriate, but since it wasn't Code Q, blah, blah, blah. You can print any positive or negative integer in that blue box but not a zero. Sometimes you want to see a zero in a box. My client did. So I wound up cutting a "zero" out with scissors and gluing it in the box. Ran a copy for the client. Sure did. ATX said IRS would understand that a blank box meant zero. They have more confidence in the mind reading ability of IRS than I do. We'll see. Similar problem with Form 8962, column f. I could not create the e-file allocating 0% of APTC on a return. I had to use 1%. I guess you could say I had zero problems. Arr. Arr.

So yesterday afternoon I called @Possi to see if they survived, and they were DRINKING AND HAVING MASSAGES. Wait, what? I thought I was your best friend, not Cynthia. I see how it is. Then I went home, had five little candy bars, and whoever named them "Fun Size" clearly did not understand fun. Then I hiked around the farm smiling and enjoying the sun, thankful for a good season. Discovered a new baby calf, which is always like Christmas morning to me. Thanks to all of y'all for everything you do for me. And everybody please stick around because I need you all year.

Yes, I add the TN FAE to the personal return.

I have a lot of trouble with ATX getting the right info to the TN FAE 170 from the federal on my SMLLCs. Even if the box is checked at top of schedule, "Hey, look at me, I'm an LLC," if there is another non-LLC Sch C or Sch E in the return, ATX wants to send everything on them to the TN return, too. Also, I have to do a lot of finagling getting the business name and EIN to the TN return. Program enters couple's names and a SSN on the TN return. It takes longer than it should. Don't know if I am not holding my teeth right or what, but I'm blaming ATX.

"This is the worst" with a smile on our faces. Yes. Hahahaha, oh my, that's me. And what is it with people doing tax planning for 2018 this week?? It happens every year. Every. Single. Year. And by May 1, I memorialize everything: Do a fake "planning return," send a copy of it with Forms 1040-ES, and this time next year, they will still be completely shocked that they owe.

"If I sell my rental, what is that going to do to me next year?"

Aaaaannnnnd, that's why you were awarded the first-ever Tax Stud Star! And, yes, when they love us it goes a long way.

Hey, more tax return to do! Ok by me. No free lunches either.

Ok, I think I've managed to get these folks' returns done and will be able to e-file both. I hope this post will help someone down the road, because this is the most frustrated I've ever felt reading directions in my entire illustrious career. I had to keep telling myself there is a solution, keep going. I had to allocate something more than 0% in the parents' Form 8962, lines 12 - 23, column f, because ATX does not recognize zero as a number. (Not sure if that's ATX's fault, but zero is a number.) So I allocated 1% of APTC to parents and 99% to kid. The other columns on 12 - 23 on the parents' form are blank because their MAGI exceeds four times the poverty level. It took me a very long while to figure out that on line 30, e, f, and g are the allocations for the return you are working on, NOT the allocations for the return of the person whose SSN you just entered in 30 b. I stumbled onto that one because of the Joe and Alice example on page 18 of the instructions for Form 8962. I don't know how else I would have known that because ATX does not use the percentages; you have to manually figure your numbers for 12 - 23. This loophole seems too bad to be true, and the taxpayers paid BlueCross and BlueShield of TN $17,000 for these folks' policy that we would not have if my clients had known that the kid was no longer a dependent. It is a great consolation to me to know that these people are just oblivious - they were not trying to game the system, and didn't even use the insurance. They only signed up for it because they were terrified of the SRP. On second thought, that may be exactly why they are allowed to allocate as they wish. Maybe the lawmakers knew mistakes would be made in applying for the subsidy. H*ll if I know, but I have never felt more like Loophole Lefty, and I'd just as soon not.

Dadgummed 426,000 in sales proceeds on 24 short term transactions with a whopping $926 collective gain. There's that advisory fee on page 23.

This. It's a piece of paper. We've all done it. I can't wait to see what I did this season.

I believe you have it exactly right, and yes, it's a big wow, and I bet you remember that Eagles' song "Lunch Will Keep Us Alive". Bacon. We need a bacon per diem.

We have straight up corrupted you.

Oh, were Mom and Father still married? Then, MFJ might be the way to go. I assumed they were divorced. I also hate EIC returns, but I don't think there are any alarm bells at IRS.

If a kid provided over half his own support, Mom cannot claim the dependency exemption for the kid. If the Mom can claim a kid, and paid over 1/2 the expenses of maintaining the residence, she can use the HOH status. There is no support test for EIC, so Mom can "use" (for lack of a better word) the kids for EIC. I feel like there's probably no HOH (but she can complete Worksheet 1 in Pub 501 and see) or dependency exemption for Mom. But the windfall EIC, yes. https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501#en_US_2017_publink1000220797

You can dig to China with a spoon.

You know the difference between engineers and accountants? Accountants know they're not engineers.

My BFF @Possi and I met on TheTaxBook site, and have all but left there because of the abrasive personalities of some. Can't tell you how much we both enjoy the company here. Also, every time we want to kill someone we call one another and vent. Half the time we can't even hear what the other is saying because we're laughing so hard. Snorting actually. "Laughter does good, like medicine..."