Sara EA

From IRS FAQ" "The credit applies for property placed in service after December 31, 2021." (emphasis added) Since their solar was not in service in 2022, but was paid for in 2022, looks like no credit at all. The client should go after the installer for a price break, if that who was responsible for the permitting.

A taxpayer with an installment agreement will also have a state refund sent to IRS to apply to the balance.

All states connect with IRS for amounts owed to them (and IRS connects with the states). Thus if there is a refund from one but unpaid tax with the other, the refund goes to the overdue payment. In my client's case, the state had recorded the higher income from the amended return but not the higher withholding, told the IRS but not the client that money was due, and the IRS refund was diverted to the state.

Only donations over $5k need an appraisal. I think the amount the charity received in a sale only applies to cars, boats and airplanes. Anyone ever had a client donate an airplane?

Since the daughter had no income, did parents support her too? If so, she can also be a qualifying relative who doesn't have to live with the taxpayer.

Look at the support test. Did Mom provide more than half of daughter's support? If not, she's neither a qualifying child nor a qualifying relative regardless of student status.

The same thing happened to a few of my clients. No letters, nothing, just that notice on the website, like taxpayers are in the habit of checking irs.gov everyday like they check the weather. One client got an amended W2 in July 2021 for tax year 2018 that showed huge increases in income and withholding. There was a big IRS refund due, which still hadn't come after 18 months. I assumed the return was in the paper backlog in that cafeteria. (The amendment had to be paper filed because of the three year limit.) It turned out that the IRS had issued the refund but the state took it. The state recorded the higher income but not the higher withholding. Still working that out. Moral: It's not always the IRS's fault.

I think you need the exact time. As volatile as crypto is, it could have traded between $70 and $150 that day. Bitcoin, for example, sometimes seems to be going up at 9AM but by 5PM is down over $400 (and there is no trading day so who knows where it was before 9 or where it will be by midnight).

The really tricky part about valuing crypto is that the value changes by the second or nonosecond or something, and it trades 24/7. No looking up the closing price like with funds, or averaging the day's opening and closing prices for stocks. (One appraiser uses the average day's high and low of three crypto exchanges that exchange into dollars and then averages the averages--not sure if that cuts the mustard.) I would put the onus on the donee to research the price when the crypto left his/her wallet. If over $5k, there are few "qualified" appraisers to sign the necessary paperwork, so good luck with that. Few charities are equipped to take crypto anyway. For those that do, the client could get help from them to determine FMV. So yes, I am pretty much saying that it is NOT OUR PROBLEM to figure this out, other than making sure the client follows the rules (and explaining over and over that basis has nothing to do with it).

I think you're right. If the value of the pension is determinable (e.g., there's $x in it and there will never be more), then FBAR is required. If not determinable, like the client gets $x each year for life, then no FBAR.

Yes, and she will receive an SSA-1099.

To condense what others have rightly noted, the deceased never owned the house, the trust did, so neither he nor his beneficiaries had any basis. The trust got step-up when it received the home. When it sold, it had a gain of the difference between the net sales price and its basis. The gain is what will be distributed to the beneficiaries.

I don't think there's a box on the 1099R to indicate a qualified contribution. (Box 7 won't do it because there is no room for the dollar amount.) At any rate, typically the fiduciary sends the CLIENT the check, payable to the charity, and cannot know if the client ever turned it over to the charity. In UltraTax you enter the 1099R as usual and below there is a screen to enter the Qualified distribution and amount. It enters QCD to the left and subtracts the amount from taxable income. Does ATX have a code line for this?

Two tax breaks I wish had been extended are the charitable contribution deduction for nonitemizers and the increase in expenses eligible for the child care credit. I did not find abuse of the deduction for charities and was in fact surprised that so many clients said they gave zero. The maximum expenses allowed to calculate the child care credit started at $2k back in 1976 (and that didn't cover the cost of care back then) and increased to only $3k along the way.

We have had clients who called with intricate questions. When we told them they really should consult with their attorney, they pointedly said that attorneys charge too much and they were hoping to get answers from us (on a free phone call)! In this case it's a no brainer. They need an attorney or FA to set this up the right way to achieve whatever goals they have.

Years ago one of China's leaders stated that the US had gotten away from "making things" to pushing paper around. China's leadership, for all it flaws, is noted for its no-nonsense, see-things-as-they-are approach, so it made me think. So much wealth in this country is derived from stock options, swaps, derivatives, stock shorting, straddles, and now NFTs and cryptocurrency. How does any of that improve anyone's life, except for those on the winning end of those trades? Most of us have clients with brokerage statements that are dozens of pages of buys, sells, buys, sell, buy again, margins. All this paper amounts to nothing productive. Maybe China had a point. Note that the country has banned crypto.

The delay means we have time to educate our clients on the required record keeping. Dates of purchase and sale, original and sales prices, etc. We may stick a brief paragraph in our client letter. The purpose of this provision was to narrow the tax gap--a laudable goal. The law was passed months ago so I don't understand why it's suddenly too confusing to implement on time. The IRS is usually pretty good about publicizing changes, but I did not see much info released on the 1099K. Congress did not change the law, so IRS used its own authority to delay implementation. Maybe because they're now in the hot seat for failing to audit a certain person's returns that they were required to audit? Now they've given people who make plenty of money selling used goods they bought at yard sales and flea markets time to switch from accepting electronic payments to cash only.

Are you saying that you are changing your password because the system says you must? I just went through that, and there was some verbiage about the password requirements (however many characters, l number, l letter, etc). Is your attempted password compliant? Also, the new password can't resemble any you've used before. (If you started with Tax 88, the new one can't be Tax 89). Try coming up with a unique password and let us know how it goes.

Catherine, what will you enter on the line where you back out the cost of the item(s) to net $1 profit? Occasional gamblers with net losses who don't itemize can't just "back out" the money spent on their bets. Similarly, hobby income must be reported but expenses (including COGS) are no longer deductible. Infrequent sellers who market their treasures online (where they are most likely to be paid through a system that issues 1099ks), are selling an asset for which they have basis--typical Sch D stuff. You seem to want to protect your clients from your fees since you charge by the form. If your client has a Sch D activity, why are you reluctant to charge? Do the D and 8949 at no charge then. Better that than have an IRS notice to deal with a couple of years down the road. MC Breck has a great idea about entering the EIN so it's easier to prove that the 1099k amount was indeed reported on the return.

I don't get the advice to not report anything on the tax return if selling whatever at a loss when a 1099K is received. I suspect IRS computers will be busy matching those forms with tax returns and spitting out notices if matching amounts aren't found. If you paid $2000 for your couch and sold it for $1k, PayPal will send your a 1099K. I'd put it on the 8949 and code it as personal so the loss won't compute.

Like every time they stop at a fast food joint for lunch or a package store classified as "meals and entertainment"? I prefer the clients who classify half their entries as "ask accountant." My least favorite are those who don't have separate business debit/credit cards and just give you their bank statements. Everything is in there--groceries, gas, shoes, dating services, and of course cell phone payments for the entire family. Bookkeeping can take a LOT of time, but if you can charge enough for it, go for it. The answers are more black and white than positions on a tax return--if you can get the details from the client.

After years of hearing clients respond "what's the max?" when asked how much if anything they gave to charity, we expected almost everyone to claim $300 or $600. In our organizer, we didn't mention amounts but asked how much they gave in cash, debit, credit, or check to charities for which they had receipts. Surprisingly, the majority indicated zero. Many others entered amounts well below the cap. Those generous folks who gave more than those caps listed specific numbers like $2850 or whatever, so you know they weren't made up. No one said exactly $300 or $600. (My most generous client gave over $24k, working toward donating half his income, but he of course itemizes.) Anyone else experience this trend?

Degrading other tax pros because of their fee structures doesn't happen here thankfully. Occasionally someone will mention a fee and others will encourage them to up it because no matter where they live, they are giving their talent and work away. $75 for a 1040 with SCHs A and B--no way! Of course those who live in expensive areas have to charge more because their rent, property and state taxes, utilities, personnel, etc. cost way more. What matters is what's left over for you. Someone who charges $750 for a return may end up with $400, the same as someone who lives in a less costly area but charges $500 for the same return. I wonder if HRB fees vary from place to place. Anyone know? Specialized knowledge warrants premium prices above and beyond the expected hourly rate. Many preparers do not do estates, trusts, partnerships, corps, returns with foreign income, etc. Those who do should feel no guilt charging for the effort and expense they put into acquiring those skills. Some preparers have developed niches in cryptocurrency. I bet they charge a lot--and they should. Increase your fees at least enough to cover your increased expenses. Bear in mind that office supplies have gone way up and postage keeps increasing. Hopefully there will be enough to cover some pro bono work for clients who truly need but truly can't afford you.

I had an email from a client who had read the article and demanded to know what software we use to file returns. The article didn't make clear that it seemed to be DIY software that was passing along info. The IRS does take violations of taxpayer privacy seriously. It may take time to investigate and it will be difficult to impossible to identify the responsible parties, but I fully expect IRS to shut down these services and fine them more money than they have.

Has this report been verified or is it just a conspiracy theory? If so, sharing tax info is a major violation of Circular 230 and these firms can lose their ability to prepare tax returns. Back in the days when Block offered mortgages and financial services, there was a form clients could sign to allow sharing their tax info with these subsidiaries. Is there a form they now sign allowing sharing with Facebook?