rfassett

Congratulations to son, Mom and Dad. Your son did what I always wished I had done. I waited way too long to get my license and I just cring at the thought of all of those clouds that went by without me poking a hole in them. I KNOW how much work is involved and your son truly is to be commended. And congratulations to Mom for stepping out. There is no greater thrill than flying in a single engine airplane. OK, landing is pretty special too. The greatest thrill of all though, is the very first time that the instructor gets out of the plane and says "go fly". That very, very first solo landing is something you never forget. Congrats again. May he always "keep the dirty side down"!

I agree with the others, but I would suggest that this is not all that ucommmon of a request. I tell my clients that broach this subject a couple of different things. Most of the time they are very happy with the tax result. (And this response usually involves returns with wiggle room with Section 179, etc). And then a couple of months later go to the bank and get a negative response. I simply tell them, contrary to popular belief, they can not have their cake and eat it too. They can not have it both ways. Of course, the banker worth his salt will add back the 179, but that has not been the experience recently. The other request, similiar to the present one, where the client wants to "play" with revenue and/or deductions, I tell them this is not an MTO practice. If they want their return correct, I will prepare it. If they want a Made-To-Order tax return, they need to go elsewhere. And the other thing that may be playing here with the bank, the plain fact-of-the-matter - banks just are not as loose with loans as they were previously. I am still wondering where all that bale out money went - but that is a subject for a different post.

I will send you my information and you can pay some of mine. Always willing to help a fellow soldier to keep from being traumatized.

There would be no 1099 requirement from the homeowner. Maybe a w-2 requirement (think nanny tax), but no 1099.

I told my clients from the get-go that today was the deadline for my office. Yesterday was quiet and today was quieter. We closed the office at 3 this afternoon. I am cleaning up about 30 State corporate efiles that did not have efile capability when I did the returns prior to March 15th. Fortunately the State deadline is April 15 (18) so I had shelved these to work on tonight from home. It is slow and tedious work and I have nearly fallen asleep on everyone of them because there is nothing to keep me engaged. Hope your next couple of days are everything you want them to be.

Yep. Just part of the territory. Did have one this year that was nice enough to email me and tell me she was cancelling the appointment because she had the flu. She said she would call to re-schedule when she got better. Must be a heck of a case of the flu - that was on March 12th and I have heard nothing yet.

Cute story. Reminds me of Jim. Jim was a goose that, as the story goes, was going to be Christmas dinner at my Mom's house shortly before she married. Well, Mom had a sister and between the two of them, there was no way Jim was going to make it to the dining table. So years went by and for years Jim survived the Christmas season. Jim became my Grandfather's close pet. I can still see my Grandmother in the window when we grandkids would go out with Grandpa to feed Jim. I learned at an early age how fast geese are and the sting of their bite. For whatever reason, Jim knew the dangers of the highway in front of my grandparents house and he took it upon himself to make sure that we grandkids never got too close to the road. Pretty intelligent creatures, those geese. I miss Jim. Thanks for the reminder!

You are on the right track. My one client that hedges actually turned a profit this year. Surprised the heck out of both of us. In fact, out of habit, I entered it as a loss and then caught it while reviewing the return. I had to call the client to see if his account got mixed up with someone elses.

The explanation is necessary to explain why there is no K-1 info on a return this year when there was no "final" K-1 issued last year. And the explanation is good, if for no other reason, to have with the return in the preparer's file so two or three years from now, if the IRS decides to take a look, the preparer is not scrambling trying to recreate the "story". I do not know, ShawnE, if it is necessary to have the "worthless stock" item selected. I do not think it matters one way or the other as long as you have the other info correct.

Calculate his remaining basis as of the end of last year and write it off as a defunct investment. I would put an explanation in the return reiterating the facts as you know them as to why there is no K-1 activity for the current year.

I think I failed. I can't focus on anything that long right now. Thanks! That was very cute!! And did make me smile.

I like the ones that staple and/or clip the supporting document(s) to the respective page in the organizer. As if to say, "this is my W-2, this is my six 1099R's here are my...." Seems I spend more time separating them so I can scan the supporting documents than it takes to do the actual return. Have I said lately how much I love my clients? I do, ya know.

Michael, as much as I would love to agree with you, I can not. The rev proc to which you refer does not apply to S-Corps.

Agree with JohnH. Also, the late filing penalty for an S has nothing to do with tax liability. It is $195 per shareholder per month (or fraction of month) during which the failure to file continues - up to 12 months. So in another seven days you will be at $390 for just a single shareholder S. Multiply that by the number of shareholders at any time during the year and you can see it can be a hurt pretty quickly. You should also be aware that these penalty abatements are getting harder to get. It used to be you got them just for asking. But now you better have a pretty compelling cause. Good luck!

I have to be honest and say that I have had my head buried in the sand (or tax returns, as it were), and have not paid much attention to the rise in prices. But just this morning, I did notice $3.85 (I think it was - at 5:30 in the morning my eyes are not completely open so I might have mis-read it) on the sign. I am in NW PA. I drive a four cylinder pick up truck, but my wife drives a Prius. 48 to 52 mpg sounds real good right now. And it uses the "cheap" gas.

Right there's your problem. My mouse works so hard I would not dare to not feed it during this time of year. It even got a bum rear leg a few days ago and I had to get the glue and scotch tape out and do some minor surgery. We're good now though - I hope for the duration.

And dare I say it, don't forget to check into any LOCAL income tax filing requirements for the different workplaces and/or residences. Yes, these "simplest" returns can sometimes turn into the biggest messes. Charge accordingly. And you might save yourself some grief by calling the client now and apprise them of the fees you are going to be charging them.

I had one earlier this season, spent about tem minutes trying to make it work, and said "forget this". It went paper. Glad to hear it was not something I was missing and it is OK that was in the way.

Rain doesn't bother Veranda Beach. Some of my best times there included watching the rain. Even got wet once. It is like no other place on earth. And like you, NE, the "vacation" won't be long because we will be back in the office on the 19th for the quarterlies and financials, etc. That is why we are leaving right after work on the 15th. Should be there by night fall and will have 3 glorious days on the beach.

NECPA - you too can vacation. Join me at Veranda Beach!!! I have been to all of the other places mentioned in this thread, but my heart lives at Veranda Beach!!! This time of year my heart more and more longs to be there. The scenery's not the best, but the people are friendly and the prices are reasonable. My heart does go out to you and I will pray that you will know that God will find a way, when there seems to be no way! He works in ways we can not see. He will make a way for you. God Bless!

Veranda Beach!!!! April 16th - I can't wait!

It seems everybody wants a tax deduction for everything they do anymore. I guess the government has trained us that way. I do want to point out that I am a dog lover and I commend this person for his efforts. Generally, if you are looking for a charitable contribution deduction, I believe the funds or the donated item have to run through the organization. Otherwise, you leave it for what it is, an act of love. I can think of no other way to deduct this.

No, Jim. Someone up the thread also mentioned this - and I concur, this can not possibly be all of the info. The loan could have been sold immediately at closing and there should be another 1098 but JB says the client did not give him another one on this property. So I agree, there should be additional interest, but even if there is another 1098, it should not taint the points issue.

Absent an assumption that the issuer of the 1098 got it right, I think your ONLY course of action is to contact the lender (or have your client do it) and ask what makes up the $1,900.50 "Origination charge". Could be that they pulled out the proper amount and put it on the 1098 and the rest of it had nothing to do with points. I would not ASSUME there were $1900.50 plus the 1098 amount paid for points. In whatever is decided, there was enough "cash" at closing, between the buyer and the seller, to cover ALL of the closing costs, so you are not limited in that regard. Your ONLY question seems to be "what makes up the $1,900.50" and you can not answer that with the info you have. We can only guess.

I was having the same problem yesterday. I clicked on "restore" for each of those boxes and it fixed the problem.