NECPA in NEBRASKA

The varidesk is what I'm going to get. I have a large corner desk that it will work great on. Thanks for all of the great ideas and pictures everyone. I use my treadmill every day, but it would be very nice to not have to sit all day long.

I would think that you would want to consider how it may affect the student's FAFSA application by including more taxable income. It may not affect too many, but I have several student client's that would not want to have much more taxable income added to their tax return and possibly not get another Pell Grant or other financial aid.

I do know that it depends on how the scholarship reads. Some are only for tuition, books and fees, thus they can not be applied to room and board.

Thanks, everyone. He gave up on the guns. He's looking for receipts for the range and names and dates of customers. I figured that he was just trying to turn a personal expense into an employee expense.

I may be down a few. Mostly just schedule A returns, that I love, but really don't need to come to me since they can file online. If I end up down very much, I will accept new clients next year by referral, but for now, I'm behind with what I already have.

Taxman, do you mean driving for Uber or something? I wouldn't think that a gun would be necessary or ordinary for them. If they were a bodyguard or something or driving security, that would be more normal to carry.

I am too tired to even think very hard about this. My client says that guns and business meetings happen all of the time. I'm sure that they do, but I'm assuming that maybe ammo for the times when he goes would fall under entertainment, which leaves him at 50%. Then he wanted to depreciate his two guns. I just don't know. I've never had anyone ask me about guns except my law officers. I really want to just put this return to bed, but he keeps on coming up with new stuff to try. I will do some more research tomorrow, but if anyone knows if this would fly, I would welcome any comments. Please, no political stuff, because I don't give a darn if he owns guns. Thanks so much!

I have a huge floater in my left eye right in the center of my vision. Of course, I keep all of my papers off to my left side because the way my desk has to sit, there is no room on my right. It drives my crazy. The fonts are small enough and then I have a big, black glob that loves to move wherever I am looking. I am very careful to turn and look at numbers with my right eye if I am not sure what they are, because it's so easy to misread the numbers.

Thank you. The instructions are ridiculous, but then most of them are. If I ever figure out the repair regs before they change them again, it will be a miracle. I don't mean to speak badly of them, but they are going to need to really up the game of most of their auditors when they start auditing this crap.

When I worked for someone else, we had a no smoking policy. A client asked to smoke and when I showed her the sign, she lit one up, opened the window and flicked the ashes in her purse. I was young and scared to death of her anyway, so I just sat there and prayed for her to leave. She and her husband were plowed at the time, also.

I don't have to deal with this very often, but I really want to get it right. My client had to sell the stock that he owned in his employer when he retired. The gain is over $1 million. I know, some problem, but it will have to last for a long time. The NII tax is large, but I don't see any deductions other than part of my fee, investment interest and the portion of state income tax attributable to the investment income. That will be minimal, because thankfully, Nebraska does not tax capital gains on stock on account of employment by the corporation. I don't know how much more my brain can take this year. Can anyone think of anything that I'm missing? Thanks!

I am so ticked off about this. One of my client's chose to reimburse the health insurance to his "S " Corp. He is on his wife's health insurance now, so I doubt that he will want to try to fix this mess.

Frazzled, hugs to you. I really feel for you. Please take some time to relax and do anything that might help you to feel better. It is so good that we have this board to come and talk to our friends. I know that there are days that I would just go nuts if I couldn't come here and read about people's lives and how they are dealing with tax season and the changes. This is a bad season and I don't know if it will ever get better. I try and think about what else I could do, but who the heck is going to hire me? I've been on my own for over 20 years and around here, employers don't especially look kindly on self-employed people. I need the flexibility of this job because of having to take care of so many family members, so I am thankful for that. Take care and make sure to come here and vent.

A client that I've known since he was 3, called me yesterday and said that his Mom told him to fax me his W-2s so that I can prepare his tax return again. I gave him my fax number and asked him how many jobs he had. He told me that he had three, but he just wanted me to do his return for the out of state ones and he would file a return online with the other one. I calmly explained that he had to use all of his jobs for his return and can't file his returns piecemeal. I wish that high schools would teach a required personal econ class like I had in high school. We had to learn how to file a short form, reconcile bank statements and pretend to be married and figure out a budget. Most kids have no idea how to do those things anymore.

I know that, but their kids are paying nothing and the boys are just paying way under FMV because they are college kids.

A client called me today wanting to take the house that they purchased for their daughters and boyfriends to live in as a loss. Only the boys pay any rent and it's not FMV. I said that they have to report the rent and can not take a loss as it's considered personal usage. If the rent is not FMV, the whole house is considered personal, correct? I just want to make sure that I'm right before I call her back. I told her that I was 95% sure that she could not take a loss. Thanks!

I'm telling everyone one to two weeks right now. It will get worse as the more difficult ones come in.

I just wish that I could keep them from using the bathroom here. Now that we have three cats, I don't want them to use the downstairs one with two cat boxes and laundry. I hate to have them go upstairs for fear that the older ones will fall.

I have a separate business policy for that and my umbrella policy would help.

I ask when someone calls if they were referred to me by a client and which one. I don't take on many new ones and then almost only from referrals. Kids and grandkids seem to fill in when my elderly clients pass away.

I am 24 of 341 CPA's within 5 miles. I don't know how this works, but I guess I must be OK for being this small.

Ron, I share your depression. Every client that I try to explain the 3115 changes to, gets mad, which just makes me feel worse. I don't know where I will find the hours to do all of this extra crap that's been forced on us for no reason. The webinar that I took from CNA, really encourages extensions for returns with 3115's to make sure that they are correct. I keep hoping that they will get killed somehow.

Naveen, I am so sorry for your loss. I will continue to pray for you and your family.

I just had the same situation, but because the mother only had $4,000 of earned income and another child that was not his, it works better for him to take the baby and her to take her older child. He won't get EITC, but he will at least get the entire CTC, daycare and head of household.

I envy people that can run. I've tried it, but I just can't get the hang of it. It doesn't feel good to me and destroys my ankles. I would love to burn more calories. My son used to walk with me, but he has discovered that he loves running and I just hold him back. Funny, all those years of being a swimmer and he hated running for dry land. I just walk at least 30-45 minutes daily on my treadmill with a 15% incline to maintain what weight I lost. It's not really fun, but I can watch tv that I missed on my dvr.