Cathy

JB, NO 1040X! It takes to long to process to rectify the problem. IRS wants to clear their files as soon as possible just as your client does. You can complete a Form 8889 for 2011 and attached it to the correspondence you send, along with proof from the 401(k) company in regard to the date the retirement was disbursed and also from the receiving trustee of the rollover if you don't see that information anywhere on the transcript when you get it. If the interest is hers, simply plug in the $50 to a dummy return you prepare for 2011 and tell IRS that she does agree with the additional $50 in income and the resulting difference that she owes IRS due to the additional interest. Good luck! Cathy P.S. Don't forget to charge accordingly, especially this time of year!!!!!!

Eli, Although I haven't heard from my client whether or not he received a letter explaining why his refund was for $250 less also, I figured it had something to do with the loan repayment for the "loan" received for the homebuyers that year. My client's return also included the $500 repayment for 2012! Please let us know what you find out and I will also get on my client's situation the first thing in the morning and will post what I'm told as well! The taxpayers who must pay the "loan" back have been treated like "red headed stepchildren"! The first payback year, all of their refunds were delayed as IRS had not set up their systems to receive the payments...now this! Thanks!!! Cathy

I for one am tired of excuses from ATX since the early 90's when I had to give up the old DOS program, AMTAX. Each year users have crafted the software from a very basic, bottom of the line tax software program to get the features it had last year...and each year users have had to point out the most evident flaws and program errors at the beginning of each and every tax season since I've been on board. My not wanting to have to go through a conversion to another software program seems so petty to me now! I also have not forgotten those who jumped ship several years ago who were given HUGE discounts to come back to ATX while those of us who stuck it out paid full price for our software for being loyal customers! How stupid am I for staying with ATX all of these years! Oh, that's right, it has a very respected company behind it now....CCH....I guess names don't mean much any more!

What I want to ask.,..why are the names of the 126 agencies listed in the report now blacked out? Isn't that report public record?

I have the 6251 open automatically for each return! The AMT can raise it's ugly head without you realizing it! Just one return not accepted since 2-15 and I have an idea the new wife brought hubby's debt with her to her new marriage.

It sounds like what I read in IRS's Quick Alerts to software vendors, etc.. You might want to wait a day or so to see if ATX is going to get up to speed. Worse case scenario is to mail it by 3-15-13? I know what you're thinking! I don't blame you! :)

Was just wondering which one is "paying for it now"....the mother or the daughter? Sounds like the daughter is paying for it rather than her mother or maybe she feels as if she's paying for it! However, it wasn't the daughter's house...it was her mother's house, and if the daughter is upset that she wasn't able to hide her Mom's assets so she could have them free and clear when her mother died, then let Mom live with the daughter at her house rather than go to the nursing home......simple solution!

Terry, jl's original post stated that the student is attending the University full time.

Curiosity killed the cat.... Intructions from Form 8863 state: 　 Student qualifications. Generally, you can take the American opportunity credit for a student only if all of the following four requirements are met. As of the beginning of 2012, the student had not completed the first four years of postsecondary education (generally, the freshman through senior years of college), as determined by the eligible educational institution. For this purpose, do not include academic credit awarded solely because of the student's performance on proficiency examinations. 2. Neither the American opportunity credit nor the Hope Scholarship credit has been claimed (by you or anyone else) for this student for any four prior tax years. Example. The above seems to confirm what I thought. This student is eligible for the AOC. And furthermore, if the student is classified in 2012 as a Junior, and is still classified as a Junior in 2013, then the student would be eligible for 3 years....and maybe the 4th year also if the student is classified as a Senior for two years. This happens all of the time with Freshman in college. They usually start in the Fall semester, thus qualifies, and again in the next year, they are still classified as Freshman. Examples used to be given with the Hope Credit that a parent might want to file an amended return for the year of the student first attending college as a Freshman in the Fall semester, but would receive a larger education credit had the parent not claimed the credit when the student only attended 1 semester.

When the Hope Credit first came out, taxpayers were told to look at the student's status (what the University classified the student) at the beginning of the tax year. As long as the student was classified as either a Freshman, Sophomore, Junior or Senior, the student would qualify for the Hope Credit, but was only able to take the credit for 4 years. As the AOC is a spin-off of the Hope credit, I'm assuming the requirements are the same. As ljwalters' student is classified as a Junior and has not taken the Hope(?) or AOC for 4 years, then imho, the student would qualify for the AOC. I'll try to find it in black and white when time permits.

Thanks, Jack! It worked like a charm for Illinois!

Has anyone thought of contacting the Attorney General's Office of the State of Tennessee? Most states have a consumer protection department within their Attorney General's office that will receive complaints and often fight for consumers' rights! Some Atty Gen's office really take offense if the customer is a senior citizen...just a tip! Good luck!

Dave, I'm getting the identical error for an Illinois return! Did Jack's work around work for you? Cathy

Thanks, tkamba I re-created also and sent it again and it still rejected. Maybe their system is just jammed. I'll try to e-file it again in a day or so. Cathy

I know Illinois is a Direct State, however, is it necessary to wait until the Federal return is accepted before e-filing the Illinois return? I e-filed the Illinois return at the same time as the Federal return and got the following error: "The IRS Submission ID referenced in the State Submission Manifest must be present in the e-File database." The reject code was "STATE-901" which I found online to mean "Depositer Account Number (SEQ 0972) has been used on more than two previously acccepted electronic returns". I called the IL Dept. of Revenue and the Customer Service lady had no idea what "The IRS Submission....." meant. I'm thinking the Federal has to be accepted first. I filed for the same couple last year and don't remember having to wait. Would appreciate any Illinois preparer's thoughts on the subject! Thanks, Cathy

Peggy, There are times when a custodial parent (see Publication 504) can release exemption for the other parent to claim a child. The custodial parent can STILL claim the Head of Household filing status, Earned Income Credit and the Child Care Credit. See the paragraph below that appears in Publication 504. If that is the case in your situation, you enter the child's name and social security number at the bottom of the form for the Child Care Credit, also at the bottom of the Earned Income Tax worksheet for Qualifying Children (provided that the taxpayer's income justified the EIC), in addition to naming the child and his/her social security number in the Head Of Household Filing Status box. From Publication 504: Applying this special rule to divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart). If a child is treated as the qualifying child of the noncustodial parent under the special rule for divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart) described earlier, only the noncustodial parent can claim an exemption and the child tax credit for the child. However, the noncustodial parent cannot claim the child as a qualifying child for head of household filing status, the credit for child and dependent care expenses, the exclusion for dependent care benefits, and the earned income credit. Only the custodial parent, if eligible, or another eligible taxpayer can claim the child as a qualifying child for those four tax benefits. If the child is the qualifying child of more than one person for those tax benefits, the tiebreaker rules determine which person can treat the child as a qualifying child. The above rules are only for parents who live apart....The above rules DO NOT apply to unwed parents living together. In that case, all tax benefits would either go to one parent or the other. If the two unwed parents who live together can't decide who will claim all of the tax benefits, the tie breaker says the tax benefits goes to the parent with the highest AGI.

Thanks Ken! It's good to know I'm not the only one who had problems with the 8949! After downloading 12.10 yesterday as the Customer Service Dept. thought that would settle my problem, (which it didn't, of course) 12.10 has now created another similar problem with the K-1's in the 1065 returns. Today, I got a call from a partner who has misplaced her K-1, thus I went into the return to print another one for her. The partnership had 4 partners. When I clicked on the K-1's, there is now only one partner LISTED ON ALL 4 K-1'S! Luckily, when I printed K-1's, all four partners' K'1's printed. Also, I had e-filed this return a couple of weeks ago and had gone back to the file after I e-filed it (prior to downloading 12.10) and it showed all 4 partners within the program so I'm confident the e-file was sent properly. Several other 1065's still yet to do has me nauseated! There's simply no excuse that ATX could give me to explain why these things are happening in March!

Just reported another bug to customer service who will pass it on to the programmers. After entering short-term stock sales, some with basis reported on the 1099-B and some without basis reported on the 1099-B, although Sch D had the correct figures, I could not open another Page 1 of Form 8949 per the instructions under Part 1 of Form 8949 which reads: You must check Box A, B, or C below. Check only one box. If more than one box applies for your short-term transactions, complete a separate Form 8949, page 1, for each applicable box. If you have more short-term transactions than will fit on this page for one or more of the boxes, complete as many forms with the same box checked as you need. While on hold with customer service, I printed Form 8949 from the print menu. Two (2) Page 1 of Form 8949 printed. I haven't tried to create an e-file yet, but hopefully, both Page 1's will be e-filed. I asked the customer service rep. to report the issue of the second Page 1 not appearing within the tax return on our screens to the programmers. In the interim, if anyone needs to review the second page (or third) 1 for accuracy, just go to the print menu and print Form 8949....both Page 1's should print out if your return called for it. Cathy

Keep up with the time you spend on the Sch D and 8849. Once you determine what you should charge your client, you can then divide the amount by the number of entries and tell him $10, $15 or $20, etc... per transaction or $xx per hour. The important thing is to charge enough to compensate yourself for the amount of time spent reporting the transactions. You might find that your client will limit the number of trades in the future once he realizes the new reporting rules now require much more time spent on reporting them than they did in the past. Again, charge enough to where you won't get nauseated when a client tells you he sold some securities! (I find it's almost impossible to pre-set a standard fee of $X per entry or $X per hour as some broker statements are better than others.....each case is different. The time you spend will either be pleasant or a PITA. I charge more for the PITA's.) Take care, Cathy

Thanks, Lynn! Before I read your last post, was able to get through to the LA E-File help desk again, and they told me about the backlog they are trying to straighten out. I had exhausted all options and just needed confirmation from a live person that my files weren't the only ones that were hanging in limbo. Funny how that makes us feel better...misery loves company, possibly....nah, I hate for anyone to have to worry about limbo files! Seeing written confirmation (your post above) of the situation affords me the courage I need right now. Thanks again and take care, Cathy

Hi Lynn, Are you having any problems with Louisiana e-files that you transmitted on 2-14-13? I have several that still haven't been acknowledged when many sent after the 14th have been accepted. I've reported the problem once and I'm currently on hold with Customer Service....just checking to see if it's just my files..... Thanks! Cathy

If the 1099-MISC includes income taxes withheld, I'd hold off on e-filing until you receive a corrected form. Withholding of income taxes is not very common on a 1099-MISC, but it can happen.

jklapa, You are absolutely correct. The State return before I deliberately caused it to be rejected and recreated didn't show up at all...no where. I checked each box...nowhere....then clicked on "View All E-Files"...still couldn't be found. I had updated my program file to 12.9 the day before I started having this glitch and also download updates, forms, etc...each time I open the program which is at least 3 times a day. mcb39, Thanks for that tip. If it happes again, I'll check into your suggrestion before getting bent out of shape. Will let you know if it works....assuming it happens again. Lynn, Thanks for hanging in there with me! I never hold my state e-files, but appreciate your trying to help! Have you heard anything about a class action law suit yet for the AFV? It's just a matter of time! Jindal seems like he's taking lessons from the President.....shoving things down his constituents throats. I just wonder how many decades that we will see other politicians forcing issues rather than listening to the people....it certainly appears Jindal took a few lessons from Obama. Again, thanks everyone! Cathy

Rita, This also happened to me numerous times and as a safeguard, I have begun writing both Federal and State refunds/amounts owed prior to closing a return. Also after creating e-files, I make sure the refund/owed amounts are the same as my handwritten notes prior to creating the e-files. What I found with this program, unlike prior years, is a check mark in a box will unmark if the check mark is the last task performed on that form prior to going to another form. I hope I'm being a little bit clearer than mud....just trying to say that once a box is checked and it's time to move to another form, be sure and click somewhere else on the form so that you will see a blue background behind that check mark rather than the yellow background that appears in that box after it has been checked prior to clicking on the form in another location.....yep, clear as mud! Thank goodness I caught the fact that one of my client's refunds appeared smaller than I thought they were prior to e-filing them. I wasn't writing the refunds in my notes for comparison but quickly realized I needed to. Another glitch that hopefully will be corrected soon. Take care, Cathy