joanmcq

And my 499th post was a real opinion. and this one is a thank you to my online community for lending support throughout the year. And I too wonder how JB is doing????

I won't even write these for my own clients. As a CPA, rendering an opinion on ANYTHING is heavily regulated. From what I understand, EAs are not permitted to render opinions, ie stating someone is self-employed. And NO client is worth getting sued, stressing over getting sued, or losing my license.

I know...if you are getting the full $600, its not that big of a sum that it makes a huge difference in your life. If you are really poor, then its free money, so kwitcherbitchin. 498!

number 497....

My own clients arent' calling....during my tax season meetings I pretty much told 'em you'll get what you get. But I get an email yesterday at my job from a guy asking why he didn't get the full $1200. I only have his 2006 return for which I'm doing a CP2000, not the 2007. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY YOUR REBATE WAS LESS THAN 1200!!!!!! thank you for letting me whine. And my coworkers get upset when I scream at work.

I renewed to day too. just clicked the email & away she went. didn't even have to sign into the website which was nice. 496!

So now she will wait another few months until they refund her the $151. she'll have a few bucks in interest added to make up for the int & pen she paid earlier. *sob!* (Not!)

Oh, and I've only got a few to go too.

Ok, now what happens to KC when she passes 1000?

Stockton is definitely the dividing line, until you get up to UCD. Then its not too bad on either side. I've been watching the gentrification of the area for a lot of years now. Was a while ago, Y st. was the dividing line between ok & yuck in that area; I had a friend on Y and you wouldn't want to walk down 1st. Now not nearly so bad for a few blocks south. And, as I said, 14th wasn't too great 15 years ago. Now on my side of Stockton you are ok until you go past fruitridge. Are you in the front of Tallac, or the back or on one of the walking paths inside?

Stockton & Fruitridge? That's a JH now, but what a place to cut your teeth! Especially about the time you were there. Funny about Sac; the other side of Stockton at Fruitridge is fine now, but that side is still pretty icky. especially the little strip mall where the JH is. 15 years ago 14th Ave was bad..I lived there then and there were drug dealers all over. Now it's nice pretty much all the way to Fruitridge. I'm at 21st ave & 64th. Let me know when you're open house is...I'd love to meet you!

Julie, being as CA is community property, isn't the joint Sch C (w/2SEs) still available to us? That's why that check box has been in every program for as long as I can remember, although the noncommunity property people often didn't know that. Under community property laws any split for a jointly owned biz is going to be 50/50 by default.

Nice coffee shop in there. I had a friend that had set up shop in Tallac Village but she ended up getting a job with the county..needed a steady income. I got some of her clients when she quit. The Village Drive-in across the street has the best milk shakes! I'm about a half mile away.

Thank you KC! after today I need a pat on the back! Every situation I've come across today has been out, out, out, out-of-the-box.. At least its not 102 degrees today so I can go home and relax...no, got a CSTC meeting, so I get to hob-nob with tax geeks for a few hours. I really need a vacation!

I'm gonna bet this is somehow releated to the new H/W joint venture rules getting warped in transmission (remember the game of 'telephone'?) The instructions to the Sch E mention that you don't use Sch E to report an H/W 'rental real estate business' that is a qualified joint venture. This could easily be extrapolated to the OP.

My clientele....I've gotten exactly zip, zero, null, none. I did have to explain why one guy who's return I'm working on now (see SE health post) that he was getting a max of $300, not $600. and I did get an email on the 'where's my refund' type (NOT rebate), but nada on the rebate. love it.

Thank you. That's what I thought, but then was unsure which 'allow' meant what. Head spinning is slowing down. I'm glad I'm not a lawyer or maybe I should've been with all the pondering over the exact meaning of words I've done lately. I think I need a vacation.

So where are you moving to? Somehow my 1st thought was somewhere around Tahoe park...(my stomping grounds).

Its because all of the CA state tax he is paying is penalty on early w/d of IRA (3% in CA), which is reduced by the amount of the deduction of medical expenses on Sch A over 7.5% of AGI. I agree this is really wierd, but the reduction of the 10% penalty is more than the 7.5% increase in AGI. Code section 213 (which covers the medical expense deduction) refers to 'any amount ALLOWED under sec 162' so I figure it comes down to does 'allowed' mean taken or what could have been taken, as the famed 'allowed or allowable' in the case of depreciation. My brain is spun as to which means which at this point.

That is if you are SE and have SE health insurance? The question comes up because I have a new client that fell on hard times and took an early IRA distribution. because all of his tax is SE and the penalty on early withdrawal, it is actually more beneficial to put all of his health insurance on Sch A as a medical expense rather than take a portion as SE health (the SE health deduction is limited by the SE income, so part goes to Sch A anyways) because the allowable medical expenses on Sch A reduce the penalty for early w/d. So is taking the SE health mandatory if it is allowable, or can I put it all on Sch A? The only state tax he is paying is the CA penalty for early w/d, so every dollar of medical expenses gives him $2 of tax reduction.

Ouch. did he tell his financial planner of the plan to withdraw 150K? Hopefully in writing? If not, I don't see how you can blame the planner in begging for a penalty abatement. Were the funds rolled back in when he learned of the mistake? If not, I don't see how you can request abatement. He may have recourse against the planner...

yes. Guess if you don't check the 'qualifies for child tax credit' box, the IRS didn't put the $300 into the computation.

When I started, I got a demo disc for free; a full functioning Max. I think I asked for it in the summer, and I could do current year returns even, before October. Then I got a client with unfiled years and bought 97-2000 forn $20 each. A few years I bought PPR + 1040 office, and when I transferred computers a few years ago and couldn't get the PPR working, (none of my business returns would open, and I couldn't access any remaining returns) the tech support just gave me the unlock code for Max for those old years rather than go through PPR. It made sense since the prior years were pretty much dead except for the occaisional late filer. I haven't had to call CS but once this year, and really hope I don't have to. CS was always one thing ATX had going for it. And if lowering our taxes made revenues go up, why is there such a deficit? Or is it that our taxes really werent lowered, but it was just smoke & mirrors?

Hey, if Dade merged into Siemens, then she couldn't have sold Dade stock because Dade stock would have become Siemen stock by some convoluted formulation at the time of merger. From the OP, I had thought she had left the employer. This changes a lot; she is still working for the same employer. The employer should have given her something that explained EVERYTHING regarding how many shares of Siemens she got per share Dade etc, and given her an output of what was what, and if the ord income was included in her wages. Oh, jlkcpa was not the OP. Ok, David, a lot of times the ESPP was on the w-2 at time of purchase because it was sold the same year. been that way since at least 2004 because that's when I started doing a lot of employee stock. Disqualifying dispositions are often included in wages, but the stock still has to be sold. Since the holding period affects how much ordinary income is recognized you cannot report ordinary income until the sale. BTW, I just checked my 2004 quickfinder, and the rules were the same.

The only one I did the actual on was myself too. 2 landlines and one cell, and I have all the bills. gave me an extra $100. I gave the form to one client that brought in all of her cell phone bills and said she could figure it out herself if she wanted. was about $2 more than the $30 so no go. A lot of early returns were being audited because of the refundable nature...the whole phone bill bit, and people requesting thousands of dollars. A bit odder acutally for a large biz to be audited, since businesses had to use the actual if I am not mistaken.