Jim Oh Bkkr

The rounding issue reminds me of the spreadsheet days of ATX. Most ALL calculations did NOT round, but "display" was globally set to zero decimal places. I had a client get a "nastygram"(TM Catherine, IIRC) over EIC when AGI was shown as yadda 50, but was actually yadda 49.70. Took forever to track down. I never entered cents after that, and any calculations that could produce decimals, were edited to include =round(x,n)!

I started to accuse her of "post counting"

"The bank said I don't have to report it because it's under $10.00."

I can! Epson Action Laser. I STILL wish I had it. Absolute workhorse. Replaced the "fuser", (or whatever it was called), about 5 times, but probably printed 200K+ pages.

Now I'm hungry!

Which may be an "easy to miss" item included with the closing docs. For mine, it was a "certificate of withholding". See a recent post called (IIRC) "Two states"

It's bad enough when they don't tell you, but I really get pissed when the idiot between the keyboard and the chair opens 18 pieces of mail - all with the yellow "postal" change of address stuck to them - and STILL doesn't make the change!

Do you have closing documents? I had one of these several years ago where the closing statement also listed WV state tax withheld (easy to miss and there was some kind of make-shift W/H "certificate" included with the closing docs.). This was inherited property, so there was no gain, and the WV return was needed to get the withholding back. At the time, I seem to remember that WV law was that W/H was required for "out of state" seller as they were entitled to the tax on the sale. I assume VA would give credit.

Isn't SS taxable under MFS unless they lived apart for the last 6 months of the year? That used to be the rule. It probably still would not result in a tax liability.

I felt the same way, until you had to go and make me feel OLD again! (68 is coming fast )

Back when we did returns by hand, I used/didn't use "rounding" to always benefit clients! $0.30 is $0.30!

Ditto all the above! Don't always agree with you (but that's OK), and your use of abbreviations, (most times), leave me confused. But your insight, and especially your "view" from the other side of the table on employment issues, have been invaluable! This is 1 vote against you having "outlasted my welcome". Please reconsider.

I'd rather that, than the ones who open the docs with a chainsaw - half the docs are ripped to shreds!

Thirty years ago, the PAY had to be reasonable (for the job), the WORK had to be performed by the child, and it had to be a sole-proprietor (corporations have NO children). Do child labor laws apply to parent/child?

This was my "hook" for getting new clients. I offered to look over the prior years, free of charge. It helped me to understand the clients situation more completely. The data entry has to be done for any year, so why not the oldest possible - then rollover? I almost always found mistakes. Some small, some big, usually in the government's favor. Any corrections that "should" be made, I left to the client to decide (and pay for). Every client that took me up on it, is still a client to this day.

This fight always reminds me of a thread in the old ATX "tree" forum. A poster named George posted in all caps, and a handful gave him a ton of sh*t about it. He apologized as his eyes weren't the best, and cap were easier to see. I don't have a problem with either, but I respect the rules of which ever "arena" I am in at the time. ALL CAPS on returns though!

72t? I had client with this situation (750K) in the '90's. His broker set the whole 750 up as 72t. Three years into it, he took an extra 10K to buy a car. This nullified the 72t, and forced penalties on ALL funds taken since the beginning. It's been a long time since I looked at the rules for this sort of thing, so YMMV! My broker's advice was that the "whole" should NEVER be set up under 72t for this very reason. Some should be kept in a regular IRA for cars and other unexpected needs, and the 72t left alone for the, (at the time?), 10 year period.

Lee is right! Hope you got some sleep.

I had that happen once. I just figured I had inadvertently clicked something. Also, I have had to re-sign in after updating about 10% of the time this year!

Yes! I always go for absolute "worst" case scenario. "Void" is the terminology I remember (early 90's).

Ain't that the truth! I used to say, (%'s that have always held true), "50% of all self-prepared returns, I have ever seen, are wrong. And 90% of them were wrong in the IRS's favor."

The inability to find the spousal return when splitting MFS has bugged me for about 3 years. The program has shut down every time I've used the planner this year.

There was a thread here several years ago about ROBS. It was during an economic down turn, ('08 or '09?), and people, who lost their jobs, were using 401Ks to fund start-ups. Off the top of my head, I seem to remember that the rules were (maybe) more restrictive than like/kind exchanges. But there might have been recommendations of companies that dealt with them specifically.

I started in '88. It was 25/32 then.

Almost every client I have, has "some" Social Security included in taxable income. When I started in this business, only the "pretty well-off" did.