BulldogTom

KC, Are you being sexist? I am totally offended that you think that women would not understand a baseball analogy. You should appologize to the women on this board for your sexist remarks!!!!!! Just kidding. I will remember that one and use it in the future. It is pretty good. Tom Lodi, CA

On the letter, I think you have to go into the state wizard and click the box for "this return has been e-filed" to get it to show on the combined client letter. It is a pain in the "you know what" but that is how you get it onto that letter. Tom Lodi, CA

If I am reading this correctly, your client sued to get paid for work done on a contract? Legal fees of a business related to the collection of taxable income would be deductible to your client on his (I am assuming here) schedule C. Winning or losing the case is not a precondition on the deductiblity of the legal expenses. The materials, subcontractor payments, etc would also be deductible on his sch. C. Damages paid would also be deductible by the business. Any fines imposed by the courts (or licensing authorities) would not be deductible as a business expense. Hope this helps. Tom Lodi, CA

I have my first client (other than 1099 and W2) coming in today at 2PM. Time to start cranking out returns and making some $$. I am always excited at this time of year to start, and I am always ready for it to end. The switch takes place about March first when the hard returns start rolling in and you have way too much work on your desk. Tom Lodi, CA

We agree that it should have been done correctly. I think everyone on this board knows that. I think we are all ASSUMING (a dangerous thing to do) that the client did not know the correct way to prepare a bonus check and just treated like any other paycheck. So, would you correct it? How do you get the withholding from the employee if you made that mistake? What if the check is long gone and cashed? Tom Lodi, CA

The only way this would come back to bite them is if the employee has underwithheld so much that he owes taxes and cannot pay, and then to try and get out of it, tells the IRS that the company did not withhold enough. That would bring the IRS down on them. Of course, there is also the possibility of a random payroll audit revealing the issue. But if the employee has enough withheld and doesn't make a stink about it, I would let this one go. If you have access to the employee records, take a look at the income and the withholding and see if it looks like there is going to be a problem. Personally, I would just advise the client to do it right next time and move on. Tom Lodi, CA

That is exactly what I did last year. I dumped SBBT and signed up for fee collect. It took about a week to work out the kinks because when you have an application in to the bank, it screws with the fee collect application. I think I had to fax a couple papers to SBBT and ATX to get it going. It wasn't fun at first, but once they got it all squared away, it worked well. Good Luck. Tom Lodi, cA

They just arrived. Tom Lodi, CA

HRB is advertising free tax returns. I heard it on the radio this morning. Only applies to 1040EZ. State and EIC are extra. Offer only good through February 15th. I would hate to work for HRB this year. The commissions on free returns is gonna suck. Tom Lodi, CA

So I sent and e-mail to customer (non)support about my books. Here is their reply: <<Good Afternoon, You can log on to the MyATX customer support center/ Intelliconnect and download the material. If you need further assistance, please contact our customer support department at 1-800-638-8291.>> So, they are expecting me to download the books instead of sending them to me? That is just peachy. Tom Lodi, CA

They did not charge the transmitter fee for Fee Collect last year. I don't think they will be charging it this year. That is why I changed to Fee Collect and dropped the bank products all together. It just does not make sence to pay the bank all those charges. Just MHO. Tom Lodi, CA

I have not recieved my master tax guide or 1040 answers guide from ATX yet. Have they mailed these out yet? Tom Lodi, CA

I knew about the gift splitting. Looks like 1 million exemption in 2010 if what I am reading is correct. 35% rate. Tom Lodi, CA

OK, so I get my first phone call asking a "quick question" for 2010. Background: Client lost his wife last year and moved into a rest home. In order to get his VA benefits, he gave his two homes, one a rental, to his daughters. Title was transfered at the county recorder. Not sure what the value of the houses are. The rental only has a basis of 24K and was their home for many years until the spouse got sick. The other was a purchase a couple years ago to make it easier for him to care for his wife. Question: In 2010, is there still a unified credit for gifts? Are the rules the same as they always were that you can use the unified credit to offset the gift tax? Or did anything change in gift taxes when the estate tax went away for last year? Thanks in advance. I don't do many gift tax returns (because most of my clients don't have a lot of money). Tom Lodi, CA

Some of you may remember a few years ago when the ATX e-file disaster hit. We still had William on the ATX board and this board was not even a consideration. The phone limes were jammed for days and the board was full of "William - where is my ACK?" posts. The most annoying part of that whole debacle was the hold music. The song was by Simply Red and the song title was "I keep holdin' on". You just kept hearing that song over and over while you were on hold for tech support. That was the year they gave us the companion air tickets for all our problems. Did anyone actuall cash in that voucher and use it? Tom Lodi, cA

I got an e-mail. Did not request one. Tom Lodi, cA

It may just be a question of definitions. As I understand it, every return that you prepare (I assume you sign all the returns you prepare - I do) and sign is a return "filed" by you in the eyes of the IRS. They are probably assuming, just as I did, that when you give the return to the client, the client will actually present that return to the IRS. It may be an assumtion that the IRS shouldn't make. So, if you prepared and signed 101 returns, but only 99 were actually presented to the IRS by your clients, would you meet the e-file mandate? I have no idea. But I do have a hunch that if 99 returns signed by you showed up in paper form at the IRS service center, they would probably send you a letter asking for the opt-out forms for the returns. Just a hunch. The way I read the intent of the mandate, preparers of more than 100 returns must e-file. It may not be written that way, and you may be able to argue that the rules don't actually say what the IRS want you to do, and you may actually prevail. But in the end, every preparer is going to be e-filing every return they prepare if the IRS has it their way. When that is accomplished, they will start working on the self-preparers and requiring them to e-file their returns. It is the new world order in our profession. Tom Lodi, CA

You sign it....you filed it. That is the way it works. Tom Lodi, CA

That is funny. Thanks KC. Glad to see you are back. I missed you. Tom Lodi, CA

You may want to leave the poll open for a couple weeks so that all the seasonal members get a chance to see it. I vote no. The group is good about labeling the other stuff NT or Happy B-day. So long as jokes and b-days are not labled "Important IRS Notice", I am happy with the forum the way it is. Tom Lodi, CA

Was I? Sorry if I violated a code of conduct, but it sounded like Pacun was pretty tough on Medlin. Perhaps I was a little vigorous in my defense of someone I respect. Not that Medlin needs my respect, but I tend to stand up for those who I feel are being unfairly treated. Tom Lodi, CA

It worked fine for me. What you do is roll over one return and a dialog box will come up asking if you want to roll over the prior year information. There are 5 choices that you can click. I forget what they all are, but I am sure Preparer and billing rates come over. Tom Lodi, CA

Lynn is correct. They have to have a checking account. There was some talk that next year (2011 returns filed in 2012) the IRS is going to allow the Paid Preparer to take their fees from the refund without going through a bank. I haven't seen anything on this in a while. It was first mentioned when the news that they IRS would no longer give the banks the debt indicator. I would really like to see that come about. That may be part of the reason for the PTIN registration requirements. Tom Lodi,CA

I used it last year. Worked fine once the SBBT debacle was cleared up. What a nightmare. I was signed up for SBBT for Ral's when they announced they were not going to have them. So I tried to switch to fee collect and it was a real headache getting it done. The bank application was in the system and kept screwing with the approval for fee collect. But like I said, once that went away, fee collect was very smooth. Reasonably priced. worked for some of my clients. I am thinking I will keep it again, but need to talk to the wife to make sure. So sorry to hear about your loss. Tom Lodi, CA

Good to see you on the board again Eli. Long time you been hiding. I am sitting on the fence on fee collect this year. I have added CC and Debit Card payment options this year. Not sure if that is enough. Still sorting through this all. Have a good season my friend. Tom Lodi, Ca