BulldogTom

Unfortunately, the increased cost of flights to Boston vs NY out of SF makes La Guardia the more attractive choice (even at $4/gal gas). But we will be looking at flights again as we get closer. Also, we will be spending one day in NY, so we will be making that trek one way or another. I will sleep on the flight and be fine to drive. Thanks for the post. Tom Lodi, CA

I think Philadelphia is going to have to wait. Not enough time. Tom Lodi, CA

Well then break out your mapquest....here is the tentative itinery. July 2 catch plane at 10PM in San Francisco July 3 arrive at La Guardia in NY at 7:30 AM. Rent Car and drive to Plymouth Ma to see the Mayflower site. Lunch in Plymouth. Drive past Boston to Kennebunkport ME. Play on the beach and have dinner on the pier. (can you camp on the beaches in ME?) Spend the night somewhere between Kennebunkport and Boston. July 4 In Boston. Freedom Trail, North Church, Science Museum, etc. All day doing the Tourist thing. Fireworks that night on the Esplanade. Spend the night somewhere between Boston and NY. July 5 in NY. Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, and if I can talk my wife into it (and if I can get tickets) Yankees and Red Sox. If not, a matinee on Broadway. July 6 fly back to San Francisco and drive home. Anything I am missing or should be adding? I am still open to other ideas. Tom Lodi, CA

How far up into Maine do you need to go? I love the idea of a nice lobster dinner, and cheap too! Maybe the Monkeyman or some of the former ATX employees can give me an idea of a good place as close to Boston as possible? Thanks and keep the ideas coming. Tom Lodi, CA

Jainen you old softy.....are you sure you can't find anything to ruin the client's day? Jainen is right (as usual). So long as the trust is revokable by the grantors, it is ignored. The clients own the home, and can take §121 exclusion provided they are otherwise eligible. Tom Lodi, CA

I agree that you should always create the efile before you export the return to check for errors. We have just found that deleting the efile and recreating at the office keeps everything in sync for the DCN numbers. Tom Lodi, CA

I heard about something where you put a company into an IRA to avoid any tax on the Income while building equity for retirement. Is this what is going on in these cases? Otherwise, why are your clients doing this? Are these legitimate investments in a partnership? The scheme sounded too good to be true, besides being very risky for your retirement money. Tom Lodi, CA

Elfling, We do it a little differently, but similar. We take the laptop to the clients, prepare the return, and create the e-file. After printing the client copy, we delete the e-file, export, and e-mail the return back to the office. At the office, we import the return and recreate the e-file. This keeps all our dcn numbers in tact. It works for us, we have not had a problem the last 3 years doing it this way. Oh yeah, the laptop has a single user ATX installation, and the office ATX is networked. Even when we put the laptop on the network, we do not access ATX from the server on that machine. I don't know if that is important or not. Tom Lodi, CA

They can take their FRIKKIN message "bored" and shove it up their FRIKKIN server hole. They have not done a thing right with MyATX since they bought the company. How much do you want to bet they would throw half of us off the first time their FRIKKIN logon did not work and we complained about it. Do you really think they would let us say anything that makes the FRIKKIN white collar buttheads who run CCH look like the idiots that they are? We got ERC, we don't need no FRIKKIN CCH. Ask me how I really feel. Tom Lodi, CA

I forgot about John. How come he is not on the board? Do you know? Good idea Eli. Thanks Tom Lodi, CA

Start with form 540 and pull up the instructions for the form. Look at the rules for Part Year Residents. You may want to go PY rather than resident, because CA will tax all of her income and then give a credit for taxes paid in another state if you file her as a resident. If you go PY, the form is 540NR. If you go resident the form is 540. Start with this and ask questions as you go. Tom Lodi, CA

I am looking for some help from those of you in New England. My wife and I would like to take a mini-vacation to your part of the country over the long 4th of July weekend. I am looking for some ideas on what is "must see". We are thinking of flying from Sacramento into Boston, NY or Philadelphia on July 3rd and leaving on Sunday, July 6th. What would you suggest to see if this was your only trip to the area in your lifetime? I don't know if we will ever go again, so we want to make it memorable. We will be bringing our 2 boys, ages 12 and 14. Any help is appreciated. Tom Lodi, CA

If you do it that way, I would take the 20 biggest and put them on the return. Add the other three to the gross reciepts not on form 1099 in the revenue section. A short description like XYZ corp 68-11223344 1099Misc would fit on the line with an amount. You have four lines there. Tom Lodi, CA

Warning, this is unresearched, off the cuff. Take it for what it is worth. You know that the basis of this payment is because of the business activity of several years ago. As you point out, the overcharged fuel was included into COGS and deducted in that year. The "refund" is therefore taxable on the Sch. C. If that is the case, the legal fees and interest should also go on the Sch C, because they are based in the same business transactions. It does make the Interest subject to SE tax, but it gets 100% of the legal deducted with no haircuts. What would you have done if rather than a lawsuit, the Proprietor had hired an attorney, proved to Exxon that they violated a contract, and Exxon agreed after 2 years that your client was right and paid the refund, legal fees, and some interest to cover the use of the funds during the dispute. It would all go on the Sch. C, wouldn't it? Another thought is how the Sch C disolved and the Corp came into being. If the corp assumed all the assets and liabilities of the proprietor, then all can go on the 1120. The corp steps into the proprietors place for its claim on Exxon. Again, just thinking (or typing) out loud. Tom Lodi, Ca

I just find it interesting that when it is a Democrat, the story goes "NY Governor implicated...." and when it is a Republican the story goes "Republican Governor of NY implicated...." This morning, MSN does not mention a party until it says Republican opponents of the Governor are looking for his ouster while Democratic allies are waiting for a sign from him. The writing is so slanted. It puts the Republicans in such a bad light, like this Governor is some lilly white angel being smeared by the other party. And his loyal friends are so pure and willing to support him, waiting for the truth to come out before they pass judgement. It makes me sick the slanting of the journalism. Personally, I feel sorry for his wife, who was trotted out by her husband to show support for him at a press conference. The kids have to be mortified. Yet he continues to play political games. I hope they send him to a beautiful alternative housing facility (that is the pc way to say prison) at Rikers Island. Tom Lodi, CA

The smallest ones I have seen have about 30 pages and the sections are separted by tabs. The client says they are simple. A lady brought one in last year that was over 100 pages. It was a simple trust with no real complications, but it was still 100 pages. I guess I don't read that fast.

Locally, they have those lightbulbs for $3.49, but PG&E (our local electric company) was giving a rebate (at the counter no less) so you could buy them for $0.99. I bought 30. They last longer and use less energy. Tom

OH yeah? Mabey not over on that beautiful coast where you are, but when you are in between 2 of the top five forclosure cities in the nation (Stockton & Sacramento), it can happen in a hurry. I have lost 40% of the value of my home, most of it in the last 5 months. If I had to sell today, I probably could not get even that much. Facts and circumstances. Location, Location, Location. It may be that the price drop is valid, maybe not. Your word of caution is well taken, but don't jump to conclusions.

This guy was a former attorney general. Cool huh? As to showing restraint or lack of bias, it only happens when it is a democrat. Look at how the media did not go after Pres Clinton when he was caught with his pants down in the oval office, but when Newt and Livingston were caught in affairs, they persecuted them. I also find it interesting that they have not pushed on Obama's past so hard. Personally, I think everything you did from the time before you turned 30 should not count in politics (you know, we do grow up at some point), but I am cynical about the media, and I don't think they are laying off their favorite candidate just because they don't think it is right to go back to his youth. The media want him elected. It is fun to see Hillary on the outside looking in this time when the mainstream media is showing bias against her. She has been squealing like a stuck pig. I find it laughable. When her husband had the teflon coating, the media was fair and unbiased. Now, she is seeing life from the other side. Cracks me up. Tom Lodi, CA

I was just on MSN.com and I see that the Governor of NY is being charged in a prostitution sting. Because I like seeing the mighty fall, I click on the article. I assume it will tell me what party he is from, but theer is no mention, not even a (D) behind his name. They never mention the Democratic party in the whole article. I had to look it up on a search engine to find out he is a Dem. Could you imagine if that was a conservative republican what the headline would be? Just getting political on a slow day. Tom Lodi, CA

Michael is right. You cannot answer the client's question without reading the trust document. That document gets to make up the rules for everything (within the confines of the law - but with a lot of room to taylor to the grantor's wishes). Ask for the document, ask your client to give you a list of questions that he wants answered, bill for your time. Even a simple document will take 2 hours to read through. Good luck. Tom Lodi, CA

No. Taxpayer needs to sign. Tom Lodi, CA

Agree with Wendy and DevM. It is a feature, not a flaw. The wording could be better, but I like what it does. I keep looking for that one keystroke that will cause the reject. I always like to make sure I have a clean e-file before I print or set it aside until the client comes back to pick up. Tom Lodi, Ca

Swifttax, Before you give up... I had a reject 3 times on W2 not matching master file. Everything was correct. I deleted the record for the W2 and entered it fresh and it went without a hitch. I think sometimes the form gets corrupted. It may be the case with you. You may be able to delete and redo (I know, it can be a lot of work when it is the 1040 form), but it may just be a random symbol in the form that you cannot see. I was pulling out what hair I had left on mine, we restored all the fields and retyped etc. Tom Lodi, CA

Are you getting paid your full hourly rate? I would probably not do it. You might lose a client if you don't but this could end up being a vicious cycle. And then you are the bad guy if it does not turn out the way she wants. But, as you have already started helping by writing the first letter......... Are you getting paid your full hourly rate? Tom Lodi, CA