BulldogTom

Hey Terry, I appreciate where you are coming from. I am taking a different tactic in my practice (that some may call reckless - and that is OK). I am not going to grill every one of my clients this year. There will be a couple of simple questions. 1. Did you have health insurance all year? If Yes: Did you get that health insurance on the exchange? If no: Why not? And then I am going to take it from there. I don't see any reason to subject all of my clients to the questions that may not apply to them. If they say they had health insurance all year and it did not come from the exchange, I am checking the box and moving on. If they did not have insurance, then I am going to see if there is an exception. If not, they pay up. If they got their coverage on the exchange, I am going to calculate the credit and include either the additional credit or the clawback on the return. I know I am making this out to be a little simplified, but I just can't go through the brain damage of trying to figure out every possible scenario that might be presented in my office this year. I am going to take it one client at a time and do the best I can for them. I will learn things as I go, and hopefully I will recognize when I don't know one of the nuances of the law. Not changing my engagement letter for this. Just treating it like any other provision of the tax code. Tom Newark, CA

Yardley, Run, as fast as you can, to take these offers up to help you out. The type of free training they are offering you is priceless. There are many pitfalls to doing clergy returns. They are usually very rewarding to do if you are in to helping out people who are generally good folks, but just care more about their profession and faith than they do about the government and taxes. If you don't want to read a whole book, GuideStone Financial Resources out of Dallas TX (Southern Baptist Affiliation) has an excellent web page called "Minister's Tax Guide". Use this as an overview of the whole clergy tax system. It is written as if the clergy member is reading it. It is the best I have seen out there. Richard Hammer writes this for GuideStone. Good Luck. There is a lot of help out there for you. I suggest you take advantage. And Mike Malody is a first rate guy. I have received great advice from him in the past. If he is willing to offer his time for you, I strongly suggest you take him up on it. Tom Newark, CA

This is crazy, my first client of the year, drops off his bookkeeping for me to do. I started working on the tax return right after I finished his bookkeeping. Asked him 3 simple questions just to get a better estimate of his tax due/refund. One of which was if he had health insurance this year and where did he get it. This was not a client I thought would be on the exchange. But there he is. Let me know right away that I can make no assumptions about my clients this year. Tom Newark, CA

That would make too much sense. Lets go after people who are trying to better themselves by getting a degree rather than those who are scamming the EITC. So, to show our frustration, we should prepare the original return without the Ed credits, and then mail in a 1040X so those lazy ba$t@rds at the treasury can have plenty of work over the summer going through paper returns. Tom Newark, CA

Thanks for pointing me in the right directions Tom Newark, CA

OK, here is what I came up with. TP determines gross income from business. This amount is the first limit on SE HI deduction (nothing new here, this is how we always did this). TP determines the amount he paid PLUS the amount of credit he has to pay back subject to the clawback limitations. This was a really good article on this issue. https://obamacareguide.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/self-employed-health-insurance-deduction-the-iterative-calculation/ Tom Newark, CA

Looking for some materials to help with this scenario: TP is single, no dependents and self employed. His Schedule C business is on the Cash basis of accounting. Goes to the exchange and gets insurance which is subsidized. Has a better year than expected. Will have to pay back some of the advanced premium tax credit. How much do I include for self insured health deduction? The amount he paid in, or the amount he will ultimately pay when the subsidy is reconciled? If it is only the amount he paid in 2014, will he get to deduct the remainder next year since he paid for it in 2015? I looked through my materials and did not see this situation addressed specifically? I think I heard something about it in a seminar, but I can't track down a definative cite. Can someone push me in the right direction? Was hoping there would be a worksheet or something in the software that might help, but not finding that either. Thanks Tom Newark, CA

Hey KC, Patty likes that one. Tom Newark, CA

I will not congratulate you. I want the EA profession to be exclusive so I can charge more. Sorry Jack, I don't want you in my club!!!!! Besides, when I took the exam, it was 4 parts. Now you only have to pass 3??? I guess they will do anything to lower the standards. Just Kidding. Well done. Tom Newark, CA

Thanks to all of you. I think I will go with the name on the return and the correspondence. I am only taking the POA to attach to the letter I will send to the IRS. Appreciate you. Tom Newark, CA

Help please. I know I should know this but I am having a brain cramp. My client just got a notification from the IRS for an error on her return. I know what the problem is and can fix it easily. Problem is, the client just married a couple of months ago. How do I fill out the POA? With her name at the time of filing, which matches the IRS notice, or with her married name, which does not match the IRS notice? Or hyphenate the name? It should not be this hard....and tax season is just starting. Tom Newark, CA

I wonder- if this passes and becomes law, will the states lose their authority to regulate paid preparers? Tom Newark, CA

21. So long as my cousin does not claim her kids, I can. Somebody has to claim them. Tom Newark, CA

I like Cellutionware Depreciation Calculator. www.cellutionware.com. $350 for the program and about $200 per year for updates and e-mail support. I have used this software for the last 10 years or so. I highly recommend it and would be willing to talk to you offline about it if you wish. I get nothing for this endorsement, but I should. And if you look at the testimonial page, that is me being quoted on it. Tom Newark, CA

Congrats to the 6 people who voted for Jan 22nd. The IRS announced Jan 20th open for efile. Tom Newark, CA

I am surprised that the IRS made this announcement. I thought they would take a couple extra weeks to open up efile. Very surprised. Tom Newark, CA

This is a common occurance in my practice to have children claim their parents in Mexico. Tom Newark, CA

How in the heck do you stay in business doing $60 amended returns? I charge a minimum of $75 and that is if I prepared the original return (oops, I forgot about the brokerage statement that has 28 trades on it). Otherwise, I charge the fee I would have charged for the return plus $75. This bat, oops, I mean pleasant lady, just is not as afraid of you as she should be. You need to scare her like you scare me!!!! Merry Christmas Rita. Wishing you and your family all the best. Tom Newark, CA

Look how far we have come. When I first started in this industry, we could take classes in the summer and learn what was coming up in the next tax filing year year. Now, we have to wait until summer to find out which tax returns we prepared need to be amended. Tom Newark, CA

I agree with everything you said cbslee.....I should have caught that myself. Sometimes I should preview before I post. It would be very rare to see a note from unrelated parties to have no interest. What in the H3!! was I thinking. Tom Newark, CA

Is the loan fully documented? If so, what is the interest rate on the note? The payments A made to TP included interest, whether TP took them into interest income or not. Sounds like TP needs to amend the open years to reflect the interest. It is conceivable that there is no interest on the note, and therefore no interest to report, but the note will tell you that. The next part, the foreclosure, is pretty simple. I assume TP is cash basis tax payer, so the interest owed at time of foreclosure is irrelevant. A owed TP X number of dollars on the note. A transfered the property to TP in full satisfaction of the note. TP has "purchased" the land in the year he foreclosed, for the amount owed on the note and this is his basis. When he sold the land, he has gain or loss calculated in the normal way. There was no sale at the time of the loan being made, it was just a loan, not a transfer of property, so there is no installment sale. There is no sale until the time of the foreclosure. Tom Newark, CA

I like this discussion. Just a suggestion. Send this in to ATX and ask for a way to give read only access to prior years unless you have the password. It seems to make sense that you could "shut off" your software and just make it read only unless you have a password to "turn it on" again. Sounds like a brilliant suggestion to me. I would like to hear from ERIC if he thinks it is possible. Eric is a smart guy. He would know if this is pie in the sky or not. Tom Newark, CA

Feel free to have fun with it. I went a "little" political, but I did it to both sides of the the aisle. Tom Newark, CA

Are the contributions deductible by the contributor? Tom Newark, CA

The next piece of information I am looking for is right after the president signs the bills.....The IRS will give an announcement that the tax season filing will open on XX/XX/2015. We should start a pool as to what the first date of e-file will be. Tom Newark, CA