Lion EA

Because you knew from experience.. You were our canary in the mine!

Possi, don't you deal with a lot of military folks? The military clients I have had, have had POAs in place for the non-military spouses. If your couple is in two different states, perhaps your friend gave his wife a POA that includes allowing her to sign tax returns. If she filed their MFJ tax return (or even her MFS tax return claiming their dependent) then they already would have the reject if their child claimed his own dependency.

This is my virtual water cooler.

Use those artificial tears type of drops (probably a saline solution). Close your eyes. Sleep. Blink. There are apps for your computer/phone/smartwatch that you can set to remind you to blink. When staring at a computer screen we blink less often. A lot less often. So, use an app. And, if it continued into today, please call your eye doctor and get in immediately.

Let the lawyers fight it out. They get the big bucks. Tax preparers are a little busy 12 April. Their agreement might require them to trade tax returns. But, it can't tell you how to prepare tax returns. Make notes/save emails from your client describing her situation and your choice of filing status. Good luck!

You cannot discuss your client with the ex-spouse.

Sorry for the rant. The best of luck to you, NE, with hopes for a quick fix!

Nice hearing from you, Tabby. Enjoy your retirement. Don't worry; be happy!

Oh, no. I have a bunch of clients with MS. In fact, out broker moved to MS during 2017.

My hard drive was sending signals to Dell that it was in imminent danger of failing. Due to my huge payments to Dell, they sent a new hard drive and a techie to install it, but I postponed the appointment knowing I had to "clone" my old hard drive to the new or face a long spell of restoring backups. My personal techie quit (apparently a feud with my 37-year-old son who hasn't lived here since he was 17, so why am I punished? I think biblically, it's supposed to go the other way!). Dell techie, an IC, was willing to work with me on the side. It took him two visits and him purchasing some new software, but he got me up and running last Thursday morning at 3 a.m.! Closing down is incredibly slow, so I still worry. And, I've been getting that red screen in Chrome. Thought it was under control with Abby's directions, but it returned this morning. The first thing I did was e-file extensions for every client left. Then I got back to preparing returns. Just had an email from a family where I really needed to compute payments, but didn't; so need to get to that this afternoon. We had an out-of-state funeral the weekend before Easter, then Holy Week/Easter. I even took off Easter Sunday, thinking I was on schedule. But, the computer gods have a wicked sense of humor! I also lost internet on Easter, and three days later Optimum was still telling me it was my computer (which sounded plausible, because that was before the new hard drive). So, unable to update my software or e-file returns, I gave in and booked the techie to install the new Dell drive. But, a patient Optimum tech worked out the Optimum issues and got me back online before the new hard drive. We did get a new router and probably need a new modem, as we've been bumped offline since then, but for shorter times. And, I'm postponing my hip replacement until after tax season! But that means I won't be preparing any returns for a while. Yeah, computers are a great help and time savers when everything works right. But, when they go bad, they are huge time wasters. Rant over. Gotta compute those extension payments. And, I have a few 2014 amendments to bang out today/tomorrow. I'm fried.

A good math lesson, Rita!

Bacon would help me think. Or, at least, it would make me happier.

We're all human and make mistakes. There was only one perfect human, and we crucified him. You owned your mistake, and that's the human thing to do. Then, forgive yourself. But, yeah, it really hurts. Been there; done that. We still respect your work, under deadlines and pressure and lack of sleep and almost perfection. When college visiting with my son, I saw a poster on a professor's door: Strive for excellence, not perfection. So true for so many reasons. And, you, Tom, are excellent.

How about MFJ, EIC, and do the worksheets to confirm or deny dependency?

Thank you, NE. I'm going to do that. It's worth a try!

Were you using Chrome? I got a red screen also. Figured it was marketing at best and fishing at worst, so closed down using Task Master and restarted. After a hard drive slow down and fail, a techie quitting, and not able to connect to the internet for a few days, I really can't handle another computer issue! How do I clear my cache?

I stumbled across this 14 April, and have been grateful ever since! Thank you, Eric!

I haven't had my PTP clients arrive yet, but if I remember correctly (not better than a 50/50 chance this late in the season) I was able to log-in as me/my name/my email, probably to retrieve K-1s for clients using their names/EINs. I did receive emails that a couple of the K-1s are ready now. One new client last year invested in one or more PTPs with his broker's advice. He was smart enough to see that they do not fit his plans and sold them all. Dealt with that on his 2016 returns. 2017 had no new ones. I gave him a nice discount this year! Don't show your clients the TaxPackageSupport.com site, because it has had the ability to download into TurboTax.

If you get a booklet of instructions or the large fold-out sheet/poster of instructions from one of your clients' PTP, keep it. They spell out all the details. You can go in your own software to a partnership or a sample partnership, and force it to print the complete directions. And, I'm sure you can get a complete set online someplace. I prefer the booklet plus "poster" as my reference guides, compact and not my printer/toner. You could try a site such as TaxPackageSupport.com

Just completed returns for a young documentary filmmaker with two states, lots of SE income, a couple of W-2s, and lots of APTC. His income was thousands higher than the prior year, most of it NY SE. So, of course, he had to repay ALL his APTC. Luckily, ProSystem does the iterations with SE health insurance deduction and the repayment. But, proofing was a bear. I can't charge this kid enough. (He's already applying for a payment plan.) If I say any more, I'll get a mark, too!

You'll have to visit the web sites for both states to read up on their definition of state-sourced income. With Texas in the mix, I'm betting Alabama says the employee is under the control of an Alabama employer!

I've had a couple with the bursar's statement on the back. Much appreciated. Many of my students are aging out. But, the next bubble is coming as I'm seeing HS students with part time jobs.

I like the voice generator. Maybe Russian? Or the English male.

I should make this my auto-reply to all those email requests. Now, if someone (not my voice) would record the same with appropriate background music for my voice mail...

I'm bringing a list of names with me to Rita's this summer.