Lion EA

I told her to contact the marketplace, and copied her on the page on AccessHealthCT that says the same thing. It's her broker who told her NOT to contact them. She received $130,000 from one PT entity and is expecting in excess of another $195,000 from sale of a building in another PT. Her dad is Seattle runs the two PTs. We're in CT. Her hubby's on SS, so will have that taxable this year. Oh, and they're getting a life insurance policy payout in November in excess of $50 that her broker says will be taxed as ordinary income. One of their two dependents graduated in 2020, so is no longer a dependent. He's on their AccessHealthCT policy and earned about $50,000. I don't think their payback will be capped !!

Subaru Outback or Crosstrek drive like cars. The Forester drives like a truck. Crosstrek is the smallest if you're driving narrow, winding roads. After a Subaru DL wagon in the 80s, we're on our fourth Outback now. All our former cars are still on the road with other owners.

And, I've spent the last two days dealing with a client who thinks Obamacare provisions are unfair. I went so far as to call up the the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act at 974 pages, and told her to call her insurance agent. I told her it's a Health and Human Services issue and not the IRS. She got a distribution from a family partnership and will get another from their family's S-corp; at least one is due to selling buildings. She's on AccessHealthCT (CT's exchange) and qualified for APTC. So, I told her to contact AccessHealthCT with her new guesstimate for 2022 income. Her broker's insurance agent told her NOT to and wait until next April when she files taxes. I don't have time to learn about insurance, Medicaid, Social Security, etc., as well as taxes!

Yuk! Thanx for the heads up.

Then have him establish an account or call or pay you to call or paper file so he can wait while the IRS verifies his identity.

I've heard he can find it online, but I have no experience with that. Worth researching if it can avoid phoning. https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/retrieve-your-ip-pin

Thanx. That gives me questions to ask these clients.

New client has a foster child placed with them by CT's Dept. of Children & Families since 2019. The CT letter says, "This letter is to confirm that XXX has been residing in the foster home of Mr. & Mrs. YYY since July 23, 2019." Child for all purposes? Child Tax Credit? Child Care Credit? Dependency? Everything? The foster parents are in the process of adopting XXX.

Yeah, I should've used the sarcasm font...

Welcome back to reality!

I tend to tell them to stop about $1,000 short for those same reasons. And, then mom comes in and shows me her canceled check for $15,000 and brags about buying him over $3,000 in ski gear for Christmas!

I too have had bad luck hiring preparers, and even bookkeepers and clerical help. Plus if I do hire someone, I'll be left with no work the second half of the year unless I market for MORE clients. I'm 75 and don't want more clients, even if half are prepared by an employee. I WANT to work all year. I just need to manage client expectations better. Each year I think I'm communicating better, but there's always one who calls way too much. This year it's a middle-aged woman who keeps calling about her boyfriend's return; I remind her I can only talk to her about her own return, which was already e-filed. Now the USPS keeps sending her folder away from her local distribution center, so she's calling me to have her return delivered before it gets stolen. Since 7 July I've talked to 6 USPS employees in 4 locations to try to get her package the last six miles to her house -- on the same street as her local postmaster! I have a short list of those I'm firing this fall, and she and her boyfriend are on it. Hers is a really easy return, but she's a very needy woman. I really do tell clients, when they're the 22nd client that uploaded their documents in the same week, when to expect me to be working on their returns. They call in a few days, anyway. Do that too much, and you get on my short/getting longer list.

My EA certificate is dated 2005, meaning I would've taken the test and filled out the application the fall of 2004. I don't remember getting fingerprinted. I might have gotten fingerprinted in the early 1970's when I applied for a job at a public school. I'm not sure, but I do remember that I had to go to the county courthouse for something to do with a background check. I didn't have a driver's license back then (rode a bicycle and took busses), so maybe I just had to show up in person to be interviewed.

I don't have a lot of returns, but they aren't simple returns. And, for some reason, almost ALL of them drop off/upload/mail/deliver in some manner during one week in February. Hubby thinks it coincides with a holiday weekend when everyone gets their stuff together and them drops off the next week. So, by 12 February or 22 February at the latest, I'm officially and hopelessly behind. I have all the tax returns I can prepare from February through mid-October. It depresses me. And, it infuriates my clients that dropped off five months ago. But if they were the last person that dropped off that February week, their return is going to be prepared in October. I like extensions. I can earn more money in ten months than in three. I can work with people, help them plan or start that new business or finance college or... And, I think I've convinced most, or at least many, of my clients that extensions are good so their returns aren't prepared by a sleep-deprived preparer. But my clients are not happy about the long turn-around times. I read someplace about a preparer who schedules his drop offs just like he schedules his appointments. He schedules each client so he can have a short turn-around time. I wonder if I could convince my clients to do that? Probably not. I work in Fairfield County, CT, home of type-A personalities.

I never remember getting fingerprinted.

Simplification = I get to increase my fees!

A realtor who exaggerates, what a surprise! /s/s/s

If she makes more money, she'll pay more taxes. If she wants to make more money, she can depreciate everything possible over the longest life possible. She can raise rents. Usually landlords want to make as little money as possible or, better yet, have losses. Then they make money when they sell, and have suspended losses to release in the year of sale. Some of that sale income can be long-term capital gains. You're her tax advisor. Maybe she needs a life coach.

$16,000 per person per year. Not $16,000 at one time and $1,000 later in the year and $500 for her birthday. If OP's client did that, a gift tax return would be required. But OP said his client did NOT want to file a gift tax return. Unless his client has been very generous during his lifetime, he's not likely to owe any gift tax with the return.

Why would you use ID.me anyplace other than your online IRS account? I was told in a class that you can use video chat to identify yourself to the IRS, instead of using ID.me

You have a copy of your 2020 income tax return, right? If not, can you call your software provider who transmitted your return? I haven't opened an IRS account (I can no longer get into e-Services, for example, because the IRS says "there is something in" my account). What info is shared with private vendors?! Can they access anything in my IRS account? That would be important information to know.

Don't forget that if he gives her $16,000 of bonds but wants to NOT file a gift tax return, that he can give her NO other gifts in the same year, no birthday, holiday, any reason gifts.

Maybe they can pay Rita in tomatoes...

Filing does preserve the 3-year SOL and makes identity theft harder (or catches identity theft since the last time they filed, so they can act on it now). And, the state may be a lower requirement (isn't IL only $33 of income?! CT is a higher threshold than federal, but ANY amount of CT w/h requires a filing or a $50 penalty).

If it was one residence for the MFJ couple selling, and they otherwise qualify, then up to $500,000 exclusion. It was one residence for the couple, per OP; they just sold it in two pieces. A bit like selling some land used with a residence and then later house and rest of the land as two sales that can qualify for the exclusion if meeting all the qualifications and time limits. Never a rental, right?