Lion EA

I think the IRS isn't accepting 2020 1040-X until sometime later in March. Is the IRS accepting 2019?

Yes, if the scholarship can be used for other than tuition/fees. Don't know how you do that in ATX. Basically, you apply the some of the scholarship to room & board or something other than tuition fees in your software's reconciliation worksheet. Your software will then move the excess scholarship that you didn't apply to tuition/fees to the wages line with the literal SCH. Now the student is paying tax on that 2K or however much the parents need to max out the AOC.

I think taxing over 3 years is the default. There's a box to check on Form 8915-E if you want it all taxed on this return.

I'm with you. I've used that line and the wages line to tie out to the various payroll reports. I've used distributions for non-payroll withdrawals. I can kinda see the point of using Sch C and SE to pay the tax if there was no payroll. But that should happen only once! I'd educate that client. If they continued taking money without payroll, they'd no longer be my client. Maybe that's what happened here. Why did they leave their last preparer? Do they seem able to be educated, motivated to change right now for 2021?

I don't think the states will reissue. Probably the states that stay coupled with the IRS for most/all items will do the same with UI benefits. The states that decouple are anyone's guess. The states that currently do NOT tax UI benefits probably will continue to do the same. I have two so far that I'm holding. They're both under the $150,000 threshold, so agree with me to hold. I want to know the definition of "household." If the dependent who has $12,300 in UI benefits lives with her parents who make well in excess of $150,000, then does that mean the dependent's household income is also over $150,000 and she cannot exclude $10,200 from tax? And, for Kiddie Tax, after excluding $10,200, is the next $1,100 also not taxable, following $1,100 taxed at child's rate, and excess over $2,200 + $10,200 taxed at parents' rate? Or, does the exclusion of $10,200 include the first $1,100 and the 2nd $1,100 and go straight to parents' rate for the excess over $10,200?

How'd you get $9 on line 25c? That's most commonly for FIT from a 1099 of some type, such as withholding from gambling, and can be from a pass-through entity.

I know, I have 13 states. This one is CA that does NOT tax unemployment benefits, but I have some in my stack that are CT that DOES tax unemployment benefits and other states that I have to look up. Every return has at least one new thing that takes me a few minutes. I am VERY far behind.

Judy has it pinned for us at the top. All Pinned Topics, then scroll down to Links to: States' Info.

In ProSystem fx it's OC for Other Countries in the drop-down list. (I just type OC.) It used to be V for Various Countries, but changed a while back; I continue to type V from time to time and get British Virgin Islands. I do have some heavy investors in Nestle; is that the Netherlands?

Households with income less than $150,000. I was just talking to a dependent/college student with over $12,300 in unemployment benefits; that's her entire income. (She usually earned $4,000 from Macy's in her local mall.) However, she's a dependent and lives with her parents while attending college. Her parents earn well over $150,000. Does the daughter's household include her parents when determining the taxability of her unemployment benefits?

Give them a bill. But if they don't pay it, don't fret. Give them back the documents they gave you and wish them well. You don't want clients who are shopping for the best outcome without planning with you before the year ends to improve their own outcome.

If he was over 55, separated from service, and it was a 401(k), I think that's an exception to the penalty. But that doesn't work for an IRA.

Is he taking "substantially equal" distributions? Is he having his financial advisor prepare his taxes?

Is this the final year of the trust? Simple or Complex?

I know, but I was a good straight man, walked right into that.

I sure worded that in a misleading way! He is younger than I am, but not by that much. 27th anniversary this June.

It took me two tries! He's a great guy. 27 years this June. So, yes, I'm very happy and try to smile and thank him when he waters my plants. Plus, it's easy to smile and thank him when he keeps me supplied in chocolates.

Only when I wander OUT of my office to talk. Hubby's supposed to help me proofread and drop off to a couple clients and shop and cook and NOT wander in and talk while I'm working! I try shutting my door, but he just knocks, starts talking, and wanders in -- with his shoes on, so I end up vacuuming. He also waters my plants, which is a sweet idea, but he leaves water on my wood furniture. I love him dearly, but a little less when I'm working!

For states (most of the northeast) that use the convenience of the employer rule, the employee is considered to have his tax home where his employer is located, unless the employer creates a bona fide biz location at the employees home office for the convenience of the employer -- maybe a lot of clients to service in that area, something like that. Most employers are reluctant to do that, because then the employer would have nexus in the employee's state and be required to file biz tax returns, workers' comp, etc. NY is especially aggressive about this. An employee of a NY company will have NY-sourced wages no matter where he works, such as from home in CT during a pandemic. Don't have any NJ clients, so you can research how NJ treats wages earned from a NJ company while working from home in FL.

Yep, I do like Catherine and Judy. I have a few retired clients who mail back their signature pages, and lots who sign and then don't upload it/drop it off through my mail slot for days.

I have one client who emails in a funky font. I think I've trained her NOT to use that when emailing me.

3 or 6 or 8 was exactly my problem that made me accept cataract surgery! I spent way too much time re-reading all the numbers, using the lighted magnifier on my phone, calling hubby (he's younger) in to proofread, etc. No excuse for tax documents to be in tiny font.

Hubby told me about a great FREE scanner on his phone; I figure if it can make music notes/symbols clear, it can make numbers clear. I just installed it and took a scan of a spreadsheet. Wow. It lightens the background (no more gray paper in scans) and smooths out the lines and straightens the image. Like having the original. It's called Scannable and the logo is a butterfly on an aqua background. I have a couple clients that insist on texting the pictures they take on their phones. I'm trying to get them to upload to FileShare, but if they'll use Scannable too, I'll be so happy. Yes, FREE. Delete, Rotate, Crop, Restore. Send, Share (AirDrop, Message, Mail, Twitter, all the usuals). Save to Camera Roll or Evernote. So, I'm telling my clients to Save to Camera Roll and then upload to FileShare.

If the "community" has ended, then there's no more community property after that date. Don't know what you/your client can do about income during the part of the year before community ended.

I had cataract surgery a year ago December to solve the problem of unreadable numbers. Now I'm good down to 8 pt fonts. Although, some of the scanned stuff clients send me is pretty blurry.