Lion EA

NOT stockpiling is what is required of us as EROs. You have options to provide for your client's benefit without breaking any laws. Simply have your client sign when ready to e-file, for instance. My job as an EA and ERO is NOT to blindly follow the instructions of the client solely for their benefit. It's my job to keep my client WITHIN the law and stay within the law myself. I choose to educate my clients instead of following their instructions.

Your client will pay tax to NY for the time he worked in NY. If his NY wages are also on his NY return, see if NJ gives a credit for taxes paid to another jurisdiction. (I haven't filed any NJ returns for a few years, so don't keep up on that state.)

If it's a qualified rollover, something you probably checked before b/f moved the funds and the VA 529 plan administrator probably checked before accepting, you might have to ask your software how to report it. You might have a tab or dropdown menu or a pop-up during 1099Q entry that asks the amount rolled over.

Yeah, at HRB we got asked to prepare Schedules D a lot (pricey Fairfield County, CT, with a lot of DIY investors, or, maybe, expensive CPAs with taxpayers trying to cut costs). And, Schedules C for the DIY crowd. We were told NOT to prepare part of a return for Gail's reason. HRB did do some "in-house" things like have a multi-state specialist for the whole district that prepared all the NR returns, signed them, and returned them to the preparer. But I worked in a Premium office where we did our own state returns. Other offices referred biz/trust/estate clients to us, but they became OUR clients for their entity returns. Today's Trivia: way back then, we prepared entity returns on ATX. That's how I found the "old" board and re-found this ATX Community when it went out on its own. Prior to the closure of the "old" board by CCH, I was going to buy ATX as I went out on my own; because I already was familiar with using it for entities. With the closure of the "old" board, I vowed to never buy CCH products ever. However, as I demoed every software out there, ProSystem fx worked the way I worked and had the capability I needed for my clientele.

The preparer signs the return as the preparer. Then the taxpayer takes the return to you or another preparer to e-file; that person signs as ERO. Years ago at Block, we could e-file a return brought in by a taxpayer and signed by a preparer. We could offer NO advice at all, or that could make us a preparer. HRB really stressed to us that we could do the data entry to exactly match the paper return and e-file only and not make any corrections or offer any advice or treat it anything like tax preparation at all. We'd enter the return as delivered to us. If there were errors, we could not e-file and also could NOT tell the taxpayer how to correct. We could only tell the taxpayer there were errors and to go back to his preparer (including if he self-prepared). If he wanted to pay us to PREPARE his return, we would do that and e-file. Since going out on my own, I will NOT e-file a return prepared by another.

They would have community property from the date of their marriage in 2020 to the end of the year, on such income items that are community by TX definition. That's all I got. Hope a TX preparer jumps on here.

I've filed CT and IL w/o Federal. I know I've filed other states alone, also. For instance, for a MFJ federal but two MFS for the state(s), you have to file the federal without the state and then file each state without the federal, right?

You don't have to attach anything if you follow the instructions for entering data.

Those fees always gave me great reasons to justify my own fees: "Why is your fee so high for something I could do myself?" "My fee is only 10% of your broker's fee!" "I never got a bill from my broker...."

This year everyone seems to have something new or different or a question for the future (thank goodness, they're asking in advance or at least planning for 2021 or telling me about it now so I can convince them to plan), and so many of the new things happened during the pandemic and as late as 27 December. Everyone seems to need me to explain why I need their January 2021 EIP payment, and has to go look for it. Everyone seems to have at least one income item that they don't usually have, whether a new side gig or unemployment or dipping into savings or retirement funds. Everyone wants to discuss what Congress is doing now and will do the rest of 2021. And, I have a few that telephone me every time they hear something on the news or read something somewhere (they can't remember where) to ask me about it. And, PPP forgiveness on entity returns is driving me nuts; I'm sitting here with a partnership that won't balance and S-corp owners calling me to ask why their returns aren't ready. And, hubby keeps wandering in, talking...

See page D-12: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sd.pdf

I just went through my client list. 7% work for the aircraft industry, so all were furloughed &/or salaries reduced to this day 8% work in production of some sort that involves group work, such as theater, and didn't work from mid-March to this day (one runs a March job fair for performers/tech to meet with summer theater casting directors and had to return all her 2020 income but still had some nonrefundable deposits and other expenses already paid when her March 2020 event was canceled a couple days prior) 7% work in travel or hospitality with extreme drops in income (for one newish travel agent, $0 income in 2020) 7% work in the health care field, so a mix of "no change" and drastic change (a hospital engineer kept his salary for more hours; an ICU nurse kept her salary for more hours; a nurse in a doctor's office was reduced to half time; a nurse running group sessions at a psychiatric hospital was laid off entirely) 20% work in retail or personal services that require face-to-face, such as hairdresser, violin teacher, and other tutors; all were without work for some time; some were allowed to return to half time eventually; some were able to pivot to virtual with some new expenses 7% are teachers who kept their salaries but had more nondeductible expenses to teach from home as well as school 5% were strongly urged to retire or they would be furloughed (in some cases that resulted in a high income year for 2020 followed by a very low 2021; in others, 2020 income was lower, too) 3% died (I don't know their causes of death) I'm sure I'll find out even more Covid consequences for my clients as I prepare their returns and hear their stories. My clients are in 13 states, with a heavy concentration in CT. I don't know how CT compares to other states, but we must have a lot of the virus (or, maybe just a lot of old people) because CT just opened vaccinations to 65 and older 11 February. Most of CT is still "red"; although, my tiny town of Weston just dropped to "orange." Our tiny school district has 71 students/staff isolated/quarantined. State-wide, 63 people have the new UK variant. This is going to last a while.

You have to check each state.

Oh, yeah, and clients will ask. And, we really don't know, yet. Retirement income is taxed to the taxpayer's state of residence. But residence when? When the distribution is made? Or, when the distribution is taken into taxable income? I'm only guessing, the state when taxed. I think we'll see states litigate this. States like CT that lose retirees to FL with no income tax; CT will want tax on the whole distribution, not just 1/3 or even less. It's always one more thing!

When all else fails, read the instructions: You do not have to file a Missouri return if you are not required to file a federal return. If you are required to file a federal return, you may not have to file a Missouri return if you: a. are a resident and have less than $1,200 of Missouri adjusted gross income; b. are a nonresident with less than $600 of Missouri income; or c. have Missouri adjusted gross income less than the amount of your standard deduction for your filing status. Note: If you are not required to file a Missouri return, but you received a Wage and Tax Statement (Form W-2) stating you had Missouri tax withheld, you must file your Missouri return to get a refund of your Missouri withholding. If you are not required to file a Missouri return and you do not anticipate an increase in income, you may change your Employee Withholding Allowance Certificate (Form MO W-4) to “exempt” so your employer will not withhold Missouri tax.

It's a 2020 credit that you calculate on the 2020 return. EIP1 and EIP2 were just advances on that credit to get funds to taxpayers and into the economy as fast as possible. If your client (or the one who is not your client) received too much, they do NOT have to pay it back. If they received too little, it's now a 2020 credit. Yes, a family that alternates years claiming a dependent will get too much as a whole, but they are not whole. Just make sure your client gets her correct 2020 credit. And, contact your Congresspeople if you have concerns, because they're voting on EIP3 now!

Tell them you can calculate their taxable amount by subtracting their current basis that they must provide to you in a document from OPM. Their original letter when they started drawing those pensions probably has their total basis and the number of years to subtract it. Like most things, if the client doesn't have a document saying otherwise, the IRS says basis is zero. Or, send them to a free tax prep service!

I had a 1099-R like that years ago when I was at Block, and back when you could get a person on the phone. While the client was at my desk, we called the state and were told that she'd used up her basis years ago, and that it was all taxable per box 2. Someone else telling the client. Problem solved. Between government downsizing "customer" service and the pandemic, communication is slow to non-existent. Good luck.

Show/send them the article that talks about using up their basis in 20-30 years, because both of them are retired more than 30 years. Have them contact their issuer and loop you into the call or provide you with a statement of how much basis they have left. If they can't prove they have any basis, I would use zero. If they have their tax returns with Form 1099-R from about 2000, ask them to show you. You might see that at that time their Box 1 was higher than Box 2 by the amount in Box 5. If so, suggest they amend their returns for the years when Box 1 equaled Box 2.

If Oregon has a separate e-file signature form that the client will sign later, you could e-file the federal and hold the Oregon return for that later signature... (I'm in CT which accepts the federal 8879, so I have no choice; well, I do for NY that decouples for my commuter returns.)

Do taxpayer or spouse have a side gig? Not a lot you can do for a W-2 person after the year ends. If low enough for an deductible IRA, or can still add to their HSA, or the tiny $300 charitable. You can help them plan for 2021. Max out 401(k). Bunch deductions so they can itemize every other year.

I know! I can't even form coherent questions to that partner. Maybe after a glass of wine. Please extend the season to 15 July so I can afford a mental health day or two, or a week. Of course, that may not help my entities due in two weeks...

I'm ready to give everyone their documents back and retire! Thought I'd move on to another entity return for a while, even though I hate going back and forth between S-corporations and partnerships which are more different than they should be. So, I open a partnership and find on their P&L $31,614.14 in Reconciliation Discrepancies and $19,153 in Ask My Accountant and handwritten on the bottom is $1,700 Form 1099 !! Time for wine and laundry! I think I'll put all my entities on extension, including the S-corporation that this thread is about and who will certainly fire me because he always wants to file by 1 February! Rant over until tomorrow. Thanks for talking me through this.

But what are YOU doing? Do you have things labeled however your software suggests for non-resident state income AND deductions? Follow the MO instructions for what to add to MO source income and what NOT to add. Maybe use your Help key in that field to find what entries you need to make.

Yeah, if a colleague were the other preparer... I think I'll fess up earlier rather than later to client and as permission to speak with his 1040 preparer...