Lion EA

And, Judy's and Dan's great explanations will help you track that $1M from a worksheet (and any other items on that worksheet, if any) to Sch D Line 19. You're not increasing the income, but you are breaking out part of the income for potentially different tax treatment.

Yes, sanction can be used in different ways, and I guess alert can be also! (Like, alert - get ready to duck.) Actually she's a great gal, but she hasn't gotten back to me re what she needs, why, for what, etc. I'm guessing it's not for her personally, because she's in finance. But, it might be a good job lead.

They will not owe any penalty if they pay 90% of their tax liability via withholding &/or estimated tax payments or 100% of their prior year liability. Because the $10,000 withheld is greater than the prior year $8,742, they will not owe a penalty, just a boatload of taxes. And, 2020 will be a bear, needing to get the 90% right to avoid a penalty without the other safe harbor to fall back on.

A cousin asked for a recommendation of a good CPA near Philly. I asked her for more details. So, at this point, I don't know her reason or if an EA might better meet her needs or anything else at all. Just alerting Philly tax professionals that I might have a lead for you!

Have you found any court cases with facts similar to yours that allowed individuals being paid as individuals and receiving forms 1099-MISC as individuals to assign their checks to a partially owned C-corporation and receive wages from the C-corp based on a percentage of their individual IC income? As you explained, they do NOT work for the C-corp but work as ICs for a mutual client.

Good point about community property states, Judy. I'm in CT, but I have clients in CA, too.

Ah, so one can change one's beneficiary on one's IRA withOUT a signed waiver from one's spouse, yes? But, not on a SEP or SIMPLE or 401(k) or 403(b) or 457.

There's something about days of non-qualified use, but it's different if before primary residence use (or after primary residence use), so do track down the new code before you tell client.

But the "assignment" of income earned by individuals and reported in their SSNs is an issue. No matter where the checks are deposited, how can they avoid reporting Forms 1099-MISC in their own SSNs on their own Forms 1040 Schedules C or other appropriate schedules? I guess they could then pay an administrative company to provide them administrative services, such as office space, a receptionist, office equipment, phone answering, etc. But, they might be shareholders but would not be providing services to that administrative company so wouldn't be employees or receive Forms W-2, right? Have they worked with a lawyer in their state to form the corporation, write up an operating agreement, etc.? They need to have you and their lawyer and their banker and any other advisors work together with the shareholders.

There have been some court cases on S-corp shareholders trying to "assign" their personal IC income to their wholly-owned corps. Mostly losing. But a particular combination of contract between shareholder and corp has worked for certain circumstances. Search for court cases with your set of facts to see if there's a way to make it work. It will involve a lot of contracts, operating agreements, etc., if it's possible.

I have three to do who brought me their documents after 15 October. I prepared the "easy" one yesterday to get it out of the way -- but, her SS and her pension documents are missing! Mom is elderly and frail; daughter is dealing with her finances but is an artist and not computer literate. What is it about artists?! (I have a few.) I told her to telephone SSA and retirement board. (Also, missing cost basis info, but I telephoned broker.) I did tell her after 15 November she will have to decide between mailing paper returns or waiting until mid-January. Oh well, on to the next one.

I have carried E&O since I went out on my own. A couple of years ago, I added a cyber rider.

Portals are portals, to move information more securely than other options back and forth. To get verified signatures that the IRS accepts on forms such as 8879, you need something designed to the IRS specs for signatures. What all are you trying to do in one software? eSign will deliver verified signatures and it does deliver the tax returns to your clients. You can use it, at a lesser fee, to collect other signatures without verification, such as your engagement letter. But, it won't work for your clients to send their tax documents to you. FileShare will let you upload any documents to your clients, including signature pages. It will let your clients upload any documents to you. It does not verify signatures.

For esigning forms such as 8879, you need esigning with verification. Look into CCH's eSign. The license has been free with pay-per-use. Federal and all states except NY. (From what I heard last week, NY is very unlikely to accept eSign from any brand next tax season or anytime soon.)

I just returned from the CCH User Conference where someone mentioned SendSafe. I know nothing about it other than some CCH users are also using SendSafe for email. I use CCH's SiteBuilder website with FileShare included. I send tax returns and other documents with SSNs or other identifying data only via FileShare. My clients are getting better about sending me their data, signature pages, etc., via FileShare. All they have to do to receive my file is follow the link in the email they receive on my behalf from FileShare (I can edit the default email if I wish, globally or case-by-case). If it's their first time, it's follow the link and choose their own password. I've also been using CCH's eSign to send signature pages/tax return for signatures. Clients have found it easy. (Except teens without a credit history that can't pass the authentication.) NY is the only state that does not accept eSign, so I don't use it for my commuters nor NY residents. I was pleasantly surprised when my first few clients this past season, who were very non-computer literate, had their return plus I had their signature pages back in seconds. The eSign software does all the work of combining spouses' signatures into one form and returning it to me. The client doesn't have to know anything about getting their signatures back to me; no printing, signing, scanning, uploading, etc., on their part.

And, a higher partnership income subject to the partners' personal income tax rates. You'll have to run the numbers to see if there's a sweet spot. If both partners don't benefit under your plan, then how does the 5% partner's unhappiness upset the partnership or the other partner?

ProSystem fx has C and E and F comparison sheets as well as the federal and states comparisons. You may have noticed that CCH's US Small Firms division now includes ProSystem fx, so you can probably negotiate favorable pricing if you are a small business.

You can always amend. The IRS can accept or not. You will not get a refund older than 3 years/2 years since payment without extraordinary situations.

I transmitted our federal, CT, and IL returns with direct debits. Yeah! I have a used HP all-in-one that's newer than my broken one from a client; it's sitting on my guest room/junk room floor. I ripped off the bubble wrap and plugged it in to scan the 1099-B to a flash to take to my computer to send with our return. I have a new Fujitsu scanner that's not set up. Who has time?! This virtual water cooler keeps me going. Thank you, Everyone! And, luckily, grateful clients make it worthwhile.

And, line 10 refunds, and what are we going to do next year when they redesign the forms and renumber?!

So, in the wee hours of the morning as I finished every scrap of paper that I have for our joint return, I realize I don't have anything from Morgan Stanley: my IRA distribution, my SEP distribution with QCD, and Steve's investment account. When I plug in last year's totals to see what's going to happen to our returns, we're going to owe a bunch! I leave an email for our broker and a huge note for hubby and get a little sleep. When I awake, our broker had uploaded .pdf files for me. Then hubby found our paper copies still in their mailed envelope in his basket of bills to pay! He'd opened it but stuffed the papers back in their envelope months ago. Hope he doesn't have any corrected 1099s in his bill-pay basket. Also, he has five pages of trades! Our broker can't get me an Excel today. I have Scan & Flow, but old scanner broke and haven't set up the new. I guess I'm entering totals only for each security and hoping for the best. All-in-One is also broken (just receives faxes but won't send or copy or scan to my computer or a flash) so I can't attach a .pdf. But, maybe I can cull the pages I need from the broker's upload... Tomorrow, I'll decide if I'm keeping hubby!! And, in November I'm shopping for a computer, copier, color printer, etc. At least I nursed my computer through this season and my black only printer for tax returns is OK. Toner and paper just now arrived from Staples. Now, if IL will accept a direct debit from a non-resident, I don't have to finish before the PO closes.

In recent years, I've prepared our own after all my paying customers, at least all that I have a chance of completing by 15 October. A few years ago, ours was rejected, because someone used my SSN (not hubby's). So, printing and mailing checks to the IRS, CT, and IL was a day late with P&I. I filled out all the paperwork, but that was the year with some IRS hacks, including into their IPIN system, so I couldn't get an IPIN to e-file the next year. The next year, I stopped everything weeks early to be able to e-file ours in plenty of time, expecting it to be rejected again. It was not. I've been preparing ours about 1 October since, just in case. But, this crazy year with TCJA, rehabbing my new hip, and two new grandbabies, I started yesterday! Need to get through all my Schedule C-related stuff to be able to write a check for my SEP for hubby to run down to our broker today or first thing tomorrow. And, IL does not accept the e-postmark, so I'll send the states separately tomorrow and federal on its own. Next year, I'm back to 1 October. I used to start ours first. But, broker statements get so many extensions. By then, clients are dropping off. Ours got later and later. Maybe I should just pick a time, such as August, and prepare ours no matter what. Acknowledgements are straggling from the IRS, PA, and NY for those last three. Good luck, everybody!

I'm transmitting the last I'm going to do by Tuesday -- paying clients, that is -- a family for 2018 plus their new-to-me mother's 2017 and 2018 transmitted Saturday and just now. Now to prepare ours! One dropped off today; he knows they'll be in November. And, another got me wife's revised info only a couple days ago and was told November (but I did work out his Schedule C so he can make his SEP contribution on time) and discovered husband has some negative expenses scattered in his Quicken books; so I'm very glad I didn't try to work them in now. And, yet another yesterday; told November. I have my own payroll taxes and an all day tax seminar Friday in another town and fly to CO next Monday for days of tax classes and meeting up with some CO clients. I'll be back by Halloween. But, we got invited to the Metropolitan Opera to see Porgy & Bess on Wednesday, so that's my treat. And, I took off last Sunday through Wednesday for my granddaughter's 4th birthday in PA and to play with her baby sister, too. I know I read Cinderella more than 27 times!

Groan!

I use a planner going forward. I use a comparison to show why their balance due is different than the prior year (pointing out liability, withholding, other changes from prior year, etc.).