helow Posted February 3, 2009 Report Posted February 3, 2009 TP owns a condo and paid $5,784 as condo fee. She lives in the condo and is not renting out any space. She wants to claim the condo fee as a deduction such as real estate. She claims that her accountant did just that last year. I tell her she cannot claim the fees as a deduction just like she cannot claim her utility as a deduction. Am I missing something here? Thanks Helow Quote
jainen Posted February 3, 2009 Report Posted February 3, 2009 >>Am I missing something here? << Yes--you are missing the reason she isn't going back to that accountant! Quote
taxbrewster Posted February 3, 2009 Report Posted February 3, 2009 Not missing a thing, that is what we call close but no cigar.... Quote
JohnH Posted February 3, 2009 Report Posted February 3, 2009 If any part of the fee can be identified as property taxes, then she may have a deduction for that portion, but if the prior preparer deducted it then he just didn't know what he was doing. Quote
joelgilb Posted February 4, 2009 Report Posted February 4, 2009 presume the condo fee is just regular association fees and if so no deduction. Quote
ed_accountant Posted February 4, 2009 Report Posted February 4, 2009 You are correct. Think of the Condo fees as maintenance, insurance, etc.. They are not deductible on schedule A. Quote
helow Posted February 4, 2009 Author Report Posted February 4, 2009 I told client she could not include the condo fees. She took her stuff and probably went back to her old preparer. Thanks all. Helow. Quote
michaelmars Posted February 4, 2009 Report Posted February 4, 2009 sure, you missed how to get your clients a bigger refund. you claim something like that for maybe 10 years, then eventually you get caught, you repay the 3 open years and you are net net way ahead. i picked up maybe 30 cop returns who went to the same preparer and used that method to get big refunds. btw-that preparer got visited by some non-client cops and eat baloney sandwiches for a couple of years. Quote
David1980 Posted February 4, 2009 Report Posted February 4, 2009 That's the unfortunate thing in this business. Anyone who randomly decides they want to be an income tax preparer just puts a sign out and does tax returns. As a result there will always be that person who prepares returns with bogus deductions, whether it's from lack of knowing or deliberate the result is the same. Taxpayers hear that their coworker is getting this awesome deduction and then demands that they too should get it. Quote
Maura Posted February 4, 2009 Report Posted February 4, 2009 I know you said condo but was the unit part of a co-op? Quote
jainen Posted February 4, 2009 Report Posted February 4, 2009 >>She took her stuff and probably went back to her old preparer.<< I warned you that the issue was her leaving the old preparer, NOT the condo fees. Quote
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