Intuit_Devin's Posts

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Intuit_Devin's Posts

Same principals apply, selling a 1/8 interest in a home is fundamentally the same thing as selling a condo for tax purposes. Report the sale, use Form 1116 to claim any applicable credit. And that's... See more...
Same principals apply, selling a 1/8 interest in a home is fundamentally the same thing as selling a condo for tax purposes. Report the sale, use Form 1116 to claim any applicable credit. And that's a good call out by the other commenter that there will likely be an FBAR filing requirement and possibly other foreign reporting requirements. The IRS has more info about foreign reporting requirements here: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/report-of-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts-fbar  
CORRECTED: The 8824 will explain the 1099-S. You may need to file an extension in order to have all the closing details necessary from this transaction.
Assuming this person is a US taxpayer (i.e. US citizen or resident filing Form 1040 rather than noncitizen/nonresident filing 1040NR), then they must report and pay tax on all gains worldwide. Since ... See more...
Assuming this person is a US taxpayer (i.e. US citizen or resident filing Form 1040 rather than noncitizen/nonresident filing 1040NR), then they must report and pay tax on all gains worldwide. Since they paid tax on the sale in India, they will likely qualify for the foreign tax credit to negate the double-taxation aspects. Report the sale as you would any other property, then use Form 1116 to report the gain and tax paid to India to calculate the foreign tax credit.
Treasury has made no mention of an election statement being required. Since the rental activity is treated as a trade or business by definition, rather than by election, no election statement applies.
IRonMaN is correct, if you take the position UPE should be subtracted from QBI, just enter the amount you want to exclude from QBI on line E2 of the QBI Deduction Info smart worksheet at the bottom o... See more...
IRonMaN is correct, if you take the position UPE should be subtracted from QBI, just enter the amount you want to exclude from QBI on line E2 of the QBI Deduction Info smart worksheet at the bottom of the K1 worksheet.
To clarify what I meant by bright-line test. I used the term "bright-line" test to mean it's a test for which either a taxpayer clearly meets a requirement, or they do not. In the case of issuing For... See more...
To clarify what I meant by bright-line test. I used the term "bright-line" test to mean it's a test for which either a taxpayer clearly meets a requirement, or they do not. In the case of issuing Form 1099-MISC, either a taxpayer has issued Form 1099-MISC, or they have not. There's not really a middle ground. (I suppose if they issue 1099s some years but not others...but at least on a year by year basis, either they've issued them or they didn't.) This is distinct from a test like "carried on with regularity", for which there is considerable ambiguity. So in the sense I intended it, the test of whether or not an activity issued 1099s is a bright line test. I did not intend to say that issuing 1099s in and of itself is determinative in whether or not an activity is a trade or business. Just wanted to clarify since it sounds like at least one person misunderstood my use of the term "bright line test".
Use "Other Income" adjustments to add/back out wages, not W2. (Used to be line 21, but now well hidden thanks to the Form 1040 "simplification" this year...just search "Other" and you should be able ... See more...
Use "Other Income" adjustments to add/back out wages, not W2. (Used to be line 21, but now well hidden thanks to the Form 1040 "simplification" this year...just search "Other" and you should be able to locate the Other Income Statement. Find a blank line and enter a negative adjustment for half the wages on the wage-earners return, using a description like "Community property wages allocated to spouse (SSN: xxx-xx-xxxx)". On the spouse's return, same thing but a positive adjustment and "from spouse" instead of "to spouse" in description. Withholding is tougher because, as you've noticed you'll encounter EF errors when creating a W2 for somebody who didn't receive one. The method that seems to work best is to use the Tax Payments Worksheet (again, just search for the name). Around line 18 there's fields to enter "other withholding" for federal and state tax. Use that for the spouse's return. On the wage-earners return, you can just enter half the withholding amount on the W2 and it should be fine. That said, some preparers encounter problems with the IRS "correcting" the withholding adjustments, and sending unwanted refunds to the wage earner and demanding payment (plus a penalty) from the spouse. Use your discretion, but what some have chosen to do is leave the federal withholding alone, request a waiver of the estimated penalty for the non-earning spouse, and get a big refund for the wage earner. Not a recommendation, just an option.
Every tax preparer wishes there was a clear answer to this, but unfortunately there just isn't. The 250 hour safe harbor is a bar that means an activity is automatically a trade or business, but f... See more...
Every tax preparer wishes there was a clear answer to this, but unfortunately there just isn't. The 250 hour safe harbor is a bar that means an activity is automatically a trade or business, but failing to meet this safe harbor doesn't mean this is NOT a t/b. Case law has numerous well known cases where very low level rental activity was held to be a t/b. (E.g. Hazard v Commissioner, 7 TC 372 (1946), or Lagriede v Comm’r, 23 TC 508 (1954)). Ultimately you have to use your judgment as a preparer and look at the facts and circumstances of your case compared to settled case law. That said, one excellent bright line test is whether these activities have made a practice of issuing Form 1099-MISC forms to any service providers. The IRS requires consistency in treatment of an activity as a business for all relevant portions of the tax code. If they've been issuing Form 1099-MISC, then that's indicative of a business, and it would seem consistent to continue to treat such an activity as a business for purposes of the QBI deduction. If these activities haven't been issuing Form 1099-MISC, then that would suggest that up to this point that the owner has not viewed them as business activities subject to the Form 1099-MISC requirement for businesses. To suddenly change positions now that there's a benefit to being a business would certainly seem like a weak position to take.
For low income taxpayers, they may be running into the taxable income limitation. The 199A (QBI) deduction is limited to the lesser of 20% of QBI or 20% of taxable income. With the higher standard de... See more...
For low income taxpayers, they may be running into the taxable income limitation. The 199A (QBI) deduction is limited to the lesser of 20% of QBI or 20% of taxable income. With the higher standard deductions of $12k/$24k (plus other deductions for things like SE Health Insurance, Retirement, 1/2 SE Tax, etc), it's possible many lower income taxpayers don't have taxable income, so their only tax is SE tax. Since the 199A deduction doesn't impact SE tax, you wouldn't see a change. In terms of how the program works, as long as they're below the income threshold ($157,500/$315,000), then checking Yes in the QBI smart wksht at the bottom of Sch C should be all you need to do for the 199A deduction to calculate.