Nol question

[delmarflwr2]

I am a little brain dead right now but I am get through this problem to my liking.

I am using basic for the first year and it has been something else.

I was doing a final review on the Federal side no errors but when reviewing it stops  and says NOL worksheet is not included in Proseries basic edition go to irs.

But in diagnostics it says please review the amt nol entry for depreciation. It appears to be greater than the amount used to figure amt.

For the life of me, I do not know where to go to see what to adjust. Can someone please direct me how on basic to find out what they are talking about. I am not stupid but mind is gone.

[email address removed]

[dkh]

When you do Check Errors the gray box with errors listed should have (or at least PS Professional does) a  Go To Error button - bottom right of gray box.   

[arandersen]

I get the "review the amt nol entry for depreciation" diagnostic every year on an S corp return that has a negative number for the Post '86 AMT Depreciation Adjustment. A negative number will appear when AMT depreciation is higher, rather than lower, that regular depreciation. I believe this happens in the later years of an asset when regular depreciation has been all used up but there is still AMT depreciation. If you have enough of those assets, it can result in a net negative Post '86 AMT Depreciation Adjustment. 

Anyway, having a negative Post '86 AMT Depreciation Adjustment is a good thing. It has eliminated a client's AMT. But back to the diagnostic. I believe it is caused by having zero for your "amt nol entry for depreciation" while also have a negative Post '86 Depreciation Adjustment. Because zero is greater than a negative number.

And it's just a diagnostic, not an error. Which means it might be a problem or it might not. When it happens, I carefully review the AMT schedule and worksheets. They always check out so I ignore this diagnostic as it has never popped up except on the one return that has a negative Post '86 AMT Depreciation Adjustment. And so far, no problems.

Maybe I am way off base, but these are my thoughts. 

PS: I you want to calculate NOL and NOL carryover, you need to put the return in Pro, not Basic. Pro is available on a pay per return basis, so you can use Pro for the difficult returns.

[delmarflwr2]

It says please review the amt nol entry for depreciation.

It appears to be greater than the amount used to figure amt.

I know I may sound stupid but where do I look for this? Client has one rental property and the both say the same amounts. The depreciation and amt say the same amount for the property and two other assets.

Am I looking at the wrong schedule.

Please help. It is a diagnostic not a error message

I am using Basic for the first time and I feel I have made a big mistake in trying to cut costs

Thanks

[arandersen]

I initially said I had this problem in an S corp return, which I prepared in the Pro version, but upon double checking, I didn't have this problem in the Pro version, nor for an S corp, which always has to be prepared using the Pro Version.

The problem does seem to be limited to the Basic version on the Form 1040. As a test, I took my Basic version 1040, which spits out this diagnostic and I imported that Basic version return data file into the Pro Version and voila, I don't get any diagnostic message in the Pro version.

As I said, I get this diagnostic every year for that one client in the Basic version. I don't really know anything more to tell you, other than I have double checked everything and the Basic version has worked for years even ignoring this diagnostic.

But if it really bothers you, you can always use the Pro version for this one return and do the pay per return for that one return. I don't think you made a mistake going to Basic. For most returns, Basic works just fine. And as I have mentioned, after finishing the return in Basic, you can open Pro and go to File Maintenance and "Restore" the Basic return into the Pro version. You don't have to pay just to do this. Then you can open up the Pro and Basic returns at the same time, side by side, and compare the AMT schedules on each version and see if there are any differences between the two versions. And if you see a difference, just manually type in the numbers from the Pro version into the Basic version.

Or, just pay for that one return to be printed out and filed in the Pro version.