User talk:Woodstock

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Welcome

Hello Elizabeth - welcome to TaxAlmanac! My name is Tim Doyle and I serve here in the role of TaxAlmanac Moderator. If you haven't done so already, you might want to review our Quick Start Guide to help you get oriented.

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- Tim Doyle, TaxAlmanac Moderator, Tdoyle 08:18, 13 January 2006 (CST)

Potential Client

Hello Elizabeth --

I just saw your posting regarding a client that relocated to AZ. I am a CPA in Scottsdale (suburb of Phoenix)and would love to meet with and help your client. My information is:

Thomas S Holly, CPA Associated Financial & Tax Services 480-945-0699

Thanks.

See Rev. Proc 81-11 and 84-35 Richard Nairin, CPA Nairin 00:41, 7 January 2007 (CST)

Changing your name

Good morning!

Yes, we can change your username here on TaxAlmanac. Just let me know what you'd like to change it to.

- Tim Doyle, TaxAlmanac Moderator - Talk to me 10:44, 21 January 2007 (CST)

Thank you!!

You're very welcome - glad I could do it for you. It doesn't change your name on the old discussions though.

- Tim Doyle, TaxAlmanac Moderator - Talk to me 11:35, 22 January 2007 (CST)

Stage 1!!

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis and I wish you well on your treatments. Been there, done that. I'm glad you have caught this early on. Take care. Hope you have a good team on your side, being in Chicago it seems you must have access to an excellent medical community. Keep us posted on your wellbeing. ActionbsnsactionbsnsActionbsns (not sure how to actually get that to work)

Cancer

Woodstock, I don't know where you are spiritually, but I read this article the other day. Hope it touches you where you need it most.

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2006/1776_Dont_Waste_Your_Cancer/

Jim Dugan, aka jdugancpa

jimd@jdugancpa.com

How are you doing?

We haven't seen your name contributing at TaxAlmanac for a while. How are you doing? Hope all is going as well as it should be.

Madoff losses

Hi there Elizabeth:

If you will give me your email address, I will forward an email sent by the president of the NJEA, where he posts a newspaper article with some good references.

Death&Taxes 09:21, 12 February 2009 (CST)

Email returned

Not sure if the moniker dethNtaxez@msn.com was rejected by spam filters at your end, but the email I sent was returned. Easier if I paste it here. No source was listed but the President of our state EA group sent it to members:

Next headache for Madoff investors: tax troubles Pamela A. MacLean / Staff reporter February 16, 2009

A second wave of bad news is coming for victims of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's purported $50 billion Ponzi scheme: personal tax troubles.

The victims have seen promised profits vanish and may see only pennies on each dollar of principal they invested.

Now add to that the specter of severe limits on their ability to recover taxes paid for years on those phantom earnings, and the added burden of having to wait to claim losses due to theft, according to tax lawyers.

Madoff investors who never touched the alleged profits reported on account statements most likely paid taxes on the purported gains for years. Not only did the profits never exist, but now the taxes paid will add to the pile of losses because the statute of limitations limits to three years their ability to claim refunds on overpaid taxes.

The investors, clients and friends who squirreled away money with Madoff face limits on the deductibility of their losses and may be barred from claiming refunds on overpaid taxes for any years prior to 2005, according to Jay Weill, a tax partner at Sideman & Bancroft in San Francisco and former tax division chief of the U.S. attorney's office there.

"They cannot expect the IRS to come to their rescue," he said.

Madoff told authorities in December that his investment firm had been a $50 billion Ponzi scheme that used money from late investors to repay earlier investors in what he told them were legitimate investments.

The tax consequences will fall unevenly, providing no benefits to tax-exempt charities and universities that get no breaks because they owed no tax, while giving limited help to investors with big losses because of legal limits on the ability to recoup all the tax losses, according to John Peterson, a corporate and international tax partner in Baker & McKenzie's Palo Alto, Calif., office.

For individual investors, the alleged capital gains, or profits on their original investment, are gone. Those cannot be claimed as losses on taxes because they existed only on paper and were never withdrawn, according to Weil.

Investors may claim refunds for taxes paid on the phony capital gains reported to them by Madoff, but they can only go back three tax years, to 2005, said Weill.

And if they actually pulled "profits" out of the account, then it is still taxed as income.

As for lost principal, representing the original cash investments in Madoff, claims of capital losses may be deducted to offset capital gains. That has limits, too. Deducting the losses that exceed gains is limited to $3,000 per year. For an investor who has lost millions, they may not live long enough to deduct all the losses, given the annual limit, according to Peterson.

And given the current economy, "most people already have a supply of capital losses," he said.

The silver lining in the tax picture will be the ability to claim the theft losses as a result of the Ponzi scheme, according to Weill, but that, too, has its limits.

Investors don't have to wait for the possibility that Madoff is convicted of a crime to show the IRS that a theft loss exists. "If someone rips you off, if there is no reasonable chance of getting it back you may claim the theft loss," Weill said.

In a 1996 tax case stemming from a Colorado Ponzi scheme, the judge said taxpayers cannot make the loss claim if "a reasonable prospect of recovery exists" when the taxpayer has a legitimate claim to recoup from third parties, such as insurers, banks and accountants. But the taxpayer is not "required to be an incorrigible optimist" waiting to make the theft claim, Premji v. Commissioner, No. T.C. 1996-304 (T.C.).

The theft loss deduction only kicks in for amounts that exceed 10% of an investor's adjusted gross income, he said. "There is an issue whether or not the 10% limit would be applicable in cases like this," he added.

Peterson agreed, saying he would bet the IRS will publish guidance to Madoff victims in the next six months spelling out some of these issues.

There is also an expectation on the part of the IRS that victims of thefts make insurance claims or other attempts to recover, according to Peterson. "I expect the IRS is going to look at whether people did that. It could very well take a while to play out before they figure out what is left," he said.

It makes sense to file amended tax returns for all the phantom income reported by investors, Peterson said. "One question could find its way into the courts: What about people who reported income five and 10 years ago? Does that give them a basis in court to claim a bigger loss now? There should be symmetry on taxes paid and what was paid off as gains later," he said.

"The reality is there was no income," he said.

And international investors will have their own headaches. Foreign investors would not have U.S. taxes withheld until money was actually paid out to them, but whether they can deduct theft from their home-country taxes depends on the local tax law, he said.

"This sort of loss is peculiar, and there is no telling how it is treated from one country to another," he said.

Glad your doing well

Aloha Elizabeth. I read your personal post yesterday and I'm really glad to hear you're doing well. It sounds as though you've had a really rough go of it. With some hope and some luck we can all look forward to a happier and healthier new year. Keep us posted at TA on your progress and, of course, your opinions and counsel for those of us who are tax challenged and those like me who are seriously search challenged.

Mele Kalikmaka, maka h'iki hou.

Paula Actionbsns 12:54, 19 December 2009 (CST)

Maybe copyright issues on your excerpt from FNMA selling guide

Hi, Elizabeth - I wanted to apologize in advance for my large-scale edit of your post here: Discussion:Newest regulations by FNMA for CPA mortgage letter. I had hoped to have some time to research whether or not we're allowed to copy and paste freely from FNMA.com the same way we are from irs.gov and other truly governmental sites. Unfortunately, I'm just not getting caught up with everything I need/want to do, and thought it might be best to pull your long excerpt just in case it might get TaxAlmanac in trouble.

I replaced it with a link to the place where others can go to see the info you copied/pasted. Here's the TA policy I was referring to in my post, in case you're interested in reading the background on why I thought the excerpt might not be acceptable here: copyright policies; plus there's a little more specific guidance at the bottom of this help page.

I've still got this on my list for later, in case I can find out more - since fanniemae is technically not governmental, I just wasn't sure.

Trillium 14:49, 25 March 2010 (CDT)

Woodstock - are you from Woodstock, IL?

I grew up in IL and know a few people from your area. Do you know a John Rigby? He's about 53 years old. Also John Mason? same age. My aunt and uncle live in Crystal Lake.

Domain Name Treatment!

You left a post in 2008 that was never answered...

"Thought I'd bring this discussion back as I have a client inquiring about his tax liability in the sale of a domain name. I am fairly certain that this client purchased the domain name for use in his business at a cost of $24.95 for three years. The cost of purchasing was deducted as a business exp in the year of purchase. Now, a company wants to buy his web domain name for $19,500. He has costs related to a facilitator of the sale and an escrow company. So, is this just a sale of an intangible and would I report it as a Sec 1231 property? I am unsure with my research on this as everything having to do with domain name sales revolves around those who hold an inventory. Thanks!"

How did you resolve this? I have a very similar situation now, and can't find much about this type of situation. Everyone went off on a tangent in your case about how to deduct the cost of the domain name, but not much was addressed about how to handle the gain. In your case I would have agreed section 1231 gain for self-created intangible. Is that the route you went? I have the same case, except that a covenant not to compete is included, with no cost alloated to it.... and am wondering if I can count ANY eventually as capital gain.

I was interested to see you are from Chicago. I live in Florida, but am originally from the west suburbs of Chicago! Thanks for any info you can share. Karen Kjmcpa60 06:55, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

Chris' comments

Step back for a moment and catch your breath. I didn't view Chris' comments as against the code of conduct. You WERE making an assumption without the benefit of reading the trust. That's what he was pointing out. I'm no trust expert myself (As Dennis is always quick to point out), but the most common answer I get is to 'read the trust and find out'. Kevinh5

Contact info in discussion posts

Hi, Elizabeth -

I've just updated your user page to include your e-mail address - anecdotal reports from the past indicate that people who put the e-mail address right in a discussion post tend to get a lot of spam on that address, whereas the e-mail addresses in the user pages are a bit more protected. Your mileage may vary on that.

Also, including contact info in the discussion post can be seen as a violation of TA's advertising policies... there's a clear reason for your e-mail to be on the post, given you're looking for a referral for a client, but eventually the e-mail address should come out of the discussion post and instead, just refer to your user page for contact info.

You may get some grief for having created duplicate discussions (about half of the regulars seem to use the "all topics" forum index, and thus will see your discussion twice. Therefore, once one or the other gets going, or alternatively once one or the other rolls off of page 1, or at least out of the top section where people are checking more frequently, I will probably delete the one that's less likely to get more posts. Just wanted you to know in advance.

Trillium 22:16, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

I've deleted both discussions

While you can edit a discussion, there's a trick to deleting one completely, and I guess it's limited to certain users. I've deleted both discussions - but I'm going to copy/paste below one response you got, in case you need that info later.

Trillium 18:32, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

Here's the response from Tim Kelly:

Denver nonprofit

Have you found a preparer in the Denver area yet?

While I am not in that area and am actually in NY, I do know nonprofits and depending what they need could possibly assist. If they need hands on coming to the office, then no, but with todays technology, I have clients all over the states and in a couple of other countries as well.

In addition, Natalie is also very well versed in nonprofit accounting. She is in Hawaii, but again, technology.

Anyway, if I can be of any assistance, let me know.

Fsteincpa 20:50, 29 October 2013 (UTC)