Discussion:IRS and Turbotax

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{{ForumReplyPost|UserID=Cotopop|Date=28 September 2009|Text=Is there any detail provided by IRS in the No Change letter that enables you to understand how they came about their conclusion to no change ? Have you checked to see if there was a unused carryover of home office expense from 2006 ? was the homeoffice deduction generated from Schedule C or Schedule A as an employee . Maybe the taxapyer was subject to AMT in 2007 and has the deduction on Schedule A so essentially the deduction was lost. I would do some further research.My personal opinion is that there is something you are overlooking . }} {{ForumReplyPost|UserID=Cotopop|Date=28 September 2009|Text=Is there any detail provided by IRS in the No Change letter that enables you to understand how they came about their conclusion to no change ? Have you checked to see if there was a unused carryover of home office expense from 2006 ? was the homeoffice deduction generated from Schedule C or Schedule A as an employee . Maybe the taxapyer was subject to AMT in 2007 and has the deduction on Schedule A so essentially the deduction was lost. I would do some further research.My personal opinion is that there is something you are overlooking . }}
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 +{{ForumReplyPost|UserID=Smokeytax|Date=28 September 2009|Text=Ctopop - The home office was generated as an employee. I had entered the tax return data in my computer, including the prior year, so that I would have an idea of what the tax hit would be, and there was no AMT impact, but still, there might be something I'm missing.}}

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Discussion Forum Index --> Basic Tax Questions --> IRS and Turbotax
Discussion Forum Index --> Tax Questions --> IRS and Turbotax

Smokeytax (talk|edits) said:

27 September 2009
Here's something I think you all will find extremely interesting.

My pal prepares her own tax return with Turbotax.

She got audited for 2007 & I was giving her a hand in understanding what documents the IRS wanted, mainly relating to schedule A deductions.

We discovered that there was a $10,000 overstatement of her employee home office deductions stemming from the figures Turbotax imported from the prior year.

She sent the IRS the volumes of documents for everything they were asking for, plus explained the error we had discovered & requested that the IRS bill her for the additional taxes.

Well, what do you know - the IRS issued a No Change letter!

So, why would they do that?

Blrgcpa (talk|edits) said:

27 September 2009
Maybe they found what they were looking for. It happens.

CrowJD (talk|edits) said:

27 September 2009
Smokey, I think they were so impressed that she even had a home that they gave her a break.

Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said:

27 September 2009
Maybe Tim Geithner did a hands-on audit.

Smokeytax (talk|edits) said:

27 September 2009
My theory is that if the IRS starts being hard-nosed about Turbotax computational and carryforward errors and word gets out, more folks will go back to sending in paper returns, & the processing system will grind to a halt.

Or, Congress might have to (gasp) simplify taxes and then where would we be?

Kevinh5 (talk|edits) said:

27 September 2009
or the IRS person was just baffled by the pure massive amount of bullshit that Turbotax printed out

Kevinh5 (talk|edits) said:

27 September 2009
So now, Smokey, comes the ethical question: Will you tell your friend about the error and recommend that she amend her return? If she were a client I'm sure that you would follow Circular 230, but what are our responsibilities to non-clients who just ask for free advice?

Smokeytax (talk|edits) said:

27 September 2009
Good point, Kevinh5.

Actually, I did agonize over that very issue when I found the error, and decided that my best advice was that she come clean.

So, at my suggestion she pointed out the error to the IRS in the letter she sent with her backup documents, literally requesting that they bill her for the additional taxes owed.

At this point, with the No Change letter in hand, do you think we have to do anything else?

MWPXYZ (talk|edits) said:

28 September 2009
Frame the letter?

(But she should not put on a wall until the SOL expires. A guest to her home may want to collect a finders fee)

Cotopop (talk|edits) said:

28 September 2009
Is there any detail provided by IRS in the No Change letter that enables you to understand how they came about their conclusion to no change ? Have you checked to see if there was a unused carryover of home office expense from 2006 ? was the homeoffice deduction generated from Schedule C or Schedule A as an employee . Maybe the taxapyer was subject to AMT in 2007 and has the deduction on Schedule A so essentially the deduction was lost. I would do some further research.My personal opinion is that there is something you are overlooking .

Smokeytax (talk|edits) said:

28 September 2009
Ctopop - The home office was generated as an employee. I had entered the tax return data in my computer, including the prior year, so that I would have an idea of what the tax hit would be, and there was no AMT impact, but still, there might be something I'm missing.