Posted on 06/20/2017 6:39:00 PM PDT by OKSooner
Someone hired a CPA to do their taxes. Lots of schedules and attachments. Homeowners, professional person with lots of business expenses, and a small business owner.
Late getting it all together, took everything to CPA in early April.
CPA's staff prepares the return, CPA reviews it with the people, and the return gets sent to the IRS.
(Paper return because some smartass tried to run an identity theft on them in January and file a false return, which to their credit the IRS caught and sent a letter to the people letting them know what happened.)
Anyway last week the couple gets a polite letter from the IRS acknowledging receipt of their real tax return and axing them to please send them a copy of their Schedule A, itemized deductions.
Say what?
Is this industry practice, to NOT include Schedule A to a 1040 tax return for a married couple?
How might the IRS respond to this aside from the obvious polite letter asking for it?
With a refund involved, how might it affect the timing of the refund?
For a friend.
Was Schedule A in the copy the preparer provided to the taxpayer? Because it is indeed a required form and failure to submit it will probably cause a delay.
Was Schedule A in the copy the preparer provided to the taxpayer? Because it is indeed a required form and failure to submit it will probably cause a delay.
Send a copy of the letter to the CPA and tell him to send it immediately. Office help probably neglected to enclose it and should get into trouble.
Yes, it was, or so I inferred from hearing the story...
Stuff happens....Call the CPA and let them take care of it.
No one will get into trouble.
I dunno about tax stuff, but if the IRS asks for something, they do have a number to fax it to them which saves mail time. Should be on the request form they sent? It should only delay the return a week or two if it’s just missing attachments. They lose stuff, too.
I seldom itemize deductions, but my best guess is if tax payer chooses itemized deduction over standard deduction, IRS would need list of every deduction claimed. If Schedule A is where deductions are listed line by line, it should be filed with the return.
If your “professional” tax preparer did not file it, they goofed, in my opinion.
OK first I am a seasonal tax preparer with you know who. No it is not standard practice to fail to include any and all schedules and forms. All schedules are a required part of the tax return. On the other hand, you said it was a ‘paper return’ which could mean a coffee spill or something at the IRS.
At this point with only a polite IRS request letter, I’d not be panicked and would get a clean copy from the CPA, verify that it matches MY record and mail it pronto!
Best regards.
When there is ID theft, and a fraudulent return is filed before the real taxpayer files, then the real taxpayer must file on paper and include an ID theft affidavit with the return. I think it is form 14039.
If they itemized on the return, it is possible that the schedule A was not sent somehow( not sure how or why that would happen) but the IRS would most likely send the taxpayer a letter asking for it. Taxpayer needs to go see the person they paid to do the return and ax them if they sent it and if so, why are they getting this letter.
My initial reaction is, the paper Sch A got lost or omitted.
It’s a bit rare for itemized deductions to exceed the std deductions. Not “never”, just a tad unusual. Most people find it less advantageous to itemize.
I don’t think it (what you describe) affects anything. If you’ve paid you ppyments and sent in your forms and they are missing one form, that shouldn’t mean anything.
Never know.
I disagree. If you own a home and have a mortgage, you probably have enough Sch. A deductions right there. Real estate taxes and interest payments are usually the largest items on Sch. A's.
I filed Sch. A for my entire working carrier because I owned my homes.
There’s a line on the 1040 that says to enter the itemized deduction OR the standard deduction.
So if the number there is not the standard deduction, they presume there should be a sched A apparently.
Have accountant send it.
They won’t get dinged for it.
p.s.
BTW, check the address the letter is requesting the Sched A is to be sent to and make sure it corresponds to their IRS service center as indicated in the 1040 instructions.
It could be that the ID theft folks are trying to get some info from them.
Accountant will know address to use anyway, but it would help the cops if the request is bogus and you give them the letter.
I am quoting facts. It’s largely dependent upon how punitive your state taxes are and how big and how fresh your mortgage is. If you live in NJ or CT, yes you would almost automatically itemize. If you have a million dollar mortgage with a payment in the $4500-4600 range yes you would itemize.
If your fairly average house is nearly paid off and your taxes are not insane like they are in NJ, it can be advantageous to take the standard. Here in CA, my folks had a $1 MM house all paid off with a low prop 13 tax basis (I think $1400/year) and really had no deductions to speak of. It wasn’t even close.
Otherwise, per the IRS,
According to the most recent IRS data, for the 2013 tax year,
30.1 percent of households chose to itemize their deductions (44 million returns).
68.5 percent of households chose to take the standard deduction (101 million returns).
1.6 percent of households had zero or negative adjusted gross income, and were unable to take any deductions. (2 million returns)
The standard deduction for heads of household rises to $9,300 for tax year 2016, up from $9,250, for tax year 2015.The other standard deduction amounts for 2016 remain as they were for 2015: $6,300 for singles and married persons filing separate returns and $12,600 for married couples filing jointly.Sep 30, 2016
I don't file it anymore because when I retired, I paid cash to have my retirement home built. No mortgage. Not enough real estate taxes to do the trick.
Use TurboTax
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