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Miakis

If it's 35 minutes until boarding, I'd probably take a chance. But if it's 35 minutes to take off, I would not. Remember that gates usually close 15 minutes prior to take off. So that 35 minute window could be a 20 minute window.

Miakis

My CPA says we are his only client who insists on NOT writing checks with our tax returns but always paying online thru e-check or CCard. It just feels safer NOT to write both our full SS#s on the check as IT’S required. Sadly, the IRS is claiming we didn’t pay them even though we have a receipt fr...

Miakis

I wrote a check for girl scout cookies that got stolen out of the mother's car and went through the exact same thing as the OP's parents. It was super annoying to deal with. The lesson is to be wary of writing checks, I think. You can't really control their custody after you let them go. Writing che...

Miakis

You can't, really. There's no public record for checking to see if retailers are properly filing sales tax unless the state files a lien or forecloses on their business for being delinquent. As the consumer, your responsibility is to pay sales tax, or self-reported use tax if the seller doesn't char...

Miakis

If you'd asked me when I was 18 years old if I thought I was get an inheritance and where it would come from, I would have listed most of the sources in the article: Uncle, Grandfather, Father. They seemed affluent and I, like the young people surveyed, believed they would leave me something. Fast f...

Miakis

If I had kids, I'd probably start them off by letting them choose shares of a company to buy each year for their birthday. I assume it would be companies that produce their favorite products. I'd then buy them an equal dollar amount of a total market mutual fund or maybe the S&P 500. Then each year ...

Miakis

Mice kept taking up residence in the roof of my screened porch and were driving me nuts. I got one to plug in out there and it seems to have worked. The mouse noise went away after a couple of days. Or maybe the mouse just died?

Ant season has passed, so I can't tell if it works on them.

Miakis

I have about 10 hairstylist tax clients - they are all self-employed individuals who rent booths. I highly suggest you consider this as an option. Most are able to contact their current regular clients and inform them of the change and the clients move with them. Some of them immediately make more i...

Miakis

20% on the after tax bill is my typical tip. I tip more if I ordered something small, but stayed a long time. Or sometimes if it seems slow and they don't have many covers. 15% for sub par service that I'm mildly annoyed about, but not angry. Like, if it was bad, but didn't ruin my meal. 10% for bad...

Miakis

I don't think the line of questioning is complete. If advisers add value, then do all advisers add value? Surely not. I have encountered many terrible adviser-managed portfolios. If advisers add value, then do they add value to all investors? Definitely not. Many people (Bogleheads especially) are a...

Miakis

I’ve heard that this can be a problem that can be time consuming to fix in two different circumstances: 1) When applying for social security / Medicare if your names don’t match up 2) For flying, especially internationally, if the name on your photo ID (e.g. drivers license) doesn’t exactly match t...

Miakis

The plan makes almost no sense. 1) The answer to your question is no - there's no mortgage lender that will give you a US based mortgage for a Dominican home. You can cash-out refinance (put a new mortgage on your current home and use the equity to buy the foreign home) or get an asset-backed loan, ...

Miakis

Has anyone here actually seen or bought a catastrophic or high deductible plan independent of an employer? We're looking into filling the gap between COBRA and Medicare and can't find anything in our state except the ACA type plans with very narrow networks. If we could find a catastrophic plan whe...

Miakis

My husband and I did it through 23 and Me, recently. It was a bit of fun. No big surprises. My husband is from a German ethnic minority that lived in Russia then immigrated to the United States several generations ago. They have great genealogical records because they're Catholic and there have alwa...

Miakis

Prenups are great. They provide an excellent vehicle to have a very concrete discussion about financial expectations in the marriage. You find out a lot about your spouse during the conversation: 1. Are they mature enough to have the discussion? 2. Are they reasonable? 3. Do they expect to be a stay...

Miakis

I fly business class/first class any time my trip is more than 4 hours. If it's under four hours, I still look at the upgrade options and choose one if it suits me. I always choose an option that lets me choose my seats, at a minimum, and sometimes a premium economy with more space. I believe the cu...

Miakis

Having an outside work space does not automatically disqualify you from having a home office.

The IRS has a very clear discussion in Publication 587.

Miakis

A title company can generally give you a lot of guidance on a FSBO. They're not going to advise you on how to make an offer or pricing, but they can walk you through how to execute the actual sale and what is commonly done with a FSBO.

Miakis

I think you're doing enough without the stipend. He's getting: - Free room and board - Free car insurance - Free health insurance - Major expenses, such as car repairs paid for - A job offer - Free moving expenses - College savings waiting in the wings That's more than a lot of kids his age get. Why...

Miakis

I have a degree in Economics and I was taught by many decorated Doctors of Economics. None of them were particularly wealthy.

Miakis

The IRS is pretty annoying about this. And arbitrary. As a CPA, I submit a lot of stuff to the IRS, and all my pens are black ink. I've never had one rejected for that, but I did once have one rejected back to a client for having a digital facsimile of a signature - when in fact the signature was ju...

Miakis

I'm in Zone 5. Persimmon trees - I have planted American persimmon and an American-Asian hybrid. I can't do a full Asian persimmon here, but you can west of the Rockies. They do well, because the American persimmon is a native in my area, but they don't transplant well, so the one I planted from a t...

Miakis

When I was working with irregular income (W2) and significant other income I used to just tell the payroll folks exactly what amount to withhold. I didn't bother with allowances etc. You might see if you can do this. That would be lovely. But I don't think Megacorp is going to go for it. I can only...

Miakis

CPA here - and I'll say that it really depends. I specialize in self-employed individuals and small business owners, and generally that's where I have my biggest value-add. For some of my clients, the impact is probably thousands of dollars a year, because they turn into a disaster without an accoun...

Miakis

I am currently dealing with an 86 year old client who inherited a $250,000 annuity from her brother which had a large taxable gain in it. She told the insurance agent that it was important to her that she preserve the money and not lose any. So the insurance agent did a total distribution with no wi...

Miakis

We really like Sun Basket. We tried Hello Fresh previously and it was sub par. This year we gave Sun Basket a whirl on a discount and ended up hooked. it's pricey, but the ingredients are always very high quality and the recipes are great. But we are absolutely NOT saving money on groceries! If thes...

Miakis

Since the home was inherited, it's probably eligible for LTCL treatment - so even though you don't get a refund, that Long Term Capital Loss will carry forward. In the original post, the OP says "sold my home in Colorado and moved to Nevada." This suggests the home was used as a personal residence....

Miakis

Since the home was inherited, it's probably eligible for LTCL treatment - so even though you don't get a refund, that Long Term Capital Loss will carry forward.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/31381 ... -as-income

Miakis

Unless you were in a really hot market, it's unlikely you had gain. Collect your closing documents from the purchase of that home and the closing documents for the sale. From the purchase documents: Figure out how much you paid for the house. Add in: any major improvements you did while you owned it...

Miakis

It sounds reasonably typical. That doesn't mean you need to be satisfied with it. How many times do you go to a restaurant and get typical service vs really awesome service? As a CPA, I do most of the things complained about here. 1) I don't assume I'm smarter than my software. If it kicks up an err...

Miakis

If there's a local IRS office nearby, I'd go in person to get the transcript. If either you or your mother has a tax preparer, you can have them fax in a 2848 and get a transcript through E-services within the 10 day window (immediately if they're willing to call Practitioner Priority Service and fa...

Miakis

I see 1098-Ts all the time that have incorrect scholarships on them. Most often, the problem is that they show the scholarships for based on scholastic year instead of calendar year, or like you said, they show maximum scholarship awarded but not what was actually received by the student. I usually ...

Miakis

Geez. I need to raise my prices. I put a balance sheet on all of my 1120-S and 1065 returns regardless of if they require it. How else am I supposed to know if my clients are providing a complete picture? Whether or not the balance sheet rolls is the final test of an accurate return. Spectec is righ...

Miakis

My accountant just told me I owe $50k in taxes I have no idea if this is right or not, and all accountants I talk to are completely flakey and never get back to me timely. You do realize that it's March 15, right? March being the busiest month of the year for accountants? I don't think it's the top...

Miakis

I have a client who had her identity stolen - incorrect address, maiden name (not legal name for 15 years), but correct social security number. Paypal was routinely approving credit despite the fact that the fraudster had already defaulted on a Paypal line of credit. Their excuse was that it was dif...

Miakis

I once went to a Toyota dealer to buy a new one and trade in my old Toyota. The sales person asked me to fill out a form listing all known problems with the car. I could imagine that if I did that, and later something else was found to be wrong, they would want to come after me for not being truthf...

Miakis

Google - as mentioned, there's an active TurboTax Q&A forum.

Post of the TT forum.

Call TT - They offer free support. I suggest scheduling a callback rather than waiting on hold. They

Miakis

When we went, we stayed at a Disney Vacation Club rental that had a kitchen and ordered groceries to be delivered the day we arrived. My recollection is that some kind of concierge service actually accepted delivery and put them away in our room. That worked out well. We'd go to a park in the mornin...

Miakis

The only suggestion the Midland rep had over the phone was to suspend the automatic payment option which would "cause the policy to lapse 60 months after August 2019". Doesn't this sound like it will cannibalize the cash value in order to pay the premiums until Aug 2019? That suggests there is a ca...

Miakis

I'm a CPA and none of my family members or my husband's family members are my clients. I don't suppose I would refuse them if they asked, but none have. It's really not that uncommon for family members to keep their finances private from each other. If he pushes it, and he might, because Edward Jone...

Miakis

I would be concerned about accepting in a position with the kind of lack of diversity you're indicating. It's unlike your wife will "fit in" well. On the other hand - I'd put up with a lot to get a shorter commute and double the pay. Plus it's a step into the career she wants. I'd be less offended/c...

Miakis

You can exclude a part time employee from your solo-401(k). The ability to exclude certain employees is one of the great benefits of a 401(k) over a SEP or SIMPLE.

Check your plan documents. It's probably already in there. If not, you can amend.

Miakis

According to the chart, billionaires seem to have at least 20% of their wealth in liquid assets, including cash, stocks, and mutual funds. That seems pretty liquid. Why would they need more than 200 million dollars in liquid assets? 100 Millionaires look to have about 40% of their wealth in liquid a...

Miakis

As others have mentioned, you should be talking an attorney in your state. They'll know the property division rules for your state and the case law that's pertinent. Of course, without a prenup, that's all useless if you move to a state that has different rules. That said, if a prenup can't be discu...

Miakis

I'm always curious about these "My Accountant Told me to do X" posts. Did your accountant not explain to you how, exactly, Whole Life would save you between $50,000 and $100,000 in taxes? As a tax accountant, I don't make recommendations to my clients without explaining them. Is it common for accoun...

Miakis

If you knew you were headed into a recession, you would need to do more than just sell at the right time. Suppose you sold into cash just when things turned downward. Ok - great. You're not done. Next, you need to call the bottom - because you don't want to miss the upswing. If you wait too long, yo...

Miakis

Thanks, I should have said they often use software analogous to TurboTax (Intuit makes professional products as well and has a good share of the market). My brother-in-law used to work for one of the big national accounting firms and used what he described as "pretty much TurboTax." Most large acco...

Miakis

I'm more confused when I'm not asked for the CVV in a card-not-present transaction.

Miakis

Fair probability that your accountant will be using Turbotax when doing your taxes. Actually, TurboTax is a self-prepare only software. It does not offer the capability for a paid preparer to insert their information and sign the tax return. Using TurboTax to prepare and file a tax return as a paid...

Miakis

I think the problem may simply be that you told them to continue doing what they did for the old owners. If this was something they did annually for the old owners, they assumed you wanted it. You should call them and address the issue. Tell them to give you an annual estimate that includes a list o...

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