[andyetimhappy]

I have never come across this and hoping someone else can help me out with it. I have a client (Sharon) who has four T5 (box 13) slips with her name and her brother's name as joint recipient's. Sharon's husband Bob is in a lower tax bracket and is best to claim the interest amounts as income instead of Sharon but Bob is not listed as one of the recipient's only his wife and her brother. Can Bob still claim this? Thanks for helping.

[Tim Parris]

The Income Tax Act isn't concerned with who is best to claim but rather who should claim. As you are in the professional forum, I think you need to review Attribution Rules. The question suggests you would benefit from a refresher of how to attribute income.

I will also point out that inconsistent treatment of income is grounds for the CRA to review and/or audit a tax return.

Certainly as a professional you will not need the expanded answer that a TurboTax user would have.

[Dink Meeker]

I don't know Tim. As a general rule, I just put the income wherever the hell I please and just rake in the T1ADJ income all summer long. Cuts into my golf time, but it's really lucrative. :wacko:

[andyetimhappy]

Thanks for the help and advice! Next time I would leave out the sarcasm and rudeness - it doesn't bring out your good qualities at all. I am going to imagine that you answered my question at a really bad time and that you are not really this rude and self centered. How lonely and depressing would that be?

[kam]

andyetimhappy, le 31 March 2011 - 04:54 PM, dit :

Thanks for the help and advice! Next time I would leave out the sarcasm and rudeness - it doesn't bring out your good qualities at all. I am going to imagine that you answered my question at a really bad time and that you are not really this rude and self centered. How lonely and depressing would that be?

Tim is very kind to reply his valid points so promptly. I appreciate his kindness.

[dunner]

Tim might soon be known as "unknown" :)

[Tim Parris]

I am uncertain how I was rude and sarcastic... perhaps someone could explain? I am just a little confused here.

The answer to the question is in the attribution rules. Frankly, they are inflexible in the case. Any professional preparing tax returns should know the answer.

[Ranjit]

Tim Parris, le 31 March 2011 - 06:32 PM, dit :

I am uncertain how I was rude and sarcastic... perhaps someone could explain? I am just a little confused here.

The answer to the question is in the attribution rules. Frankly, they are inflexible in the case. Any professional preparing tax returns should know the answer.

You got it 'Professional' That is the word.

[dunner]

Remember, Ranjit, that Profile, according to Inuit, is "tax software for professional tax preparers". Therefore, we must assume that users in this forum are professional tax preparers. There is another forum, for TurboTax, that is directed towards non-professionals and I think you'll find that Tim has contributed greatly to that forum and in an appropriate manner.

[BalancedBooks]

Slightly off original topic but kind of not.

This message is actually for Intuit Management.

The responses provided above indicate the level of frustration that we "Professional" preparers have over the direction of these forums.

We had a "Professionals Only" forum where we could bounce tough questions and unusual situations off others in similar work enviroments with the occassional bit of humor - see "Special Glasses" of which I was a proud participant!

We no longer have that here and some extremely considerate professionals have created our new home. Our new home is spectacular to say the least.

It is a rare day that I come here to see what knowledge I may gleen but have been disappointed every time.

"Can the spouse claim the interest?" - really?????????? This is pretty basic stuff for any professional and just solidifies our reasons for leaving these forums.

Intuit Management...please take notice of this.

Likely my last post.

Dan

[Reg]

Dan:
I will probably still lurk here, but you are absolutely right about the way Intuit has gone.

Why they would chase away the best friend they had in the Canadian Professional Accounting community will remain a mystery. Spectacular doesn't go far enough to describe our new home. We have some great friends in the professional community.

One wonders if QuickBooks will be next??? But with the return of MYOB and with Simply maybe we don't need them anymore either.

With only a year of two left in my career I will probably not change tax programs - but who knows. If things continue to deteriorate perhaps my old brain will learn a new program. We will just have to wait and see

Reg

[andyetimhappy]

***post removed by moderator***

[Reg]

andyetimhappy, le 03 April 2011 - 07:10 PM, dit :

bunch of rude assholes here anyways!!

But apparently you're still happy???

As Dunner suggested, check out the answers the folks you are upset with give in the Blue forum

[Ranjit]

I agree. I used to enjoy professional forum and now really miss real questions and great discussions. I come here from time to time to see who is left from old group and am disappointed. Thinking about changing but seeing if it will be adressed by Intuit.

[Clamato]

My opinion is that Tim belittled the initial OP by questioning his professional background and training rather than just giving him an answer.

I see this a lot on the forum by many professionals and I question why they do this? It only serves to turn people against the accounting and tax profession. Is it caused by the need to show accounting and tax knowledge prowess? Is it that people that are good with numbers and detail lack human relation skills?

We do not chose the brains that we are born with. If you have been lucky to have been born with a good set, don't laud it over others less fortunate. Everyone, professionals alike sometimes ask a silly or what seems like a dumb question. Cut them some slack.

Concentrate on the human urge to be helpful and less on the urge to show how great you are.

[Reg]

Clamato:
If this thread was in the Blue TurboTax forum you might have a point.

This forum is supposed to be for professionals using professional software. The question raised by the OP is tax 101 and has no place here

[Clamato]

I suppose you are correct.

I just couldn't find a spot in the TurboTax forum to make my comment and I wanted to make it. :)

[Tim Parris]

Clamato, le 04 April 2011 - 09:39 AM, dit :

My opinion is that Tim belittled the initial OP by questioning his professional background and training rather than just giving him an answer.

My concern on the original answer was that the question suggested the OP was in the wrong forum for the question - If the question was being raised by a pro, their clients were in significant risk of having an incorrect tax return prepared. I was hoping by my phrasing to gently suggest that, if they were using TurboTax, they should be asking the question in the TurboTax forums. Profile is quite different than TurboTax and is geared to a different level of user.

I was not expecting the reaction that I received.

[Peter@Intuit]

Hi everyone,

Let's try and keep the posts friendly.

We should all appreciate that users of professional tax software will have different tax backgrounds, varying from novice to grizzled veterans. I remember being thrown into the "tax pool" as an articling student to get my tax hours, and I certainly did not have any formal tax training. Opening up the Income Tax Act was a daunting task, and I did not know all the different sources of information available to me.

Fortunately, I had a few other students in a similar boat, so we would collaborate with each other when we had to deal with things trickier than inputting a T5 slip. We got better and more confident as time went on, but we were still rookie tax preparers, as opposed to a "professional tax preparer". Our Tax Manager, who would review our work, ensured that we didn't release error riddled returns.

This forum is merely another collaboration tool, for both novice and experience tax users of Profile. There is no obligation to respond to "easy" questions, but please do not make people bad for asking them. No one was blessed with their extensive tax knowledge overnight.

In terms of having a forum just dedicated to veteran tax professionals, I know we have a "private forum" (which I believe was created to prevent google snooping of tax discussions). Would that forum suffice? If not, perhaps you can explain it a bit further and how you would like to have it run? If there is a big demand for this, I can bring it to the attention of the person that makes those decisions.

Thanks,
Peter