We can do most straight-forward returns, but there are a few things that we are not trained to handle in a way that is most advantageous for you.
You will need a professional tax-preparation service if you have any of the following situations:
- You are a non-resident alien (unless you have a green card or meet the substantial presence test) or cannot establish your identity with a photo-id or are a foreign student with F, J, M or Q VISA. However, you may try Virtual VITA or MakeChange NoCo.
- State returns other than Colorado. We can do partial year tax returns and the accompanying Colorado return but we cannot do the return for the other state(s). If you cannot do that other state return yourself, you should go to a paid preparer because they will have to do the Federal return in order to do the state return.
- Income from Farming, Clergy/Minister, Rental (other than land), Non-profit, Reservist, Performing Artists, domestic production activities, or non-taxable combat pay*.
- Self-employed with net loss, accrual accounting, employees with expenses or requiring a 1099-MISC to be filed, expenses exceeding $25,000, depletion or depreciation, car rentals/leases for more than 30 days, goods inventories, or business use of home. The IRS requires you to report all self-employment expenses – you can’t omit them to prevent a loss.
- Capital gains/losses other than sale of stocks, mutual funds, or bonds on a brokerage statement or matured with no gain or loss. Most broker statements are OK (see 1099-B below). Wash sales must be clearly identified and totaled.
- Sale of home ever used for business or with a reduced exclusion or a deferral from a previous home sale or destroyed, condemned or disposed of under threat of condemnation.
- Deductions of investment interest paid, casualty or theft loss
- Donations of non-cash items totaling more than $5,000 or with Form 1098-C, property previously depreciated, capital gain property.
- Virtual currency: If you hold or trade in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin or other virtual currency, we cannot do your tax return.
- Other: Household employment taxes, if Alternative Mimimum Tax or Net Investment Income Tax applies (check last year’s return), adjustments to amounts needed on your tax forms, Renewable Energy Tax Credits, IRA conversion to Roth IRA or recharacterization (rollovers and transfers are OK), taxable Roth IRA distributions, state returns other than Colorado.
- Check also for specific items on your tax forms that we cannot do:
| W-2 | Box 12 codes Q*, R, T. |
| K-1 | Anything other than interest, dividends and capital gains and any resulting foreign tax credits. |
| 1098-T | Boxes 4 and 6 (adjustments). |
| 1099-B | Boxes 7 – 13 (Including if in broker statements). |
| 1099-C | Bankruptcy, insolvency or box 3 interest. Cancellation of debt for non-business credit cards or a mortgage is OK. |
| 1099-DIV | Box 2c (1202 gain) or 8-9 (Liquidation distributions). FATCA filing requirement box checked. |
| 1099-G | Boxes 7-9. (unnumbered box next to box 9 is OK). |
| 1099-INT | FATCA filing requirement box checked. |
| 1099-MISC | Boxes 5 and 8-15. FATCA filing requirement box checked. |
| 1099-OID | FATCA filing requirement box checked. |
| 1099-Q | If all distributed funds were not used for qualified education expenses |
| 1099-R | Use of general rule to reclaim after-tax contributions, Box 7 codes 5, 8, 9, A, E, K, L, N, P, R , or U. Also codes J and T if distribution is wholly or partially taxable. |
| 1099-SA | Distribution from an Archer MSA or Medicare Advantage MSA |
If you have any of the following forms, you’ll need a professional preparer:
| 1098-C | Contributions of motor vehicles, boats, airplanes over $500 |
| 1098-MA | Mortgage assistance payments |
| 1099-A | Acquisition or abandonment of secured property |
| 1099-H | Health coverage tax credit |
| 1099-PATR | Taxable distributions received from cooperatives |
| 2439 | Notice to shareholder of undistributed long term capital gains |
If you know you need to file the following tax forms, you’ll need a professional preparer:
| 56 | Notice concerning fiduciary relationship |
| 982 | Reduction of tax attributes due to discharge of indebtedness |
| 1045 | Application for tentative refund |
| 1116 | Foreign tax credit over $300 single or $600 married filing joint |
| 1127 | Extension of time for payment of tax due to undue hardship |
| 2106* | Unreimbursed employee business expenses |
| 2210 | Underpayment of estimated tax by individuals, estates and trusts. (We zero out penalties and the IRS will notify you if there is a penalty.) |
| 2555* | Foreign earned income |
| 3520 | foreign trusts, foreign gifts |
| 3800 | General business credit |
| 3903* | Moving expenses |
| 4136 | Credit for federal tax paid on fuels |
| 4562 | Depreciation and amortization |
| 4797 | Sales of business property |
| 4952 | Investment interest expense deduction |
| 4972 | Tax on lump-sum distributions |
| 6251 | Alternative minimum tax |
| 6252 | Installment sales income |
| 8275 | Disclosure statement |
| 8396 | Mortgage interest credit |
| 8582 | Passive activity loss limitations |
| 8615 | Tax for certain children who have unearned income of more than $2,100 for tax years 2016-2017 |
| 8621 | Information return by a shareholder of a passive foreign investment company or qualified electing fund |
| 8801 | Credit for prior year minimum tax |
| 8805 | Foreign partner’s information statement of section 1446 with holding tax |
| 8814 | Parent’s election to report child’s interest and divdends |
| 8815 | Exclusion of interest from series EE and I US Savings Bonds issued after 1989 |
| 8821 | Tax information authorization |
| 8824 | Like-kind exchanges |
| 8829 | Expenses for business use of your home |
| 8833 | Treaty-based return positive disclosure under section 6114 or 7701(b) |
| 8834 | Plug-in electric vehicle credit |
| 8839 | Qualified adoption expenses |
| 8848 | Consent to extend the time to access the branch profits tax under regulations section 1.884-2(a) and (c) |
| 8857 | Request for innocent spouse relief (we can handle injured spouse situations) |
| 8865 | Return of US persons with respect to certain foreign partnerships |
| 8885 | Health coverage tax credit |
| 8886 | Reportable transaction disclosure statement |
| 8903 | Domestic production activities deduction |
| 8908 | Energy efficient home credit (we can handle other home energy credits) |
| 8911 | Alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit |
| 8919 | Uncollected Social Security and Medicare tax on wages |
| 8938 | Statement of specified foreign assets |
| 8959 | Additional Medicare tax |
| 8960 | Net Investment Income Tax – Individuals, Estates and Trusts |
| 13844 | Application for reduced user fee for installment agreement |
Even after checking…
… we may discover that certain conditions exist that do not permit us to continue once we enter your information. We apologize in advance for some additional rare cases that may occur but we take seriously our commitment to provide the most accurate returns possible and so we only stay within our proscribed limits.
* May be allowed if counselors at the site have taken special training. Ask when you set up your appointment.