Don't stress too much about the "lavish and extravagant" part. I've been deducting business travel to conferences for years. The key is documentation and primary purpose. My CPA told me that as long as the primary purpose of the trip is legitimately business (which a conference clearly is) and you can document that with agendas, receipts, etc., you'll be fine with reasonable accommodations. In Vegas, even the nicer hotels can be relatively affordable compared to other major cities. Just be careful about mixing business and pleasure. If you extend your stay for vacation or bring family members, make sure you're only deducting the business portion. And if you do any gambling while there (it is Vegas after all), keep that completely separate from your business expenses!

Great question about business travel deductions! As someone who's navigated this myself, I'd say your budget range of $1,300-1,900 for a Vegas conference is totally reasonable and shouldn't trigger any "lavish and extravagant" concerns. The IRS generally looks at whether expenses are appropriate for your industry and location. Vegas conferences often have higher accommodation costs simply due to the city's unique hotel market, but that doesn't make reasonable choices automatically "lavish." A few practical tips from my experience: - Book hotels based on convenience to your conference venue, not just price - Keep detailed notes during the conference - which sessions you attended, key takeaways, business cards collected - If you do any personal activities, keep those expenses completely separate The fact that you're already thinking about staying at non-casino properties shows you're being thoughtful about this. But honestly, even casino hotels are fine if they're hosting your conference or offer the best value - the IRS understands Vegas logistics. Most importantly, maintain good records and be able to clearly show the business purpose. Your conference agenda, registration confirmation, and session materials will be your best documentation if questioned later.

Just wanted to add that the timing of when all those K1s arrived matters too. If most came in late (which is common with complex partnerships), the accounting firm probably had to file extensions and do a lot of the work during their non-busy season. That's often billed at different rates. My firm charges 20-30% more for K1-heavy returns because they're unpredictable and often cause bottlenecks in our workflow. The 60-70 new K1s would definitely add setup time too.

As someone who's dealt with complex returns (though nowhere near your sister's level), I'd echo what others are saying - $19,500 for that complexity actually sounds quite reasonable. One thing I'd suggest is asking the firm for a breakdown of how they arrived at that fee. Most reputable firms should be able to show you time spent on different components - K1 processing, state return prep, review time, etc. This transparency helps you understand what you're paying for and can be useful for budgeting future years. Also, given the scale of her investments, your sister might want to consider working with the firm throughout the year for tax planning rather than just at filing time. With that income level and complexity, proactive planning could potentially save more in taxes than the additional advisory fees would cost. Many firms offer quarterly check-ins for clients with situations like this.

I completely relate to your frustration, Omar! The lack of transparency around where our tax dollars go is maddening. What bothers me most is that we get detailed statements for every other purchase we make - even my $5 coffee comes with a receipt - but for the largest "purchase" most of us make each year (our taxes), we get basically nothing. I've found that contacting my representatives' offices directly can be surprisingly effective. Most have staff who can provide more detailed information about how they vote on budget issues and what they're prioritizing. It's not the same as having individual control over your tax allocation, but at least you can get a sense of whether your representatives are aligned with your priorities. Also, if you're interested in getting more involved, many cities and counties have budget hearings that are open to the public. Local government spending affects your daily life more directly, and your voice carries much more weight in those settings. It's helped me feel less powerless about the whole tax situation, even if I can't control federal spending directly.

I share your frustration about transparency! One thing that's helped me understand the tax system better is looking at the Treasury Department's "Daily Treasury Statement" - it's updated daily and shows exactly how much money flows in and out of the government. It's pretty detailed but can be overwhelming. For a more digestible approach, I recommend checking out the White House's "Budget of the U.S. Government" which comes out annually. It includes charts and explanations that break down spending by category and agency. You can see how much goes to things like veterans' benefits ($301 billion in 2024), transportation ($105 billion), and education ($80 billion). What really opened my eyes was realizing that about 2/3 of federal spending is "mandatory" - meaning it's automatically allocated to programs like Social Security and Medicare based on eligibility rules. Only about 1/3 is "discretionary" spending that Congress actually debates and votes on each year. While we can't individually direct our tax dollars, understanding these breakdowns at least helps me feel more informed when I vote for representatives who align with my spending priorities. Knowledge doesn't solve the frustration completely, but it definitely helps!

As someone who just went through this exact confusion myself, I can totally relate to that initial panic of "the math doesn't add up!" What helped me finally understand it was thinking of the Form 1040 as having two phases: collection and refinement. In the collection phase, ALL your income (including qualified dividends from Line 3a) gets swept up and flows through to your taxable income on Line 15. So yes, those qualified dividends ARE included in Line 15, even though they started as a separate line item. Then in the refinement phase, the Qualified Dividends worksheet steps in and essentially says "hold on, let's extract those qualified dividends from your taxable income and give them the special lower tax rate they deserve instead of taxing them at ordinary income rates." What really cemented this for me was doing a simple test calculation - I figured my tax both with and without the worksheet and confirmed that using the worksheet resulted in lower overall taxes. That's when it clicked that the worksheet was actually working in my favor, not making calculation errors. The key insight is that Line 15 truly represents your TOTAL taxable income from all sources, and then various worksheets apply special treatments to specific portions of that total. Once you understand that flow, the whole system makes perfect sense!

This entire discussion has been so helpful! I'm dealing with qualified dividends for the first time this year and was completely baffled by how the worksheet seemed to be subtracting dividends that I didn't think were included in my taxable income to begin with. The "collection and refinement" explanation really clicked for me - first Form 1040 gathers ALL income (including my qualified dividends from Line 3a) into the taxable income total on Line 15, then the worksheet pulls those dividends back out to give them the special lower tax rate treatment. I think what threw me off initially was assuming that since qualified dividends are reported separately on Line 3a, they somehow stayed separate throughout the entire form. But now I understand they actually get incorporated into the total taxable income figure, and the worksheet is doing me a favor by "rescuing" them from ordinary income tax rates. As a newcomer to this community, I'm really impressed by how everyone works together to break down these confusing tax concepts. It's so much less intimidating knowing there are knowledgeable people willing to share their insights and help others understand these calculations!

Great question about processing times and K-1s! My amendment took about 12 weeks to process, though I've heard times can vary quite a bit depending on IRS workload. You'll get a letter acknowledging receipt within a few weeks, then the actual processing notice later. For the K-1s, you absolutely need to send amended K-1s to all shareholders yourself - the IRS doesn't handle that notification. Make sure to clearly mark them as "AMENDED" and include a brief explanation of what changed. Your shareholders will then need to amend their personal returns if the changes affect their tax liability. Pro tip: Send the amended K-1s certified mail so you have proof of delivery. Some of my shareholders had questions about how the changes affected their returns, so be prepared to explain the modifications if they reach out.

I'm dealing with a similar amendment situation right now and this thread has been incredibly helpful! One thing I wanted to add based on my research - if your officer compensation changes result in payroll tax adjustments, you'll also need to file Form 941X to correct the employment taxes. The IRS wants consistency between your 1120S amendment and your payroll tax filings, so make sure you're addressing both sides if applicable. I learned this the hard way when I got a notice asking for clarification about the discrepancy between my amended S-Corp return and my original 941 filings. Also, if you're using tax software, double-check that it's properly calculating the impact on your shareholders' basis - I caught an error where the software didn't correctly flow the distribution changes through to the basis calculations on the K-1s, which would have caused issues for my shareholders when they amended their personal returns.