Just a warning from personal experience - make sure your dad doesn't give any individual gifts over the annual exclusion amount without filing the proper form (Form 709). My parent did this thinking "the IRS won't notice" and it caused a HUGE headache years later during estate settlement. The IRS absolutely does track these things and the penalties add up fast. The annual exclusion is per recipient, so he can give each family member the max amount ($17,000 for 2024), but anything over that needs proper reporting even if no tax is owed.

One thing to keep in mind is timing - if your dad is planning to give gifts in the next couple months, make sure he completes all transfers before December 31st if he wants to use the 2025 annual exclusion amounts. The annual exclusion is based on the calendar year when the gift is completed, not when it's promised or planned. Also, since he mentioned this is part of his estate planning strategy, encourage him to keep detailed records of all gifts even though no forms are required for amounts under the annual exclusion. This includes dates, amounts, recipients, and method of transfer (check numbers, wire transfer confirmations, etc.). These records will be invaluable for his estate planning and could save your family headaches down the road if the IRS ever has questions. If he's consistently doing annual gifts as part of a larger estate plan, it might also be worth having him document his gifting strategy in writing so there's a clear paper trail of his intent. This can help demonstrate to the IRS that the gifts are legitimate and part of a thoughtful estate planning approach rather than any attempt at tax evasion.

Has anyone considered the property tax implications here? When our family did a similar thing, the property tax assessment office got notified of the sale and reassessed the value, which jumped our annual property taxes by almost double! Might want to check with your local assessor about how they handle family transfers.

One more thing to consider - make sure your aunts understand they'll need to report the imputed interest as income even though they're not actually receiving it. This means they'll owe taxes on "phantom income" each year. Depending on their tax bracket, this could be a significant annual cost they weren't expecting. You might want to run the numbers to see if it makes sense for you to gross up their payments to cover the additional tax burden, or consider charging a small interest rate (maybe 1-2%) to reduce the imputed interest amount while still keeping your borrowing costs low. Sometimes a small actual interest payment is better than a larger phantom one for the lenders. Also, double-check that the property income you mentioned ($17k annually) won't complicate things if they're still receiving rental income during the transition period. Make sure the loan terms clearly address when rental income transfers to you.

Has anyone tried using IRS Form 4549 "Income Tax Examination Changes" for this situation? My tax person mentioned this might be a quicker way to resolve missing 941s than filing individual late returns for each quarter.

I went through almost the exact same situation last year! The key thing that saved me was keeping detailed records of everything. When I filed my late 941s, I included copies of all my EFTPS payment confirmations and wrote a cover letter explaining that the deposits were made timely but the returns somehow didn't get processed properly. The IRS accepted my explanation and waived all the late filing penalties since I could prove the taxes were paid on time. Make sure to mark each return "FILED LATE DUE TO PROCESSING ERROR" at the top and include your EFTPS confirmation numbers if you still have them. For your 940 credit situation, definitely don't let that expire! You can either request a refund or apply it to future quarters. I'd recommend calling the business tax line (not the main IRS number) at 800-829-4933 - they're usually more knowledgeable about employment tax issues and the wait times are often shorter than the general helpline. Don't stress too much - this happens more often than you think, especially with the system overloads during COVID. The fact that you paid everything on time puts you in a much better position than most people who have missing returns.

Kinda wondering if this is a sign I shouldn't volunteer this year lol. Between the certification portal issues, the new tax law changes, and how complicated everything seems to be getting, I'm getting cold feet about the whole VITA thing. Is the advanced certification really necessary for most VITA sites? What types of tax situations actually require it?

I'm dealing with the exact same issue! The Joe Lopez PDF link has been completely unresponsive for me too. After reading through all these suggestions, I think I'm going to try the Edge InPrivate mode first since that's free, and if that doesn't work, I might have to bite the bullet and use one of those callback services to get through to IRS support. It's really frustrating that such a critical part of the certification process has been broken for so long. You'd think the IRS would prioritize fixing something that's preventing volunteers from getting certified, especially during tax season when VITA sites are desperately needed. Has anyone heard if there's an official timeline for when this will be fixed? Thanks everyone for sharing your workarounds - it's helpful to know I'm not the only one struggling with this!

Check if your state has minimum tax requirements even for inactive LLCs. Here in California, we have that annoying $800 annual tax even if you made $0. Learned this the hard way with my dormant real estate LLC and got hit with penalties. Also, if you're definitely closing the LLC, it might be worth filing the final tax form so there's a clear record that everything was properly wrapped up. Some states require a "tax clearance" certificate before they'll process dissolution paperwork.

One thing to consider is timing - if you're planning to dissolve the LLC anyway, you might want to do it sooner rather than later to avoid any potential 2024 compliance requirements. Even though 2023 was inactive, keeping the LLC open through 2024 could trigger additional state filing obligations depending on where you're located. Also, when you do file for dissolution, make sure to indicate the effective date carefully. Some states allow you to dissolve retroactively to avoid additional tax periods, while others require dissolution to be effective going forward. This could impact whether you need to worry about any 2024 requirements. Since you've already returned all funds and covered the expenses personally, you're in a clean position to close everything out. Just double-check your state's dissolution requirements - some want to see that all tax obligations are current before they'll approve the dissolution paperwork.