Legal Fees relating to SSA

[BOB W]

TTB says that legal fee paid after 10/22/04 can be deducted on line 36 under some circumstances. TTB 1-9 and 4-26.

Would SSA legal fees paid qualify? And if so, it appears that this adj to income is not allowed for ELF and a paper return needs to be filed. My program only allows 5 situations in its dropdown list. Anything else give a critical error for elf.

I'm strongly pushing to use one of those 5 on the list just to get it to ELF. What do you think?

[BP.]

Sched A misc.

Hi Bob, reference Pub. 17, p. 79, middle of center column for deducting SSA legal expenses. The expenses attributable to the taxable part of the SS benefits are deductible. Figure the ratio of taxable portion of benefits to total benefits. Apply ratio to legal fees, then deduct the product on Schedule A subject to 2% of AGI limit.

[Bees Knees]

TTB, page 4-26 says claims made under Section 1862(b)(3)(A) of the Social Security Act qualify for the line 36, Form 1040 deduction.

Here is a link to Section 1862. It appears to have something to do with Medicare as a secondary payor.

http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title18/1862.htm

[BOB W]

Bees .......

This issue is fairly common and deserves a better explanation in TTB in the future. The reading under the link provided is unreadable in the time I have to devote. It needs to be interpeted by someone familar with such jargon. Please make this issue clear for next year's book.

I'm putting it through on line 36 and see how it goes with IRS.