'84 TAX SPREADSHEET UPDATE

by K. W. HARMS

This is the promised 1984 IRS-revision update to the SynCalc template for Federal income tax preparation which appeared in the February, 1985 Antic.  You need a 48K Atari, disk , SynCalc software and the previous template.

Unfortunately, the IRS did not forget to issue the 1984 income tax forms, so here are the changes you'll need for your SynCaic 1040 Federal Long Form personal tax template.
  To use these tax template updates, you need to have correctly typed in the preliminary tax template from the February Antic. The changes you must now make should take about an hour to enter.
  However, you can get the entire corrected 1984 template on disk- complete with 6 additional schedules that don't appear in the printed version. The cost is $15 and it's tax deductible. And for just $65 you can get both the tax template and SynCalc.  See the order form in this issue.
  Note to Antic Disk subscribers: These changes are on your monthly disk. They will load from SynCalc like any other data file. Follow the directions in your SynCalc manual for replacing earlier cells.
  Please refer to the prior article for detailed instructions on entering SynCalc data. Since the steps below affect cell addresses, they must be followed in the order given. Start at cell Al and work down. Many of the changes are descriptive text such as form line numbers, so they aren't critical. The formulae, however, MUST be typed in exactly as given.
  And you definitely should have the 1984 IRS tax instructions at hand when you check the template results. Antic Publishing and the author must disclaim responsibility for any mistakes that might be made in your tax payments as a result of using this template.

THE 1040
The 1040 is changed little for 1984.  First, go to cell Al and DELETE ROW Go to cell A2 and change 1983 to 1984. Go to cell A28 and INSERT ROW. Use a quote sign to start a text cell, and enter the line number 21 in cell A28 and TAXABLE SOCIAL SECURITY in cell B28; enter a zero in cell E28.
  From cell A29 (Other Income) through cell A37 (Sched W)., each form line number is increased by one (the 21 in cell A29 becomes 22, etc.) Go to cell A38 and DELETE ROW the Disability Exclusion. Since that action leaves cell E38 filled with ?????, we know a formula is needed; enter @SUM(E37:E31). (You may find that cell protected. If so, unprotect it with /FUO and enter again. I suggest protecting all formulae with the ENTRY or OVERRIDE option; use the /FO command.)
  Go to cell A48 and change the 41/44 to 41. Change the Tax Credits description in cell B48 to read CARE CRED 2442 and enter the formula +E239 in cell D48. Cell A49 should be changed to read 42/45 PERSONAL CRED and a zero entered in D49.
  In E49 enter +D49+D48. Change cell A50 to read 46 NET TAX CRED and ERASE (IE) any values in D50. Enter @IF E47-E490 THEN E47-E49 ELSE 0 in cell E50 and format it dollars (/F$). Cell A51 gets the description 47-49 BUSINESS CREDITS, cell D51 is erased and cell E51 gets a zero.
  With the cursor on cell A52, INSERT ROW Enter 50 NET TAX+ CRED in the new cell A52 and the formula @IF E50-E51>0 THEN E50-E51 ELSE 0 in cell E52; format it dollars. Cell A53 gets changed to read 51 and A54 to read 52/55. Enter a new formula in cell E55, it's now +E54+ E53+E52. Change the 83 in cell B57 to read 84.
  Next, we change the tables. If you want to use only one table, it's okay to change only that one. But, if you do, be sure to do the ROW INSERTs for all, so that the rest of the changes will work correctly.

THE TAX TABLES
Table X changed substantially this year. Go to cell A80 and ROW INSERT two rows, then enter the table as listed (FORMAT PRECISION 2 cells C80 and C81). Cell E68 contains the first of six formulae which LOOKUP tax amounts. Every reference to cell A79 in these formulae must be changed to A81 in each of the formulae (E68, and E71 through E75) since we increased the table size.
  The two Y Tables and Table Z each added one line and changed only the percentages in column C. Go to cell A97 and INSERT ROW Then enter Table Y, Married. Change references to A96 to read A97 in all LOOKUPS in formulae in cell E86 and E88 through E92.
  Table Y, Separate, is similar. Goto cell A113 and INSERT ROW, enter table changes and change references to A112 in LOOKUPs in cell E102 and E104 through E108 to be A113. With that practice, you'll find Table Z easy. Go to cell A129 and INSERT ROW; enter table, change references to A128 to read A129 in all LOOKUPs in formulae in cell E118 and E120 through E124.

SCHEDULES A & B
Schedule A's big change is handling of medical deductions. It was simplified just a bit. Go to cell D132, unformat the dollar sign and erase the zero. Format dollar and enter a zero in cell E132. Change cell A133 to read 2a and cell B133 to read DR, DDS, ETC., ERASE the formula in cell D133 and enter a zero in cell E133. Cell A134 gets 2b TRANSPORTATION, cell A135 should read 2c OTHER, cell A136 2c, cell A137 2c, cell A138 3, cell A139 4, and cell A140 5. Change the formula in cell E138 to read @SUM(E137:E132). and give it a dollar format.
  For the rest of Schedule A, reduce label 8 in cell A142 for Taxes should read 6. Change labels in cells A142 A170 which have line numbers. You could add a reference to line 34a to the label in cell B170, Total. Go to cell E40 and be sure it contains the formula + E170

SCHEDULE B
The All Savers fandango of last year is gone, greatly simplifying the interest income section of Schedule B. DELETE ROW to get rid of rows 177 through 184. Be careful because SynCalc renumbers remaining rows as it goes. You should NOT delete the row reading TOTAL INTEREST, which should now be making its home on row 177.
  Change cell A177 to read 3, and enter the formula @SUM(E176:E173) in cell E177. Cells A179 through A187 have the form line number decreased by five (form line 9 in cell A179 becomes 4, etc.). ERASE the formula in E185. Go to cell A186 and INSERT ROW B186 should read SUBTOTAL, enter a formula in D186: @SUM (D185:D183). Cell A187 gets an improved description: TOTAL 1040, LINE 9 and the formula in cell E187 must be E182-D186. Last, go to cell D15 and make sure it has the formula +E187.

INCOME AVERAGING
I never tried income averaging because it was a lot of work. With this template, however, you enter fewer than a half-dozen numbers and the Atari takes over! Unfortunately, the IRS changed Schedule G quite a bit for 1984. It's simpler but it's different. I suggest re-entering the entire Schedule G as printed in this issue and entering all the formulae in their proper cells. When that's done, just DELETE ROW the left over rows so that Form 2441 begins on row 216.
  The final Schedule G steps are to change references in the rest of the spreadsheet. Cell D45 shows the Schedule G result in the 1040. It MUST contain the formula +E215. More involved is changing the tax references.
  Each Tax Table (X, Y, Z) computes taxes for five lines on Schedule G. Each of these line numbers changed, of course, THEY planned it that way. So go to cell D71; in this and in the other three tables, the labels should be changed by deducting four from the line reference (line 23 becomes line 19, line 21 changes to line 17, etc., for all five lines). Likewise, the cells upon which calculations are based changed. For each of the four tables, the formulae change as follows:
New Line#    Old Cell    New Cell
   19         E205        E207
   17         E203        E205
   16         E202        E204
   8          E194        E196
   10         E196        E198

  For instance, the formula in cell E71 refers to E205 four times. All of these should be changed to E207. This repeats for each line and for each Tax Table. It goes quite quickly after you do the first one.

FORM 2441
The credit for child care was also simplified. First change labels referring to 82 and 83 to name 83 and 84 (cells A232, et. seq.). Then change cell A234 to read 9 TOTAL CREDIT 1040, LN 41. DELETE ROW the remaining four lines (Tax ... through Deductible). Go to cell D48 in the 1040 and enter the formula + E234.

See the HELP page in this issue for more tips about typing in the tax template.

Listings:
TABLE X
TABLES Y
TABLE Z
SCHEDULE G
FORMULAE FOR TABLE G