BLACK BART

The above posts are what I like about this board. Nobody can say it doesn't help you cut taxes and look good to customers; i.e., first post starts out with possible 39 years and last post ends up at five. As they say, it's all good!

Had a similar case some years back and felt the same way as Beckster (all IRAs need a 1099). Called the sending bank and asked ("Where's my 1099?"). That bankster ended up schooling this tax pro - his reply: "It's direct to another bank - we don't have to send him one." So, after advising him that he was mistaken, I looked it up and found advice as per Lion's above. Quite embarrassing! But those moneychangers aren't always right. That same bank prez later told one of my clients "It's too bad you built it yourself. Self-constructed houses don't qualify for the $8,000 new home credit." I looked it up: they WERE (and I got it for him). Never got around to calling bank and saying touche, darnit. Moral for clients re advice: Avoid bankers and stick to the hairdressers (their bologna is less costly).

Long ago, clerking for a local tractor sales repair outfit, I composed a collection letter which mentioned some of the above lines plus others I created. Hot into writing at the time (no best-sellers emerged), I considered mine a friendly-browbeating masterpiece. A fellow colleague from our nearby competitor later called; praising it highly and asking permission to use it. Quite pleased, I agreed. Next month he called back: "We got a better letter than yours." (Their customers didn't pay well, but neither did they.) A rough, camo-collar guy who sold scrap iron but was also known to pack an iron, had penciled on his notebook-paper statement: I WANT MY MONEY Paid the same day received. BB

Thanks Lee, but what I was really thinking about was a little later on when I may be just doing family and friends and is there an actual specific number that you must file to stay on the rolls. Like, for instance (in reverse), they (I think) dropped to ten the number of 1099s you could file by paper. Similar principle even though they're not tax returns.

Thanks for the "attaboy" smile, Marg. You're a gentlewoman and a scholar. That makes two I've gotten this morning (counting the senior lady at McDonald's).

Is there a minimum number of returns that one must file with IRS in order to keep his/her EA license? 0-1-10-50-...? Cutting back some.

I kept the previous six for decades (long enough, I think). Cut down to three this year. I've only had one poor soul on whom they ever went back six years. His precedent was unprecedented. A preacher, for heaven's (and his) sake.

Myself.

Don't happen to know the AGI, do you? Only if you can say without compromising anybody (including yourself ).

Any suggestions for a monthly tax newsletter? I had Kiplinger but they seem to favor tax dodges for the well-heeled, where to stick their million dollar IRAs, foreign tax matters, etc. and I'm looking for something focusing on "just folks" - average jobholders + C and E people. Funny, but I once read that IRS considers any outfit grossing under five million dollars to be a "small business" which suggests (to me) they're out of touch with actual mom & pop shops. Or maybe I am....

I won't be buying an Escalade or Mercedes but this post brought a couple of things to mind: (1) I think it was novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald who said "The rich are very different from you and me." To which some wit replied "Yes, they have more money." (2) In 1986 I commuted twice a month to Maumelle, AR; a trendy (well-as trendy as possible hereabouts), upscale Little Rock suburb to work for a well-off construction guy at his lakeside condo. He wanted a cheap (his specialty) set of books (my specialty at the time) created and posted. On arrival he asked to borrow my car for the day-his Jaguar and Mercedes were both in the shop. I'd just bought a brand-new mid-grade '86 Pontiac and was quite proud of it. Day's end, I ask "How'd ya like it?" He: "Just fine; you know, that would make a great work car."

Think I've posted this before, but it's worth repeating. I read somewhere on an IRS TIGTA (IRS's version of police Internal Affairs) report that they reprimanded a division of IRS for using as a password the word (no, not a convoluted, lengthy combo of numbers, letters, characters they ask of us) PASSWORD. Didn't say if upper or lower case required - your choice I guess.

One from bygone years (paper-file days) still gives me a grin when I think of it. No hard feelings since (1) she was a very nice, pretty lady (2) it was unknowingly unintentional. She had a big wad of LBT (little bitta this-little bitta that) papers and needed a complex 1040X. Hubby figured a refund was due. She: "He said we need it done right away." Me: "Well, Mrs. X; I'm afraid this is going to take quite a good long while." She: "Oh, that's okay! I can come back after lunch." _____________________________________________ Such is life! .......................................... Pop

Not much you can do I think and they'll probably leave eventually. They like you for your past good, solid work when they were "just folks". Your CPA title helps, but they want to believe their buddies who say go with the big firms. It's a pattern; not confined to realtors/landlords. Once many SE types hit six-digits they develop (as John said) a "sense of entitlement"- a sort of "look at me" smugness; i.e. "My house and cars are paid off, I own rental property, have stocks, money in the bank, plus a fantastic job and all benefits." Or, as one once told me: "I've pretty much got everything else nailed down and I just don't see why we can't crack this nut." Oddly, he seemed to believe that his success could kill off taxes (the nut).

Just curious, but how'd it come out?