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I hope you all are safe and healthy. Remember the famous quote. "Don't Worry--Be Happy"

Aren't we being a little too harsh on the beleaguered IRS? The virus shut them down at the worst possible time (must be one of Murphy's laws). Unlike most of us, their employees can't just take home a box of unopened mail containing sensitive taxpayer data to work on there. At one time they had several lots the size of football fields of tractor trailers filled with mail, so they are making progress. At the same time they had to get out a zillion economic stimulus payments. Then they must have had a hundred zillion phone calls about it (a few zillion more than we had). Then there wer

It's a done deal! After some back and forth we settled on 35% for three years. Thanks to everyone and have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family too , @Elrod - as well as the rest of my ATX Community family here!

Yes, Happy Thanksgiving to you, too. And to everyone, I am very thankful to be a part of this group. You all are so supportive and actually KIND. It's refreshing, and we are so blessed to know each other. Thank you!! muah!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I am very thankful for all the great people on this forum.

Then it's clear that Corduroy Frog should go to Excel Frog for a ribbiting conversation. <ba-dum tish> I'll see myself out.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends on this forum.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here and to your families! Gobble, gobble!

Happy and safe Thanksgiving! We'll be video conferencing with our family. And this year, I get to do all the cooking!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all on this forum!

Here's a new scam targeting professional licensees. It is being done by telephone, and the scammer is able spoof caller i.d. to project the actual state agency to make them appear to be legitimate. In an abundance of caution, the State of DE Division of Professional Regulation sent out a mass email to all its licensees describing the scam in more detail. So far here in my state, the reported cases have all involved those licensed in the field of health care. I doubt anyone here would fall for such a call, but I'm sharing to make you all aware in case any of your clients falls victim to

Just imagine if someone from your office gets COVID and you are forced to shutdown your entire office and clients have no sympathy and want there information done now.

I recently uninstalled CCleaner because it was deleting my Firefox add-ons settings and driving me nuts. Windows has built in disk cleanup but it takes a long time to run. If you're really short on space, you can tell windows disk clean up to delete system files as well. It's a shame because CCleaner is very useful. I recently came across a computer with a hard drive nearly 90% full. I ran CCleaner and it got rid of years of windows update files and the disk ended up only about 20% full. You could put a shortcut to your temp folder on your desktop and open it up and delete all the fi

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Going to be dinner for two here with plenty of leftover turkey for the week. Looking forward to the parade and dog show. Stay safe!

How will they ever get caught up by the time tax season starts?

Congratulations on finalizing the deal!

I really hope this works out for you.

With a battery backup, if you install the software that comes with it, you can program it to automatically shutdown properly when battery life is at 5% or whatever you choose. You have to use the USB cable from the battery to the computer. I only buy APC because they paid a claim on a computer that got fried during a lightning storm, no questions asked.

Remember when we used to get brokerage 1099s on January 15th, or no later than January 31st? Those were the days. Now, thanks to "qualified" dividends and other unnecessary complexities, we get brokerage 1099s on March 15th, AT THE EARLIEST! With these complexities, April 15th is no longer viable.

Damn, guess I'm doing something wrong. I only get the voice messages from the Chinese Embassy wanting me to pay them to make sure I'm not deported back to my homeland.

No, there have been surprisingly few porn sites in the mix, as far as I can tell. Maybe more among the ones in foreign languages, but I wouldn't likely recognize them unless they're in Italian, Spanish, etc. But the mention makes me think of a friend who was presenting a power point to a group of executives a few years back. His email would pop up a message on the screen occasionally, but suddenly there were several Viagra and Cialis ads in a row. After 5 or 6 had popped up, he just turned to the group and said "I wonder how they know?".

It amazes me every time I watch someone else using Excel. There are so many ways to accomplish the same task. I was teaching a Jr. accountant how to do a bank rec yesterday, and watching him use Excel was an exercise in patience on my part. But it worked for him, and he got to where he wanted to go. And probably just as fast as I would have gotten there. Over time I am learning that everyone has a different way their mind works to get an answer. What is obvious to me as the best way to accomplish a task is not always the best way for someone else. It took me a long time to g

Because of the tone of the text message and what they may be implying, I considered contacting my E & O insurance as to how they would suggest I handle it. I did the 1040X pro-bono cause I took the blame for leaving the dependent off of the original return due to lack of information. I have not charged anything to handle this at all. Firing them is something that is already in the forefront of my mind.

FYI not trying to be an A-hole here

The IRS has been understaffed and underfunded since 2011. This situation is like slow moving avalanche moving downhill. It will not be fixed anytime soon.

No other company in the UNIVERSE would have that kind of backlog. Why does the government accept this kind of inept operation to continue? It blows my mind. I work for myself and would fire me if I was that bad.

Me, too. When I changed techies and had my new guy advising on and setting up my new computer a year ago, he got rid of some things (BitDefender is one I remember) but kept CCleaner. This techie was recommended by another tax preparer; he works for tax preparers, accountants, and lawyers primarily, so I've trusted his suggestions re security.

FDNY what time is the dog show? and on which provider ? Thanks ! Be well and enjoy Edited - found it, on NBC at noon to 2 Eastern time, right after the Macy’s parade

It actually might be faster to wait until efiling reopens in 8 or 9 weeks

Yes, but... Does her spouse agree with amending to MFJ? If not, then your client cannot file MFJ. If he does agree, you will need both sets of returns. And, both spouses need to sign the amendments. By the way, if she was married 31 December 2019, then her only legal 2019 filing statuses are MFS and MFJ -- and possibly HOH, if she qualified. Did you file her previous returns as HOH and S? When you sign an amended return, you are attesting to its contents. How long has this woman been your client? Be very careful with a client who filed HOH and amended to S and now wants to

I think I may have found the answer to what's going on. If you don't mind clicking on a link, here's the article I just now read: https://www.howtogeek.com/412316/how-email-bombing-uses-spam-to-hide-an-attack/ If you don't want to click on the link, I'll try to summarize what "email bombing" is all about. The attacker has likely gained access to one of my online accounts (especially one with stored payment info), and they want to try and order from that account. They're hoping that if I get a notification about a transaction I'll miss it, or even delete it along with a group of kn

The IRS still has 3 million pieces of unopened mail plus 1 million unprocessed paper filed tax returns.

I'm following this because I have never, ever used either one. I do dread the day I might need it, too. I'm so ragged out all the time, my mug will scare my clients to death! And if I have been *coughing* that day, the only medicine that works for me is Tennessee Honey. And that only makes me look better in MY eyes!

Yeah, their request indicates a lack of trust and/or their intention to find a different preparer. If you want retain them as a client, them you need to try to find out why they are asking for the information and try to reassure them.

Looks to me like they're looking for someone to toss under the bus when (in their mind) the feds come after them. They don't believe what you tell them, and are planning to blame you. And you're thinking of giving them information to aid those plans, why?

Wouldn't this trigger a dispute on the client's part? If so, I think the bank would investigate the charges to see if they are indeed legitimate. I would recommend the client go to the top in the bank and then maybe contact an attorney to possibly pursue this further. The statement it is too late from the bank is disturbing. I agree with Gail, I would want to know what the definition of too late is exactly. Did they see the statement on line and immediately call or did they receive it in the mail and then immediately call. Either way, too late doesn't cut it.

Our firm has purchased practices in the past. I have no idea about pricing, but I did see that it was very helpful to have the former owner (or spouse in the case of the one who died) around to greet their clients coming to us for the first time. The clients were relieved to see a familiar face. The prior owners introduced us and assured the clients that they were in good hands. While I don't have retention stats, many of those clients have stuck with us for years now. Covid-19, of course, has changed everything. If you will not be seeing clients in person (our firm has already deci

I ended up at CyberPowerPC and they look really cool. I may just buy one someday. The battery company is https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/

According to the NATP update webinar I was in last week, there will be a lookup site.

Moved posts related to 2020 draft form and reconciling stimulus payments to its own topic.

I would be happy for an extension, because everything will take longer again. I will be training clients to use my new portal. ( I have to learn it later this month.) I won't be having in-person appointments indoors, since I work out of my home and I can't take any risks with my husband's health. It will be back to driveway pickups and dropoffs. Hopefully, I won't lose too many more. I've lost three in a month due to Covid and every one of them has been heartbreaking for me. I've known most of them since I was much younger. I just hope that these vaccines work.

I would welcome an extension, and I also tell my clients they need to get here early. I think my words were, "I have zero desire to work during the summer." My clients know I mean what I say!

If the son had insurance through the marketplace, even though the policy was in his dad's name, then when he filed and claimed himself he needed to report that 1095A on his tax return. The insurance can be allocated anyway that is agreeable to both the son and the father, so you can complete the son's return showing an allocation of 0% since the father's return already shows 100%. At least that is how it worked for me on the one of these I had a few years ago.

I have cox as my carrier. When I was getting a lot of spam, I contacted them and told them to step up their game. They did. Your internet provider might be able to help you.

Reminds me of what the owner of a company I worked for used to say. "When we're brainstorming a problem this is a democracy. But when it's decision time it's a dictatorship."

Be alert, your contact information may have been sold some where in the hacker universe. You may end up having the same issues on your cell phone. You should probably check your credit information and be actively monitoring your financial accounts for awhile.