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How's this for a reply? Thanks for your concern about our health. My husband and I are fine. Hope you and your wife are well. And I hope your new tax preparer is also well. Sorry, I don't have a referral to give you. Best Regards,

No matter what kind of services, box 7 seems to be the box of choice for issuers of 1099s regardless of what it's actually for. You know how we struggle with the reporting when box 7 is checked and ain't no way it's for a business. Trustee or executor fees come to mind right now. So I have an attorney, and there's a special box for payments to attorneys. Box 14. So does the issuer fill out box 14? No. Box 7? No. Only one I've seen in years with box 3 filled out. So now will the IRS be looking for the income on line 21 instead of the Sch C? (this is a rhetorical question, no one need answer)

Hey, new form, read the form. I have no sympathy.

It would be fun to see the return the CPA prepared, but not worth more stress! Maybe they filed MFS to give him fewer assets and make him insolvent or partially insolvent or maybe they didn't give the CPA their 1099-C or maybe the CPA prepared the return exactly as you had but charged them a lot more. (By the way, I too would demand upfront payment if I were to take him back, as you did all that work last year without pay.) But keep it for your fantasies, and move on with your nice clients. You can vent here. Write your Dear Client letter here.

That is simply a sign that they are not reading, or haven't acquired the instructions. I have had numerous people stop by my office for blank 1099s/1096, and when I ask if they want instructions....Oh! no...we did these before. IRS required reporting of income has become a turkey shoot.

I have a self-employed psychiatrist client. His 1099s come with every possible box used. Dr. is in his title, so it would seem the preparers, especially Medicare, would know what box to use!

Why are you even considering taking this guy back? Lying, verbally abusive, happy to commit tax fraud, self-righteous, financially irresponsible.... "I am not taking new clients, nor do I accept back former clients who left."

The Ruben is tempting me; even for breakfast. It is snowing here pretty hard and I am hoping to get some work done. Panic is setting in when you divide the number of returns left to do by thirty days.

Actually...I sent him this: (and i'm going to put his response in the next post) Hi Al- My husband and I are both alive and well. I'm not going to get into "last year"....and what was ultimately done. I prepared your return based on the information I was given in accordance with IRS rules and regulations. If you would like me to do your return this year, please e-mail or fax me your wife's W-2...etc..... I'll give you a price, but I'm going to need payment in advance of any work being done. Bonnie

I don't want to get locked into Proseries. And Lacerte is screwing up their RDP returns; not transmitting the 8958. Not sure if proseries has the bug too. I'm not sure if Drake even has the 8958.

The result...when speaking to the IRS....about his "assets"...was...."Tell him to return the "junk" he bought and he'll have money to pay the tax. (And that part I remember distinctly.) I think you don't get it....this man has been avoiding "financial responsibility" all his life. And I was sick and tired of wasting my time in aiding and abetting his annual nonsense. I was happy to lose him. I don't want him back. But then again, in normal years his return is very easy money (1 W-2 and innocent spouse forms). Please don't be naive. I can just about guarantee that he went to someone else and did not show him the 1098-C....or the CPA filled out the return checking the box that the debt had been dismissed in a bankruptcy. Not everyone has the time or patience to do the research that I do. It takes one second to "click an X". I'm sure the 982 wasn't filled out, because there was nothing to fill out. He's a deadbeat. He's always been a deadbeat. He'll always be a deadbeat.

But corned beef lasts a good long time in the fridge...not that mine lasts very long in the fridge!

I do love it, but it's just not practical to cook it for one. Think I'll go to Arby's tomorrow for a Ruben, though. Pretty fair compromise.

I would dump him. If he really didn't report the 1099-C income last year, either by finding a less than honest preparer or just failing give the information to another preparer, then he wouldn't have any qualms about lying to you if he felt it necessary, especially since he knows you are playing strictly by the rules. I would have a hard time trusting him again so he would get my "I'm sorry but I'm not accepting anymore clients at this time." Just my two cents worth....

If this is a systemic problem for all FTHB with repayments, you might be able to get the Taxpayer Advocates office to look into it. Systemic problems are supposed to be part of their mandate.

I keep it in Favorites so I just bounce over there when I feel like it. It bypasses logging in to the main page every time. Been doing that for about three years.

See how much he was charged!

Rotting onions, chopped and in a sealed bag that just might explode. I just close the kitchen door, and put off going to the compost pile one more day. If the bag explodes, then we'll have a big problem.

Ask to see his last years tax return and see if he got someone to leave the COD income off the return.

Like Joel, I've also found the Drake transition to be fairly seamless once I got through the initial part of the learning curve (by "initial learning curve" I'm referring to a few days plus some time spent watching their excellent tutorials). I think it's mainly a matter of how adaptable one is willing to be. There are a few little things I miss from ATX, but the lightning speed and ease of use with Drake is well worth the trade-off. It also has some features and ways of manipulating data which I find far superior to ATX. Most of these features concern the process of expediting data entry, which is our greatest time killer. For example, their macros are simple to write and edit, which can save lots of time with routine entries unique to a given practice or state. I am doing some work with ATX 2011 on one screen and Drake 2012 on the other, and I've come to notice how slow even ATX 2011 was when seeing the two side-by-side in real time. As I've said before, the "Forms-Based" data entry is way overrated IMO. Granted, the change takes a little getting used to. But how hard is it to press Ctrl-V and Ctrl-E? It really is that simple to toggle back & forth between the Form to the Data Entry in Drake, and it works even faster than I can type this. Now if I found that my state wouldn't calculate correctly or if I had a particular class of return that wouldn't work, I'd certainly have a different opinion. But in looking at the Drake forums, I don't see any CA preparers complaining about these issues. (Or maybe they just don't have any customers in CA). And my only CA client's return worked perfectly, although it's a fairly straightforward return. Anyhow, I'm coming around to the idea that everyone may be looking for another vendor next year, either by choice or by default. I'd suggest giving Drake a good honest evaluation, knowing that any change is going to require giving up some things and gaining others. If ATX isn't an option, there won't be much out there in this price range which still provides the selection of forms and customer support that Drake provides. I'll also add that even though I'm now a Drake user, I'll still continue to evaluate other vendors in the off-season. I believe it is foolhardy to be locked into a single vendor with no other options. For a small practitioner like me it would be an inconvenience to be totally dependent on a single vendor, but for bigger operations it borders on business suicide. This season, ATX seems to be validating that viewpoint.