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The husband died in October 2012. The wife and I were discussing her estimates for 2013 and looking at her current monthly social security benefit payment, I noticed that she didn't receive any increase other than the COLA. Last year's benefits to the husband were $24K and hers were about $11K. With one simple phone call to social security admin, lots of apologies from their representative, and filling out a form, the wife will be getting more than double what she thought she'd have.

Uh, that would be me in my tax business. I have been working at this for 15 years. 4 profitable years, 11 loss years. First 5 were disasters, and the first year after I moved into an office outside the home was a huge loss. Don't call my business a hobby. I do however gain a certain degree of enjoyment from doing it. And I have had a full time job the entire time I have been in business. Tom Hollister, CA

I'm working in the wrong town...

I miss the picture of the dog lying on its back for the 'rollover' - now just a boring envelope with blue arrows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZwl5Oi0Qn0

1040PRO please see jainen's definition of legal separation. It is not the same thing as being separated before a divorce. It is a now rare alternative to divorce.

sent to me by my cousin... A woman walks into an accountant's office and tells him that she needs to file her taxes. The accountant says, "Before we begin, I'll need to ask you a few questions. "He gets her name, address, Social Security number, etc. And then asks, "What's your occupation?" "I'm a Lady of the night," she says. The accountant is somewhat taken aback and says, " Let's try to rephrase that." The woman says, "OK, I'm a high-end call girl". "No, that still won't work. Try again." They both think for a minute; then the woman says, "I'm an elite chicken farmer." The accountant asks, "What does chicken farming have to do with being a prostitute?" "Well, I raised a thousand little peckers last year." "Chicken Farmer it is."

It seems Americans enjoy coffee made out of snow. http://youtu.be/0VgW8lyCkaU

Yes, I do have a business plan, but it is in a spreadsheet and goes back to the first year of business. So do all of my mileage logs. Sadly, I do have a swindling social life - oops, I meant dwindling. Tom Hollister, CA

I had to eat all of the finches at our feeder today before my husband got them. Our snow melted so I couldn't have any coffee today and am really crabby.

The money is in business (corp) clients and I have always tried to get out of the average 1040 tax business. It makes tax season shorter and much less hassle.

Jack, I went through those questions with her. All of the answers were negative.I do not want a preparer penalty for taking a stance that it is really a business when she has no intention of trying to make money. She admits that she spends very little time on it. I have to make the determination of whether I want to sign the return or not. If she wants it to be a business for 2012, she can take it to someone else that doesn't care.

I am certain it is bittersweet news. I would guess she would prefer to have her husband instead of his SS$.

In reading information about OH, it looks like Ohio allows for a legal seperation to legally state certain things, such as assets, dependency, etc, but Ohio still views a couple as legally married until one of the three decrees is final...dissolution, annulment, or divorce. I informed clients that it was either MFJ or MFS....they wisely chose MFJ and will stop back (separately) and sign the 8879 and pay.....giving me separate checking accounts with which to split the Federal and Ohio refund direct deposits. Next year, I think I will do his (since he is the on that originally contacted me) and tell the ex-wife to go elsewhere...I forsee issues and (as many have mentioned) predict conflict of interest on separate returns

When they bring in those Goodwill or charity receipts for goods donated with nothing filled in (!) - What's the maximum I can claim? Or they ask how much they can get away with claiming for cash donations!

Once I did a return for a prostitute who worked at the Chicken Ranch (the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas). I asked her what she wanted to list as her occupation and she said, "Secretarial Service."

Amen! Don't we know about those pesky bills (meals and entertainment, gas etc.)

If you have not been banned, sign into the regular ATX community board and go to Software Forum > Workarounds and Solutions. There are many tips there to speed up your computers. -Memory issues / Rebooting -Cleaning up your computer -Defragmenting -disabling antivirus software from scanning ATX folders -Network speed enhancements -net upgrade to 4.5

Here's a question: What do you do while waiting for the microwave to beep? A) Find silverware and napkin. Straighten up the counter. C) Stare mindlessly at the microwave. D) Try to assemble a return, phone rings, and one hour later you go back in kitchen and try again. Didn't mean for that "B" to be Robert Palmer, but it kinda works.

"My refund is smaller than your fees. Maybe I just won't file?"

My Aunt used to sell Amway for years and I can tell you from personal observation, those who are successful run it like a business. There is a sales/business plan, X# of parties a year and what they demonstrate at the parties, flyers around the neighborhood and giveaways. She used to attend the conference and seminars. I think the real issue is that there are many people who will get into Marykay etc. just to use the product personally (hoping to sell some on the way) BUT their main goal is personal use. And you can tell those people apart from the real pros like my Aunt.

>>What I need to explain to her is that even IF she was able to file as single, she might get a small EIC based on her income ($9,000), but would not get dependency exemptions and HOH because he (with $85,000 income and living with kids until October) would have provided more than 1/2 of the support for kids and keeping up the home which is in his name. I was hoping is to avoid the above conversation entirely<< Avoid the above conversation entirely. For one thing, it is irrelevant because she CAN'T file as single or HoH so she can't get EIC. (She could claim the exemptions since the children lived with her longer,) As soon as she said she wants to stick it to him, you should have ended the engagement with her. Or him, if you prefer. If the lawyers negotiate for a joint return, fine. Otherwise pick your side because you can't do both. And if he is your client you can NOT tell her how much his income is, or anything else. On the other hand, if she is your client it may NOT be in her best interest to be taxed at 25% with no additional deductions, compared to 10% with at least some deductions. So let the lawyers do the heavy lifting. My guess is (now that she knows the six month rule) she will go to a different preparer anyway.

A real test is if she had made a large profit, without a written plan, would you have reported it as a Sch-C business or a line 21 hobby? As a matter of fact Mary Kay has a plan which is sales by holding parties. Parties are like a crap shoot in that you spend money up front and if there are no sales you lose. It takes a lot of work to organize and conduct a Mary Kay party.

She can't file single or HOH. The choices are MFJ or MFS. She'll just have to live with that.

Because the IRS business model has changed. Whereas in the past, many penalties were designed to encourage compliance and many penalties could be forgiven with a simple request , penalties are now viewed as a source of additional revenue. If you don't believe me, look at the fact that new legislation often refers to increased penalties as the revenue stream to offset tax cuts. So IRS is much less forgiving (and common sense doesn't count for much) when it comes to penalties.

There is one clarification needed here. If a married person that does not live together at any time during the last 6 months of the year (NOT 6 MONTHS OF THE YEAR) then they can file as single or head of household (if have qualifying dependent living with them) BUT THE OTHER SPOUSE WHO DOES NOT HAVE A DEPENDENT DOES NOT THEN GET TO FILE AS SINGLE. That other spouse still has to file as MFS. Neither of them can file as single unless the divorce was final by year end.

If you have a router (routers have a hardware firewall built in them) be sure to turn off ALL windows or anti-virus firewalls.

>>It is not my tax return, but I cannot sign something that I believe is incorrect.<< True... But only the IRS or the client can determine if it is not a business and you are not the IRS. Truth is you might believe but your client believes different and there has been no real determination. This case is what we use to call a grey area. It is your job to know the tax laws, but not necessarily your job to apply them.

Yes sir it is a wonderful country but people have figured out how to game the system and very soon it will NOT be wonderfull for all of us. There are more people collecting social security disability. There are more people collecting than people paying in. How long do you think this magic will last?

I was thinking that too, but wanted to confirm

I just emailed a client for 3 missing 1099s and she immediately scanned them back to me, so I know she knew she had them. Why didn't I have them??? What is the logic there?

<<<<<<Married couple lived together (in Ohio) with their 2 kids for all of 2012 until October.>>>>>> Regardless of when the divorce was finalized, and by your post, they lived together as a married couple for more than half the year and therefore their only choice is MFJ or MFS. Correct me if I missed it here but if they are divorced or separated on the last day of the year it doesn't necessarily mean they are divorced or separated and living apart for the entire year.

If you're talking about the sandwich yes.

I wondered if it was just me having a larger number of clients forget documents this year. How reassuring.

"If a new prospect wants me to quote a price over the phone without reviewing their return or docs, I tell them to call their doctor or dentis and say they are in pain and how much it will cost to fix it?? Most get the hint and those that don't I do NOT want them as clients." I am going to steal this from you and use it for phone quote clients

>> It has to be a hobby in order for me to sign the return<< Well... If for no other reason I would disagree as if the client says its a "business" its her tax return! Who are we as tax preparers to say it is our tax return just because we sign?

Also explain that your fee goes up $25 per day for each day after the deadline.

Just goes to show how many taxpayers are clueless and they show that ignorance by these stupid questions to us. I take 5-10 minutes per client to explain it with a diagram when I get a new one and i have a feeling that they really don't understand how refunds or balance due works. Also I give a heads up when child tax credit is about to expire at least a year in advance. That helps a lot because 9/10 times that is what causes an otherwise refund client into balance due! As far as tax prep fee question goes,I review the paperwork and give a firm quote BEFORE I start any data input. No surprises there and if there is pushback I have given them the nearest JH and HRB phone numbers. In my younger days i use to get the business card from HRB and actually hand them out when I got a pushback. Guess what happens next. They go to HRB and demand a quote before they start the return. When they hear the standard HRB response, I get a call the next week. Works like a charm! If a new prospect wants me to quote a price over the phone without reviewing their return or docs, I tell them to call their doctor or dentis and say they are in pain and how much it will cost to fix it?? Most get the hint and those that don't I do NOT want them as clients.

Still faster when on the phone to have the paper copy. I can hold place for 2-3 forms and swap back and forth to answer the questions. pdf you can only see one page at a time and have to scroll. We do keep .pdf copies, but this year, pulling the file is faster. Plus, it has last year's return. They ALWAYS want to know "...why is it different from last year...?" If the program would open in a reasonable amount of time, I put the comparison worksheet in every return. But alas, with all the updated fast technology, the program is defective. "You can't polish a turd." (Grandpaw taught me that!)