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We don't do many of them either, but I did have one a few years ago that had to prove the children lived with him. In my experience, which is not extensive as I said, the IRS typically only questions the fathers about where the children live. Highly discriminatory in my opinion. Quite a few fathers wind up being more of a parent than the mother.

Just last night I e-filed my last set of client 1099-MISC's for 2012. I charged this guy TRIPLE the usual fee for being obscenely late and making me hound him like a toothache for the information. Just felt like sharing....

Per the article in the OP. They also provided a document they said was a Visa bill, which appears to indicate their card was charged for the meal plus the tip, for a total of $111.55.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6N0HpAU4i1c

If my clients were willing to pay triple and not worry about their penalties, I'd file them all in November. :)

If you take a look at the receipt I am attaching, most restaurant use a POS system to take order, prevents from waiters giving freebies, once the waiter puts in the order the kitchen fulfills the order. If you notice my check was for $19.01 and on the customer copy you'll see the amount from the check + tip. You will also notice I received a 20% hard hat discount, I also get the police, neighbor and employee discount. I think this is important to add, if I were to look at the debit card online for todays purchase for example, I would see $19.01 as pending, 3 to 4 days from now I will see the total charge of $26.01, don't ask me why it happens, I am guessing the tip isn't processed until they do the weekly close out. MAS 2013_11_27_10_29_01.pdf

Not exactly, the restaurant submits a total charge of the the bill + tip to the credit card company, however the restaurant books should reflect the bill and the tip separately. I bet if the restaurant checks it's POS system, bingo the girl is caught red handed.

But a SS card doesn't prove that the kid lives with you. That's what they want to document. School records, medical records, statements from church.........etc etc I'm a tax preparer.....I'm not a detective I am sure that I will retire "by attrition"...........

OK, we'll try to help. First, if they are not showing, is it possible you already removed them? Is the shortcut for them still there? If it is, and you click on it, does it start? If the shortcut is there, try going to it, right-click on it, and if you see a menu, liook for 'Properties'. click on that, and select the 'open file location' button. Once you find the file, right-click should give you a menu that includes 'delete'

This year, Thanksgiving and the start of Hanukkah fall on the same date for the first time in 125 years! We thought it would be fun to share this article we found with amazing recipes like sweet potato latkes and pumpkin donuts. Enjoy! Cranberry sauce and menorahs are joining together for the rare convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, which some are cleverly marketing as “Thanksgivukah.” Next Thursday, on the second night of Hanukkah, Jews across the United States will be lighting menorahs after their feasts, playing the dreidel game between forkfuls of pumpkin pie and exchanging gifts after the football game is over. The last time the two holidays overlapped was in 1918, when Jews lit one menorah candle on Thanksgiving night, and it won’t happen again until Nov. 27, 2070. So whether it is a Jewish twist on a Thanksgiving standby or adding some fall flavors to your Hanukkah menu, now is the time to create memories that can last the next 57 years. Paula Shoyer, author of “The Holiday Kosher Baker,” is using the occasion as an excuse to get extra creative at her holiday table. “It’s fun to experiment and see what works, what’s too silly and what’s truly delicious,” she said. On Hanukkah is it customary to eat foods fried in oil to commemorate the historical event when the Jews won their land back in battle. After their victory, they wanted to rededicate their temple, but only had enough oil to burn for one day. However, that small bit of oil miraculously lasted for eight days. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/a-rare-convergence-of-thanksgiving-and-hanukkah/

In fairness, there is no way to test any return with 94 forms, with ANY software, this early. Why even try?

A couple of years ago when I was taking courses for my Masters in Taxation, 6-9 of my classmates were IRS agents or employees (varied by class). When we took the much-dreaded partnership course, they shared the fact that the IRS really wanted to audit more partnerships but did not have the expertise to do so. I don't have to tell anyone on this board that partnerships are complicated (especially when they buy in with property or services instead of cash, or when someone inherits a partnership interest). IRS employee training is excellent, but does anyone here really think they've been able to train enough people to audit these groups? In recent years many of us have found ourselves mentoring "green" auditors on reasonably straightforward 1040 and Sch C returns. There are not enough hours in the day to teach them about partnerships! I suspect their thrust will be toward S corps, maybe estates and trusts (all of which have well-known opportunities to cheat). Partnerships, where in my experience a lot of cheating occurs, will remain out of their league.

In general...the waiter gives you the bill....and then you add the tip of the merchant copy. The customer copy doesn't have the tip...but you can write it in separately. Perhaps the customer said "Just add $18" and didn't actually write it on the merchant copy....but did on her own copy. The last time I went to the hair salon I forgot my cash...so I had to charge it. I told the hairdresser to add her tip....I never wrote it. ETA-They run the "credit" without the tip first...to make sure there are funds. I believe they run it again to add the tip. On one of my credit cards I see the "untipped charge" pending....and then the next day....the total.

Judy, I want to publicly state that you have been a very fair moderator and you have told me to tone down as well. The people who accuse you of bias do not know you perhaps do not appreciate all the effort you put to be a moderator. I have been warned by KC several times as well, and it is obvious that she and I have 180 degree apart political views, and she has stated publicly here that some of my posts bother her. She too is doing her job as a moderator.

Jack, I know that you've been frustrated by the retorts each time Taxed or other former ATX users post something against ATX, and I also do realize that you have been limiting your responses because of the NDA. You may choose to not take my word for it, but I *do* appreciate that you and the other beta testers have taken your personal time to go through that process for little reward other than to make ATX a better product. I've tried to stop commenting about ATX other than for what I have experience with (the conversions and the refund policy), and in those few instances I did so with my only intent being to try to help others here that may be affected in those areas, or so that they wouldn't be hurt by not being aware of CCH's refund policy because the salespeople don't know what it says either. I don't always agree with everything the user, Taxed, posts either. I think all of us should stop the sparring posts and get back to posting what we know about firsthand and in the vein of trying to be helpful to each other. No one benefits by this continued ugliness. As for always only sticking up for only one side, that isn't entirely true either. I do try to be fair, and since the time I was made moderator, I have also asked the poster named Taxed (both publicly and privately in PMs) to tone it down, to not post the jabs, and let things go. Some of you might recall that just last week I took Jack's side when someone else said his posts had a "holier than thou" tone. I'll stick up for and defend either side if someone is violating the rules. Sometimes KC gets to it first and other times it happens to be me. Just because I stick up for one side at that time does not mean that I don't recognize that posts from another POV are made out of frustration or that I wouldn't stand by the other side in another instance. To Taxed, I don't need KC to stand up for me with Bulldog Tom or anyone else. Each of us are able to block anyone we choose and for whatever reason, even if that is simply because of political affiliation. It is the way this forum is set up and doesn't bother me in the least. Sorry for the hijack and sorry for not answering earlier as I've been offline all afternoon. I'm only answering here because of the accusations of me being one-sided and some other issues were made in this topic.

You could always give them the option to pay you an extra $500 fee for each return you prepare for them, to be returned after the SOL has expired for each said return. The eventual refund would need to be reduced by some sort of fee for maintaining the extra record keeping, of course. . :)

I intend to add the following paragraph to my letter this year: "Please be aware that the IRS is putting more and more responsibility on tax preparers and backing it up with heavy penalties if a preparer is negligent. I may be asking more questions and requiring proof in more cases. I CANNOT ACCEPT ESTIMATED FIGURES. Tax preparers are in a more precarious position than ever before." I also state in my letter that the better they organize their information, the less time I have to spend on the return and that my fee is based on the approximate time I spend on the return. (I can't bill by the hour because I am a one person office and am continually being interrupted by the phone.)

I always got the Tax Book along with the Express Answers because I've found that the books have different stuff in them. For example, I couldn't find the table to figure out an RMD in Express Answers. That said last year I needed an All States in a hurry, and the only company that had a downloadable version was Quickfinder through Thompson-Reuters ProReview - which put the book on my iPad. I like it so much I ordered all my reference materials in ProReview. One nice thing is that it gives me another screen/computer to work through, and is as portable as the print version if I need to look up something for a client (my main computer is in a different room than where I meet with clients). Plus it does justify some biz use of the iPad!

After much research, testing and observation, here is what I have to share. The NDA that I signed with CCH prevents me from saying much of what I would like to say, so here is the scoop… The firm I work for and myself at my private practice are staying with ATX for 2013. This was decided after dozens of hours of trial, much research, scenario contemplation and consideration of options. I have observed that many of the problems that existed for 2012 should not be issues in 2013. The development team has been working very hard to bring a workable product to the table for 2013.