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I meant to go get some, but I forgot.

All my client base is aging with me.

The way the tax code is getting more convoluted every day, I think we'll all have to end up picking a specialty sooner or later. I made this conclusion after recently reading that for cash basis taxpayers, a personal/business expense charged on a major credit card (Visa, MasterCard) on Dec 31 counts as paid for that year, but if charged to a store credit card (Staples, Sears etc.) on Dec 31 it doesn't count until the bill is paid (usually January of the following year). In all the years I've been doing taxes, with all my studies to earn an EA and Master's Degree in Taxation, I never knew that. Methinks there's a lot more I don't know, so I'd better stick with what I'm really familiar with. I really like doing trusts and estates, and because of that I think I know what I'm doing in that arena. Sounds like a reasonable focus to me. On the other hand, although I do very few EITC returns, I dislike having to cross-examine the clients and feel the pressure of Karen Hawkins threatening my livelihood. (Whatever happened to the IRS being in partnership with preparers because we help them so much by applying the code for them?) Except for those couple of divorcees who are just learning to make a living and those business owners whose books we do (and who don't live in houses and drive cars 12 levels up from mine), I'm referring EITC clients to HR Block. Their preparers are very well-trained in the required due diligence, and they have a company with deep pockets to bail them out. I also voted to nail down certain forms. There are new forms for health insurance (the numbers escape me right now) I better figure out. The AMT credit on Form 8801 is a mystery. Many credits I've seen awarded shouldn't have been because the taxpayer claimed only tax exclusion rather than deferral items. Seems to me that when the credit came into existence software didn't handle it correctly. Many preparers just put the AMT amount in the box instead of reading WHICH amount should go into it. When I see these I put them in my "summer projects" pile so the error doesn't carry forward. I want to get my head around understanding it better. Finally, I do almost all of the debt forgiveness/short sales in my office. Every single time I have to go through the rules for recourse/nonrecourse, is it the amount of the forgiven debt or FMV that goes into the formula, etc. I am going to study this until it makes sense to me and I'm not just following lines on a worksheet! These sound like New Year's resolutions. Hope I can report back next year that I actually kept them!

There are two kinds of backups -- data and "cold metal restore." The first is the easy kind - and the easiest to automate. It's the kind that Mozy, Carbonite, iDrive, and others will do online daily (or more often). The other gives you all your executables (programs) and doesn't need to be done daily -- but certainly after major updates. Those are the ones that will put all your software back on a new machine. Then import your data from the data backup. Old saying in the field -- electronic devices run on smoke. You let the smoke out, they stop working. Permanently.

No, the policy would have to be either in the name of his business or an individual policy, or medicare. Also, his business would have to show a profit after deducting 1/2 s.e. tax and any related SEP-IRA, SIMPLE-IRA, or Keogh deduction. Also, he cannot deduct any insurance costs for any months he was eligible to participate in a subsidized group health insurance plan through his spouse's employer.

Kea, You can use bitlocker which is a MS product built in with Win7 pro and other flavors. Make sure you have the recovery key in a safe place and handy. If you have issues, you can decrypt or un-encrypt the hard drive and go back to where you are now. Again, if you are using a stand alone computer, you shouldn't have any issues. You will be delayed only about 45 seconds everyday.

Patience is the word. Too soon to be fretting over rolling over returns.

My doctor suggested I read a book about "Preventing Alzheimers". I just laughed at him and said I was beyond the prevention stage and needed a book on "Managing Alzheimers".

No, no, no! I don't what ATX offers, but I'm sure it is not legal protection. Why do we even still have this question? The accounting industry settled it years ago. The IRS is not the problem. It doesn't cost the government anything, so they are not going to be interested unless there are multiple complaints, and even then in the most egregious case it wouldn't be more than a censure. The problem is civil liability. And that is personal--your own house and bank accounts--even if you operate as an LLC or corporation because you can never escape responsibility for your own actions. First, the third party might be injured if they rely on your statement. Suppose you tell or imply to a lender the client is self-employed. You do NOT know that. All you know is that last year the taxpayer filed Scheduled C based on unaudited self-prepared records (or less). Just about anything on the return could well be wrong. Or suppose the lender turns down the loan. Now your client is damaged, and he might not agree that he gave you permission to disclose, even if it was in writing. Did he specify exactly WHAT to disclose, or to whom, or when? Questions like that can be very expensive.

Send everything to the client, password protected, etc. Let them forward it on to the bank, broker, whomever. If the third party can't trust that process, they're probably not going to approve the loan, grant, etc anyhow. If you NEVER send anything to a third party, you don't need to protect yourself with disclosures & permissions.

As an :aside: The government through the ACA (not political comment -- just stating from somewhere else in the general posts) is helping tax preparers by *** pushing*** people to have a need for practitioners -- to benefit from the ACA. Now some state governments (MD, NV mentioned to show MD not alone but with different reasons) are again "helping" practitioners by allowing "Illegal" parties to obtain government ID's and have same 'privileges" as U.S. citizens (at least in PA it's a privilege, not a right) by simply filing a tax return -- which may ***push*** more people to tax preparers'. Would not these two things be considered "government doing something right" -- therefore the quote "Govt. can't be doing anything right" --- would be incorrect. REGARDLESS of the argument that --- recognizing that something being done illegally by someone can NOW have have "legal" and allowed rights, benefits, etc. --- Our government is "smarter than that" (aren't they?). By the way -- President Regan did say "Govt. was the problem" (can't argue with his facts) but that IS a FAR CRY from a quote of 'Govt. can't do anything right" Here's the quote from an MSN article today: (MSN link led to this URL - http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/237926601.html?page=2&c=y ) NEVADA: Immigrants living in the United States without legal permission can apply for driver authorization cards starting Jan. 2. State officials anticipate tens of thousands of people will apply under the program. MARYLAND: In a program similar to Nevada's, immigrants living in the U.S. illegally will be able to obtain a state driver's license or identification card if they can provide evidence of a filed state income tax return or were claimed as a dependent for each of the preceding two years. Look at the boon we as tax practitioners can benefit from these Govt. ideas. Have a GREAT NEW YEAR !

for me, the type of client that is only filing for obamacare is not the sort of returns I want to do. If these people weren't filing before or did them themselves then they just won't be economically beneficial for my practice. This year I am setting my minimum fees at $350 for an individual and I may increase that once I get into tax season and see what is involved with this years changes. My engagement letter is going from 3 to 4 pages with added disclosures for obamacare and credit card vs. other income deposits for my business returns. I am also going to state that all returns and statements going to banks, etc will have to go through the client unless they comply with the written authorization rules. This is an area where I think we all get lax.

Truth is, I didn't see the delete button until just now. I was having a senior moment!

Report who? Someone charged them big bucks to have the return prepared but at the end of the day, the return was "self prepared". Also, they know the preparer by Salomon and that's all the info they have. People who go to these places to have their taxes prepared, go there precisely because that's the kind of preparer they like. As soon as I see a return self prepared and they mention a famous guy in DC (now in MD), I tell them. I doubt you will hire me to prepare your taxes because you are used to preparers that don't do a good job. I don't waste much time with them and most of the time I recommend HR block. I honestly like to get clients from HR block because I can charge my "new client" fees without any discounts.

You are such an honest person. Why didn't you just delete your original post and state something like "did you see the fire ball that was seen on several states?"

jsh and Jack, enough already! jsh, I can see from Jack's quote of your post that you went back and edited it later. Publicly attacking another member won't be tolerated. Jack, maybe in future with these posts you deem to be sniping, you should ignore them by not answering those posters here that you feel don't deserve an answer or use the block function. Your postings of non-helpful comments that do not provide an answer merely to show that you won't answer a particular person only serves to add fuel to the fire.