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On a more serious note, here are the good ideas I implement constantly: 1) Extensions - start filing them around mid-March on every return as it comes in. If you finish the return before Apr 15, no harm has been done. But if you get swamped in the next 2-3 weeks, you're not wasting a lot of time & energy in early April trying to double back and persuade people to LET you file extensions. 2) US Mail - get clients to mail their info to you, rather than drop it off. 3) Email & Texting - get your clients accustomed to emailing back & forth (texting for younger clients since they rarely use email these days). Email & texting prevents them from tying you up on the phone. 4) Do everything possible to keep your clients out of your office. This will enable you to get some work done.

I always enter the "certain distributions" on line 4 of Form 8880, whether it's currently necessary or not, so I don't have to find that information later. Also give a copy to client in case (gasp) they ever leave or forsake me. I always give client a depreciation schedule. It's the right thing to do.

This is a good idea. If a child needs to file a return but he/she will be claimed on parents return, now matter how easy his/her return is, DONT FILE IT FIRST. File the parents return first and when it is accepted by the IRS, then file the child's. If a child has been claimed by his/her parents and now he has to file his own return and will not be claimed on parents' return any more, file his return FIRST and then file parents. This is very important especially if a new dependent will take his/her place. A lot of times, if you don't save and close the return, ATX insists on keeping the old SS#. As you know an incorrect social security number on a family return is devastating because the last name is the same. Another good idea is to keep in my records, enough W-2s and other records to file a paper return. Normally, I keep both the federal and state copies of the W-2 if the return is rejected and I must paper file it, I print out the forms, sign them and prepare the envelopes and I ask the client to come and sign and mail them. The client only spends 5 minutes in the office. How about your good practices or experiences?

Scan all client documents and notes and save them to a folder on my PC and external drive (as well as pdf version of their return). Clients love it when they need a copy of a document later in the year (or years later) and I can print /e-mail it for them quickly and easily.

Went to lunch today here in GREEN ACRES, OHIO! Walk into the SPOT and some guy in a clown suit approaches me? "Tell Janitor Bob that Kenny the hippy will be turning the fountain on courthouse square back on this Thursday!" He also mentioned Chaz, Crazy Mary and Stinky Paul? Placed a bet that the smell downtown would go away soon. JB.............. who's the guy in the clown suit.............. One of your new clients I take it?

The Spot is exactly the kind of place my husband and I search out when traveling instead of eating at the national chain-type fast food places where it's the same no matter where you are in the country. Check this out from youtube:

In most cases the S-corp must pay an officer on a W2 a fair wage for work performed. Of course an S-corp (LLC) must file a 1120S tax return.

I don't track clients down. And, I think that's a good idea, to not track them down. The first time you forget, you're the bad guy. And, I try to handle little things that take under two minutes immediately, rather than try to get back to them later. I think I probably got that from JohnH, and that it was in a book he read. I forgot all the details except the tip.

I always thank them for their business (well, almost always).

If the separation agreement or divorce agreement is executed in a manner where both parties agree that it is not alimony, then it isn't taxable to the recipient and isn't deductible by the payer. See the portion cut & pasted from Pub 17 for how both parties CAN agree that the payments are not alimony. From Pub 17 - (note: this is when it would be alimony. See bold item below) Alimony requirements. A payment to or for a spouse under a divorce or separation instrument is alimony if the spouses do not file a joint return with each other and all the following requirements are met. The payment is in cash. The instrument does not designate the payment as not alimony. Spouses legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance are not members of the same household. There is no liability to make any payment (in cash or property) after the death of the recipient spouse. The payment is not treated as child support. Each of these requirements is discussed below. Payments designated as not alimony. You and your spouse can designate that otherwise qualifying payments are not alimony. You do this by including a provision in your divorce or separation instrument that states the payments are not deductible as alimony by you and are excludable from your spouse's income. For this purpose, any instrument (written statement) signed by both of you that makes this designation and that refers to a previous written separation agreement is treated as a written separation agreement (and therefore a divorce or separation instrument). If you are subject to temporary support orders, the designation must be made in the original or a later temporary support order. Your spouse can exclude the payments from income only if he or she attaches a copy of the instrument designating them as not alimony to his or her return. The copy must be attached each year the designation applies.

I agree with most of the points made, but a few clarification are in order. The contribution receipt does not have to be on letterhead style paper- any contribution statement layout which clearly identifies the charity is acceptable. There is no requirement that the acknowledgement be signed by anyone. The critical elements are that it must have the boilerplate wording and it must be in hand before the tax return is filed. It is also important to remember that these rules apply to any single contribution over $250. For single contributions under $250 (even if the total given to the charitable organization is well over $250) the canceled check is sufficient proof. For example, if a taxpayer gave $249 per week by check, he is entitled to a $12,948 contribution deduction even if there is no acknowledgement letter provided at all (although I wouldn't recommend that a church follow this as a routine practice). Here is a concise explanation of the potential damage from a trusted source. It won't matter to a church treasurer or administrator who is clueless about these things (as Jack has correctly pointed out), but for one who has any knowledge of the issues, the ECFA is well-respected. http://www.ecfa.org/Content/Charitable-Contribution-Denied Publication 1771 is also helpful, although it chases so many rabbits that it really should be split into two separate publications in order to address the separate matters of undesignated contributions and contributions involving some sort of quid pro quo. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1771.pdf

Must be on a letterhead style paper with church name, address etc. Each letter must have the disclaimer. Each letter must be dated. Each letter must be signed by an officer of the church with financial authority. The only number that must be on the letter is the total taxable donations. Anything else is for convenience. Most church treasurer's have no clue about the rules and regulations, and most do not want to bother to learn the right way. If audited, if the statement does not contain all the appropriate information, and is not given to the taxpayer BEFORE his tax return is filed, it will be disallowed. Recent tax court cases have set the rules and precedent.

I put my root beer in a square glass, now it is just beer.

The sec 179 expense isn't showing up on the K-1s because it is only available to distribute to partners if the partnership shows actively conducted trade or business income as defined in IRC Section 702(a). Even though partners' K-1s might show income due to specially allocated income or expense items, if the partnership overall has a loss, Section 179 expense cannot be distributed to any of the partners in the current year. Any disallowed deduction can be carried over to future years and distributed up to the amount of partnership income in a given year.

I have sadly come to the conclusion, after 24 inglorious years of dealing with taxpayers, that they lie, that they lie all the time, and that they even lie when telling the truth would be to their advantage.

Seems odd that the client would take the initiative to mail them to the SSA unless you gave them explicit instructions to do so. I suspect they sent them to the recipients and the recipients will know that they received the same form twice.

I prefer finding a local spot that the locals recommend, too. That one looks like a good place to try. Or maybe I'm just hungry?

I have that issue with the CA franchise tax board. Which is a real pain since that's in 75% of my returns

It effectively makes the payments into 'gifts', but since they are 'required' gifts, they are not really gifts. I agree with you, it's a stupid provision, and not fair. But then, that's true of several parts of the code, isn't it?

Okay, new technique to learn - screen shot and email to self. On my list

Great advice JohnH. One clarification: << If he wanted to give $450 in a single gift, there's nothing wrong with writing two or more separate checks which add up to the $450, provided neither check exceeds $250. I'd probably date them on separate days>> The word you are looking for is "must" date them on different days. If you give two checks on the same day to the same church- say one at the AM service and one at the PM service, and the total is $250 or more the $250 rules apply even though they are separate checks..

$5,000? I'd be camped in his front yard

Margaret, You need to slow down and take this one step at a time. The 982 is the last step in the process. First, you have a sale of a rental property. Run the sale in the normal way. Put a bulk sale together in ATX and sell the property with a sales price of 92,000. The result is going to be a loss on the 4797. Do not do anything with the basis, as the 982 reduction in tax attributes does not take effect until the first day of the new tax year for the client. DO NOTHING WITH THE BASIS AS A RESULT OF THE CANCELLED DEBT IN 2013. You should have a loss of about 40K flowing to the front of the 1040. Second step is to work with the cancelled debt. Enter in the 1099C information and put it on line 21. Third step is to work with the 982. I forget the ordering rules, but I think it goes bankruptcy, insolvency and then qualified business property. Was the client insolvent immediately before the cancellation of the debt? Most likely he was, because he had a condo with a FMV of 92K and mortgage debt of 87K. If he was in as bad of shape as you say he was, I am guessing he was insolvent. Go through the worksheet on insolvency and see to what degree he was insolvent. If he was not insolvent, then look at the rules for Qualified Businss Property. I know there is a lot of disagreement about wether a rental activity rises to the level of a business. Especially given the circumstances under which he started renting the property. This may or may not be a viable option. Does this make sense on how to attack this problem? Tom Hollister, CA

I've been doing that for about 5 years now. Best idea ever! I have a ScanSnap right at my elbow. It was about the best investment I have made to date.

Yes, it is possible. The LLC first has to file the Form 8832 Entity Classification to elect to be taxed as a corporation, and then it files the Form 2553. Even a single-member LLC can elect to be taxed as a corporation. Below is an pretty good article that discusses the merits of doing this. Be careful that you don't end up with an undesired result like having appreciated real estate in a corporation though. http://www.bizfilings.com/toolkit/news/tax-info/llc-plus-scorp-equal-best-of-both.aspx

The book is "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. Best productivity book I've ever read. I think I'll review the main points again - thanks for the reminder Rita.

I don't, that way I know in advance if they are leaving instead of tracking them down right before any deadline to see if an extension is needed.

I do it backwards, I thank them for their business and then I show them the door.

So the alimony payments are "under the table." That's just great. Actually, I don't have a problem with that part. However, I do have a problem that this strategy may increase refundable credits, which comes from the rest of us taxpayers.

And, of course, the reason the agreement must be attach each year [which means paper filing, btw] is so they can make sure the other party to the agreement does not deduct the payments as alimony.

What matters is the IRS definition of Alimony. Parties agreeing does not change the IRS regulations.

Have the clients get return transcripts for all involved. Case solved.

So you have a court document that reads: "children will slept at father's home 4 days a week" and then he wants to get IEC based on that paper, you should be OK with it, right? According to the paper the children will sleep at the father's house more than 200 days and less than 165 with the mother. Well, guess what, that paper is meaningless and you have to ask "how many nights did the children sleep with each parent". If the only document you have it that "famous" court paper, you document your answers and you don't need to rely on any documents but you have to rely on the testimony of the person. Now if you don't trust the person giving you the answers, then you don't prepare his/her taxes. Isn't that what we are supposed to do when we don't trust the client?

It's beyond my comprehension as to why a church treasurer would ignore this information once it is brought to his/her attention. That;s downright silly. But if that's the situation you're encountering, then there is some advice you could give the client. I'd never suggest that they dial back their giving, because a truly motivated giver has reasons to give other than the tax deduction. But he can protect himself by breaking up his contributions into amounts less than $250. If he wanted to give $450 in a single gift, there's nothing wrong with writing two or more separate checks which add up to the $450, provided neither check exceeds $250. I'd probably date them on separate days, but beyond that I don't think he has a problem, no matter how much he gives in total.

File the 1099 - INT. There will a one month late filing penalty. But that will protect your client from a much larger penalty for not filing at all. From a small sample over the years, whatever computer matching the IRS may do seems to concentrated on the recipient not on the payor, but that's not much comfort if your client's the one that receives the penalty.

I did change the original post. But what I came around to is there is one Pi day every year in dd/mm format, which is 03/14. However, there are 31 Pi days in mm/yy format this year, which won't happen again until 2114.

The language the IRS uses is: If a reasonable and well-informed tax return preparer knowledgeable in the law would conclude that any information the taxpayer has given you appears to be incorrect, incomplete, or inconsistent with the taxpayer's eligibility to claim the EIC, you must ask the taxpayer reasonable questions to get information that is correct, consistent, and complete. You must document the questions you asked and the answers you received. This is how you meet your knowledge requirement. I suppose the information could be considered inconsistent - the father's name on the medical records and school records. Therefore, you must ask the taxpayer reasonable questions. Sounds like you did. Father's name on medical records as the child is on dad's insurance. Father's address for school so child can continue attending existing school. To me, it seems the requirements are met with the questions you asked. Can you guarantee 100% that the child does live with mother and not father for the greater number of nights? Probably not. I think in order to do that you would need to ask or require unreasonable information.