Leaderboard

I hate monkies. They steal my frikkin' bananas also...squirrels can be assholes.

Probably a lot more of them do than you ever know, now that so many sources offer you 'free' versions. I know my credit union does. But given that fact, it CAN be a good marketing tool FOR YOU, if you deal with it correctly, if they bring it up. NEVER ACT DEFENSIVE. SMILE and explain that a software program can take information given and put it into a form, but it can not THINK, and it can not chose the BEST OPTION where there is more than one possible choice, etc. That is why smart people use professional advice rather than trying to learn enough about the tax code to do their own return, if they have any complications in their financial life. Showing them why 'their' result was wrong just builds their trust in you.

I HATE financial advisors who don't inform their customers that when they take money out of their retirement account it is taxable; or they don't advise them on withholding options; etc. Then when we do their tax return and break the bad news to them, they get mad at us like it is our fault.

After watching a cat chase its tail for at least 5 minutes, two thoughts came to mind: 1) "Cats must be simple minded - they're so easily amused." 2) "I just spent 5 minutes watching a cat chase its tail."

Salespersons that sell insulation, siding, windows, furnaces, etc. The tell the client as part of their sales pitch... "You will get $1,500 back on your taxes if you buy this product." Had a retired couple that had $0 tax liability so there was NO credit to take!!

Yeah, I kinda hate everybody right now. Especially the retired attorney who called on 2/24 saying he would have his two S-Corps and three partnerships to me by 2/28. Not seen hide nor hair of him. That kidder.

If this is multiple choice, I'll go with "E - all of the above".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dg4we04shbo

I especially like the one I have with hubby a W-2 job. I asked if there was any other income or business they were operating. "Nope. You have all our income." She has been posting on Facebook about how wonderful Advocare has been for her and how much her husband was selling at his job, and how great her parties have been. They did not like me handing back their information, with no explanation and telling them I could not prepare their return this year. Been clients for 5 years. I guess the biggest reason I fired them is the way they took me to be stupid and insulted my professionalism. I offered no explanation. (felt good!)

Well, I had a mother and three kids who arrived for their appointment and all four of them sat down on my floor (Yes, Mom too) and proceeded to eat their supper of Subways and some kind of drinks. Then, toddler needed his diaper changed (also on my floor) and finally Mom was ready to talk to me. Oh no, she had to call someone on her cell phone first. I know how you feel, JB. dumbfounded and speechless.

I just spent 2 minutes reading about you watching a cat chase its tail for 5 minutes.

I agree with most here, but I do have a gripe against tax prep shops that advertise themself as the "Refund Expert", "Where we find you more money", "We have a billion dollars for you" etc.....

Squirrels are the worst. It's like they TRY to get run over. Back and forth, back and forth. No more braking. I'm done.

OMG, yes, and the new client, whose previous preparer (if you can call it that) retired, and it's like he has never heard any of this. I look at her return, and IRS is apparently not even trying. Never seen so many business miles, pretty sure you can't even drive that much in a year unless you work for NASCAR, and home mortgage interest on the Sch C, just because he put it on the organizer there, and she didn't care, and OMG...

I am sure glad I asked, from everyone response, I did further researched and found this from the IRS website: Inherited from someone other than spouse. If the inherited traditional IRA is from anyone other than a deceased spouse, the beneficiary cannot treat it as his or her own. This means that the beneficiary cannot make any contributions to the IRA or roll over any amounts into or out of the inherited IRA. However, the beneficiary can make a trustee-to-trustee transfer as long as the IRA into which amounts are being moved is set up and maintained in the name of the deceased IRA owner for the benefit of the beneficiary. MAS

What I REALLY love are the Realtors (and why do we capitalize that?) who have a spreadsheet of expenses, list every transaction, usually in the same column with a note to the side. They don't know how to format, so decimals are not lined up. And they use 2 point font. Except for that one entry in 14. Also don't know how to add the column, which would be useful, even though everything is in one column. At least I would know if I missed anything. I'll take the hair dresser handwritten totals with a big spot of dye and the arrow saying "I spilled dye on this, sorry, Rita, I love you, :)" and ignore the do-overs and gift certificates any day.

Give your non internet clients a copy of the Salvation Army guide. Heck of a lot easier to print out than look the stuff up yourself. And you really shouldn't be doing it anyways. I do have some clients that donate regularly; they are a bit of fashionistas and have the income to allow it. Others have moved; moving was always a way for me to keep from accumulating! But yeah, I hate the form too. Just did 17 separate donations.

Brokers who tell their/my clients that PTPs are just like buying and selling stocks. Then they want to know why my bill went up! (Their broker's commission went up, but that's buried deep in their statements.)

Someone here can correct me if I'm wrong but I thought it illegal for a tax preparer to enter a value for any donated item. I will agree that sometimes the client's valuation is off and I do warn them about this and let them know that acceptable FMV price is thrift store price. The Salvation Army gives a good guide and a range of the condition of the donated items. How can you tell the condition of the item when you weren't present when it was donated? I insist that all my clients submit an itemzied list with values assigned. If I know they are outrageous I will tell them so and make them adjust it. Example one guy wanted to claim $600.00 each for donating three of four Armani suits. Really? thrift store range from $15.00 to $30.00.

A long time client of mine decided he was using Turbo Tax to prepare his own return several years ago. He had just graduated from the seventh ranked accounting college in the country and surely he could do his own return. Well, my client called me two weeks later after trying to get Turbo Tax to give him the refund I had estimated the year before that he should receive. "Didn't you tell me I was silly letting Uncle Sam hold $7,000 for me until I file my tax return?" "Yep", I replied. "Can you fit me in?", he asked. I should have made him crawl on his belly like a reptile, but since he was my son, I had to squeeze him in to my schedule of "paying" clients, and, yes, he received his $7,000+ refund and Mama got yada, nada! But don't worry, he's not using his degree in the tax world...he decided he hates accounting work and is working in the law enforcement field. I told him I know of a couple of local tax services that could really use his lack of knowledge if he needed part time work.....it would be a cold day (you know where) before I'd let him work in my office!

Play this music in the background on a loop.

Of course, having an office in your home is part of the problem, JB, but clearly, those clients lack a basic understanding of simple good manners. I'd suggest you meet such a situation with "I will be happy to re-schedule your appointment, I don't want to have to charge you for extra time." Be pleasant but firm. You are 'at work' even if you are in your home.

I guess it could also be that the forum software doesn't keep a live total of views, and the number is only periodically updated for performance reasons. The number of replies is definitely more important, and I would expect that to be updated immediately upon posting. EDIT: Found a setting in the forum software:

That was kind of you. I don't know that I would have that much patience right now. "Perhaps we should reschedule" would have been about the nicest I might have managed.

Send the children and animals that arrive with your clients into his office to watch him crack his knuckles/be entertained.

And I just read it to see if he ever caught it. You know like a dog casing a car. Wonder what he would do if he ever caught it. Back to work.

Which you both correctly reported as barter transactions per IRS Tax Tip 2014-26 which arrived in my email box just a bit ago. http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Bartering-Tax-Center

I think it has to do with trying to be distracted from the piles of stuff we really don't want to do at this moment.

I hate brokers who convince my clients to do Roth conversions because "it will be good for your taxes." "Did the broker look at your tax return?" I ask. The answer is invariably "no." What I hate even more is my innocent client's banker, who walked her down the hall and threw her to these wolves.

The sky's the limit if it truly is an inherited house. I have a client who came to me with a $200,000 carryforward capital loss. I thought she had sold stock or something and wondered why anyone would take that kind of hit. Turned out that she had inherited her father's house valued at $600,000 and sold it for $400,000 rather than pay the upkeep, etc. The carryforward will probably outlive her, especially on WI taxes where you are only allowed to take $500 of the loss per year as opposed to the Fed limit of $3000. Had a new client come in the other night with the worry that he would have to pay CG for selling the house he inherited from his Mom. Turns out that he will end up with quite a loss because the assessed value is $84,000 and he sold it for $60,000 before expenses of fixup and selling fee. The realtor kept telling him that he would never sell it and he (the realtor) would give him $29,000 cash for it. Therefore, in reference to the other post, add Realtors to my hit list. At least this one.

I second all the above! My carpal tunnel is killing me at this point!

Thanks for the confirmation. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't some new rule that I was unaware of.

Almost as much as I hate people who make 30 trips to Goodwill during the calendar year . At least I've got most people trained to give me an itemized list of the items they dropped off. Takes forever to value and enter! (I could take the taxpayers' values, but sometimes those are outrageous.)

Nobody mentioned Insurance Salespersons who sell annuities with promises of immense wealth. Brokers are next on my "hit" list. I love my Hairdresser client. She does EXACTLY what I tell her to; almost to the point of being a huge pest. She brings me her paperwork (hard to read) but very detailed, has me prepare her sales tax an estimates and never questions my advice. Also, she does a great job on my hair at a fair price.

Either mother or grandmother could claim son; they can decide, right? Also, why can't daughter qualify for EIC with her son, if she's claiming her child? (I do almost no EIC returns, so those rules aren't on the top of my head.)

OR the single mom with 2 children and $5,000 W-2 and only got back $2,000+ and after I explained it all and said could "give" 1 dependent to ex as didn't help her - no way. she called back and said hold off filing as her dad said she should get more $$$'s. She called about 3 hours later and said file...

I agree totally. I think there should be a limit of some sort - maybe non-cash contributions can't exceed xx% of cash contributions. Some of these values are unbelievable, and I just don't believe someone who gives $25 to their church when they show up on Christmas and $10 to the United Way in the whole year is generous enough to give $2,000 worth of good clothing, furniture, and toys to Goodwill. They donate their junk and then want to inflate its value.

I help some of my older clients who don't use the internet. They sign off on the ultimate values/conditions, but I do look them up for them. I probably shouldn't, and it takes an incredible amount of time, but they are grateful. These clients tend to under value the items because they are scared of the Feds. I do send clients to the Salvation Army and other websites that help value, but sometimes I have to help them along. The ultimate value assignment is theirs. If clients give me a crazy high value, though, I do look up value ranges and review my suggestions with them. I have a small practice, and I know the majority of my clients very well and am in contact with them throughout the year and during this time, so it's a bit of a different situation. I still hate form 8283. Hopefully I'm not breaking any law.

Play the music from Jeopardy on a loop when he starts cracking his knuckles. Keep it running till he stops.

I don't know if this true, but it makes a lot of sense. I can say my computer was worst after downloading AVG to removal a virus. http://youtube.com/watch?v=ksDMN8bv47g

THAT WOULD BE TELLING.......... OK,, I'll tell. sherv.net

That was wonderful!!!!

In ATX there's a way to reflect the box 2 taxable amount as a rollover, without having to get a corrected 1099-R. Look at the options on box 2 of the 1099-R input page.

Extra time charge? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TkuZ5oI9uY

I avoid that problem since almost all of my clients fax, mail or e-mail their tax documents or just drop them off and leave without spending a lot of time with me.

It caught me so off-guard, I did not even have time to think about saying no. Maybe I'm just getting old, but it seems that attitudes and ideas of what is appropriate public behavior have sure changed since I was 22. So this young lady is either socially immature or just very gutsy and self-confident...oh well...at least she said she would definately be back next year and would tell her friends about me. I'd better stock up on sandwich supplies.

Headphones

:spaz:

17 years in this business and yes they lie. It is strange how you can always tell. And then they get ticked off at you for asking questions or not doing what they want.