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By the power vested in me by MM&I, I hereby direct that all tax preparers shall immediately upon reading this proclamation take a ten minute power nap break. If your supervisor objects, tell him/her you're merely adhering to an official proclamation and that(s)he is also covered by it. If that doesn't work, just have him/her call me . . . . 555-1212 (ask for Jerry).

I guess the real answer to the thread topic, "Do you procrastinate on difficult or long returns" is being thoroughly answered by this topic being "HOT" for several days! I am SO glad I'm not the only one.... OK, back to those nasty returns. Blech. Today's news and excitement is that a client dropping off e-file forms this morning (yesterday pickup, wife at work at the time; he's 2nd shift) found a dead-and-torn-up critter on the front step. He thinks rabbit but from the size of what's left plus color of the fur I think chipmunk. Coyote would have eaten the whole thing; cat wouldn't have torn up so much -- hawk, maybe? It is also our anniversary, and the last pistol match of the season. And it's sunny!!

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I first read this as "find an appropriate sized hammer". I was wondering if it was to hit the attorney, the client or both.

My cutoff is usually 8pm but this is a "special" client, and not in a good way. I really need to reign in some clients. They think that because you work out if your home hours are flexible. This special client called at the beginning of tax season .... at almost 2am. Apparently, I didnt scare her away. Maybe the bill will this year.

I am impressed that you meet clients that late! I am sitting at the computer in sweat pants and barefoot. . . Eating nacho cheese doritos and trying not to turn anyone's paperwork orange. I know I'm near the end of my rope . . . I'm really funny about food, and I cook/eat very healthy. My husband and son got pizza hut last night, and tonight I told them to eat leftover pizza hut (as if one night wasn't bad enough) and I'm eating Nacho Cheese Doritos.

We feel your pain. And I like that word "liaison". I might have called him something less appropriate after 1/2 a pitcher of Margaritas. Or just on principle. In defense of alcohol, I have done plenty of stupid things while I was completely sober.

This seems to have degenerated into a rant so, after today's adventure, I will contribute ( also after 1/2 pitcher of 1/2 price Margarita's at El Coyote with my best friend this evening). Client has American Funds three of which have Foreign Tax paid. Did client provide additional data showing total foreign dividends and total qualified foreign dividends? Of course not! Client referred me to investment firm. Liaison informed me about the contents of Form 1099Div. I informed liaison that I am aware of contents of such forms having a master's in tax and about 30 years experience reading such forms but no support pages were supplied. Liaison seems upset. I inform client that, if client wants correct calculated foreign tax credit, I need dollar amounts of foreign divs and foreign qualified divs. All I was provided was percentages. I offered client option of saving money (my time) by doing calculations himself as client seemed concerned with my prep bill. Sheesh! I mentioned that we could go with Sch A foreign tax which would be unhelpful as standard deduction exceeds itemized. You choose. Next thing I know, here is client, I end up doing calcs, saves about $50 on tax (client happy), takes me about 45 minutes (not in my schedule and I am not happy) and now how do I charge! Arrgghh! Glad for the Margarita's this evening although red wine is my usual beverage of choice. Knew y'all would understand.

Agree. Texting and emailing save me time. I also like that you have the response in writing. I still flap my yak when they drop off and pick up, and I like that, too. I have noticed that tech savvy clients are not any smarter than those who are not, BTW. And sometimes they are little too big for their britches, as we say around here, and are sadly lacking on common sense, so I like being able to show them in black and white what they said. Especially when they misuse "your", as in "your the best".

I was on a roll tonight, but alas, my 8 year old son just called (yes, it's midnight). He was crying. He had a bad dream, and according to him, 'Daddy is doing nothing about it'. So much for my roll. I'm off to ward off nightmares.

http://xkcd.com/1349/ title: "It shouldn't be hard" and while we're dealing with changing all our IRS passwords, too... http://xkcd.com/936/ title: "Password Strength"

I did this very thing this year. Copy the personal return. Delete everything but the Fixed Assets. Add a Form 1065. The assets and prior depreciation are all there. In my case, a section 351 transfer was required. It is a way to save a lot of data entry time.

To date, when the instructions say the transactions need to be itemized, I have been successful in getting a CSV file of the transactions, and the entire process takes less than 5 minutes, so the charge is minimal. But if I did have to charge per transaction, my rationale is this: if they are willing to pay between $7-$12 per trade, they should be willing to pay $3 per transaction to include those trades on their tax return!!

Happy Anniversary! I can't believe you got married during tax season. I have to ask . . . did you set your wedding date in a pre-tax part of your life? (Get it . . . 'pretax'?)

Its all in you're attitude to.

Their there they're, it will all be ok....

Well, I hope the penalty is not too bad because I am having my clients mail the return with a check. That's the path of least resistance for me, and I'll deal with the consequences later. Guess I can feel my oats, too. I am not the only one doing that, and I predict next year we will see a TN250-V. Mumble, mumble, curse, mumble.

except for the personal property this is a very common set up we use all the time. here is what happens, the "parent" llc is the partnership return with 2 partners, husband and wife. If set up correctly the parent llc owns the children so they are single member llc's and you report each property on separately on 8825. As for the personal property, when we do have this we don't treat it as rental and show the items that are allowed on schedule a such as interest and property tax as a footnote to the K-1 so the partners know they have these items to deduct. I know some here object to this but we handle over 1000 properties mostly in llc's and have never had an issue explaining the following. When multiple properties are under one llc like you have here, we set up another building called administrative on the 8825. This is used for items that can't be allocated easily; such as the fees to set this all up, bank charges, supplies that might b e used in each building, accounting fees, etc. By doing it this way, your tbws for each property stands on its own and you don't have to do intercompany allocations and these items are generally de minimous in nature.

The Reeses peanut butter cup Klondike bar helped my mood. All of the returns I have in are all input except for the missing pieces of data, so finishing them should be relatively easy. I have more ice cream on hand for after the next battle.

Well that was my situation this weekend. Very nonproductive weekend. And as usual today they all decide to bring in missing information and a whole slew of clients brought in their tax info because they wanted to make it in before the 3/31 deadline I told them was the cutoff for extensions. SHEESH! Also, Im waiting for my last client of the day who was supposed to be here at 9pm but called at 9:05 and said she was running 10 minutes late ... Its almost 9:45!

10.1 should say... "Thou shalt have not other tax pro before me!"

Did you run out of "Likes" again. Seems to me that you are cheating, but then you write your own commandments, so who can tell?

I have been keeping my sadness about those glue balls pent up inside this year so it can fester quietly. But, now I have to let it out: Gummy balls from Form SSA-1099 really slow down my rolling chair. WTF. (Well, that's fantastic.)

Maybe I should have qualified the original post to say "people with no contact information are killing ME." Wait, I think there are clauses in the 10 commandments. Yes, there they are: 10.1: "Thou shalt be allowed to kill those with inadequate contact information." 10.2: "Thou shalt not disconnect thy land line and answering machine if thou dost not answer thy cell phone or set up thy voice mail."

I had a long term client...but he wasn't happy with his 2010 return...so he said he was going elsewhere...paid me a consultation fee...and all was good. What he didn't like was his refund...and let's just say..the return was on the verge of looking ridiculous. I refused to put down one more penny towards expenses. Fast forward to yesterday. He sends me a letter from the IRS ...and in the e-mail says it's about 2010. I look at it...and the letter clearly says 2012. He sent me another e-mail today....says it's 2010....again the letter clearly states 2012. I again respond...it's 2012! He calls...just now...and says on page 2 it says 2010 . I explain...I did not submit 2010. I did the return...you didn't like it...you went elsewhere. I also explain...even if I did it....I can't help him until after 4/15....and that I doubt this was the first letter he received. What I am sure happened ....he was audited for a few years...and now they are holding his refunds. Ha ha ha..... I ended our conversation explaining that I don't put junk on returns.

It appears that the second tech fixed my database problem. It took all afternoon between the two techs, but it was well worth it not to have to format my hard drive or get a new computer. He had to try multiple methods to get it to work again, but the last one did it. I have to go back and redo my preferences and resync the efiles, but that's a small price to pay. Now I just have to get my computer tech stopped from coming in the morning, since it apparently was not my computer.

Happy Anniversary! i hope that you take at least a few minutes to celebrate!

Please, Jack, don't be 'snarky' on any day in April . Pacun was 'over-thinking' this, something common this late in tax season.

Must have! Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary!

Yep. I had one with 36 pages of transactions. They were insisting that I include them with the return. Said sure. $3 a line item. They decided against it. I told them the subtotals ST and LT to each account was sufficient. This was before the 8949 world, but really? The IRS has the info. Send me a CP-2000 and I will deal with it. And in 22 years, I haven't seen one yet. Rich

E-mail me...e-mail me...e-mail me...!!! I have clients with accents. I cannot understand them. This is besides forgetting what people tell me. E-MAIL ME!

What is there you don't understand about "disregarded" for tax purposes. Disregard the LLC except for legal purposes.

Also watch the other linked video on LFTR's. It's excellent. We don't even need mines for the stuff -- one of the most easily accessible sources of thorium is coal mine talings and coal ash from coal-fired plants. Turn waste into new fuel -- at _much_ higher energy densities than the original!!

First, a very appropriate size retainer.

I love texting clients. They answer more quickly than they answer email, and you don't have to waste time with a phone conversation. We have some rental properties, and texting tenants is even better than texting tax clients!

First of all, is it an LLC Partnership or an LLC sole proprietor? If a sole proprietor, doesn't it stay on the Sch E as part of the 1040 return. I have one with a husband/wife LLC owning the rentals and that is the way that I report it and have for years.

Caller: "How's my return looking?" 10.3: This is an abomination, and thou shalt refer to 10.1.

I think the best part about killing those you can't contact is that no one will know for weeks that they are gone - they will just keep trying to get in touch with them.

Two have CALLED ME today to say they were coming Friday. Haha, I know! And two have called me today to say they were coming Friday. Yippee, I can't wait, you are getting an extension, see you Friday, click.

LIKE like Like

I have an encrypted, password-protected file where I store all my passwords. Plus I add in all the former passwords, as so many places will not let you use former passwords either, and any special rules for that site (min, max, special characters allowed/disallowed/required) as I detest picking a new one and being told it doesn't qualify for reason one, then reason two, then reason seventeen! Stupid file is over 25 pages long. It's all madness.

THANKS I NEEDED THAT TODAY

I'm eating way too many carbs.

That's it in a nutshell. Today must be the day for icky returns. It took me most of the day to finish one and haven't even rechecked it yet. I created the situation myself because we came to the retreat for the weekend and I only brought difficult returns along. Not so gosh awful difficult like the one that went out yesterday with seven states; but something on almost every line, two Sch C, I had papers everywhere. This gal is really organized too, just so much stuff. (foreign exchange students, tuition credits, two homes in two cities with an office in each along with W2. Tomorrow when I get home, I get to wade through it all again, but after a short nap with my headache, I am about to dive into a new (from HRB) client with lots of investment stuff. YES, sometimes I do procrastinate on the messier ones, but it is getting too close to the deadline to dawdle and , oh what a relief when one of those gets wrapped up.

I don't think ATX has the import capability this year. I just checked. You must have the Fixed Assets Manager so it appears.