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Lots of things in childhood turn out not to be what we thought. Just last week I finally apologized to my daughter for having told her all those years that when the ice cream truck was playing music, that meant it was out of ice cream.

I have implemented the same process. I don't charge for students of my clients as an incentive for the kid to stay in school. Starting with 2013, each return for a student showed my full charge price, then a "Student of a Client" discount for the full amount. I want them to know what they are receiving so they won't be able to say... "Why is your fee so high?" when they are no longer students.

We offer a deep discount on dependent children's returns. A recent client interaction is going to have me change how we present our fee to the parents. Usually when I show a discount, I show the full price and the discount. But for dependent's returns, we just show the deeply discounted rate. This year, when the dependent child's return was now a real return and the fee was the normal fee with a more nominal family discount, we got an earful as to why the fee went up so much. Not sure why we handled dependent return pricing differently, but this is going to change going forward!

Yes, to dogs we are gods; to cats we are staff...

That's what I always did, and it worked not only to educate the child, but also to make the parent/client appreciate the benefit they were getting bu not having to pay for the child's return. I always stressed to the parent the need to keep the kid from messing up THEIR return.

I would not suggest you walk away, unless you feel that the client is not interested in properly reporting his business activities. Pull out Form 3115, the change in accounting method form. I would approach the depreciation as a change in accounting method and make all the depreciation corrections in one year. At the same time, I would make all the adjusting entries into the current year for the rents on both sets of books and take all the charges in the current year and ask for a payment plan to get it all paid off over time. You know your client. If they want to cheat, then you don't want them. I am reading into your post, but it seems to me like they had some suspicions that the books and tax returns were not up to par, and your expertise and ethics may be just what they are looking for. You may be surprised that that is what they really want. On the other hand, they may send you packing when you tell them what the issues are and go running back to the previous accountant. Either way, you will be able to sleep well. Tom Hollister, CA

"Oh, are you reading the paper? How about I lay right on top of it and read with you? And is that bacon you are eating?"

and you know this how????????????????????

I like when the kid runs with their W-2 to HRB and claims themselves and then the parent's return filed later with AOC is rejected. We then get to file an additional 2 amended returns! Ca ching!!

HUGE retainer (cash only) upfront!! Tell the owners that the "straightening out" will be expensive due to your fees and the IRS penalties and interest involved. Stick to that!! Since you are aware of what has and has not been happening, if you prepare any returns that are not following the rules, you put your head on the chopping block. If they balk at your pricing, hand them their documentation and wish them a good day. If they try to convince you to do other than the correct steps... RUN FORREST RUN!!! Note: Incompetence or total disregard for the tax laws on their part, does NOT constitute ANY responsibility on your part to "fix" the mess or continue the deceptive practices.

People own their dogs. Cats own their people and tolerate them only because they are good servants.

OK, how about a laugh to follow that useful but awful thought?

Ouch!............

It would not be so funny if you were the guy using the shovel!! In my town, the snowplow comes by and plows the drive shut!!

Agree, when a huge number of the fraudulent EITC returns come from a small number of 'mills' that churn out many hundreds of returns using just a handful of addresses, and most of those get processed and paid, and only a handful of preparers go to prison, something is rotten at the IRS. And the fact that politicians are encouraging them to process the refunds fast is a real part of the problem.

If they are eligible, file the 990 e-postcard. Otherwise, file 990-EZ. I am the treasurer for a 501-c-7, which is eligible to file the 990 e-postcard.

"The tax returns to be examined are selected using an effective risk-based audit selection model, resulting in a change rate of more than 90 percent." - probably less to do with their "effective risk-based audit selection model" and more "high fraud rate". Like shooting fish in a barrel. "Last year there were more than 67,000 two-year bans and 45 10-year bans in effect." - wow those are disappointingly low. 45 total 10-year bans in effect? I'd consider anyone who has repeatedly reported fake income to obtain EIC filing fraudulent returns and there's way more than 45 of those. It looks to me like the IRS is doing ... almost nothing ... with the information they have available to cut down on the EIC fraud. Instead, they want paid preparers to do the work. But this won't work because probably a significant portion of the EIC claimed on returns prepared by paid preparers are done by fraudulent preparers that file bogus returns with inflated refunds. They're not filing bad EIC claims because they didn't know better but rather because their intend is to file bad EIC claims. The IRS has to do more than send letters. Even the $500/return penalty doesn't matter when you make more than $500 a tax return. They need to put those preparers in a jail cell or deport them.

See my avatar with my 'staff' hard at work.

How to get a ring off a swollen finger _without_ cutting the ring. By a doctor in the UK. http://www.wimp.com/removering/

When I served in the Air Force working on radar systems with high voltage and climbing up and down aircraft ladders, one could get into serious trouble for wearing any type of jewelry on the flight line. We joked that the main purpose was to protect the jet engines from ingesting foreign objects such as rings, watches, caps, fingers, etc, but the rules really were in place to protect us as well.

LATEST UPDATE: The teen at the center of a custody battle triggered by differing diagnoses by two Massachusetts hospitals will be transferred from the Bay State to a facility in her home state of Connecticut, according to Massachusetts officials, but her parents are not welcoming the decision. Secretary of Health and Human Services John Polanowicz said Monday the "reunification" plan calls for 15-year-old Justina Pelletier to be transferred to a facility in Thompson, Conn., as the first step in a process that could eventually return her to the custody of her parents. A judge will make the final decision to return Justina to her family. The Connecticut facility "will provide services to Justina with the ultimate goal of her returning home as soon as possible," writes John Polanowicz, secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, to Massachusetts lawmakers in a letter obtained by FoxNews.com. The announcement, however, has infuriated the girl's parents, Lou and Linda Pelletier, of West Hartford, who claim the move is "not at all meant as a step toward regaining custody" and called it "barbaric." "They’re just shipping her off to another psychiatric facility," Lou Pelletier told FoxNews.com Tuesday. "It’s disgusting." "They’re totally ignoring her physical needs," he said, citing a heart condition the girl suffers from that Pelletier claims has gone untreated since the teen was transferred to Boston Children's Hospital last year. DCF said conditions of Pelletier's return include her family attending visits at the Connecticut facility; following through with a care plan outlined by Tufts Medical Center; attending family therapy; and meeting with DCF to review her progress. Pelletier spent a year in a psychiatric ward at Boston Children's Hospital despite her family's objections and a diagnosis from Tufts Medical Center that she suffered from a mitochondrial disorder. While many facts are in dispute, one thing is clear: Justina Pelletier spent the past year in a locked psych ward, even though doctors disagree about whether her condition is psychiatric.

Cane poles worked just fine, Eric.

My best friend's dad was an auto mechanic who also never wore his ring at work, because (as he said) "I like my fingers!" He did take it out for special occasions.

Thirty years as an auto technician. I NEVER wore my ring at work. When in tech school, we saw a film clip about "degloving" of fingers and worse. Didn't take much to convince me never to do mechanical work with my ring on!!

I would suggest you do what I did with 2012. As soon as it came out and people were posting problems I demo's drake and proseries. since it was December and I had the time, I did a few returns on each. by Feb I knew I wasn't going to go with atx and since I already liked pro better than drake and since I already did my fee discussions and locked in my discounts, all it took was a phone call and 15 minutes later I was up and running. I already had my letters set the way I liked them and my letterhead installed, etc. I sent them atx files to convert which did take longer than they said but I could understand that being Feb they were swamped. my conversions all went well except for having to reselect asset types on all fixed assets.

Thanks for all the sympathy and kind words. Yes, it is really nice to do something completely unrelated to taxes. I also use practice (in the winter) as a way to warm up when I've been sitting at this desk freezing my patootie off; it does an amazing job at warming me up. Ten minutes and I'm toasty (ceiling fan in the practice room for summer!). Plus have had a brain break and can go back to whatever was driving me nuts when I'd left off. I actually have one more eligible year to compete in the novice category but Gwen (who is WAY better than I am) got arm-twisted by our instructor to compete in the "Open" (=adult non-beginner) category. She is terrified of coming in last (highly unlikely; she's good), so if I go for the Open, she is guaranteed _not_ to be dead last! What's a little public humiliation among friends, family, and a roomful of complete strangers, after all?

I went to a Drake seminar this month. There are some very good points and it looks like a great program, but there was another preparer attending that was there to talk to them because of the issues that she is having with Nebraska and Iowa returns. These just began when she switched from Lacerte. She has contacted their tech support several times and they have not been able to help her. I know that they offer a lot with the program, but I do like the CCH research that is included in my Total Tax Office and I already have a website. I used a menu based program before ATX and I really prefer the form entry. In the sample return that was prepared on powerpoint I did see that Drake allowed the presenter to create an e-file without checking for the federal refund or prior payment.on the Iowa return. When I prepare one with ATX, I can't really miss it, because I'm looking at the form. They really did have some nice shortcuts, but you can't teach an old dog new tricks and I'm very comfortable with ATX. I had a good year, except for the one day that I was down for a few hours and had to call for a different tech. I hope that they get the server error fixed, because that was my biggest headache this year.

My business for 2013 tax season suffered loss due to the issues of ATX2012. Despite my best efforts, I lost about 20 clients. As I predicted a year ago, the effects of the trash program would follow us for at least 2 years. As a result, I am looking very skeptically at the simple 10% normal early renewal discount I have been offered as an insult to my professionalism and intelligence. This year was FAR better than last year, but ATX/CCH has yet to deliver a program that is nearly as stellar as it was in 2011. CCH management has no clue how the trainwreck of 2012 is still costing us money and clients. Rollovers this year would not rollover all fixed asset information. Now this problem may not be here for 2014, if they have standardized the data storage protocols. CCH is still leaving a bad taste in my mouth i.e. the lack of quality tech support. Same song second verse from last year. I managed to make myself such a nuisance that I could send an e-mail and get a call if I had an issue. This is NOT the typical tech support response for most ATX users. I am on the fence again. At the firm, we will probably not change due to the extensive resistance of the preparers here at the firm to adapt to the totally different methods of other softwares. I, however have no trouble adapting whatsoever and changing is on my plate of consideration again. CCH is going to have to be even more forthcoming about next season to sway me. Currently on the fence and do NOT have any reason to be pressured one way or the other. I guess all my public relations actions this year have had no meaning to anyone there. Film at 11.