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With all of us fretting over the proper application of tax laws and splittings hairs over rule interpretations I was surprised at what i saw on 60 Minutes last night. After years of hearing efile ballyhooed by the Service touting instantaneous matching of taxpayer records with their returns when filed I find that it was as like as not a farce. The Service is paying out billions in fraudulent refunds by paying them BEFORE any record matching on a taxpayer's return is done. An individual who reportedly ripped off some millions of dollars explained how easily it can be done. You have to wonder why this guy is being interviewed by 60 Minutes instead of being in prison. In China he would have been executed. With all this crap going on is there any wonder the public has no problem with cheating if they can ?

Keep in mind that criminals advance their skills just like technology advances. If they want something bad enough they will always find a way. It kind of sucks because if they put forth that same effort towards a positive lifestyle. They would be quite successful at whatever they choose to do.

Uncle Sam, you are so right that now we have to be conscious of so many things it makes me wish our fancy software was more like Block's: It forced you to ask questions and enter answers (was your student ever convicted of drug charges? Did you pay anyone over $600 and issue a 1099?) Fancy software assumes the preparer knows what s/he is doing and doesn't force it. Maybe it should because we can't keep all this in our heads anymore. I do warn everyone not to automatically enter "no" to foreign accounts or trusts. ASK THE CLIENT. Banks are being forced not just by the IRS but by the tax authorities in many nations to hand over their client lists. (Other nations are just as unhappy as the US that their citizens are hiding money in offshore accounts.) It isn't pretty if the client gets reported before they self-report. I just finished almost 2 months of work as a Kovel accountant for a long-time client with several foreign accounts he never mentioned to us. The income he never reported was less than a month's pay for this guy who makes $3M a year. Our fee was $19k, who knows what his tax attorney is charging, and he'll pay about $900k to the IRS IF he's accepted into the voluntary program (almost twice that if not). You're right, they don't want to pay for us knowing to ask the necessary questions. But it sure beats paying for the consequences.... As for the ACA, when are we supposed to learn about that? We just finished the Sept 15 entity deadline and are now facing the October 15 individual. After that it's assessor's reports due Nov 1. And then of course the rest of our CPEs have to be taken, useless because Congress won't have passed any tax bills or extenders until they recover from the Nov elections (read: Dec 31). And we're still digesting the new repair/supplies regs and brushing up on our Form 3115 skills. Yet we have to know all about health care before clients start coming in the door. This tax season ain't gonna be pretty.

At my personal practice for tax year 2013, I raised my base rate 25% and several of the add-ons by the same percentage. 225 clients. 1 protested loudly, 4 asked about the reason for the increase, 220 never said a word or even a funny look. I am instituting an increase for the clients that must file the ACA form this year but probably no other.

And folks get SO excited getting a discount!

Thanks for the explanation. I just may try this out on these extensions I have. I might also look at a few samples from this year and see how it might be different. With (intentional) lack of business growth as I edge into retirement, I will feel the income decline but want to know that I am still providing the value to my remaining clients while charging fairly.

I charge full freight for each and every form -- and then discount (shown on the bill) for simple forms. Say for example my Sch B fee is $50 -- and someone has one account at Bank X that earned $135 interest. I will discount that form $45 (down to $5). Same with the AMT form -- prepare it and charge it on EVERY return -- then discount it for the simple returns (the just-out-of-college kid who makes less than the AMT personal exemption, etc). Clients LOVE seeing that discount. I also have additional fees for any accounting that needs doing - that gets added as an hourly charge or is charged separately (depending on the client). Sch D/Form 8949 is $3 per item. So if someone sells one share of IBM, it's $3. If someone has a managed account with hundreds of trades -- well, you can multiply. Even when the info is provided in a spreadsheet, I charge -- because I check it, line by line. And find (rare) errors.

The tech stuff may have us all wowed into thinking we can solve all our problems. The problem is us.

What I'm feeling is a sense of frustration. When I first came into this profession - we had to know only tax law and peripheral areas of tax law. Now - we not only have to be conversant with tax law - but be compliant conscious on foreign tax reporting, HEALTH CARE reporting, EIC compliance - i.e. - we have to have eyes in the back of our heads to watch over each and every step a client takes during the year - and most clients don't appreciate what we have to know, nor are willing to PAY the value of those services. They just listen to the advertising commercials of the storefront preparer factories and expect US to match their fee structure.

  1.) Not many. But, if you want a mac and you want to run windows software, i guess you learn.  They make it easy with Boot Camp. 2.) I guess my advice is to do a little research before any major purchase.  I'm one of those people who agonizes over every detail before finally making a decision like that.     I would have removed Windows from all of my computers and moved them to Linux if it weren't for Adobe Photoshop.  There's nothing really special or superior about Windows itself.  Like Apple and iOS, they're successful mostly because of the software availability, not because of quality of the operating system (although apple fans may disagree).