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I swear I'm going to start charging $1.00 for every envelope I have to open!

$5.00 for opening the letter I sent them...

I love opening envelopes for a couple of reasons: 1) It elminates the possibilty of the client throwing away something important; 2) If the client is sitting there while I open the envelopes, it creates some entertaining moments. As I pull out the boilerppate stuff, I immediately shove it into the shredder while I'm conversing with the client. It's just too much fun watching the expression on their face as they secretly wonder if maybe I just shredded something important while that machine is loudly grinding away.

And I hold that dividend check I discovered for ransom.

There is always one day every year when I know that I am officially blown away, and there will be no let up till mid March. Today was that day. I have accomplished zero work today, but I have talked and laughed and caught up with the greatest folks on earth. Can't believe they all came today. Best. Day. Ever. Started with the widow who just received 8k life insurance proceeds from her husband who died seven years ago. She had no idea he even had a policy. She's getting out of her little apartment and buying a little house. Good stuff.

I found a $4,000 dividend check once...

and the look on their faces when you open the envelope to find that the one from the mortgage company is an offer to refinance NOT the 1098 bank is the privacy statement NOT the 1099 county is the statement of the cars they own NOT the receipt for the personal property tax paid. Hopefully they had opened the bill and already paid it back in October; t the county does not send a statement at year end AND the Vet bill is the Vet bill and no it is not deductible even if you had paid it last year when it was due.... ... and the list of things they didn't bring gets longer and longer...

$10 for opening the letter from the IRS

You, or your client, should contact the executor (trix) and question the amount. If you think it is out of line, it could be an error. Either way, the person in charge of the estate should be able to get an answer for you. The beneficiary would have nothing from or via the estate to offset that income that is not on the K-1. When my firm prepare these things for estates and trusts we always attach an explanation to the K-1. Apparently the preparer of your K-1 likes being bothered with questions of explanation. I don't.

I love it! From one who once thought that the coffee bean was planted and harvested just for him, you have no idea how I can totally relate to that picture. I drank a good 14 to 16 (18 to 20 on particularly grueling days) cups per day until they planted this mechanical heart beat in my chest. Now I am down to about 5 to 7 cups per day. No one told me to cut it out, I just don't need the extra push anymore. shhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How cool is that? I wish her well! We go through three or four days like that every season. You would think it was "old home week" around here. Most of the time I quietly slip away and get back to work while the clients entertain each other. Since my office building is of the open office concept, I can still hear everything that is going on. Kinda warms your heart, doesn't it? We pre-schedule all of our drop offs and they are scheduled from January 27th to March 23rd at the rate of 10 to 12 per day. So I kinda avoid that blown away eureka moment. I just stay overwhelmed all of the time.

On the other hand, I have a few clients who mail me a signed blank check along with their paperwork. Of course, they are long-time clients, but still! Those returns get done immediately.

That is EVIL!! I think I will adopt that process immediately!!

Good points. I like to look at things from the perspective of both tax professional AND client.....trying to justify what they want (and having other preparers agree/disagree) helps me better explain the final decision to my client. I sure they spent at least a few nights together in that last 6 months.

Pretend that strength is spelled correctly.

I'm very excited because I had to use spreadsheets to do these calculation last year. Edit: I just checked the Basis worksheet (for 1065 & 1120S) and it's been updated too! Yay!

Duplex printing is annoying.... Page 1 of a form ends up on the back of page before, and cover letter ends up with page one of the 1040 on the back.... I guess there is a way to send the Cover letter to the printer, then the comparision worksheet, then the 1040, then the .... But if you have to do that many print commands, you are wasting more time than paper... Just my thought. I only print a client copy anyway. So it fills up their file cabinet. Rich

The three most ignored phrases in the English language: 1. "The check is in the mail' 2. "Honey I'll love you as much tomorrow as I do tonight." 3. "We're from the government and we're here to help you."

And you thought the government did NOT care about us ---- without them, where would we be????? Sorry, almost forgot the /s

And it always will be on that list, because, while it's hard to con an honest person, it's easy to appeal to people's greed.

This calculator does all the magic: http://www.valuepenguin.com/ppaca/exchanges/ I played with it today for a few hours, verified calculations by checking healthcare.gov Bronze and SLCSP rates for several scenarios and everything was matching.

Even worse are all the staples I have to remove. Especially love when someone takes a form out of the envelope and then staples the form to the envelope.

Speaking of Body Lotion; one of my clients last year brought me a bottle of aromatherapy "Stress Relief" lotion. It is Eucalyptus Spearmint.; which is supposed to clear the mind and the Spearmint Essential Oil is supposed to uplift. Boy, do I need that today. Have noticed that some of my clients are trying it out too. So Funny sometimes, the things that they notice.

I think I have it figured out now. It is just the way the instructions are written that got my boxers in a bunch. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Tom Newark, CA

If a dependent then the return for them is silent for ACA (no check box and no other form). If the person was filing as themselves but only because of requesting refund, then you would file the 8965 marking the probably the two boxes about filing because of under threshold and hardship, etc.

It doesn't matter. She is still married. And, remember, if she files MFS, she loses all the credits for her daughter.

It's ususally a retirement plan.

MFJ or MFS are the only two options. Absence is temporary due to military service.

RitaB Was the single lady a dependent and lived with her parents for all of 2014? Do dependents need to file form 8965 if they do not check line 61? The dependent is counted on the parent's return. The dependent is only filing a return to get money back. Income is below the filing threshold.

My husband uses No Crack from Duluth Trading company. He hates any kind of scent in hand lotions, and this has done wonders for his hands. Considering he works outside a lot in all kinds of weather (he is an HVAC mechanic, among other things), anything that will work on his hands is good enough for me.

I have found a lot of dividend checks over the years. I only love to open the envelopes that have checks for me in them. I hate what the paper and envelopes do to my hands this time of year. I get such terrible hangnails and dry skin that no matter how much cream I put on them they still look terrible and the hangnails and paper cuts really hurt.

Customizing forms is one of the best features in ATX. 1040 check third party designee, check to print Line 44 Tax Calc, Line 48 Foreign Tax Credit, Line 64 Federal income tax withheld, AGI Split All EF info forms check ERO/Practitioner, ERO entered, and enter ERO PIN All biz returns check May IRS discuss return with preparer. K1 Input (1120S) check calculate basis, check to print allowed & carryover worksheets. K1 Input (1065) check to print allowed & carryover worksheets and PTP worksheets (this was tricky this year. You have to check PTP on Input first, then uncheck later). 1065 Line 20 check to supress preset descriptions, check to NOT print Sch L Balance Sheet per books worksheet, 1120S Options check complete sch L and M1, line 19 check to supress preset descriptions, check to NOT print Sch L Balance Sheet per books worksheet, Print Sch M2 worksheet. 1120 Options check complete sch L and M1, line 26 check to supress preset descriptions, check to NOT print Sch L Balance Sheet per books worksheet. Sch B (1040) Check to print Sch K1 (1120S) check to print page 2 codes, uncheck print K1 letter, check to print shareholder basis, uncheck print K1 letter, Input-shareholder entity type I Sch K1 (1065) check to print page 2 codes, uncheck print K1 letter, check to print partners basis, basis summary & capital summary 1040-ES check Round to 100 Bank Account Info check personal, check No for foreign, check all jurisdictions We customized the hell out of the 3115 this year.

The same clients have the same dividend checks every year....

I can't get over the stupid choices business owners make. I have three right now who are behind on remitting sales tax. Their monthly penalties are more than my accounting fees. They won't be in business long.

I check the no boxes on the Schedule B, I enter the taxpayer and my PIN numbers on the efile info form and I check the state efile info form no for foreign bank account.

No, but she will. Thank you, kind sir.

Well, I have a number of clients that spend zero time on those tasks... They are broke, but working all the time, so there is that that. You gotta run the Biz. And that is accounting... Rich

Cool Rich

Tom, the Affordability Worksheet shown on pg 10 of the instructions for form 8965 uses the lowest cost plan available in the marketplace for the area and that would be the lowest cost bronze level premium. However, the way I read the instructions, I think you should be using the worksheet on pg 11 of the instructions called Marketplace Coverage Affordability Worksheet to calculate the figures that will be used for comparison. That worksheet on pg 11 is to be used for person(s) who were not eligible for their employer's insurance plan, and it uses both the lowest cost bronze and second lowest silver premiums in the calculations. The worksheet on page 11 calculates the amount to enter on the worksheet on page 10. Disclaimer - I haven't done one of these yet and hesitated all day to answer, but I keep coming back to the same answer each time I've looked at it.

I had one already this year who said "You have to charge me more this year because I have this student loan interest and this Health Insurance thing" (Those who can least afford it are most often the most generous"!

Hahaha, you are gold! My tech guy hates me, too. The other day he was here, and I was drinking coffee. I said, "Hey, I just installed java."

Rita - my tech guy hates me. I have kept every email from the beginning. So yes, I do have the original email and email exchanges after the bill was sent. Ms TabbyKats - thanks! Here is what I decided to send and his response: "Are you certain that it is Audited Financial Statements you need? This is where we had issues last year. I did supply you with the Audited Statements and billed you and you said you never requested the Audited Statements and will not need Audited Statements in the future and did not pay the bill. Just want to make sure I know what you need." Client's response: "Is it just the financial statements? And once we have our NEW business on its own I will take care of that bill. I apologize it has taken so long not your issue I know just wanted to explain." So I sent him the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss out of QuickBooks (that I know are clean since my firm cleans them up) and told him to see it those will work. His response: "OK this should work, the state wants me to do an audit every year and I told them they are to expensive to have done every year. All (the business like mine) in PA are fight this." Good luck with that fight. I guess I will have to go back to my "half the projected fee before we start" routine. Sounds like I will get paid for the one I did - eventually - and will still be able to keep the client. Another couple of weeks and I probably would not have been so nice.

I missed that it was a rollover. If the 1099R is done correctly, you shouldn't get a notice. As for doing it now, why? Tell her you'll do it in May.

Haha, while you are at it discussing this, find out if he'll need audited financials for 2014. Depending on the timing of when you issued the 2013 statements and invoiced for it, you will not be independent if the unpaid fees go beyond one year. The state isn't going to accept compiled statements, no matter what the reason your client is involved with the state.

Glad the giant dog is back home and your story had a happy ending. None of us need that kind of stress.

I agree that 6 million is not a small number but I tend to agree with John that IN MY PRACTICE it is not going to be a huge number either. I will have a few that will have to pay the penalty. I will even have a few that will have incomes low enough that they don't have to pay the penalty even though they don't have insurance. But by and large, my clients have insurance. They have assets to protect, so they are going to do what is necessary to protect those assets by having insurance. And even though next year they will have to bring me in an extra form, whether from their employer, insurance company or the market place, they will do it because I am sure that it will come in an envelope marked "important tax information" and therefore they think they know to bring it in. Yes, it is one more thing I have to be sure is covered, but it is not going to be that big a deal. I am far more concerned with trying to figure out the repair regulations and when I need an election or have a change in accounting method (is from none to some a change in method?) But depending on the type of practice you have, your mileage may vary.