Leaderboard

I really try not to judge...I can't know all of the sad/gory details of clients' lives and don't want to. However, when a client quits her two part-time jobs at the same time in 2014 because she has hit what she terms "the EIC sweet spot"...sits on her butt the remainder of the year being lazy (her words), chooses not to get insurance (even though subsidy would pay for almost all of it). gets sick and wants sympathy for not having health coverage and instead having big medical bills....then complains to me because her EIC and refund are not higher and how "that damn hospital" won't cut her a break on the bills. Her rent is subsidized through a county agency. She gets WIC (food stamp/card) and child support. Is mentally and physically able to work, but just chooses not to. Bitches to me for 10 minutes about how the government does nothing for her her refund is almost 25 times what she paid in. I need scotch

I have 1 person that whines about everything also. This year they made almost $15,000 more than in 2013, way over for EIC and additional child tax credit. I had to explain to her at least 10 times, WHY she was not entitled to the funds. She wanted to know why she was not getting any money for her 3 kids. I told her, YES she was getting the money only what she was eligible to receive. they both claim 1 for fed and state, I told her that if they change to zero she might get a bigger refund next year. It's just round and round every year. I completed her return 2 days ago, but have not submitted it yet. I am thinking about giving her money back and ask her to go some where else. it is constant phone calls, text and emails & sometime all at the same time. Oh and to top it off they got the Marketplace insurance very cheap and now have a penalty since they were not entitled to it.

I don't really try that hard not to judge, I admit. I would NEVER go to pick up my professionally prepared tax return without a check or cash for the diligent, overworked, preparer like two of mine have done today. These are not new clients, either. There is just an abundance of thoughtlessness these days. And, I'm being generous. On a happier note, another one picking up was delighted that the refund was only $3. He's a smart cookie and plans well.

People like her are becoming more and more common place. There isn't any shame anymore either, in fact some are proud of the way they live.

The only thing I dislike about this when people say "my baby daddy", I don't know but sounds terrible.

I spend as much time with my clients as they need. I DO want to know some of the details of their lives. However, there is the occasional person who NEEDS to be fired; and I have learned to do that. I fired one already this year and much the better for it. When they demand, cajole, try to bribe to be on the top of the pile, and are hard to get money out of; it is time for them to go elsewhere. I do not have a magic wand here (particularly not this year). My inbox runneth over and they will either wait their turn patiently or move on. Once I send them on their way, I absolutely will NOT rethink it.

Yep, we all have the occasional free-loader, and it truly grates on the nerves when they also complain that they are not getting 'enough' freebies.

JB- This is why I talk to clients as little as possible. I don't want the details of their lives. I live in apt. building...and unless someone can e-mail or fax me...I go down to the lobby to collect their papers. And I go down to the lobby to hand them their return. No more...bring it to my apt. No more...sit down and I'll do it while you're here. And I cut to the chase on all phone calls. FWIW...one of my EITC gals had to pick up her return today because she's flying to Aruba on Friday.

Sometimes, I would like to secretly record something like that and send it to the 6 O'clock news and see if they would air it. Tom Newark, CA

My tech guy told me to do that once, so I strapped on the old steel toe shoes and gave it the old college try. Not one of my more shining moments. Did not solve the computer problem (well it kinda did since I had to get a new one), but it sure made me feel better.

Good advice and discussion. I always go over that with my home-based clients - well all clients for that matter. Make sure you are properly covered - the right price for the correct policy. Had one business client come in the other day and told me she saved over $4,000 by taking my advice. I told her that she needs to understand that my advice does not extend to shopping around for accounting and tax services. She said she would never even consider such a thing. Ha! On another note, the weather has been so crummy here and with lots of ice. Even though my parking lot is in a lot better shape than others I see in the area, it is still treacherous at times. I tell my clients to be careful because I do not have any insurance. My wife tells me that she does not think my client's believe me. :(

That's just Quality Control checks, not a benefit.

Frikkin' Unbelievable Nonsense FUN Tom Newark, CA

NO! Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Strictly prohibited.

Rita: Whenever she calls, just tell her you pulled her return out of the stack to give her an answer, but you don't remember where it was so now you have to put it back on the bottom of the stack. After the third or fourth call, maybe she will get the message.

Ha! Tech log into my system and danced around for awhile. I sit here in awe just watching how quickly they move from place to place. At one point he asked if I had deleted some returns from the 2014 program and I said I did not remember doing that. He said, "well there are 26 six more files than returns showing up in the return manager". I said, "I'll bet those are the six returns I have been trying to roll over multiple times this afternoon because, again, it looks like they are going through the motion, but they are just not showing up in the RM". Finally got everything worked out and all of those rollover attempts showed up in the RM. So I deleted the copies and I am ready to move on. Don't ask me what he did - I could not keep up.

Ditto and likewise. Business rider on the homeowner policy, to protect me from anyone who slips on the stairs.

Thanks for complaining about the Windows update. I couldn't understand why I didn't get a notice that they were there. So I checked my log and that last one was Feb. 11. Then I checked the update notice in the control panel and there they were waiting to be installed. Doing so now. I just noticed that I had the automatic install set for 3am. I changed it.

The 1120S beer company isn't a charitable organization, so no deduction is allowed. My sister tells me she spent a lot of time in the coat closet at Catholic school. That was the nun's version of sitting a child in the corner. Me, I missed out on that and attended public school.

My tech guy just called & told me to do a hard boot. I was the second one today with the same problem. So the system is back up. Hope I can get my email.

I ran an update today requiring a reboot. Seems to me there were 18 or 19 updates. Whole process took maybe 10 or 12 minutes. A good part of that was I always give my system 4 or 5 minutes to completely boot up. Joan - methinks your system has issues. On another note - 23 returns in today and only 4 completed. I am truly losing this battle. But on a more positive note - it is February 11th and my math indicates that 27 to 28% of the returns are already in-house. And I should not have to look for something to do for a few days.

I think you should refer them to their exchange. I am serious, not making a smart @$$ remark. I believe it is the responsibility of the taxpayer to inform the exchange of a change in their eligibility. Tom Newark, CA

Yesterday I rebooted my computer because it was running slow. All fine last night. This morning I see no new emails in Outlook, so I shut down everything (after trying to manually receive) and rebooted again. Now I'm loading 19 Windows updates, and it's been on 4 of 19 format least 20 minutes. Time to run to Office Depot and buy some supplies I need I guess. At least I have no appointments today and my assistant is able to work on the laptop. Unfortunately we can't run payroll from there.

Perhaps, Janitor Bob, you disappear at a distance of 250 miles?

Another topic here brought this back to mind, so I thought I'd start a new topic. For those of you that operate businesses from your home and meet with clients there, you have risk exposure should someone be hurt on your property and that person was there for a business-related purpose. Your homeowner's insurance will not protect you from this exposure. My business was required to purchase a separate general liability to cover that risk.

I updated the title of this topic to draw more attention to the problem so that hopefully people will see it before updating.

I'm telling everyone one to two weeks right now. It will get worse as the more difficult ones come in.

Good one, John. She actually left a message. I had someone in here, and I never answer the phone when a client is here. I called her back, she didn't answer, and I told her that I'd call when I got the return done, but if she needed to pick up her forms and take them elsewhere, that would not be a problem for me, no hard feelings. I will be sending her a Dear John (no relation) letter later.

Everybody move in with him. Make him take the couch.

You will have a $0 adjustment for 481 if all depreciable items are not now supplies/materials/repairs and all old supplies/materials/repairs are not now to be depreciated. I have a client with not much biz income that we've been depreciated items under $200. So, now we get to take the remaining depreciation as a negative 481 adjustment, a deduction on her Schedule C. It helps her accept my fee! I also have a client with a lot of biz income that I know I looked for items over $1000 when I checked his QB, so am dreading prepping his 2014 return where I might discover supplies that should be depreciated and have to add to his profits due to a positive 481 adjustment. I've been talking to him for months, but I know the reality will make him unhappy.

That's correct. The calculation is 95/12*9 or 5600*.01, whichever is higher. As we said on another post, unless you are a heavy smoker, health insurance will always be affordable. If you make too little, the government will pay a lot and that will make it affordable. If you make a lot, you will be able to afford it. The affordability is like your medical bills that you paid are deductible. Have you had any one that qualifies to deduct his medical expenses now that it is raised to 10%?

I thought mine was set to notify me, too, and have been notified before. Don't know what happened. Anyway, all went well and surprisingly quickly last evening. Lucky me!

I think there is also language in the new rules that larger amounts of repairs may still be considered repairs. Just because it's a higher dollar amount doesn't preclude it from being a repair. I don't have the reference handy but something about if the repair is expected to be incurred again within the life of the asset. And if the 2nd repair event does not actually occur, that doesn't mean the original repair was not a repair.

I have my settings to notify me but not to automatic install.

He didn't receive any funds thought, right? Sean-the-beer-expert has no donation because there is no value placed on one's time. Shawn-the-1120S-guy got the benefit of free advice as far as I can see, and no 1099 should have been issued. The nun would hit your wrist with a ruler.

The real issue is not taxes, since the income should be the same whether a joint venture partnership or LLC. The LLC is for another level of legal protection, and for that the properties do need to belong to the LLC.

Agree with Tom. We are not the babysitter for their insurance issue.

What the heck was I thinking ?

Yes, I had slowdown yesterday with that windows update. When I shutdown, it said 21 updates were being installed.

You asked for it!!!!

Similar to April 15.

That was painful to watch, Marco, but the last seconds were worth it.

Don't know who was right and who was wrong - judge for yourself http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/texas-woman-headbutts-tax-worker-walmart-brawl-article-1.2110362

Thanks, Marco. That is about how I'm feeling with these repair regs.

Considering we are "the top minds"...and most of us are baffled...just imaging the baffling of other people. Let those IRS agents be baffled. I remember when they changed the Schedule E a few years back...and nobody noticed. At the IRS conference in the summer one of the speakers said that "since just about nobody got it right" they weren't going to penalize etc. for that year. My passive take on this is to depreciate any repairs over $200 from now on.

Wouldn't you know that in the Forms Update, there was a ver. 68 for 4868 to fix efiling rejections! I recreated and it went through perfectly. Judy, I googled the code and found what you did then downloaded the whole list. Funny it should be easier to find there than on IRS site - not! It was a bit misleading that the title I saw was for 1065 errors but it did have the entire list. I also noticed that my query was about 4th on the list. Thanks!

I'm printing the Wikipedia article on Omar and attaching it to the return. And she's fifteen years older than me, so if I know Omar...

Did they ask Omar for his autograph? That's probably showing my age. Did they ask to take a selfie with Omar?

I'm moving at quite a clip AND ACCOMPLISHING ZERO. Thank you all for helping me feel a little better about that.

It does not matter whose account it comes out of. They are married. The threshold is $14,000 per person per year. No form 709 is needed. No one will ever question this. Sleep well.