Leaderboard

I JUST OPENED MY WINDOW!!!!! There is still three feet of snow outside the window - but the temps are up in the mid-40s and the air is starting to smell like spring. I think I will leave the window open for an hour or two just to air the place out! Gosh - does that air feel good!

lol - You guys are too much. I guess here is mine for the day. Dear Client: Your K-1s for the S-Corp that you emailed me about this morning will be ready when you pay the statement for the end of the year that I have sent you three times already. Dear Client: Really? You made six figure income in 2014 with just the two of you on the return and now you have to pay back the $4,000 advanced premium credit you received and you do not understand? Dear Client: No - the $40,000 you paid cash for land is still not deductible and is still not a like kind exchange. There you go - those are all already from this morning and it is just 4 hours into the week. It can only get better, right?

Dear Client, It is really not necessary for you to come in to ask me what to do about your not having that K-1 yet. You know, the one you never get until April, and that has caused an amended return in our past. God made a thing called a telephone for situations like this. And, no, I do not need for you to bring in the rest of your stuff so I can get started. I don't need to get started. I need to get finished. That's how this works.

I ran once. I was about three and was playing some sort of catch me if you can find me sort of game. I had a brown paper bag over my head to keep me from seeing and I ran full force in to the porch and knocked out my two front teeth. So for about five years I got to sing the song "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth". I am guessing my siblings had something to do with that bag being over my head. I was a middle child, ya know. Try running with your eyes closed - it adds a completely different dimension to the experience. Anybody can run with their eyes open. Oh - and I still battle with a speech lisp as a result of that. For the longest time I could not understand why people would laugh at me when I would say "sit down".

Dear Client: Despite what you heard at work, NO...there is no "Grace Period" that allows you to claim that your child born on Jan 2,2015 was born on 12/31/14 for tax purposes. ...but thanks for bringing up that questions AFTER I filed your return with a 12/31/14 birth date per your information. Now you get to pay back a chunk of that refund and pay me for an amended return. Thank the ladies at work for me!

JB: Also, I would wonder why someone would have 236 pages of trades? Is there "churning" going on in her account? If they netted her $5,700 in Capital gain, and the Int and Divs were $XXX.00 Then how much did the brokerage house earn in fees in doing all those trades? She may have paid a pretty penny for that. 15-20 trades on each page? 230 pages? That would be 4,100 trades. At $1, that would be $4,100. At $25 a trade its $102,500. And that is a much larger fee than what she "earned". And they probably charged her to manage the account as well. I would hope that the accounts had more than a million in assets. I have one client with 4 "managed" accounts and $2mil, and never had more than 30 pages of trades, and they "wanted" to be aggressive. Something is fishy. Rich

I think in the span of this tax season, Judy has moved to the head of the class as the board's "go to" expert on ACA. It has been impressive to watch. Tom Newark, CA

Dear Client: I'm too busy right now to waste time with reasons. Stop wasting my time (and yours) asking "why?" . Just take my word for it that I'm not interested in preparing your return. Then you can do something constructive, like find someone who will put up with your whining & pestering. Oh, and expect to pay them well (on time, in full, and without complaining).

Dear client: Please stop calling me to tell me that your state refund has not been processed yet. I cannot control the state office, and I do not know when they will process it. I have told you on 2 previous phone calls that the return is shown as accepted and that the state does call for up to 8 weeks to process your return. I do not care that your brother-in-law already got his refund, but I will remind you that he came in and PAID me about 3 weeks sooner than you did so therefore his return was processed about 3 weeks sooner than yours.......Are you really that desperate for the money? then please go to the rapid refund people next year!

If you find me dead on a jogging trail just know that I was murdered elsewhere and dumped there.

I had a client come in this morning and ask me if I would reduce my fee this year because she was having some budgeting issues. The last time I saw her, she ran me down in Walmart to show me her boyfriend and tell me they were going to Europe for vacay. She has burned through her dead husband's retirement. I told her, sorry, I can't do that, but I'd be glad to hold your check until you have the money. She: What do you think about the free tax services? Me: Not much, what do you think about getting a job? (Yes, I did!) She: Well, I'm overqualified for everything here. But can I put you down as a reference? Me: Well, I know nothing about your work qualifications, but I guess I can tell them I prepared your taxes for 12 years. I mean 11. Anyhow, after she left I got back-to-back new and delightful clients, so yippee for me!

You are correct Judy. I know more about this nonsense than I ever wanted to and last night while doing this return was another learning moment. I kept looking at that $4,000 and knew that could not be correct because of the cap. And I kept looking at the poverty % and knew that they should never have had the APTC (well according to the 2013 return, they did qualify). And I kept thinking, it just would not be fair for them to be able to keep the $2,500. And when I finished my research, I was amazed that there was actually some fairness built into the rules. I felt better about finishing the return.

Dear Client- Do you remember 2013, when you asked me to do your return. And I did it...but you didn't like the results (you owed NY about $200)...so I didn't hear from you again. That is, until this morning...when you sent me 2 W-2s with a total income of about $70,000....and there was $2000 in federal withholding and about the same for NY. And to add....your wife did MFS...with a standard deduction. Why did you get annoyed when I told you that you would have to pay in advance before I would even touch your return?

I did 25 minutes on the elliptical from hell yesterday, after not doing anything for three weeks. Sorta proud of myself, but Cadbury mini eggs have a bigger piece of my heart.

Well, Dear Colleague, you have been a wonderful teacher this season, and we are grateful for the help and manner in which you assist. 100 points to you.

Oh no, not at all. I hardly have any clients affected, they are mostly older people with Medicare. I just had a little extra time early on to read up on it, and used some of the harder questions posted here as learning for myself too.

Dear Client, Oh, you sold a rental, and your daughter-in-law, who is an EA, told you it will help if you tell me you added a porch in 1968? Do tell. Congrats on making a fortune on the sale. Sorry that your daughter-in-law didn't tell you that you added that porch in 2013.

Suppose to be 75 here today, perhaps close to 80 this week. (I sure wish we had some of your snow, rain, moisture, anything wet!)

I'm going to put taxes aside and get out for a nice run this evening...Who knew 50 deg would seem so warm?

Dear Client., Remember when I told you yes you can deduct your dependent parents medical expenses that you pay for, but I told you to be prepared to have the amount questioned because of the very high amount you are claiming. Remember when I told you if they question it they will most likely ask for the SS numbers of the nurses you are paying cash to, to take care of your parents and the IRS or State may check to see if the nurses declared that money. And now that the State is questioning it your asking if you have to give them the information on the nurses because part of the deal was you, pay them in cash and they work for less.

OPTIRECTOMY - a medical procedure where the surgeon makes an incision in the back of your neck and cuts the nerve that runs from your eyeball to your asshole that gives you such a crappy outlook on life. Tom Newark, CA

I'm charging this elderly client $90 total for her 1040 and OH return. All she has is this 1099-B, one 1099-R, 1 W-2, and SSA-1099.

Yep - that would be may fee. And when the client showed up to get the return, I would have bandages on all my typing fingers and have very dark rings around my eyes and tell the client that the e-filed version had to have all of the detail typed in. I like to justify my fee. :)

Bob, I have a client with a VERY actively managed account, almost all short term trades. 1099-B ran 5 pages. He earned her $63,000 in short term capital gains on about $475,000 of assets. You don't have to be giving investment advice to tell her she has a crap advisor, is overpaying fees.

34 here. But thats about 50 degree warmer than it has been most of winter!! Lots of grey snow mountains to get around, but me and the dog got out for a real walk! :D :pop:

It's going to be close to 50F here on Wednesday and I am already planning to close up for a bit and take a walk mid-day.

Go for it! I am not much into running - but a nice walk in the woods would be nice but I don't think that will happen quite yet. Don't think we will see 50 yet but holding at 45 with the sun shining and MY WINDOW IS STILL UP!!!!!!

Yippee for you!!! But isn't that how it goes? You get rid of someone like that and just turn around to find a much nicer one standing at your door. That is how my practice has developed into over 99% of the folks I would have over for dinner. There is still a couple that need to be weaned out, but their time will come. I love your response. Keep up the good work!

I wouldn't attach anything to the return. The four entries are enough. The IRS already has the 1099-B info. And you are not charging enough. Rich

No, this is incorrect. Ron's client has 6-digit income. The cap only comes into play if the person is eligible for the PTC, received a large enough excess that it exceeds the cap for their filing status, then the repayment is capped. If the person exceeds 400% of the FPL and is totally INELIGIBLE for the PTC at all, then there is NO CAP, all must be repaid.

The actual crime here is that the repayment is capped at $1,500. They just pocketed $2,500 in yours and my tax money! ALL LEGIT!! I am on the wrong side of the ethics fence...

$5,600 sounds like a reasonable fee.

I have done just that in past and have not had any problems.

client brings me a 1099-B...It is 236 pages of transactions. In the end, she only has a gain of $5,700. I plan on making just 4 entries on the 8949 (as opposed to the thousands detailed on the 1099-B. However, I do not have the time or ability to scan 236 pages. Can I just scan the summary page that shows the total gain for the 4 different categories (ST A, ST B, LT A, LT B ) and attach it to the electronically filed return and send a copy of the 1099-B later if requested?

PLEASE..let's not discuss 2012.

$500? Not in my market. Not even H & R Schmuk would gouge...I mean charge that much around here

Look out - I just threw a snow ball your direction.

Bob, you can do it but be sure not to hurt yourself! Our group has Tuesday evening hill or interval workouts and long runs Saturday morning at 7 so I get at least those in. In all this snow and stuff, I have been trying to get on the treadmill at least two other times during the week. This Sunday is a 15K race. Which race are you running?

I'd be more concerned with 1% dividends and 5% (1% in 2013) gains than I would be with churning. S&P 500 was up about 10% last year & 25% in 2013.

Interesting - I had 2 clients in the past couple of years with Curian with the same issues. I also mentioned churning. One client vigorously defended the advisor, the other changed quickly. I truly believe in both cases it was churning with great results for the advisor, not so great for the client.

total account value is only $100,487.40. She did have $1000 dividends as well. I will state my "churning" concerns to her again this year...but its up to her to do something about it.

She is with Curian and, in my opinion, they are churning. She had 100+ pages of transactions last year and only had $3,000 in gains and they charged her over $1,000 in fees. I have not looked yet this year, but I assume fees are similar this year. I told her of my suspected churning last year and advised her to speak to them about it...I stopped short of providing investment advise...although I think she should dump them.

You can enter the totals for ST A (covered) & LT D (covered) directly on the Schedule D. The detail is only for the non-covered transactions. (Oh, and, covered transactions that need adjustments such as wash sales). If they have only a few non-covered transactions, you can just enter those individually. If too many non-covered, then you may need to send the backup documentation. Good luck.

I like that ability. I have never had confidence in the backup/restore feature since 2012.

I generally use 1/3 of the value... some of the sites actually will give a ridiculously high value and some way too low. I also recommend they take pics as they put in or at the very least a list and pics of the bags, boxes and items and get the receipt from the organization. Print the pics and put into their tax folder. They are quite receptive to that. "Generally" a big bag or big box is about $100 - price it out - unless coats, suits, fancy wear - then it is more. consider - childrens clothing less $$ but more in the box so from someone who donates - this is about average (and should do a ton more this May) D

Thanks for the confirmation. Owes $6K and wants to minimize interest penalty. Also, he just likes to get things done and over with. And since new wife is a student with no 2014 income, he was able to save about $5K over being single. I suggested he treat her to a nice dinner for saving him so much.

Something funny to help us through the time change. http://www.scarymommy.com/daylight-saving-trailer-spring-forward-edition/

I'm starving. My whole meal thing is off.