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Catherine, I would include in that priority mail another invoice for time and postage. Maybe they won't pay but it will be hanging around to send again in a few months or add to next year's balance due.

Dear Client - We give you a complete copy of your return every year. And for the past 15 years i have been here at this location, i have forked over copy after extra copy of returns for clients. But since this is the FIFTH TIME you, dear loser, are asking for another copy, you are going to pay for that time, that paper, and that ink!

I would tell him to not send you any documents. If he does, I don't think that ethically you can return the documents to him since they are for another taxpayer that he does not have a POA for at this point. I know that you can't give him mom's tax return without you having either authorization from mom or for him being appointed to handle her affairs.

Dear Client, thank you for bringing in unopened mail, from ME, when you dropped off your tax documents. No, you do not have a sales tax number yet because that was your Application for Sales Tax Number that you didn't open. Yes, I know you have been so busy. Your nails and hair look fab, BTW.

Priceless! Rita, if you don't mind, I'm going to use those words on a plaque in my office and my house and my game room and my camp and for license plates on my car and on Solana and Mariana (my 2 lazy horses)!

I agree. It is my practice to collect before the return leaves the office. But in a situation like this, I have also been backed into a corner. In fact - just had one last year. It was actually a late arriving 1099 that required a 1040X. I sent the return in May with a bill. I sent a reminder statement with interest every month until December. I did not send him an invitation to come back and stopped sending him statements. Last month he calls and says he wants us to do his return again and says "I believe I owe Ron some money from last year. Can you take a payment over the phone?" We did and he is now on strict COD - I do not care what the sob story will be.

I agree, Joan. Last year I went to Vanguard and Fidelity and printed Performance Details of the mutual funds one client owns but pays $19,000 to have managed by a firm in Nashville. I have never in all my life seen fees like that. He says, "But my portfolio has doubled in five years." Me: "The STOCK MARKET has doubled in five years. Everybody made what you made." He's a retired engineer. Tried to do his own very complicated return to save on tax prep. Some people don't want to be helped.

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

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!

Dear Client -- Thank you so much for sending along the W-2 from YOUR job that I asked about and was told there wasn't because you got laid off. That was indeed why your wages line looked so low; it just had your wife's income! Thank you especially for now having to re-do and re-print your return AND spend money for Priority Mail to send it to you -- and your wife paid me when she picked the returns up last night so I can't even add on a re-print and mailing fee. At least I didn't have to deal with ACA nonsense since when (just) your health insurance got cancelled you could still go to the VA - so that counts as full-year coverage.

Dear ATX.... When inputting info on Form 8949, why, oh why, am I not allowed to put a decimal after the dollar amounts? It keeps reminding me that "The value must be numeric and without cents (Limited to 15 characters) OR Expired." Just wondering!!

Dear Clients.....my 6:30 PM client rescheduled for three weeks out (Yeah!!!); I have a 2:00 hair appointment and have no idea what time I will be home on this beautiful, sunny 50 degree day. A am actually going shopping for necessities and might even buy myself some flowers, Rita! Dear Hair Salon Client....(who just called) I am coming there to have my hair done, not to discuss your tax situation and the fact that I cannot read your writing and/or you are upset because you don't want anyone else in the salon hearing what we are talking about. You just blasted a hole in my beautiful day!!!!

I have several clients with a "big name" brokerage firm (not sure if I should mention the name on a public forum). The one I'm working on right now is 40 pages covering 2 accounts. All trades are in and out of mutual funds. But this is an improvement over 2012 that was 66 pages over 6 accounts. Why would one person have 6 (sub?) accounts in one brokerage - not counting the retirement accounts. Asked her & she didn't know. As far as she was concerned it was just the one personal account and one retirement account. Then, there was the client who had a different brokerage account, but huge number of trades - including several purchases & sales that occurred after she passed away (yes, even after the firm was notified that she passed away).

Ah the youth of today, how do they survive in this world with a limited vocabulary? TP's 21yr old dependent responses to my questions: TP said you had health insurance on your own? ahuh Did you get the insurance through the marketplace? I don't know How much did you pay out of your pocket? I don't know Are you sure you had health insurance because it doesn't seem you did? nah, I did.

If you don't have the 1116 in the return, entering the foreign tax from the 1099-div or K-1 will automatically populate the 1040 if under the $300 or so exception to filing the 1116. If the 1116 is in the return, you have to add all the other infor, including separating out the foreign Divs from the domestic.

If long form not required, I don't even bother, just let the total go to 1040 page 2. ATX gives a cautionary warning but doesn't prevent the efiling, no red print warning.

I understand why YOU are not comfortable with it; I wouldn't be either. Your insurance folks might be a good place to start.

Knowing what you know, I do not believe that I would prepare the return without him getting a POA. And since that will now take a court hearing, I doubt that he would be able to get the POA in time for the April 15th filing. So I would inform him that the two week meeting is off and that until he does what he is suppose to do, the best you can do is return his documents or extend the return. He would be wise to talk to the administrative folks at the home that houses his mother so that he realizes that you are not just blowing smoke. It could be very well the case that the son just does not want to deal with this. None of us want to see our loved ones in that sort of state. But life sometimes is hard. And we need to deal with it as it presents. Now, all of that above is just my opinion. Calling your insurance carrier would be a prudent thing to do.

But, little things mean a lot. Just like no mailing address on the amended return letter this year. Aaaannnd, my stapler kept jamming. My friend, possi, told me to get premium staples. It worked. Little victories mean a lot, too.

Anyone ever wonder why the cents column is still on the forms? 1040 and lettered schedules have this except for Sch D.

That is true, however client had been fighting for this for three years, finally won in November of 2014. The client had no way of knowing that this would finally happen. No time to make correction, but is penalized now becsuse of it. I know its the law, but it would seem like some sort of provision should have been made. This is the difference between owing 2500 and 9800.

Please tell me you made that up and it is not for real? Tom Newark, CA

Had to clean off the snow....A bit.! Then look what happened when the car warmed up...

I think if I was a complete numbnuts, I would still know how to find my EIN number for my LLC and would not require 6 emails from my very lovely tax professional. How bout you?

Speaking of open windows, I've been looking for a reason to post this picture I snapped while driving down the road in Charlotte yesterday. I think these two are happy it's warm enough for their owner to open the windows...

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

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!

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

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. :)

Do many states require copies of the 1099-Misc? My state (NC) stopped requiring them years ago.

That would have been a better choice for me Jack...by the time I pay for extra states and e-files > 100 (both of which turned out to be more numerous than I expected), I could have paid for MAX with only a few dollars more. I still may call and do just that.

Judy, that makes so much sense. I am waiting for a return call from the insurance company but agree that, with his statement, I should just let him know that, unless he has guardianship or court appointed document, I cannot prepare a return for her to sign. He couldn't (or shouldn't) have a POA as she has not been competent to sign one for several years. I think I will call the facility and ask the generic question. I have met those folks before when assisting the client with obtaining documents for Sch A health care deductions. Oooo, I hate when things like this happen. Father was long time member of my church and the sweetest guy ever. I really don't want to alienate family but can't do the wrong thing. Thanks again, Judy, once again to the rescue!

Dear Jack.... I always round when inputting info. But I guess I have a "bad" habit of always hitting the "." key after entering a whole number. In that case, disregard my sarcastic question to ATX. I just need to change my way of inputting.

By all means. Go right ahead. Besides, I stole it from someone anyway.

No problem, Terry. We all have those days. Lately I've had to force myself to take a short lunch break because lunch was nonexistent or running too close to dinner, and I was feeling lightheaded and nauseated a couple of times. I lost one whole evening feeling that way. Now I've been getting up and walking around any time I get an extended phone call that doesn't require screen time or note taking, and I'll grab little snacks while I'm up and moving.

The guy my client uses is a genius. All stock trades. He follows certain segments of the market very closely, and although there were a few things he sold at a loss, there weren't many. I'm thinking of seeing if he'll take me on as a client with a small initial amount.

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:

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

$25 per return. I've already had to purchase several additional states

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!

64,000. Did not mean to trick or mislead anybody.