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Receptionist is getting tired of hearing..... ...............How much do you charge.?........

Next time they call, have some fun with them. "Today I entered your income from your W-2 form. Tomorrow I'll get the withholding entered. Then maybe the next day I'll get to your wife's w-2. By the weekend I'll have your home mortgage interest and property taxes entered. These numbers are all pretty large, so it takes time to get them right. Then I'll start on your interest & dividend income. (That won't take too long). So as you can see, it's going pretty good overall. And with all this time it's taking, especially adding in the time to take your phone calls & give you progress reports, I'm really happy to see how your bill is adding up."

Seriously, though, it amazes me that people think we do their returns in stages. What is this - a garden? And also that they apparently think we don't really care about getting paid. We just pile up finished returns for the nice feeling we get inside.

Heads up on a scam e-mail I just got from "Casey Jordan, Speedy Tax LLC". The subject of the email was as follows: "Catherine, can you takeon a new client in zip _ _ _ _ _?" I wrote the "takeon" above as it appeared on my email. As I live in a small rural area in Louisiana, I know for a fact that there is no "Beth Lee" in my zip code who has contacted "Casey" for some help with her tax return.....there is no "Beth Lee" that lives in my zip code period! Two quick giveways were the facts that (1) his/her email address ended in ".us" and (2) the closing in the "personal" email he wrote to me was "Cheers,".....how stupid can one be? Another fact that blew his/her cover was that he/she stated that unless I contacted him/her by return email, he/she would send an email to the "next preparer on the _ _ _ _ _ (zip code) list"......when I am the ONLY preparer on the list in my zip code! I wish I could get my hands on him/her about right now.....if it is a "he", it wouldn't be a "he" much longer!

Well, I love everybody right now! Just finished the return of the biggest PITA client in the history of the world. Ever. Has a daughter-in-law who's an EA, and a son who's a CPA, and you know that feeling when somebody tells you what you can do on the return? Yeah, that feeling. Lean into it with me. And yeah, recall that feeling when you resist the urge to say, "Now why the hell am I doing your return again?" Yippee, I made it thru another year of not saying that to her. Go me!

I'm getting a little tired of hearing people blame Obama for the Affordable Care Act. I've been telling people that there are 535 people in the Congress that they've been forgetting about. As time goes on I'm apt to get a little rude about it.

I got a similar email a couple of weeks ago with the requirement to reply immediately as whoever was going out of town, blah, blah, blah. I deleted it. I'm so sick of scammers!

WARNING **** Political commentary coming. TP & Spouse come in. Have the 1095A in their stack. No insurance first 2 months. Covered CA for the rest of the year. $1427 per month premium. $1103 subsidy. Do the reconciliation. They have to pay back $1090. Actually a very good result. Their take: "That stupid Obama took $1090 of my refund. I thought it was supposed to make things better". Then I show them my fee for the additional forms. Their take: "You mean I have to pay you more so that you can tell Obama how much of my refund to take?" My take in my head: "At least you are blaming Obama for this mess. And I am not going to try to convince you otherwise. Besides, you got a $1427 per month policy for about $500 per month. Go ahead and get pissed at Obama. I get more money and I get to sit and listen to you trash the guy who thinks he just helped you out and does not understand that you are pissed at him. This is a win-win for me" Tom Newark, CA

My wife just mentioned how pleasant tax season is since we ridded our practice of some of the the real PITA's a few years ago - the kind that just like to keep everything in their world stirred up. So I had this thought. Would it be wrong to ask our prospective clients to submit to a personality test before we agree to take them on? Here is a sample of the client we will accept: Phone call yesterday: Client: Hi Ron, I just wanted to check and make sure you received the package I mailed a couple weeks ago. Me: Yes, client, we did get it. Things are just a little bogged down around here with the new reporting requirements and....... Client cuts me off mid-sentence: Ron, I don't care about all that. I have complete and utmost confidence in you and your staff. I just wanted to make sure you got my stuff, that's all. Have a wonderful day! Me: Thanks Client, we will be in touch. I want all of my clients to be like that.

YES IT DOES!!!!! That sounds exactly like Rita! Love ya girl.

And you haven't? Are you OK Rita? That does not sound like you.

I deduct the value of my time on everyone else's return, why not mine?

But don't try to deduct the value of your time on your tax return. Tax tip of the day. ;)

I kinda work year round, but only because I have a few late, late extenders (including me.) I dumped all corps, partnerships, payroll, etc 3 or 4 years ago and boy does it make life easier. No more deadlines except for April & Oct 15. Then after April, I can pretty darn well do them when I darn well feel like it. The rest of the time I have a life.

Do you have caller ID? She could answer any unknown callers by saying, "Gould's Morgue; you stab 'em we slab 'em!" Or she could just think of doing that.. sometimes it's almost as much fun without the possibility of saying that to an IRS agent.

Does everyone understand that we can now charge for preparation on a contingency basis? Tax court ruled that preparing a return is not practicing before the IRS. Have the receptionist say: "35% of your refund, $200 minimum for 1040, additional forms extra."

Guy in here whining because his insurance cost $467 a month. Me: It actually cost $210, didn't it? Your subsidy was $257? You gotta get up preeetty early to get that past tax preparers, people.

I was under the mis-informed impression that slavery had been outlawed - until I was in the position you find yourself and reality set in. Better days are coming Rita - if you can survive the tide. Frankly, I worked 105 hours per week during the past ten or so tax seasons for very similar reasons. Those reasons don't exist anymore and I am getting by with 80 hours per week. There will be a lot more extensions, but frankly my dear............. Glad that one is behind you!

Wow - bless your heart! I do not believe I would touch that one. When the client comes in pretending to know more than I do, it is time for us to part company. Not that I am all that smart - but they are paying me to know more than they do. Wow!!! Go have an ice tea girl!

Under the Return Manager check the box for your client: 1. In the Tool Bar click the support button 2. About 2/3 of the way down the drop down list select "Customer Service Utilities" 3. Click on the last choice in the next drop down list, "Re-download Forms on Marked Returns" Let us know if this helped.

That's pretty much the case with us. We stopped printing client letters years ago. The best we do today is to manually print their federal and state refunds or oweds on their billing invoice. I still have to field a few hundred calls over the year to check these refund amounts anyway. Clients are very hands-off with their taxes, as I'm sure you know. We make the effort to focus their attention on what their refunds are, their vouchers, and any paper filings they have to do (largely for Ohio, it's the municipal one). Everything else is just stuffed into the document envelop and marked with the tax year and their name. Too often these are just lost or filed away, and we were doing a lot of "can you give me a copy of my 2012 filing thanks so much", etc. At least I changed that so we CHARGE ($20 per tax year) for making those copies. We stay open all year and making a few hundred copies of client filings was looking like too much of a pointless cost; we'd get a few dozen print requests in the first 3 months after giving their current year copy. We were paying for client laziness.

I have noticed the people complaining the most have 1095-A forms and I'm dying to tell them to shut up, I am paying my own health insurance and yours, too.

We combine the state and federal letters. Have no problems. They come out great and I found them easy to customize. I am happy with the client letter function this season.

My clients are the ones that pointed it out. Do I have the weirdest clients? Truthful on charitable, do mileage logs and read the client letters....

Tax home. Generally, your tax home is your regular or main place of business or post of duty regardless of where you maintain your family home. If you do not have a regular or main place of business because of the nature of your work, then your tax home may be the place where you regularly live. If you do not have a regular or a main place of business or post of duty and there is no place where you regularly live, you are considered an itinerant (a transient) and your tax home is wherever you work. As an itinerant, you are never away from home and cannot claim a travel expense deduction. For more details on the definition of a tax home, see Pub. 463.

"I feel so very privileged that our government has bestowed upon me, the privilege of enforcing their wonderful insurance laws." "I did not seek out nor ask for this position." "This privilege has required me to spend many hours and thousands of dollars to become knowledgeable about how to do this enforcement for the next 5 years." "Therefore, costs for me to enforce the insurance laws must be passed on to the people whom the law is being enforced upon." I have this memorized to the letter. It stops the complainers in their tracks.

My clients don't read the letters. I use the filing instructions that are more bullet point, and I still use a highlighter on the things they actually need to do, such as mail ES payments.

I've settled the "guessing" and uncertainty for my clients in such things as contributions. Each year I take Post It notes and write various figures on them. I then stick them on my ceiling. At least this way, they have something to go by when they gaze up at the ceiling when asked for various amounts such as contributions! ????

You can't always let a client's problem become your problem. This client is a problem client and you may be better off without them. Why should you try to rewrite the past when they didn't worry about writing it correct in the first place. They probably didn't file tax returns because their tax guy didn't tell them too. LOL. I would look at their tax situation as it is and record/prepare it like it is. If you try to redo their facts you will just encourage them to keep doing things wrong since they think you will make it right. You should prepare based upon the facts and just the facts. This type of client needs to be told that it cost them to not have a professional tax preparer like you in those past years. If the client doesn't like it they can always get someone else and you would be better off.

I can not give you a site, but being a cost of the sale, I have always included it in basis. Just because I do it doesn't make it right. But my guess is, I looked into this many years ago and confirmed my treatment was correct. I will look and see if I can find some support.

I had new couple come in today, six W-2s with four states. Seemed shocked (shocked) when I told them it would be 10 - 14 days. "Wow, we really need the refunds." Yeah, I guess that's why you waited five weeks after getting your W-2s to find a preparer. Also shocked that I charge per state. Really?? You know, I am less and less surprised at the stupid people say.

What IS it today with people with Indian subcontinent accents calling and looking for walk-in tax prep for FAFSA forms done immediately? Only today!?!?

It's not so much the amount, Jack....It's the number of calls. I realize it's a fair question, but some days she simply falls off her chair, when it's an all day thing.

FL and TX does not have withholding..

Depends on how much I learn.

thanks

If it's a nonqualified personal use van you can do whatever you want. Otherwise, >6,000 GVW you take 25,000 179 and depreciate the rest. >depression LOL

Daily transportation expenses you incur while traveling from home to one or more regular places of business are generally nondeductible commuting expenses. However, there may be exceptions to this general rule. You can deduct daily transportation expenses incurred going between your residence and a temporary work station outside the metropolitan area where you live. Also, daily transportation expenses can be deducted if: (1) you have one or more regular work locations away from your residence or (2) your residence is your principal place of business and you incur expenses going between the residence and another work location in the same trade or business, regardless of whether the work is temporary or permanent and regardless of the distance. Illustration of transportation expenses. Figure B , earlier, illustrates the rules that apply for deducting transportation expenses when you have a regular or main job away from your home. You may want to refer to it when deciding whether you can deduct your transportation expenses. Temporary work location. If you have one or more regular work locations away from your home and you commute to a temporary work location in the same trade or business, you can deduct the expenses of the daily round-trip transportation between your home and the temporary location, regardless of distance. If your employment at a work location is realistically expected to last (and does in fact last) for 1 year or less, the employment is temporary unless there are facts and circumstances that would indicate otherwise. If your employment at a work location is realistically expected to last for more than 1 year or if there is no realistic expectation that the employment will last for 1 year or less, the employment is not temporary, regardless of whether it actually lasts for more than 1 year. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p463/ch04.html No main place of business or work. You may have a tax home even if you do not have a regular or main place of work. Your tax home may be the home where you regularly live. Factors used to determine tax home. If you do not have a regular or main place of business or work, use the following three factors to determine where your tax home is. You perform part of your business in the area of your main home and use that home for lodging while doing business in the area. You have living expenses at your main home that you duplicate because your business requires you to be away from that home. You have not abandoned the area in which both your historical place of lodging and your claimed main home are located; you have a member or members of your family living at your main home; or you often use that home for lodging. If you satisfy all three factors, your tax home is the home where you regularly live. If you satisfy only two factors, you may have a tax home depending on all the facts and circumstances. If you satisfy only one factor, you are an itinerant; your tax home is wherever you work and you cannot deduct travel expenses.

My clients read the letters, give me stacks of the charitable contribution letters, and have miles documented. Not weird, we've just trained them well.

Tail insurance covers you for mistakes made in during the employment, not after. Let's say you quit doing taxes. You buy E&O tail insurance for 3 years to cover any issued on returns that might come up before the SOL tolls.

ARGGHHH! Thank you, thank you, thank you. That was it! I feel like an idiot, had no idea that was up there. IMO, however, it SHOULD default to the input screen which you are completing. After all, the Simplified Method tab IS at the bottom of that screen!

Just got off the phone with one. TP - How's it going?Made any progress yet? Me- It may take another week or more. I take prepare the returns in the order they are dropped off. TP - Okay no worries just let me know when it is done.

I'd try that, but I'm afraid some of my clients might want ME to submit to a personality test. That's when the real problems would surface...

You are asking about one of the greatest inequities in federal tax laws. You would think that you should be able to use a loss carry forward to offset income where the loss originated. And in the case of C or F, you would also be offsetting self-employment income. Doesn't work that way. Capital loss carry forwards offset current capital gains. But it does not work that way for C and F. You put your NOL carry forward on line 21 of form 1040.

I am finding more and more of these. Not happy campers!

For all those who use or contribute here: Keep enjoying the season! (tax and otherwise)

While it is never any of the folks who use that phrase, I have a number of people who come awfully darned close to the same amount to charity year after year. With receipts to back them up.

If the S corporation acquires an installment obligation from the sale of its assets during the 12-month period beginning with the adoption of the plan of liquidation, the S corporation will not be required to report the deferred gain when it distributes the installment obligation to its shareholders in liquidation. (IRC section 453(h) and IRC section 453B(h)). If the S corporation is not required to report the deferred gain when it distributes the installment obligation (i.e., the obligation was acquired during the final 12 months and after the adoption of a plan of liquidation), then the shareholder reports the gain on the installment obligation as payments are received. In other words, the shareholder can treat the payments received on the note, rather than the note itself, as consideration received for the stock in liquidation. The basis of the installment obligation is ignored, and the shareholder's "allocated" stock basis in substituted for the basis in the installment obligation http://www.irs.gov/irm/part4/irm_04-011-007.html#d0e306

Assuming sole S corp shareholder and the assets were owned by the S corp, the S corp shows the installment sale but then the installment sale is 'distributed' to the shareholder where he will continue to report on his 1040.