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Warning - even dumber.... How do you know a dumb blonde has been at your computer? The white out on the monitor gives it away every time..... Tom Newark, CA

Warning - an even dumber blonde joke. I'm wondering if this was a text from one of my clients.

Tom, I would not dream of removing or moving your post, we can all use a laugh now and then, especially this time of year.

John, The State of North Carolina sounds like a wonderful state to live in! Don't know if I'm naive or just really hoping that North Carolina's justice system (or any other state's justice system for that matter) is better than Louisiana's justice system. I could see a contempt of court charge being immediately filed on anyone who corrects a judge in Louisiana....no matter what injustice would take place as a result of the judge's statement. I was almost sentenced to 10 years at hard labor for my cell phone ringing (I thought I had the volume off) while court was in session. The court bailiff was to have collected my phone before I entered the courtroom, but let me keep it as a personal favor. As it would just happen to be, the judge was walking around in the courtroom while lecturing the defendent during the case I was observing. Said judge just happened to be exactly in line with my row of seats when my phone rang. Of course, I was sitting on the end of that row. The judge could have touched me he was that close. And of course, he looked at me instantly. Thank goodness we both coached and referreed soccer years earlier when it was first introduced to our youth years ago. Also, I was greatful that the night before I had changed my ringtone to his Alma Mater, LSU's, fight song! Now every time I see my "ex friend, the court bailiff", I automatically hand him my cell phone...whether I'm at the grocery store, the post office or Wal-Mart, he keeps it until I leave to go home.

I have just finished up my 41st return (1-1065; 1-1120; 11-1120S; 28-1040) and was thinking just how smoothly things are going this year. I have to admit though, I am on pins and needles waiting for the other foot to drop. But like Jack says, make it worth your while. This is a teaching moment for that client.

And Congress, who we all know has it in for the IRS, just authorized the use of third-party bill collectors again. Didn't they try that a few years ago and it didn't work? What bugs me is that in response to the massive telephone scam where the "IRS" calls people and demands immediate payment of back taxes, the agency has screamed on TV, the internet, social media, their website that "We DO NOT call taxpayers, or text or email them." So now legitimate bill collectors will be calling and demanding money on behalf of the IRS. I think the scammers lobbied for the new law because it just gave their phone calls credibility.

Thanks, we all need a "ride or die" homie!

I am always good for your bail!! We all know EXACTLY how you feel!!

Large extra fees!! Make it worth your time. On the invoice/receipt, list the additional charge as "Babysittng 1099B."

Hike the bill for those calls and missed appointments. I am getting SO tired and ticked off with those types of shenanigans, and I am hiking bills (easy for me; I lower the discount given!) for things I used to shrug off.

It's none of the other partner's business.

Last week's Kiplinger Letter talks about the IRS's future corresponding via email and text. I hope they do not. I tell all of my clients to never ever respond to IRS email or text. I think if the IRS opens that door it will be nothing but trouble. Next we'll have the IRS on Snapchat!

Of course Jack has a MagicJack

WARNING - Blonde Joke Follows - Do not read if you are easily offended. (KC or Judy can move it to off topic if they feel like it, but this string reminded me of this joke). There was a dumb blonde working at a doctors office. She faxed over some documents to a patient that had some sensitive information on it. Being dumb, she sent it to the wrong fax number. The person who actually received the fax called the dumb blonde and told her that the information went to the wrong number. The dumb blonde responded "Oh, thank you so much for telling me about this. Would you mind faxing it back to me?" Tom Newark, CA

If anyone received a PM requesting tax prep from a new member whose name starts with rica..., vacationing in the Bahamas, please ignore it. I've banned the person as a spammer. That seems to have automatically removed the PM from my mailbox, so if any more were sent by this member, this action should remove them. At least 2 of us have received this, and this "person" made the unfortunate choice to PM me. BANNED! If anyone receives a similar suspicious PM from any other new members. Please report it. Similar to posts in the forum, all PMs contain "report" links within each message of PMs that we receive. Thanks.

Our Super Bowl Party.....Just Arrived......

We will not be stopped. #BeatThePanthers

I got this one also. Ignored it.

I don't even make appointments. I tell people to drop off when they have all their crap. Most do just that. Obviously, we talk as necessary about their information and when something is extraordinarily different, etc. (And yak, yak, yak, too. Oh, and the inevitable, "I took out some of my retirement, but they already paid the taxes, there it is. Thank you, I would never have know what that was. A 1099-R, hmmm, so that's how they do that.) When someone does call ahead (I'd just as soon they didn't) and tells me when they're coming, about 1/2 the time they miss it. I generally let it go in one ear and out the other. Can't imagine having an appointment calendar. I'd have to kill somebody I know.

I feel the same way this year.

Monday appointments are a real pain. Legitimate problems come up over the weekend but clients can't figure out how to call & leave a voice mail message, send an email, or dash off a text to let you know they can't make it Monday as planned. They don't show up, then later will tell you "I didn't know how to contact you over the weekend. I meant to call on Monday morning but I forgot." Yet, if they have a tax question they want answered immediately, they're blowing up your voice mail with multiple calls at midnight Saturday or Sunday. Funny how that works.

It doesn't matter. The only one who will ever see it is the IRS. And they use the address on the 1040. Rich

Who are these clients who show up when they say they're going to? What? I'm jealous. I swear if somebody tells me they're coming Monday, all I know for sure is they are NOT coming Monday.

Like gullible sheep and get fleeced. Scammers keep doing those things because they work. Until I find a pill that restores or imparts common sense, we will keep hearing about people being ripped off by their own actions.

living in the mid-west does have its advantages. MichaelMars - if your son is interested in engineering - he should look at Illinois. Tremendous engineering program especially electrical. Friend's daughter is deciding between Purdue and Alabama. Here's what's odd - grades aren't good enough to get into Illinois - Alabama will give her a full-ride scholarship. Friend told me if she goes to Alabama for two years and then transfer anywhere she wants - they'll pay for her to get a masters. I suspect that will be her deciding factor. Several SEC schools offer fantastic scholarship opportunities to lure in top students from out of state to boost up their academic rankings. Alabama, Arkansas and Ole' Miss are favorites in our area.

I never enter the information unless it is required for multiple reasons: 1. Do you charge clients to enter information that the IRS isn't interested in receiving? Do you inform the client you are doing so? 2. Why give the IRS information they don't want? If it's wrong, you've produced a problem which could have easily been avoided. 3. Having dealt with auditors and regulators - I NEVER give information unless I'm told or specifically asked. It will usually come back to bite me later.

I can also check on my eFaxes from any device with an internet connection, not just from my email. I used to have an 800 number from eFax, but now that my phones have national plans, I chose a local number that I liked. I pay annually to keep the cost down and also have the smallest plan since I don't receive/send a lot of faxes. I can send anything that's already stored on my computer. For paper that's not stored, I still have my old stand-alone inkjet fax on a plain vanilla landline (so I can always call out during a power failure by plugging a phone into that jack) to send faxes; it's also my scanner and copier and color printer, but I don't use it for tax returns. But, I use eFax for most faxes.

I have a 4-in-1 machine. Second "distinctive ring" phone number on my main phone line ($10/mo.). I have a MagicJack second phone line ($23/year unlimited) that I use when things get busy. This has worked for me for 7 years now and the 4-in-one machine is still cranking along! Cost per page of printing, not including the paper, is $.002 page. Not changing anything till this machine dies. 7 years (I think that is 70 printer years) and going great.

They should have just issued new stock for the new shareholder. Then the existing shareholders wouldn't have a taxable event, plus it's cleaner and easier to do it that way. If indeed the shareholders sold the stock they held, their basis is whatever it is on their stock basis worksheets. That has to be tracked every year. If it hasn't been tracked, you need to reconstruct it from the beginning. The new shareholder has outside basis only, because they did not pay any money into the S corp.

Those clients provide a nice comic diversion during the day. I like to engage them in conversation while I sift through the envelopes, pulling out the one piece of useful info, and shoving all the boilerplate stuff & envelopes into the shredder. I always make sure the shredder is sitting where they can see it gobbling up the paper. The look on their face a while I'm talking over the noise of that shredder loudly grinding away is priceless.

I feel lucky with you. I have an old-fashioned fax machine with the ringer shut off. What really drives me nuts though are the folks on the opposite end of the chain who come in with a handful of envelopes.......none of them opened. Thankfully, we have an outside wood burner. Hubby takes all the junk to the incinerator.

Wow, I had no idea so much faxing was going on! I get three to five sheets a month from one contractor who sends his invoices to me to pay for my bookkeeping client, and then twenty sheets from this out of town tax client in February. That's it. I feel like the luckiest person in the world now.

Oh yeah....HR Block left town too.

walked away 4/30/15...........collecting social security now