Leaderboard

Completed 464; filed 40 extensions today; still have 10 corps on extension; have one 6 to 8 hour return to do tomorrow. And then I am done. It truly does feel good to run the business instead of the business running me. Good luck to all of you as you race to the finish line! btw, those extensions were all because we did not have the info.

My guess as to why this occurs here is that HRB is just charging the same rate whether in CA, NY, AL or TN. Incomes and living expenses are not the same everywhere, but they don't care. They can rip off a lot of people here because a lot of people are desperate for refundable credits and don't even bother trying to get a reasonable tax prep fee. Let's face it, it's free money, and they don't care what it costs just lemme have it now. People who earn money are more likely to try to keep it. If we compared how many EIC returns there are here compared to where some of you live, it would tell the tale. My guy I'm talking about in this thread is not one of those refundable credit recipients. He moved here in 2014 and probably came from an area where a chain store was the reasonable fee. Well, now he knows. It's not that way here. I wind up with several every year who try it once and then ask around, "Who does your tax return?" Rita. Rita does my return. You know, that girl that traps possums under her office and takes them to the movie theatre.

Well darn. Who knew possums make good dates, and I turned mine away for lack of referral. At least I see they are cheap dates with all that's needed is a brick 'o bread. Dying of laughter here.

I think being able to take a possum to the movies should be worth a higher fee. IMHO

We found out that we have a possum living under the shed a couple of years ago when we heard this loud banging on the deck in the middle of the night. We went to look and it was trying to eat the loaf of bread that I had tried to make in my new bread machine. It was banging it on the deck, because it was like a brick. I will never live this down. My husband and son called the bread "muck".That didn't scare the possum away. He still hangs around on the deck at night.

Thanks to all of you on this board. I learn so much here, plus laugh my butt off many times a day. I have been struggling with the self-employed health insurance deduction for a client that has ACA coverage with APTC and declined employer health insurance (which was outrageous, so it was OK). The worksheets in the Pubs and Rev Proce, just made me nuts. I found an awesome thread from 2015 with Bulldog Tom and Judy, among others that helped me in plain English and made me not feel so stupid. I guess I must try to make things too hard, but when so much affects everything else, I just get so frustrated. The numbers are so easily manipulated and there is EIC on this too, so I go over it with a fine-toothed comb, because I don't want my neck on the line for preparer penalties. Bonnie

They say a fool and his money are soon parted. The rest of us wait until April 15. Oh. That’s soon, isn’t it? Hmmm.

I just spent 45 minutes trying to figure out a PY return. Even read the instructions, which were no help at all. Apparently there are several forms and several methods for allocating several differenr kinds of income, none of which I ended up using. There are 3 pages for investment income. I finally had to give up and just overrode dividends to amount that belonged to MA. No red errors so fingers crossed when submitting! I've done plenty of PY returns for many states over many years, and you can usually figure out how the income and deductions get allocated and the return just works. Most of them are quite simple and self-explanatory. MA forms must be designed by a sadist!

Input the information from the 1095-A as you received it. If the client says the numbers are incorrect, THEY must go back to the Marketplace to get a corrected 1095. Any state requirements are handled when the client applies on the marketplace. If the client input improper information, that is NOT your issue. We are tax accountants, not insurance agents or enforcers of insurance laws.

Sounds like they are trying to qualify Granny for Medicaid. She can't gift because that would be a fraudulent transaction subject to the 5 year (depending on the State you're in) look-back rule. Does grandson work for Granny? Are they asking you to prepare a W2? Sounds like you need quite a bit more information.

Yardley was correct. There's a drop down box for it in the Preparer/ERO tab.

In ATX, form 1099-R see if there's a line just under line 2a that says 'rollover amount included in 2a'. After verifying with the client that the monies were indeed rolled over, inputting the rolled over amount on that line makes it nontaxable.

I like your hair, JJ.

Crying. "It was like a brick...I will never live this down." Absolutely crying.

I didn't fire anyone but had the safisfaction today of: Giving a client an earful for calling with questions about how to prepare her quarterly payroll forms that aren't even due until the end of the month. I don't prepare them because it costs too much and they are so easy to do. She did the same thing last year and I yapped at her last year, too. Neighbor who self prepares his tax return wants me to help him figure his way out of paying tax on a 1099C. Hubby had already given me warning. Thank goodness for caller ID. Never picked up the phone. Never will My cousin is a merry globetrotter. She hasn't filed in a few years and IMs me for help yesterday "because all of a sudden it's really bothering me". Honey, wait another week and you won't even think about it again until next April. In the meantime Google foreign income exclusion. Client makes an apt on 4/8. I tell them they will need an extension. They cry bitter tears. I look at their paper work and I see that they will owe a chunk. I tell them this. The guy looks down his nose and tells me they are "proud to pay their fair share" and why don't I just get busy on that tax return because they don't an extension. So, I do and they owe north of $10k. It pleased me to listen to them babbling with shock. I also tacked on $125 PITA fee. Some days are better than others.

I only have last years copy of their prior returns and last year dad made it so they paid $0 income tax and I suspect it's been that way for years. It just makes me so mad that I did the work, pointed out what dad did and asked if there was information I did not have. They'll get their papers back BUT NOT over the weekend and NOT before 9am or after 6pm

If the client picks up my work, they pay me before they leave the office. If the client picks up their paperwork to have it done someplace else, they don't pay me, but they also don't leave with one syllable of my work. It's not worth the hassle to try to collect. If they want to go elsewhere, be done and carry on. You don't want that client, and you don't want ill will.

Your first line says it all for me too. And the rest....I'm right there with you Bonnie. One week to go and we can turn up the music. Bill

No, you don't get to write off the remaining undepreciated amount simply because the person stops farming. It is retired and out of service, and transferred to personal use if they kept it. The only time depreciation continues is if the property is temporarily idle due to a lack of market for the farm's product, otherwise depreciation stops at the time the equipment is no longer in service. When the person sells the asset, they have basis to offset the selling price and will receive the benefit of that remaining amount you are currently trying to deduct. At the time of sale, it will result in higher basis, lower gain or more of a loss.

But you know you're good and your clients know you're good and now people just asking around know you're good at tax preparation, so they will pay more than they would pay the not as good preparer, whether HRB or anyone not as good as you, with or without letters after their name or with or without possum movie dates. You're not in competition with anyone else any longer. You've already won. You can raise your prices, which would allow you to fire some PITAs and still make as much. Do less work for the same money for college tuition. Or take new, nice clients and do the same work for more money to buy popcorn at the movies.

I believe you need to enter it in the Preparer/ERO Tab.

Of course, you all know that I did bill my recalcitrant client with the attitude. Did I get paid? No. Do I care? No. She is never welcome here again.

Yeh! I'd say there is a 95% chance they will ask for their papers back. But 95% is not 100%. If you guys want to bet, you have to give me 20:1 odds. 20 banana splits for one. If if they ask for the papers back, you have a chance to turn the situation around. How? Put the fear of an IRS audit of three years returns, additional tax, penalties and interest, possible fraud penalties, etc. Believe me it works.

I'll bet you one also. If they had medical expenses or any other expenses to add they'd do it over the phone. After years of paying $0 in income taxes any tax bill is going to be hard for them to swallow.

Initials don't mean anything, there is book smart and real life smart. All it means is that at some point in time someone learned some book knowledge and regurgitated it at test time. It does show the person has the ability to learn but not to retain or apply the knowledge. By best preparer never passed the exam nor bothered going for EA but he thinks about every entry and is very smart. A CPA can prepare financial statements, it has nothing to do with taxes. I took some tax classes that mostly dealt with theory. Never saw a tax form in school. -Michael CPA, MA, BS, BA. [ oh yeah, EMT, CPA, 1st Dan Ju Jitsu, and according to my staff a real PIA]

If it was me, I was in the middle of a post and never finished it until this morning. Last night, after spending and hour & 45 minutes with a new client that will be worth it; needs extensive planning work and understands 'extension' and 'May', I got dinner, played with dog, watched Justified. Checked on some efiles. Then my roommate/2nd assistant/mother hen told me I was going to bed. No phone, no iPad, I could read some comic books if I need to relax to get to sleep. So in bed just after midnight, asleep before 2, got 9 hours of blissful sleep. Still really tired but ready to attack a few more returns.

Two words that have worked very well for me....PO Box.

I did extend the 2015 corp. yay..... I know they ran the income and expenses through the corp. But just talked to client and spouse still is working at W2 job - maybe keep him out of it.and then spin shop off into new corp in 2016. treat spouse hours as volunteer? Dunno at this point. This is a client with crappy organizational skills but a deep appreciation of what I do and pays my fee happily and gratefully.

I sympathize with the "make 'em pay" viewpoint, but I respectfully disagree. We all have a right to be paid for our work, but accepting payment for anything carries with it an implied acceptance of some responsibility. We all know that isn't the case, but most clients don't. So when this scheme blows up and they get audited 2 or 3 years from now, and dad is dead or incapacitated, they are likely to come back to you since they paid you for "some kind of help" in the past. It isn't right, but that's how things often work. Who needs the hassle? If I'm in this situation, I'm giving them back their original documents with no charge, and wishing them well. That way if they ever return for any reason, I'm free to say "I couldn't help you then and I can't help you now." Oh, and one more thing. As Catherine rightly said, "Before you go, I'd like to have my business card back. "

Make em pay. Make em pay a lot--for the expertise and time that you have already spent reviewing their taxes. They get nothing except their original papers. And you get the satisfaction of getting rid of them.

You do not want ANYTHING connecting these fraudsters to you. Hand them back their papers and don't even let them take your business card let alone any of your work. Tell them that when (not if; when) the IRS audits them they are NOT to come to you as you now know they are willing to ignore the rules.

Client emailed me and said he got thru to someone at IRS and it's all clear now. Not sure what happened but I assume he gave him the info from the 9325 and they were able to track it down. Good for me to not have to make a call in the morning to efile help desk.

I sure hope so. Thanks a ton.

I do believe having "CPA" after your name makes people expect to pay more. so it's easier to charge more. I think EAs get the short end of the stick sometimes because no one know what an Enrolled Agent is, or what it takes to get that designation. I have a lot of forum friends who are noncredentialed or EAs. I'm a CPA. I help them with business tax returns and quickbooks accounting stuff. They help me with weird 1040 things. It all works out. EAs don't get much benefit of training in accounting, and accounting is what business returns are all about. CPAs don't get any training in how to prepare 1040 forms in school. If you're a CPA and you want to prepare tax returns, you almost always have to work like a dog and get paid peanuts for a few years in a CPA firm as an employee in order to get the experience.

OK, I'll call them at 9am tomorrow and ask if they got their medical expenses added up and point out last year they paid $0 in taxes because I doubt they ever even looked at the return dad did. Then I'll put the fear of the IRS in them

I'm going with John on this one as well. I have done this exact same thing in the past with a clear conscience. This year, I completed a return a client wanted a second opinion on. They paid me, I gave them their return and offered a full refund if someone else found any error, omission or incorrect calculation using the same documents that were presented to me. It was also understood that I had the right to review the findings prior to issuing the refund. Still got a client at the end. I think Max W is right as well. You don't know what they want at this time so try and find out. But...I'll be that banana split as well.

The best way to check this out is to refer to the CA tax tables. If it is over $100K, you have to use formulas. https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2015/15_540tt.pdf

I have run into situations where property was purchased many years ago and the basis is unknown. FannieMae has price index tables going back to 1975 arranged by state and city. Working off of these, a reasonable approximation can sometmes be made. http://www.freddiemac.com/finance/fmhpi/archive.html

You two are cracking me up, I can't stop laughing. And it's not the Malbec, because I haven't started drinking yet.

Absolutely! The least they can do is come fetch when it is convenient to YOU -- and if it's inconvenient to them, that's just ducky with me.

Yeah, getting all the We're-going-on-Spring-break-so-I'm-ready-to-sign-my-returns-before-we-leave calls now. I get a lot more work done after the phone stops ringing (even though I let it go to voice mail, the flashing light won't let me forget) and after my husband goes to bed. I still haven't trained him to stop coming in and sitting down in my office, not to talk to me when I'm in my office. I close the door, ignore him, think aloud so I keep my train of thought when he interrupts, bluntly explain what I need; maybe he's un-trainable. I go to bed when I'm too tired to work. Then, I sleep late, letting all the calls and emails collect in my inbox, hopefully answering all the questions I sent late the night before. It's usually faster than talking to clients who jump right into politics or their upcoming trip! I have to sleep four hours per night in my CPAP (97% compliant) or Medicare won't pay for the machine and supplies. Six hours is enough to work, usually. Now, I have my alarm off except when I have morning appointments, and have been sleeping seven. But, I look forward to eight or nine for a couple months to fully unwind after the 18th.

I don't think they meet the requirements - owned and lived in as personal residence for 2 of the last 5 years. They did not own it, the buyer did. They only owned the mortgage paper. When they repossessed, they owned it again, but it was not their personal residence. You need to figure the basis and report the gain. Tom Newark, cA

Does she have a government pension in addition to a rental property and PTC? Seems reasonable. /s

I went into the season very tired already with all of mom's rehab problems (she's back to her own home and doing great now) and my ailing dogs. The returns have been mostly smooth sailing, picked up a few nice new ones, and no problems with software. The biggest pain has been one of my largest C corp clients that is negotiation a sale and is driving me crazy with requests for information, calls for explanations and clarifications, calls from their business broker, calls from their attorneys.

You're welcome.

This is not a FAFSA problem. It is a college rules/IRS database problem. When colleges started demanding either transcripts or FAFSA with imported IRS information, this nightmare scenario was put into play. Blame the small percentage (well maybe not small) that would give the college a different tax return than what was actually filed. I do not know of any way to resolve this problem with the IRS. Also, I am certain that the college financial aid department does not have anyone that actually understands what the issue is. "We must have the IRS information imported to the FASFA" is all they are taught and even then, they have no clue as to what or why they say that. Rant over!!

Eh, it doesn't work that way in My Town, TN. Even the rich men CPAs charge less than HRB here. I like to compete with everybody. Actually the only preparer in this town that I'd take my taxes to if I were not in this business is a CPA whose rates are right in line with mine.

Without question, this has been one of my toughest seasons. ATX has treated me very well though, the program worked well throughout the season and gave me no issues at all but the complexity of some of the returns has been one for the ages. Just about another week of this and then we can throttle it back some!

Alabama Society of CPAs > State Issued Driver's License Required When Filing 2015 Income Tax ReturnIn an effort to provide a solution for the Alabama Department of Revenue Drivers' License requirement for all e-filed returns, specifically those individuals who do not have an Alabama Drivers' License or a state issued non-driver identification, the ASCPA State Taxation Committee has worked with the ADOR to offer guidance for immediate problem. The ADOR announcement below is effective immediately: In a continual effort to fight stolen identity tax refund fraud the Alabama Department of Revenue is requiring taxpayers provide their state issued driver's license (or state issued non-drivers ID) when electronically filing their 2015 income tax return. Tax preparers should make a good faith effort to obtain the actual drivers' license or state issued non-drivers' id from their clients. In the event that your client is a child or elderly person without a driver's license or state issued non-drivers id you may enter the following information in order to electronically file the tax return for your client: Driver's License #: 7777777 Driver's License State: AL Issue Date: 11/1/11 Expiration date: 11/1/17 Children and the elderly are often the target of criminals, the Department will take additional steps to validate refund claims filed using the above information.

JJ, below is a link to a pretty good article that explains the reporting and the problems related to a sale when the property with a life estate is sold while the tenant is still alive. The reporting is allocated between the tenant and the remainderman based on the IRS life estate table, and the remainderman won't be able to use the sec 121 exclusion on his share. Safe link to an article written by a lawyer, see item #2 under Disadvantages: http://www.susanmooney.com/?page_id=530