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I've noticed that the degree of shock and surprise at owing from my clients can oftentimes be predicted by the date of drop off. Yeah, you had no idea you owed and that's why you're coming in here a month later than usual. Yeah, gotcha. And no, I'm not really sympathetic to your plight as you are emailing me while on your vacation in Honofreakinglulu.

I don't know about anyone else, but my clients were so much later this year than normal, that I thought that I had lost a bunch of them. Then they started coming in all at the same time after 2/15 and so many strange things going on with them. I would open a normally easy return and then find out that they had started a business, ACA stuff, taken in the kids and grandkids, etc. I answered the phone the other day and the guy asked if I had every thought about selling my business; my reply was "every freaking day". Good luck to all of you and thanks for all of the laughs and the help.

For MD anyway. Has anyone seen this in other states that decoupled? Nice surprise the other day when I disposed of an asset with bonus depreciation. ATX used to just warn you that you needed to enter an adjustment. Now it's automatic and has a nice supporting schedule too. Thanks, ATX! A lot of people having been complaining about ATX and saying they were leaving but I've had a very smooth year with ATX this year and I like the improvements that were made. You know what else is nice? There have hardly been any program updates for about two months. That's great because I always dreaded installing those.

Ok, old friend contacts me to do her taxes, simple but she has 2 states this year and she forgot to change her withholding to the new state. When I gave her the news that she owes 6k to D.C., but was getting 7k back from the IRS, and most of her withholding from RI, she was ecstatic! You mean I even out?! THANK YOU! that was a nice surprise.

I'd like to be able to write off the time I waste explaining these exact same issues to certain clients - Every. Single. Year.

The changed deadlines really broke my stride, but all the time explaining why I'm asking questions I already know the answers to, having them sign a form that's not really meant for them but I need to cover my butt, was a LOT of wasted time and a big contributor to how far behind I am right now. I spend a lot of time trying to get the details of the tax return correct, but that form is just a waste of time in a practice like mine. If a client fooled me for 20 years, a a new form isn't going to expose them.

Congratulations! But, I don't feel happy. Everyone has something different this year. The house sale with strange conditions. The performance stock with FICA withheld but not vested until 2018. Dependents grown with big salaries in another state and expecting the bargain fee I charged when they were teens. Pulling teeth to get info like car tax that I thought I'd had them trained to bring me. And, lots of future planning for retirement, missing 2015 refund, need ES payments now, etc., that I'm putting off until May or later. I too hope to finish in October. I too have a stack of half finished returns waiting. And, a bunch of clients that will not be happy going on extension. I'm starting later each day, because I'm hating the phone and email interruptions asking if I'm done with their return yet. Of course, then I end up working well into the night/morning hours. Rant over. Back to one of those college grads' returns now.

I'm DEFINITELY not speaking to you right now, but I gave you a 'like'.

I am so jealous that I'm not sure I'm speaking to you right now.... Congratulations, my friend!

At this time, our heads are not solely reliable at times. At least mine isn't, which is why it is good to check with the other heads on this great board!

I'm all caught up and do taxes immediately as they arrive now (really only expecting maybe 7 more). I have a few boxes of returns for people to pick up / pay / efile so they'll wonder into the office over the next week. I have a client who delivered everything except 2 numbers back in early February. His wife will email me those two numbers on April 15 (she thinks that's the filing day) at about 2pm and will expect the return completed by 5pm. She's done this 3 years in a row and they pay $200 more for this "service". All she has is a 1099 and her mileage deduction. Bizarre.

I hate you rfasset. Well not really. I just started the extensions, and I'm working on clients I met with in Sacramento in late February. Of course, that week which was really 9'days what with the driving & all, I got exactly one return done, and that was for my hosts. I'm really unmotivated.

I just want a partner to help and be done by 6 pm like normal people! abolish taxes and the IRS

and I hoped she listened as 2013 amend came in all perky and said Ill gladly do an extension you got me so much $$ back - take that, next guy - said I've learned not to worry and call - you'll take care of me as he also bought $300 worth of lean delicious lamb and some ewemazing sheep cheese

shouldn't even be here but had a question - now I have to figure out what Feb will get extensions.. really mad lady today said you had it 5 weeks and simple - I never called - why didn't she - I would have moved her up if squeaky,, and she was not simple - had such a prune face - told staff and children - do not ever do PRUNE face - uuuggllyy

I'm so not done. This has never happened and I've always been able to finish on time. There are clients who will owe, but I still have to review, print, assemble, and then the thankless task of setting an appt for them to pick up the returns. What day? What time? Forgot about that Dr appointment? OK....ugh....I'm so sore and tired.....

YES! THIS ^^^^

My husband spent the summers of his youth in a little town with a section of road that the locals referred to as Eight Mile Road, and it was still this way the last time we visit there in the mid-1990's. Only one side of that road was paved for the entire eight miles because way back in time someone figured out that they could pave twice as far at one half the width. Everyone would drive on the paved section until meeting head-on traffic, and then would move over. Why am I telling you all this, you might wonder? That is how my day has been. I've done lots of "half things" today. It's surely not making me feel like I'm getting anywhere faster because I still have to pave that other side and I'm running thin on my main materials. Happy computing!

Congratulations! I just hope to be finished by October.

And even if she has, it sometimes takes IRS a little while to be notified.

It's OK. For taxpayers in the 10 and 15% brackets, the capital gain tax rate is -0-.

Seems right. The capital gains rate in the zero & 15% brackets is zero.

My own extensions are filed with payment, so that's about all I care about after today. I have one client who will owe around $40k and has given me nothing except a W2. I suppose the midnight oil and last minute freak out will happen on Monday. They are also a big corporate client so I have to do this.

Copied from Accounting Today: Data breach of IRS student financial aid tool may have affected 100,000 taxpayers A data breach in the Internal Revenue Service’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, tool, which the IRS was forced to shut down last month, may have affected up to 100,000 taxpayers. The IRS shut down the tool last month when it noticed suspicious activity occurring (see IRS student loan link goes dark). In early April, the IRS started mailing notifications about the breach to some 100,000 taxpayers who may potentially have been affected, though Commissioner John Koskinen testified before the Senate Finance Committee last week that the service believes that fewer than 8,000 fraudulent returns were processed (see IRS chief reports to Congress about tax season amid new push for his ouster). Up to $30 million in refunds were issued before the tool was shut down. “Student financial aid is another area where we have concerns about the potential for unauthorized attempts at obtaining taxpayer information,” said Koskinen. “We have been working with the Department of Education to secure the online process through which student financial aid applicants obtain their family’s financial information, which they need in order to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or apply for an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan for their student loans. As part of this effort, in early March we disabled our IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) found on the fafsa.gov website after we became concerned about the misuse of taxpayer data by criminals masquerading as students. Our IT, cybersecurity and privacy experts spent the next three weeks working with their counterparts in the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) to find a way to secure the data provided to applicants for financial aid.” “Fortunately, we caught this at the front end," Koskinen said, according to The New York Times. "Our highest priority is making sure we protect taxpayers and their identity.” The IRS posted a questions and answers page on its website to help provide further information about the suspicious activity found on its data retrieval tool and the FAFSA form. Security experts believe more government entities should be sharing information about tax fraud and security breaches. “You have to have some sort of alert system,” said Haywood “Woody” Talcove, CEO of the government unit at the technology company LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which provides tax security services to some state governments. “The other part that needs to start happening is data sharing. Once you identify a bad entity, it needs to be shared as quickly as possible.”

Today, yesterday, and the day before, actually. What is ticking me off about Windows Update lately is that my computer is most definitely set to download and install updates ONLY upon my direct command - yet it is downloading and installing updates WITHOUT my approval. Gotta find the "update" that installed that sleazy step and UNinstall it. In my copious free time...

hhmm and 8867 is going to help prevent identity theft , like I haven't vetted my clients already - figured it cost me four weeks of time! That's how far behind I am.

me - milking sheep and selling the most "ewemazing" sheep cheese yumm

you are funny - we sure have strange regular jobs don't we I am going to have my clients bring in pics o post of what they do! testing aircraft carriers at sea... maple sap collecting and boiling down mink farmers cow farriers etc

I use Microsoft Essentials for virus and firewall protection. This week a notice pops up telling me it is cleaning the computer of a detected virus. On checking it identifies it as a severe threat so, of course, I called my isp who said do a full scan and a malware scan. Some time back I downloaded a Norton scan and it identified a number of suspected threats. Guess what. All the files identified were CCH ATX files. Anyone else had this problem? I did not delete them.

Charlie Card. Does not qualify as FastLane? Grown kid working/living in Boston area does not have her insurance card; mom has it. (Twenty-somethings don't get sick, or do they run back to CT so mom can take them to doctor?) CT Mom is traveling for work to DC and won't be home until her appointment to sign/pickup her returns Friday. Mom also doesn't have her Form 1099-B &/or 1099-C from employer that covers mom & dad & under-27 kid. I really hate to make last-minute changes with client here, proofread one last time, print & assemble. Gotta raise their prices this year.

Did you see her SS card? She may not have changed her name.

Well I have escaped this one. My win 7 machine, which is not my main machine, won't update due to the update problems windows has had for the last two years. It tries to update but just spins for ever and a day. If anyone know a quick fix for that problem I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Preparation is - done! Extensions are - done! I am - DONE!!!!!!!!!! Will work on some quarterly payroll reports tomorrow and Thursday while putting out minor fires that pop up - and then we we are out of here for four relaxing days!

Gather your documentation for response to the letter. I would NOT have calculated any exclusion based on the information as provided in this post. Good Luck.

That's exactly how I feel about it. It wasted so much of my time. I don't take any client that isn't related to or comes highly recommended to me.

I have done what you have for the last couple of years. My problem is my entire client base in handled through the Internet. I do no office appointments, therefor much of the docs/conversation the IRS wants verified I don't actually do. I have known most of these folks for years and know their situations.

The closer you get to the 15th, the slicker the clients get..........................

You mean you can't do that?

That's like writing off the lost rent when the property is vacant.

This is like writing off the value of your labor. Ok, let's issue a 1099-Misc for your expense and then here's your Sch C where we'll report that 1099-Misc income. It sometimes clicks when I say that. Sometimes not. You never know with the clicking and the clients. It's a crap shoot.

That's pretty much it. He already is writing off all the costs - taxes, insurance, etc. He can't write off what he would have charged - unless he includes that amount in income and then writes it off. Waste paper.

I would report the shortfall on 5329 and not pay the penalty. Request abatement. If this is the first year of the RMD the case is stronger, plus looking at the calendar for December 2016 and Jan 2017, 12/31 fell on a Sat, 1/1 was Sun making 1/2 a legal holiday where all the financial institutions were closed, so if he called too late in that last week of December then it is plausible that it wasn't transacted until 1/3/17...at least that is a somewhat reasonable explanation for what could have happened.

Sorry, I didn't know you were talkin' to me. Well, I guess you could say we're already kind of workin' remote, but still, Turkey Scratch is only about 15 miles from Hicksville (by the way, if you want to come down via the Mississippi, I'm not real sure if the boat still stops at Helena). I know just what you mean about payin' well (we never hire for less than minimum wage) for good work and I'm dead Serious! about it too but be danged if I can find any -- I hired my niece (only lasted a day) to make copies, she asked if I had a stool, I said "Naw, why?"and she said "Well, I'll be standing up!" Made perfect sense to her I guess. Good luck to you on trackin' down that accuracy & knowledge -- the yeahoos hereabout are focused on refund amounts only and that's that. My copier has a scanner (didn't notice for a few years), but I never hooked it up -- cain't get the cord clear across the floor to the computer without everybody trippin' over it. There's not room for one more thing on my desk either. But anyhow, on the plus side, we do have a drop box built right into the wall. Thanks for the remote offer, but I gotta start weighin' over fertilizer buggies at the gin in a couple of weeks and they usually want it done right there.

I want a slow week........