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What a great thread and original blog. It's wonderful knowing the feelings we have are universal among us. Realizing it's not like the old days, being meticulous, seasonally bi-polar, being gently threatened by the IRS, waking up in the middle of the night from a tax dream, being fried and cried, collapsing on a couch, and paying attention to our health and loving our family and friends....it's good to know we're in good company and not alone in our thoughts and trials and tribulations.

I was struck by that one, too. I know I whine to you all, but I try to keep my complaints amongst us veterans in the trenches. Clients and friends really cannot relate to us at all anyway. I decided this poor guy really is fried good and proper and needs some of his clients to know. Not me, I'm just over here "let me plaster this smile on my face while I plow through this one more time with you..."

What I found unusual, is that he put it on his public webpage, where his clients could read it. Its one thing to sit around here on our barstools and grouse about things, but quite another to put it on your public wall. Clients always ask me about tax season. I simply tell them that it is the BEST time of the year for me. I was in bed on Sunday, April 16th, at 4:13 AM. Back in the office Monday, three hours later. Its what we do. Its what *I* do. Until I decide to make the changes that will NOT require me to do so. (Where is Ron Fassett... he went home on the 13th...) Rich

You're a card and a wit, Rita. That answer reminds me of a Chinese café operator who once called me about payroll. The interview ended when I said they'd owe a lot - he kept saying "no tax-no tax" over and over. Wife said he spoke "a little English" but I'm not so sure. She had two tax deposit coupon books we used at the time - one for Wang's (something like that) Inc. and one for Wang Partners. Apparently they filed for two different EINs on their own (no other accountants were involved). Anyway I asked... BB: Did you file any incorporation papers with the state or IRS? He: No. BB: Do you have any partners? He: No. BB: Are you saying you're a corporation or are you saying you're a partnership? He: Yes.

I just can't do it. I am a paper and manila folder nerd. There's something comforting to me, knowing I can pull out the file and hold in my hand. With the wine per diem in the other hand.

I just checked and we now spend only 25% of what we did only 4 years ago on office supplies, due to gradually going paperless a little bit more each year. But I understand the love of gadgets. I need my toys too, but I also love saving $3,000 a year.

Knee Jerk Response - Home to first job or first business related stop commuting, same for last job or last business related stop to home. Exception to this would be qualified home office for more than admin related tasks, for example, he buys his own cleaning supplies and equipment and uses his garage to store them then carries them in his vehicle from job to job.

Thanks Black Bart. I wrote it after having my wine per diem. Everyone's post made me realize more and more that we need each other and we are all alike. Don't know what I would do without you.

I believe the issue applies to all who employ themselves. it takes a different kind to employ themselves, and that "kind" is the type who cannot usually start and stop along with business hours. I did not need my umpire gigs to make a living, and accepted while I loved the gig, it was a headache, and gave it up. (Sometimes a literal headache, and I have had more than what I feel is an acceptable amount of concussions in my life, which I could no longer ignore or convince myself was not a further risk.) I have to make a living, so I have to accept the consequences of employing myself (or being my own boss). Sometimes, but not often, that means worrying or late nights, but the balance is it means I can sometimes be free during the day as well. Any customer who causes a headache is probably not a good match, and I am honest with them that it is not a good match.

BLACK BART - Posted 3-27 ...IRS sent me a letter. To recap; back on October 15th I filed & sent in my tax due check (stop laughing - it's normal for carpenters to live in shacks and auto mechanics/body repairmen to drive unpainted junk cars; why should we be any different?). Anyway IRS cashed my check the next week (got a bank copy), but one month later sent a letter demanding I pay them that same amount again.. Abby Normal advised ignore and it will go away (said they don't need any more mail), however nothing would do me except to speed things up - I sent a full explanation. Result: Nov - Ist IRS letter (we need 45 days to check this out)/ Jan - 2nd letter (need 45 more days)/ Mar - 3rd letter (need another 45 days). To be continued... ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CONTINUED: APRIL -- 4th IRS letter : "Thank you for your correspondence dated October 27, 2016. Our records show that your Form 1040 account for the following tax periods is paid in full at this time: December 31, 2015." FIVE MONTHS AND TEN DAYS TO VERIFY THEY HAD CASHED A CHECK. Anybody with a serious tax problem is probably looking at a year.

That's a great post, FDNY.

They must have a great system over there as eventually everything gets processed.....just a little slow. I always tell clients to wait for a response that it was remediated or if more info is needed or maybe never hear anything.. So like you and me and the mechanic and carpenter, things may look a little salty and rough, but it works, and we know how to fix it when it stops working.

While I suspect most of us are meticulous, I feel sorry for the perfectionist who wakes up at 1-3 A.M. every night worrying about returns. While I'm not quite there (yet).....ten years ago I had a client who'd show up at the last minute with a large boxful of checks, bills, receipts, deposit slips,100s of wadded-up tickets (gas, cafés, Wal-Mart), and occasionally a dried-up sandwich. The other night I dreamt he left his stuff and for some reason (probably money) I had to get it done over the weekend but couldn't find his box. An assistant brought several large sandwiches to tide us over: a whole raw salmon sliced in half with eyes intact (I attribute it to a recent sushi restaurant visit-granddaughter loves it/I despise it - just give me a steak and potato); it took me all next morning to stop tasting raw fish). Anyway I was going nuts wondering how am I possibly going to get all this stuff done by Monday without his (usually) incomplete/incorrect/unavailable/non-existent information. Then; if it's possible to come awake in the middle of a dream, I did. Suddenly I realized that Sam **** died years ago -- I didn't have to do the job after all. It sounds stupid I know, but it was a great relief. At the nightly rate blogger Dineson's worrying he should see a shrink before he joins Sam (probably me too, but I don't have the time - I'm too busy dreaming).

Yes.

We went with the Avery Viewables hanging folder labels a while back. Lemme tell you all, this is file cabinet porn. And a thing of beauty. As for finding ourselves online - yes, I searched for (and found) myself. But the client would have to know my username and the forum keyword from the name. A general search on my name doesn't bring it up. Phew!

Yes, some of us do need that per diem!

This forum is completely and easily accessible to the public... I have mentioned this before. There is one forum here which is not, but it is rarely used. Google your user name followed by a space, followed by ATX. If you use any text which uses your real name or business name, of it one of your messages has commonly searched for text, it will be easily found.

I use Square. We used to use QuickBooks, but the fee they charged monthly even when we did not accept any credit cards was unacceptable. They were not supposed to be charging a fee, but after the first twelve months they were and I could not get them to stop the fee so I stopped the service and that was the end of that. With Square, no monthly fees, just the deduction from each card swiped. I had been using my phone with the reader, but that meant getting interrupted any time someone paid by card so I replaced my iPad and brought the old one to the office to use just for taking cards.

All the young whipper snappers are becoming real estate agents and make more then u$ without the stress

I wonder, too. All the live classes I go to I look around, hoping to see people under 50. Darned few; *darned* few. I hope that the younger ones are either taking online classes (heck, they do everything else online) or perhaps are going to other groups' offerings. I did go to an NATP conference a couple of years ago, and saw a number of younger people there. Not EA (NAEA, state, or regional) sponsored events, though. Guess EA is for old fogies, or something.

I still try to go to a live seminar, and you are right. I wonder what will happen when we are all retired and the next batter is up. There won't be anyone. The government is holding us up as auditors, and while we have moved into this position (not willingly) who in their right mind would choose to step into this minefield?

That blog really is spot on. The simple ones have gone away and left us with problem children. And the threat of IRS fining us just kills all of us. Add to that, things like your credit card company (iTransact) has been slamming added fees since November (and WHO CHECKS this before April 20?), our own accounting, and if you have even one person helping you, even a family member, you must be cheerleader and encourager, team leader and teacher, mentor and counselor... all done with grace. I do love this gig, and I love all my clients... who show up before March 15th.

Were you fried rare, medium, or well-done?

I think it's an occupational hazard - every accountant I know does. I took my granddaughter to a big Office Max store to get needed things every time she came home on college break. We both liked to browse around for an hour or more (there's so much interesting stuff to look at even if you don't need it).

Great blog post I was just referred to: Starting to hate this crap... LOL Rich

Just thinking about it and that's right - it does get processed eventually. At first I was thinking it's incompetence, but maybe instead it's just that they have a mountain of stuff to do and since their staff keeps getting reduced, it takes a long time to get around to each person in turn. I remember once looking at TIGTA's (IRS oversight outfit - Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) website and got into a message board there. Actual IRS employees were taking suggestions from tax preparers and taxpayers. One back-and-forth was especially interesting; an agent was replying to somebody and said he thought their idea was a really good suggestion. He said he was going to put it into the system, but not to expect a quick result because it generally took two years for them to implement a change.

No expert on forum software since it has been years since I managed one, but you can try changing your visible ID to something a bit less obvious, but so the members will still know, say something like GA_VA and see if it alters the old posts. If so, it will take days, if ever, for the search engines to update their cached pages. I can find posts I made, in the early 90's (different forum). Thankfully nothing I am worried about anyone seeing...

Wow! I used DuckDuckGo and you are right - one of my comments on this board was on the first page of results.

I use square. Takes all credit and debit cards. Easy to use and set up. I don't do the invoicing from it, but I think I will add that feature next year for the clients that want to pay by credit card but don't actually come into the office. Easy to set up, no hassles (except the constant emails marketing more services). Price is not the cheapest out there, but the convenience can't be beat. Tom Newark, CA

I use three different sources, none of which charge me a monthly fee (per-transaction only). PayPal link on my web site, so people can pay from home. QuickBooks credit cards. Drake ePay built into the software, two options (monthly fee for lower %-age, higher %-age and no fee; I use the latter). I have a "stupid" phone, so the Square (and similar) is not possible for me.

I use Square - have a reader for my iphone and ipad. I find it works best with the ipad. Fees vary from 2.75% per transaction (card present and swiped), to 3.25% (card not present and info keyed in by me). They also have square invoicing (which I prefer to my keying in the info and incurring a higher % fee) which is sent from Square directly to the client; the invoice has a link for the client to click and enter their own credit card details. It is double work to create the invoice in square (yeah, you have to print your invoice from your tax software, open the square website and create another invoice to send to the client). They have reports which are helpful. No fees incurred if you do not use their system.

"Because as it now stands, this past tax season fried me good and proper."

This kind of mirrors my experience (where was everybody in February?) and outlook. While I still have some fun, it's just not as much. But, as actor E. O'Brien said in Peckinpah's movie "The Wild Bunch": "It's not like the old days, but it'll do." I stopped going to seminars a few years ago (correspondence/online CPE now). At the last one I asked "Where's (old acquaintance) Jack So-and-So?" and somebody said "Oh, I went to his funeral last summer." The audience (dwindling each year) was gray and (mostly) white heads -- makes me wonder who's going to be doing taxes in a few more years. If it's Turbo Tax, the government will likely either go broke from handing out so much improper/fraudulent EIC or make a killing from so many balance due mistakes and erase the national debt. Oh well; chin up I suppose. What else can we do?

Every word that he said is so true! For the past several years, I have seriously wondered about getting into another line of work. I love what I do, some of the time. But the constant change to becoming an auditor for the IRS rather than an advocate for my clients, and the clients who don't understand why I don;'t finish their return the day they drop it off, and then call to check on their return and waste more of my time. Trying to hire people to help, and getting no one who can actually think for themselves, of if they do think for themselves they decide they don't need to do things the way I told them to cause they know a better way. But then along about November, when the classes are going on and I am learning new stuff, and I get to order new office supplies, I start thinking I would not do anything else. (I love office supplies, by the way.) Obviously, I am seasonally bi-polar.

It's very simple. Focus on the law itself, and do your best not to make it about the people who are making the law. This has nothing to do with sensitivity, and everything to do with staying on topic. If you are unable to tell the difference between bean-counter law discussion, and snowflake libtards vs the evil cheese doodle president, for example, then I don't know what to tell you.