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I hope he's looked into the bylaws of his favorite charity, also. When my church receives shares, it is required to sell them immediately via an unrelated third party in an arm's length transaction. It will not follow any restrictions from the donor, such as selling along with the other privately-owned shares. In fact, it cannot accept any donations with strings attached.

If the entity is going to be sold, and he is only giving away 2%, or $40k max, just have him write the check to the charity after the sale. Much easier, and cleaner. If he was able to "gift" 40k, but get a much larger deduction, I can understand the reason for haste. But in this case??? The attorneys arranging to make this happen are going to charge more then he is actually going to save in taxes. Point that out to him. Rich

Oh, this thing is full of fun. There is also the issue of donating a partial interest, and last I heard the genius tax attorney was going to amend the operating agreement to allow a "non voting" class. I'm just a hack, but I think to deduct a partial interest, it has to be an undivided share, meaning that the donee has the same rights as the donor. I sent an email to the geniuses and have asked for an opinion. The client wants to do this RIGHT NOW because he thinks a buyer will be identified on Thursday, and then it's too late. I do the bookkeeping for this partnership for a nice fat monthly fee. That will go away when they sell. So, I'm not even real motivated to keep the client for just his wife's 1120S and their 1040 if it means a lot of knuckle biting next tax season over this. I'm too old and too ornery and too tired to enjoy slogging into weird and murky water like this. Thank you so much for taking a look at this.

IMHO, you under charged your client. My very minimum charge would have been $475. Depending on how many other factors were involved in the actual preparation of the returns is the only way I would feel comfortable in telling you if my fee would exceed $475 or not. It's amazing how some people can split hairs in regard to your fees in preparing something as important as their income tax return. And don't let the fact that you are not a CPA discourage you from charging how much your fees should be. I have seen errors on returns prepared by CPA's, their receptionists, and others regardless of what initials they use on their signature line. If said client doesn't return, consider yourself fortunate as he/she is likely to be a thorn in your side every year. Let them go play "winning through intimidation" somewhere other than your office!

Yes, I have been squawking about how the charity is apt to treat the shares, but have received no response. I am supposed to get the amended operating agreement tomorrow so the epic saga will continue....

What's his basis in his membership shares? When he donates, does he use his cost basis or FMV or the lesser of or...? Appreciated shares? Is that why he's trying to give shares now and not cash later? As well as the lawyers, what is a qualified appraisal going to cost him? Does he think he's putting all those expenses on the LLC as a whole and won't need his own lawyer, etc.? Yeah, at my age I might be resigning about now or spinning off the tax returns and just doing the bookkeeping. I'm staying tuned for the next episode of this soap opera!

You are correct about the $3500, but I don't know what's going on with your software. FWIW, I've had better luck carrying back losses by preparing amended returns as opposed to using the dreaded form 1139

The 4883c's are legit (unless they're fake). I had a client who just got one. To me, or rather I should say in my client's case at least, it appears to merely be a way to explain the processing of the return taking longer than 21 days and a way also to impress Congress they are on top of fraudulent returns (not).

If it takes you 4 to 5 hours, then you are under charging.

Oh, see, I was guessing this took a couple of hours, tops. I absolutely would charge this much for 4.5 to 5 hours. Your teeth are neither old nor long.

I appreciate all of your feedback. I feel comfortable with what I charged. While he keeps good records it always comes in by mail in a large jumbled pile at the end of the season due to the fact he has to wait for the amended 1099 forms from his brokerage accounts. I forgot the K-1 form from some fund he has. It takes easily 4.5 to 5 hours to address all of this plus he mails them. If he ain't happy he can just take a hike as I am too old in the tooth to fret over clients like him anymore.

As promised. "Unfortunately, I can't find those particular documents." Eheu, litteras istas reperire non possum. "I know why the numbers don't agree! I used Roman numerals!" Scio cur summae inter se dissentiant! Numeris Romanis utor! "This amount here, is that what I made or what I owe?" Haec summa, estne quod merui aut quod debeo? "Where do I sign?" Ubi signo?