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All I do are tax returns. No accounting, no payroll. I'm not ready to retire yet, but at 61 I am still thinking about how many more years I want to work. "WANT" being the operative word. This year I did clean up my client list by sending several clients away, for a better fit. We all know what that means. I don't want to work forever. I am getting less and less enamored with being locked to my computer for 4 months, having over 40 extensions, and having the tax season drag on until October 15th. I want to play. I want to go outside and play in the sun. Without any work hanging over my head. I love my clients, love my work, love the challenge. But most of all, I love the "seasonality" of the business. And that season is spreading out too much. The responsibilities and complexities of being a tax professional might be what actually has me whipped. It's almost like I have to stay sober all year long. Geez...

If other class action suits are an indication, I'd say about enough for a cup of fancy coffee... maybe $7. Twenty years from now.

I guess my office is a bit of an old school type office. We use the tools we have at hand as just that - tools. We print out the letters as combined federal, state, and local including whatever estimated payment information is needed. We also print out the cover letters for all of those. We print all of that with one time printing of all of the forms and schedules required. We then organize the hard copy the way we want to present it to the client and then scan that document into our digital file cabinet. (This also allows us to take a final look at the return for review purposes). If we were expecting ATX to do all of that work for us, I would expect to pay a lot more for ATX. By the way, if we need a pdf copy of the return, we can get that from our digital file cabinet in whole or any part of it we need. For the record, my client base falls into the 5% of Jack's comment that actually do read the letters - well most of them anyway will read it - or we read it to them.

In our office we do on purpose what ATX is making you do, i.e., put the things the client needs to attend to up front. So, for example, we collate fed payment instructions and voucher, fed ES instructions and voucher (knowing they will make out checks and it's easier for them to make out two in a row to US Treasury), state payment instructions and voucher, state ES, then the returns. Even when they have refunds, we put the fed and state instructions up front because most of them only want to know how much they're getting back without digging through the whole folder. If we are delivering the returns to the client electronically, I usually send two messages--one for docs to sign and return, the other containing the returns. Even then, I've had a few who print out and sign page two of the 1040 and return that. How could I make it clearer than a separate message labeled "documents to sign and return to us"?!

Even if the ruling stands, I figure my PTIN fees since 2010 have amounted to about $400 (roughly, I did not go back and look.) This was brought as a class action suit. So does the IRS pay the attorneys who brought the suit, they take 1/3 plus costs off the top and then divide the rest between those preparers who elect to be part of the class? So of the $400 I have spent, would I get maybe $200? Or less?

http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2017/jun/circuit-court-strikes-down-ptin-user-fees-201716814.html?utm_source=mnl:alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=05Jun2017&utm_content=button

Don't spend the money yet. Be sure to include it in your will. It will be at least that long before a solid final decision is reached. You know how good the IRS is at delaying things.

Thanks for the info. This has been one of the things that has pissed me off since they implemented it. Glad they lost. Tom Newark, CA

I am not thinking about retirement this year. Or even next. But I do think about changing the way I work. I would love to not be responsible for everything. And I am sure that if I do decide to change, I could keep a few bookkeeping clients and prepare taxes for another firm. But it is hard to change to doing things the way another person wants when I have been used to doing it my way for so long. Not that my way is perfect; I just like getting to decide what changes to make each year. And I get really tired of the attitude I perceive from the IRS. If anything drives me out of this business, that will be it.

I retired at age 83 since I didn't want to die with lot of unfinished returns. Now I sometimes miss it, but don't have to keep up with all of the changing rules. Besides, my brain might deteriorate.

I like the last three responses as they are an argument and my thought about not retiring. I too enjoy what I do, look forward to the start of tax season, finishing CEs before the start, and catching up with old friends/clients. I've said to myself, be careful what you wish for in retirement, with so much leisure time, would I really make good use of it? Crossword puzzles are not my thing and as much as I love TV I run out of stuff to watch now. When I travel I can't wait to get home and my 4 car garage is meticulously organized, could eat off the epoxied floor. There is nothing left for me to fix other than changing watch batteries and if I work out anymore I will burn out my Fitbit. So staying in the business may be a good fit for good health and mental fitness for me. Really makes you think....65, 70, 75 years of age is not old at all, as long as you think young, keep moving and enjoy work and life. Who has it better than us?

Well the Service has lost another one in federal court. All PTIN fees will have to be refunded. I figure I've paid almost $400 since they were imposed in 2010. Hope I live long enough to get it back !

Pre-written extension letter templates should be included with ATX for all returns that can be put on extensions. ATX customers have been complaining about this for years. I don't know of any of their competitors that don't included pre-packaged out of the box client extension letters with their tax software. Not all extensions have $0 tax due and eFile signature authorization forms are required. Therefore, the product should be able to generate an instruction letter telling the client that $X dollars are going to be paid on X date from there bank account and that they have to sign and return the eFile signature authorization form to the tax preparer before their extension will be transmitted just like the tax return itself. It's shortsighted of CCH to refuse to put pre-written client extension instruction letters in their product. This would probably take their programmers a day or two to create this template for all federal and state returns that can go on extensions.

I'm 81 and didn't do tax returns this year. I am still doing some payroll and sales tax and a little bookkeeping. I quit doing income tax because my mind is just not functioning as well as it used to and I was beginning to have trouble keeping up with the changes in the tax law. I just felt that it wasn't fair to my clients to continue doing tax returns. I just gave my tax business to a friend that saved my business for me when I had a massive heart attack nine years ago. Another big factor that caused me to quit taxes was that I am having more and more trouble getting my computers to do what they are supposed to do. I used to be able to work with DOS without any problem, but windows is getting to be more and more of a problem for me now. My mind is slowing down and computers are getting more complex. I believe God intended for us to work for as long as we are able but to be able to recognize when it is time to slow down, but even then we should stay as active as we are able to.

Maybe he needs a reminder that he works for you, and not the other way around. Try calling him at home on a Sunday afternoon with a planning question. Or after dinner. Several times over the course of a couple of weeks. He might get it, then.

Oh boy, this just gets more fun with every post! My client only worked for these folks for two years; 2013 &n 2014. I had used a working assumption that a refund for 2013 could still be filed, even after SOL runs out, because of the DOL's overturning of this particular applecart. I had not even *thought* of issues like gross-up, overtime, etc. We'll wait and see what (if anything) the former employer sends my client between now and fall - and what the IRS might send, as well. In the meantime, keep on posting! I will be making a nice *long* list of "gotcha's" to be on the lookout for. Thanks to all, and over this weekend remember all those who gave their lives for this country.