Leaderboard

I don't think so. This season I turned one away, they left my office at eleven, I went to lunch at 11:45 and their car was parked in front of Block's. So, no problem for them. Too bad though; they weren't a PIA and (later) took two relatives with them. Damn those confounded ethics anyway; all l had to do was agree that since the installment buyers of their spare house "just make the bank payment" any fool could see there was no gain. You're right about ditching a terrible client though. I priced one out of the office over ten years ago and still get a touch of euphoria every time I see that crummy #%*&^@. Life is soooo much better........ If I didn't dislike his successor preparer so much I'd feel really bad about it.

Translated: we got caught covering our own hindquarters and are back-pedaling as fast as we can! Just don't take away our insider trading dumped stock gains - those are for campaign contributions (to *all* the legis-vermin)!

Guilt - that's the difference between being a caring person and a feeling person. As in. "I really don't care. Sometimes I feel bad about not caring, but still I really don't care."

I am really glad to see this thread. I had been struggling with a couple of knotty problems on some remaining corp returns. Had completely forgotten about the new due dates for C corps. So I just now revised my work schedule for the upcoming week, knowing that I need to wrap up two S-corps by Thursday/Friday and I can postpone a couple of C-corps until after I take a break. Thanks for this timely post.

Ah, yes, you also need to split out between basis and growth. No, it's not simple - and be sure to charge for your analysis time. However, if you can get the client $2,500 in tax credits that lowers his overall tax hit by (guess the amount; I've seen $300 extra income tax to get that $2,500 credit, plus a couple hundred extra for your time) - tell the client he spent $500 to get $2,500; $2,000 more IN his pocket. They like that.

I am working on one of those chronically derelict late filers now - and what a nightmare. I NEVER charge this guy enough for this return. It is my own. I am thinking about farming it out next year.

I usually don't fire these types of clients - I let them fire themselves. I tell them when they bring their stuff in very late that I am under no compulsion to meet the deadline. If the return goes delinquent, it is no fault of mine. If they choose to take their work elsewhere, they go with my blessing. My drop dead date for drop offs for the April deadline is the beginning of the third week in March. Because I do not want to work those kind of hours in October, my drop dead date for drop offs for the October deadline is September 1st. In my way of thinking, it is all about my running the business instead of the business running me. I find I am much happier when this the case.