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OK folks, here goes. Let's break up the drudgery, have some fun on the forum, and put yourself or another member in the running to earn the new and prestigious "Tax Aficionado" gold star to be awarded weekly. For those of you that missed the conversation of how this idea evolved, it is in the topic called "How Many Times Per Day." This is rather loose and fluid at this point and may be further refined. We'll see how it goes and how many participate. What to post - Post something about your week, a particular kooky client, a wacky situation, something that happened in your office, whatever you want to share with us here that brought smiles, laughs, exasperation, or appreciation and gratitude from those around you. If you already posted something in another topic that you would like to have considered, please make mention of it here by directing us to that post, link to it, or quote it here. Nominate other members that were particularly helpful or enthusiastic during the week. Make mention of the post, link to it, or post a quote within this topic. Make this clear enough so that other readers will know what you are referring to. I'd suggest that you also tag that member by using the "@" function. As an example, to tag me, you would type @jklcpa somewhere in the post. How it works - Each week will have a pinned post running from Saturday morning through the following Friday until 11:59pm. Voting will continue through the next day so that posts made on that ending Friday will still have a chance to earn votes. This week's pinned post will start now and run through 2/23 with voting through 11:59pm eastern time on 2/24/18. Vote for your favorite Tax Kook/Aficionado by clicking one of the positive emoticons of "like", "thanks" or "haha" within this topic. If referring to posts in other topics, the reactions made there are NOT counted. Thumbs down and angry face won't be included in the count. The topic will be locked at the end of the week to disable the voting. The winner will be the member that earns the highest number of positive reactions for any one post within this topic. For members having multiple posts in one week, the posts will be considered as stand-alone entries; votes not tallied across the multiple posts. The star will be placed in the winner's signature line over the weekend after votes are tallied. The star is also easily removed by editing your own signature line to delete it. And who knows, maybe at the end of the season I'll spring for some treats like those banana splits someone is always mentioning . . . or replace the crystal ball that is broken. just kidding about the ball.

I swear to God

"If I decide to move forward, and I get the client back in good graces with the various taxing authorities, I have a client for life" True and you will be pulling for information every year as this client will not keep documents or adequate records. He will drive you crazy at your busiest time. lol

Tom, Rich, and Possi are absolutely right. They keep upping the freebie EIC/CTC while piling on regulations, audits-in-disguise, and draconian penalties to stave off public complaints about the outrageous fraudulent amounts given away. All this while branding us as their "partners" (which I strongly resent) and touting "FreeFile" to slice into our income right along with TT and every other Tomas, Diklah, and Hariq (I'm keeping up with social change ) who owns a kitchen table and calculator. At this rate they may eventually let us deduct black helicopters and nothing else.

It's on my calendar, too, and my finacee is very excited about going to Tennessee. She loves Dollywood and Gatlinburg. And June is better anyway, should be warmer.

I'll chime in too; I have NEVER liked the QB tax mapping/import. Plus I find the online version even *more* fraught with problems. Heck, I have QBO clients whose bank feeds mess up on a regular basis, and some of them just gave up and enter everything manually. Faster and more accurate than fixing double entries and missed entries. Print out (even just to pdf) a good P&L and work from that. You'll know where every entry came from and won't waste time chasing down irregularities.

Hopefully, S-corp election form 2553 was filed the first year. Otherwise, the IRS will convert them to a C-Corp. Will the IRS even process corporate returns going back 10 years? There is a lookback period of 6 years and the IRS does not require older returns to be filed. I don't know of any states that do this. So, do you inform the client of the look back period and tell him he is only morally obligated to file the older returns? What if you don't tell him and he finds out later that you did not apprise him of the situation? It could become ugly. I always prepare all the missing returns, charge them for it, and leave it to the client if they want to file the old ones or not. Most people do want to file.

In the new tax "reform" bill, what got killed? Increased Standard Deduction, Eliminate exemptions, Eliminate Misc 2% deductions and 2nd mortgages, increased diligence on EIC/AOTC/ACC Seems that someone from the IRS was sitting in the room when this law was getting drafted. They were at least being listened too... They blew up all the area's that you could "play". Not saying that you can't "play" on a $14.5k Schedule "C" cleaning "biz", or a Sch E but... Those folks are not here on this forum. Rich

If they would audit tax-in-a-box, VITA, free military prep services, and every single DIY'er, I'd be good with it. But to line us up and use us as free auditors, well... it goes all over me. I can't tell you how many clients we all have lost because TT allows them to click a button saying health care was unaffordable, and totally dish off the penalty. Rental property, depreciation, on and on... DIY'ers. They are making a killing. I truly believe that after this year, if a client goes away for a year, I am not taking them back. I've taken back at least 6 clients and the thrill is gone. When trust is broken, I am not taking them back anymore. It's trouble, and it's no fun. Sorry, I got off topic.

Today. From a FB group: Per NATP and filing of amended versus superseded returns to reflect the extenders: NATP attended today’s NPL Practitioner Meeting with the IRS — it was noted that if a taxpayer has already filed and they are affected by an extender provision, they should file a 1040X even if it’s before the filing deadline. A second original return could be flagged as a fraudulent return — do not file a superseded return. NATP recommends that the taxpayer not file the 1040X until they receive their refund or their tax payment has been cleared as to not have anything get crossed in the mail.

Not trying to be combative, but who do you think is asking congress for those additional documentation requirements to be added? It surely is not the AICPA or the National EA group. Tom Modesto, CA

I have a client that repairs boats and motors. He tried to deduct expenses for a trip to Gatlinburg, TN as a business expenses. He said he left business cards at some of the businesses there. I guess some people would travel 300 miles to have their boat repaired. I remember some restaurants there had business cards displayed at the cashier's counter but didn't notice the locations of the business. It may be that each card represented someone that claimed business expense for their trip to Gatlinburg. I didn't think to leave my card there. Oh well, maybe next time.