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If you pay me $x, we can eliminate all those expensive profits you hate.

How about "Should I be billing your sister or you for this time?"

After going thru the roof yesterday about a corporate client that, after efiling their return, they called and complained because they will owe money......and "things on the tax return were wrong"....... So already not in a good mood this week. Because that was just the corporation cherry on top. Now I have a guy asking me how his sister should prepare her return. I prepared the estate return and the sister got a K-1. Not my client!! ERRRRREERRRRRRR Sick of people. Let alone he emailed me at some ridiculous hour of the morning. And then texted me to ask me if I had gotten the email. Looks like someone needs to be blocked on my phone! grumble.....mumble.....

One of my reasons for using email (I agree with yours re too much time on phone and liking the hard copy) is that I work late into the night when I have fewer interruptions from ringing phones and hubby barging into my home office, so I can send emails full of questions before I go to bed and frequently have answers by the time I get up.

Long time client was next in the queue, so I pick up her 'bag of bits' this morning, 16 March, and start going through it. Inside, I find 1099s (box 7) and a list of expenses that say 'S-Corp'. Hmmmm. Me: "What is this 1099 income and this S-corp"? Client: "I started that because then you don't have to pay tax on all the income; only on what is reasonable. Oh, and you can deduct your expenses." Me: "S-Corp tax returns were due yesterday." Client: "Oh, I don't want a different tax return. You can just put it on my 'regular' return." I'm so glad to have competent, well-informed, forward-thinking clients!

I used to say that of all the hair stylists I've ever been to, none ever offered me tax advice but most would ask for it. Eventually I came to realize that most of them already knew the answer and they were probably just testing me to satisfy themselves that I really knew what I was talking about.

Can't you tell him you'll be happy to prepare the return for his sister if she wants to engage your services? People often ask open-ended questions about third party situations, but they usually understand if you tell them there are too many potential traps to discuss an isolated tax matter without knowing the whole picture. I know everybody works differently and I'm not saying everyone should do this, but I encourage my clients to text and/or email me at any hour. That's the great thing about email and texting - their question has been duly noted. Sometimes I go to bed late or other times I'm up early, and can fire off a quick answer right then if it's appropriate and if I choose to reply at an odd hour. But when I go to bed I turn off notifications so there aren't any sleep interruptions. The message will be there when I wake up, to deal with at my convenience. And absolutely zero time wasted on a phone call. Texting and email are your friends, provided you manage them instead of allowing them to manage you.

Yes. Yes it is. Jesus made a whip. He had a premeditated fit. For a church group. Yep. You go, girl.

Just a little resurrection. A client just brought me a quart of Virginia Happy water. Think I will save for the back 40, that way if I get wacked I shall feel no pain.

Hair dresser and mechanic. They share space and offer discounted advice - 2 for the price of 1 1/2.

Yeah, my proud new client set up a C-Corp all by himself and told three different taxing agencies three different names for it. And I can see that he's paid everything from his personal account. Me: Why did you want to incorporate? He: I can't get sued. And I can also have the Corporation buy a vehicle and write it off. Me: Do tell. Then the seminar where I was pretty unsympathetic and a little mean. I think I said "if you're gonna be in business you need to act like it" more than once. I had no interest in him being my client. Well, ship, his wife said, "Thank you. We are in the right place. Tell us what to do." Ship.

Sounds like my client several years ago who said her son who was a sole proprietor had formed an LLC so he could save on taxes. When I asked how, she said it Limits his Liability for taxes. All he had to do was fill out this form and send it in to the Secretary of State with a $100 check. My reply - "That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works !" Thank God she didn't say he wants me to take him on as a client since I'd have said absolutely not. Fortunately he was going to do his own tax filing, which was probably best all around.

I will trust the folks here to provide a correct answer to the question asked. Whether the question asked is the actual issue is a different problem! Plus we sometimes get a half-dozen answers which might all be correct depending on minor details. From there, we extrapolate (Bulldog Tom's "do my own research" equivalent).

I'll nominate Margaret for her foreigners and their rental issues.

My number 1 rule. If it is bad news, such as higher taxes, or anticipated refunds that didn't happen, I always call them and explain why. Emails and texts just give them time to stew over it and put them in a nasty mood. Otherwise, I stick to emails for two reasons. One, phone calls take up too much time; and second, theres is a written record which might be needed later on.

If we an lump, then why don't we just "lump" them all on to the Schedule A and get rid of the cursed 8283. To steal a phrase from Schirallicpa, "Grumble, Grumble"!

Much lumping is done.

"After checking your records, there is no retainer balance on file. Your retainer fee is ### per hour. Once there is sufficient balance, I will schedule a consultation."

This is the same guy that gave the attorney $17000 for the estate and complained about my $1000 bill. Now he wants free advice. grumble....mumble...

He deserves everything that's coming his way! Man, oh man. And I get mad at my clients for taking money out of retirement accounts without asking me the tax implications first. Who was his accomplice? He doesn't sound smart enough to form a corporation and elect S status. Ask him for the 2553! And tell him you need the corporations bank statements for the year so you can put it in QuickBooks. make his bill thousands of dollars more than last year, then if he leaves, you've actually gained.

Want to trade for my German and Aussie clients?

That's why I posted the statement in its simplest form. Whenever an incorrect answer is posted, someone rings in with a correction. That happens on other forums as well, but the tone and tenor of the correction tends to be more civil over here. There have been a few times when the discussion went off the rails & got combative, but the general nature of the conversation here is collaborative and supportive.

Well, if you put it that way, no thank you. Honestly, I got lost just trying to read your post! (You will notice there was no helpful comment from me.)

Won't be able to address the above situation, but will use the opportunity to run my mouth. I had about a half dozen clients who took advantage of the $7500 loan back in 2008. In every single case it turned out to be a curse and not a bonanza. The first thing that happened for a couple of them was less than a month later, the govt came out in 2009 with an $8000 payment that didn't even have to be paid back. My people wanted to bite a 10-penny nail half into. Divorce. Actually had a couple couples who thought getting a new house would make them happier and solve their marital problems. I'm not a marriage counselor but solutions for anything need to go to the root of the problem. Getting a new house just gave them something else to fight about. House ends up on the market (in a depressed economy) and the $7500 just becomes another debt to have to deal with. Bad economy. The end of 2008 was a horrible economy, and the $7500 just subsidized a home that was hardly worth the amount of debt. A couple more of my clients lost their job and had to move. Often not being able to sell the house meant converting it to rental property since two house payments were physically impossible to make. There is always the didactic axiom to beware of something throwing money at a situation too good to be true. From old fogies - advice unsolicited is usually unappreciated. If I'm still alive in 2024 when the last of these $500 installments have to be paid back, I will be quite happy to see form 5405 arrived at a much-welcomed demise.

But none of us will ever complain about OUR @RitaB!

You could try running the property through one of the realtor sites. I think it is Zillow (could be Redfin or Realtor.com) will show a history of the properties including sale dates and amounts when the property has changed hands in the past. Type in the address to the properties on those sites and see if it will make your life a little easier. Tom Modesto, CA

The snip below is a life or death story of taxes (yeah, right!) that is too funny and simply must be included here to put @rfassett in the running for a star. Ron is another long time member that always give great advice and doesn't post often enough. I remember one of Ron's other life or death stories of how his wife gave him a very thoughtful gift that had a very strong magnet in it right after having a pacemaker installed! This is Ron's latest post from the RitaB's topic "Come again?" that you can vote for here:

I can't stop laughing. Guy says he desperately needs me to save his life by doing one year of bookkeeping and his tax return. Me: Well, I would love to save your life after tax season, so bring in last year's return, I'll get you an extension and you can pay at least as much as last year's liability now, which will put you on a respirator, but you'll survive. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. You won't be sorry. I pay everything thru my bank account except for the stuff I pay by cash. I'm pretty organized.

I hope there is a happy ending to your clients problems.

I need an attitude adjustment. Every time one of my staff members speaks to me, I just want to scream 'be silent'. I started the morning with an 8283 because the client had enough $25 and $11 contributions (not exaggerating) to exceed the $500 threshold. Maybe I should start charging $500 for every 8283 I complete. That will teach people to think of others! Seriously . . . de minimis of $5,000 for depreciation, and $500 for old clothes to the good will? Aaaargh. Can I lease a bit of space on Rita's South 40? I'm going to need a place to 'store people' very shortly. Is it just me, or is anyone else the Bluebird of Happiness today?

Easiest thing (and safest) is to treat EACH item on it's own. Does NOT matter if they co-mingle or barter, etc.. Look at each as its own individual occurence (for person) and things get a lot simpler. Take the dynamics and inter-play out and then the picture can become clearer. Maybe not easier as they are still a lot of parts --- but much easier to look at and plan and tax individually. Of course, I am also known to be simple-minded, so use idea at your own discretion. ALSO, life might be boring except for things like this. ///If it happens, God let it and God does not allow more than we can handle (whether we think we can handle it or not -- GOD knows we can).

That's one of the many benefits of using email/text communications as the primary means of communicating with clients. Avoids wasted time talking on the phone or sitting in your office After a many-years-long effort, I'm down to maybe a dozen clients who don't use email or text as their primary means of communication. To be honest, I'd get rid of them tomorrow if they weren't special cases (good friends, charitable cases, etc).

Achtung! If I were handling this I would simplify and keep it basic as much as possible to begin with because going forward it sounds like there will be other complicated factors with renovations and foreign tenants and exchange of rent for loans, almost as complicated as this run on sentence.

Nothing new since late last year and that wasn't the first case, but I say good!

wow - I won't complain about my PA/Canadians anymore!

I'm getting the addresses and dates, and will try Zillow.

Try Zillow. It lists prior sales. Also town or county online records would have that. All you need is the property address to search on. (And I posted this after reading your post, Possi, before seeing that Bulldog Tom had a similar response.)

That is a great sentiment. But like Ronald Reagan said "Trust but Verify". I trust a lot of people on this board to point me in the right direction. But I do my own research and I reach my own conclusions. After all, it is my signature on the bottom of that return, not Eric. Tom Modesto, CA

Actually, I believe under current law the wife would get 100% unless there are children are from a previous marriage. And I believe the value that requires probate is now $100,000. However, your other comments are spot on - especially the part about how the property is titled. Perhaps if you point out to the heir how much of the value of the farm might be lost to taxes if sold now as opposed to later, he will understand your point. Use actual dollar amounts as examples as well as telling him the percentages. But in the end, you can't control what they decide to do.

My hubby made me pie

I have some situations where I had to override the form to make it work.

I've had lots of parents who diligently plunked money into 529s and ended up with lots of earnings that escaped tax. Plus in most states they get a deduction for contributions that lowers their state tax bill. UGMA accounts belong to the minor and can't just be taken back--there have been lawsuits filed by grown children when that kind of theft has happened. US savings bonds for education have to be in an adult's name (purchaser must be at least 24 years old), so you'd have to buy them in the child's name and report accrued interest every year. That can be a pain to calculate, especially now that all bonds are "paperless" through Treasury Direct and don't allow the nice "inventory" you could create with the paper ones and quickly see the annual accrued interest. (Just had one today where over $3500 in interest will escape taxation altogether.) I do agree that people shouldn't put all of their savings dollars into retirement plans because if they do need the money the penalties are steep. I thought clients were the ones whose minds were stuck in the 1990s (and before). How many clients do you have who want to deduct their credit card interest? (Went away in 1986.) Who think they have to buy another house within two years to avoid taxable gains? (1997) That they are Head of Household because a working adult child lives with them? (circa 2006)

It builds character, increases neural pathways, and we could use the extra cash.

I'm treasurer of my Church (just started my term this year). Yesterday, the business administrator told me that the reason payroll is always so last minute (which affects ME) is because of one person who has to be begged for her time sheet every pay period. I just sent an email to all employees letting them know that anyone whose time sheet is not received by the close of business on the ___ and ___ days of the month will not be paid until the next regular cycle payday, assuming by then the time sheet is in order. NO exceptions. We'll see what happens. DON'T mess with me in March.

um - don't you just lump them?

He's wanting you to "massage" the numbers. I guess you told him that train has already left the station. (Or perhaps the cat is already out of the house). The possibilities for mangled idioms in the situation are truly mind-boggling.

They will have a two part basis. First the 1/3 basis of the property distributed from the partnership. Plus the purchase price of the other 2/3.

I will sign put XXOO on his first invoice.

I guess I should have said that the purchasing sibling will show the purchase price (2/3 FMV paid to the 2 siblings) plus her 1/3 cost of the property distributed to her from the LLC as her cost on Schedule E. Thanks.

First nomination of the week is for @Lynn EA USTCP in Louisiana for this post that made my head swim and made me thankful that I don't deal with anything remotely this convoluted and confusing. Lynn may not post as often as some others of us, but when she does chime in her answers are always spot on!