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I talk too much with some clients. I like to even though it eats up time. New client the other day, I saw her name, detected a slight accent. She's from Russia. I immediately had a thousand questions.

An' I'll betcha his addin' skils is just as good if not gooder!

Twice this week I busted my chops and managed eight returns each of those two days. NOT complete - but as complete as they could be without the missing info (which was mainly minor, like the driver's license info we keep forgetting to ask about at drop-off - or get for one spouse [the dropper] only). Ugh. I can't keep up that pace and do quality work. But then the only one-W2 returns I see are the high school kids of adult clients. Everyone else has stock options, rentals, businesses, a zillion trades, foreign accounts - or ALL of those!

I'm also the one that proofreads, prints, assembles, mails, efiles, scans, files, uploads, downloads, answers the phone, etc.

Are you kidding me?

I went home last Monday feeling great - I completed 10 returns start to finish, and 5 of those were face to face. But that is a VERY unusual day, and when I say completed I don't mean that they were ready to hand back. Someone else in the office double checks them, scans the paper that came in with the return and makes the copies for the client. Most days, I don't get that many done all the way. Maybe 5 complete, 2 or three finished when they bring in the last piece of information , and a couple more started that need more information. If only they would bring me everything I need at once. I do feel better seeing that most of you aren't finishing 16 returns a day.

Tom got his wish! Final tally: Terry D - 6 WITAXLADY- 5 ILLMAS - 7 BulldogTom - 8

If we are the gatekeepers to the IRfrikkinS, held to such high standards, required to question our clients under a spotlight and document it all, then we should be considered government employees. Complete that with declaring tax season an official "combat zone" with tax free income, and housing allowance all year. I truly do not know how we got to this place. Many IRS agents aren't in compliance on their own returns, and many owe a lot of money to the IRS. Many use that "I'm in with the IRS" line to cheat on returns. The IRS isn't policing any of them. They are using our registrations to police us. I love what I do. But the IRS and this government drives me to drink.

I don't think there is a court case now nor will it be one any time soon. Just think for a minute, we are working solo and barely make money to survive. The IRS employs roughly one thousand lawyers... how many do we employ? Let's think as an industry as a whole, let's say that HR block hires 10 lawyers and the other big guys hire 10 lawyers each. I bet you that as an industry "we" don't have 100 lawyers on our payroll. Now let's think for a minute about a class action suite, what lawyer will take the case to court? No one because there is no money coming to them even if our lawyers win. So the next time when the IRS knocks on our doors, we will be happy that the IRS only found 100 returns with "issues" and the IRS will only fine us a bit more than $50K. Why we have gotten to this place? Because: 1.- There are many crooked tax preparers and also there are many tax payers trying to get free lunch for the IRS and some of them do it for life. 2.- Those preparers don't sign the returns so there is no one to go after. 3.- We don't report those preparers, the ones that sign or don't sign the returns. 4._ When we do report them, the IRS or the government agencies take years to do something, IF ANY action derives from complaint. 5.- we are not like doctors with uniform modus operandi. Have you seen a private doctor working on Sundays... What are you doing today, which happens to be Sunday? There are many other items to be added to the list, but it is Sunday and I wish I was a doctor.

I hope from 3:30pm EST, until about 10pm on Sunday, to get 30 returns done. Lots of new clients this year, and some hiccups have slowed things down. Need to catch up.... Rich

My first thought was that this preparer turns out a lot of incorrect returns. He claims this is his average day. My last thought is that he turns out a lot of incorrect returns. Yesterday I managed to do six returns and talk to eight people in eleven hours, just me. Word, @ILLMAS. I had a fun conversation with a client about SNL and "Land Shark!" (He yelled that coming in the door.} He said SNL made more sense when he smoked marijuana. Also listened to a precious friend talk for one hour about the stress her family is under going thru a very terrible, terrible messy thing. I vacuumed the waiting area. Dishes are still in the kitchen area, but I'll get them today. My life is so good. I'll stick to it.

Abby: You have to stay off of Reddit... Rich

Who'll be our next Star? You all know the drill. You can't win unless you shoot, so give it your best shot.

This is the perfect plan. Do 15 & 16 in July.

The ATX workaround for this situation is to change the business use to 00.01 % or.0001.

Max and Judy, what a team! I think the two of you have combined for a solution. The options are Sale/abandonment; Installment sale; Casualty/theft; Like-kind exchange; Converted to personal use; or do not calculate gain/loss. None of these fit this situation but I can change the use to 50%, add the renovations as non-depreciable and sell the sucker in January! I'll check the depreciation calcs but honestly think this will work. Great minds on this forum! Again, what a team.

My procedure is to look back 20 years, not just the 8 that she claims are missing. Although, the IRS only looks back 6 years, there may be prior years that she filed, or was SFR'd and owed tax, years that would be potential amendments. When calling PPL for a compliance check, my first question is - "Are there any taxes due and, if so, for what years"? Then I request account transcripts for those years and also ask for their CSED dates. My next question is - "What years is the IRS looking for?" They will usually say the last six, but if there is no filing requirement, the number maybe less. The final request is for the Wage & income transcripts for any missing years and for any years for which tax is due. This may exceed the limit of 10 transcripts, so you would have to make a second call, or use Eservices , or a service such as Canopy.

Those are two reasons why I printed the thread AND gave it to hubby. Luckily, hubby is semi-retired so is willing to do things for me during tax season! But, I'm pretty sure he understood that HE also will benefit from some newfound tasty cheeses.

Why would you mail or scan something to the IRS that they already have? I would send something in if there was a large error that I felt they needed further clarification. So, I recommend that you STOP. Rich

I haven't ordered yet - trying to find a spare 5 minutes. I just hope I don't lose track of this thread in the meantime!

everyone has their own business model.. with me, almost no chit chatting. client asks me how I am, I say welcome.. please have a seat.... lets' see what you have this year.. monitor facing them.. they can see return being built.. clients love it.. works for me... typical family return or set of returns.. 45 minute time slot. single person.. 20 - 30 minutes.. scheduled that way all day. almost every day. .if i return is more complex.. 1.5 hours.. can do rental property, self employment income, multiple states, all of those items in 1.5 hours or less. high volume.. clients must like me.. keep coming back and getting referrals.

This was me listening to my precious friend talk for an hour on Friday afternoon:

This me after completing a tax return:

Showed hubby this thread, and he ordered all three of your cheeses Friday (Thursday? Days are running together). We do Friday night dinners as finger foods with a couple of different cheeses, smoked salmon, celery & dip, that type of thing. So, we love finding new cheeses. Looking forward to receiving our order!

Of course in a perfect world to get a lot done, we would receive a client's tax package with questionnaire and organizer adequately filled out. Then you would call or email with any questions and responses would be timely and you're done. My workload comprises of about 90% of those, they are longtime and well trained clients. But these next few weeks most of the PITAs surface. Working on one idiot, sorry, that's harsh....moron right now. Like pulling teeth to get SE expenses and documentation because he likes fairytales and has a wild imagination. Then it's the waiting, and having to go back over my notes, more than once. My favorite defense....surcharges.

I don't feel so bad now. I thought I was slow, long days, slow progress.

I would tell them to first show evidence of the referred to mess. In this highly litigation society we live in, I would be cautious of any potential client that asked to see my e&o before even meeting me. Even after meeting me i would probably send them packing.

Despite only claiming 30k of his total income, he's still a grate righter and grammartician. Speler. All that.

so if mom bought it how did she inherit it from her husband a few years ago. This isn't the whole story. Client probably doesn't even know the whole story. After all my kids don't know how me and my wife juggle assets.

CPA on too much coffee. This is how fast Rita's friend works to get all those returns done in one day.

Three CPA's eating..... ? . ...

Here is a follow up answer for some questions from the CPAacademy webinar from Wednesday (NOTE: different webinar and presenter (still free with free CE) today at 1400 hr.).

Maybe it's just the tax season giggles kicking in, but I laughed out loud at some of these: Period of Limitations that apply to income tax returns Keep records for 3 years if situations (4), (5), and (6) below do not apply to you. Keep records for 3 years from the date you filed your original return or 2 years from the date you paid the tax, whichever is later, if you file a claim for credit or refund after you file your return. Keep records for 7 years if you file a claim for a loss from worthless securities or bad debt deduction. Keep records for 6 years if you do not report income that you should report, and it is more than 25% of the gross income shown on your return. Keep records indefinitely if you do not file a return. Keep records indefinitely if you file a fraudulent return. Keep employment tax records for at least 4 years after the date that the tax becomes due or is paid, whichever is later.

* yer

In TN #6 reads, "Keep records for six years if you're lower than a snake's belly, you cheater."

Now I understand what’s behind the gold star