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So this happened in my hometown. Three minute break guys! (Little boy in blue shirt might not have had as much joy as others, never mind.)

My Chains are gone I've been set free My God my Savior Has ransomed me And like a flood His Mercy reigns Unending Love Amazing Grace. Chris Tomlin is much better than me. Tom Modesto, CA

Wow! Really beautiful. That girl is going places, the boy in the blue shirt I need to talk to if he wants to date the superstar behind him someday.

Thank you...Thank you...Thank you. Now I can say I am one of the cool kids 'cause I got a star to prove it. Tom Modesto, CA

I've done Amazing Grace/Fill My Cup with Appalachia Service Project. (Yes, I know how to pronounce Apple At Cha.) You'll have to sing Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone for me.

Whew! You all work so hard. I am not envious but am grateful that I never let my practice grow to that size. Seven years ago when I was 65, my other CPA employee retired so I just spun off all her business/bookkeeping/financials clients and kept individuals - well, a few rentals and small Sch C's, but nothing like it was. This has allowed me to continue while still enjoying the other aspects of my life. I thought I would retire end of 2019 but now, with the trusts gone this year and one PITA client that thankfully chose not to come back, I think I will go for another 3 year license. I've gotten several lovely (the Germans are really nice folks!) new clients by referral and am not ready to let go. Lion, I wish you all the very best medical care and healing so that you might come to TN for the pahty.

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.

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

I'll leave it to Chris (and Tom):

Amen! That's how you do Holy Week!

But we here ALWAYS knew you were cool! The star is a mere virtual, visual acknowledgement of what is in our hearts. Congrats!

I need to do 30 a day!1 15 even would be nice - my goal is 10!!

I could do two or three times as many tax returns if all the information was present when I pick up the folder to work on the return, and if people would quit calling to ask if their return is ready. Some days I want to scream at them that I told them I would call when it was ready, and I don't get paid until it is ready so I will call them as soon as I can. By the end of tax season I want everyone to just go away and leave me alone.

I thought about you all yesterday, we did the Chris Tomlin Amazing Grace / My Chains are Gone song.

I saw this before and was so happy to see it again! How wonderful that some folks just get really into the music and the meaning. I've been in church choirs forever and have been told many times that I show more emotion than most which I take as a compliment. Thanks so much for sharing!

How precious is THAT?!! Love it!

Just treat the equipment as if it had never been stolen and show 10k of other income. The net affect will be 10k income regardless of how complicated you make it.

I'm going to cut out carbs. (Slices pie).

Well... My Goal was thirty. I got 20 done. Computer system went down Saturday Evening and I couldn't get anything done. Started early Sunday, and caught up. This is Hell Week. 45 returns on the schedule to come in. Probably another 20 drop offs. Plus the ones that are here... Not including entity extensions for after April 17th, My "stack" in the office is at 206. Lets see, there are 23 days until 5pm on April 17th. That would mean at least 12 a day right now. Slice of Pastry.... Rich

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

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.

Edsel...I agree with your thoughts. If it looks like a Duck.... As long as that caveat is there though, "We are not auditors" it has to afford us some protection, I would think. I too would be curious to know if there were any court cases concerning this topic.

I said these words to four new clients this year, “I do not work for the IRS nor I’m I auditing your prior year tax nor I’m the police, however I believe your tax return was prepared incorrectly (inflated Sch A items) and either you can go back to the person that prepared it or I can amended for you. I am required by IRS rules to inform you and I cannot force you to make the correction, but you have been told.” Then they ask, now that this year is going to be correct, do you think they’ll say something about the prior years

The best thing about chat support is you can scream and yell and swear and call names, as you calmly type an appropriate reply. https://myatx.blogspot.com/2018/03/chat-support-for-atx.html

We usually put up an auto-respond on email saying we're working hard, trying to finish but can't if we keep answering emails; we'll get to you! Haven't done that yet this year but it might be time.

We will spend next week filing extensions for everyone who did not meet our 3/15 deadline, then get back to work to see who we can actually get finished up. But after next week, all pressure will be off and we'll do our best for everyone. Today I did eight returns - and not one of them are done-done (although three only need the new bleeping driver's license info that we keep forgetting to ask for!) because of missing info. Stock basis. One downloaded W-2 with every bit of information EXCEPT the employer, EIN, and address (?!?!). Books for college. Little bitlets.

yes Use code L for nondeductible loss that will zero out the loss for you

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

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.

The IRS has maintained throughout Cir 1230 that we are not auditors. After all they don't want us taking over their jobs, right? How did we as a profession allow this to happen? We have to answer the self-incriminating questionnaires about children? We have to collect this type information and certify that we have it, and have interrogated taxpayers about this/that. The statements we are forced to make actually perfect the case they can bring upon us - the taxpayer gets off scott-free. Have there been any court cases which uphold our role as a non-auditor?

OK, I am going to give this another shot. This is my own tax return. This is why there are people trying to secede from California and create the 51st state - Jefferson. So, I changed jobs in 2017. CA imposes State Disability Insurance tax on workers in CA. It phases out when your income reaches a certain level. When you change jobs like I did, it is possible to have paid in too much, just like SS tax. I had excess SDI withheld this year. So we file our taxes like every other year, and set it up for direct deposit. We got our federal refund a couple weeks ago, but not the state. We had just about got to the point that we were going to start looking up where our refund is when the letter comes in the mail today from the FTB. They held my return and are going to mail my refund in a check because they found an error. Me! An error! I don't think so! Especially not on MY RETURN! It turns out that the state of CA does not round when they match SDI withheld. Each of my W2's were xxx dollars and just over 50 cents on the SDI withholding, so ATX rounded it up. CA held up my return because they don't round up, they add the two together and rounded, and the amount I claimed for SDI was off by $1. I am sure the dumbasses in Sacramento feel really good about how they spent more on the letter, and postage, and the postage they are going to spend to mail my refund check, to save the overburdened taxpayers of CA $1. I kid you not. This is how stupid these guys are. Judy, I am counting on you to get me the votes for this post. I want my star! Vote for me...Vote for ME...VOTE FOR ME!!!!!!! Tom Modesto, CA

The netting of offsetting debits and credits like these is not helpful when you try compare yearly or monthly expenses. Since my primary function is monthly write up, I stopped netting things years ago. I would show this in Other Income as "Insurance Reimbursement" or ?

I didn't find anything good about it since I never received a reply. Later ATX closed the case without any contact with me

NY Has a NY k-1 entry form. Does NJ too ??

Well, I'm not convinced that taking it out of service to renovate for sale is the same as converting to personal use. This is an LLC filing a 1065. I'm going to go with the 50% depreciation and non-depreciable additions so that the sale next year will have all the data there. Who knows what other surprised might appear? But I do have the closing documents so can let them know the result for 2018. I just needed to get the basis ready. Thanks to all for the valuable input. Now back to the Germans... 2018 is going to be veeerrrrryyy interesting!

The big ones I have now take at least 45 minutes to print and shove into folders to look presentable. To meet RIch's goal, I'd spend 22.5 hours just printing and have only an hour and a half to prepare returns each day, with no spare time to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, return emails (seldom answer the phone), add paper to the printer, change the toner, attend the out-of-state funeral I had Saturday, go to Easter Sunday service, oh and I guess I'd better shower for that and get dressed, etc. I would love to get through five today, because they're all one family (two trusts for sons set up by grandparents with mom as trustee, two working sons with multiple states, and joint return for parents with multiple states, lots of investments on all five). I'll go close to 11:59 on the 17th, then have my hip replaced &/or spinal surgery (doctors arguing over why I'm in pain), and then dig into extensions. Thank you all for being here and sharing your knowledge and humor.

Congratulations, but not for having to put with our FTB, or whoever the legislature appoints to take them over - maybe the bullet train commission?

Means 'On Account of'. They owed wife money for something, and they can't pay her back because she is deceased, so paying the widower. Agree with Gail.

Congratulations @BulldogTom!

I don't think we can do that anymore... Rich

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

Thank you all, the sharing of my insurance info is not going to happen, I have never asked my doctor for a copy of their malpractice insurance. So if anyone here, asks their doctor for a copy of their insurance please let us know And Happy Sunday (Palm) to all

I agree with John it is quite common in contracting business clients does insist on having to look at insurance before taking any services. I suggest keep in mind totality of circumstances to even share copy of policy & having him/here as client.

Are you kidding me?

A family member? Be Careful! It might be the potential client them self.

I run totals in a similar manner. Basically they can get a long /short and a reported / non reported. Each is entered as one set of totals. All dates are entered as Various and 12/31. How can a software not allow Various? I NEVER upload or mail a 1099 and haven't in years. Since cost basis has been reported - I don't think the IRS wants that stuff anymore.

ATX has a good worksheet for sales tax It automatically add in the things it knows: nontaxable part of social security and pensions, nontax combat pay (Q in box 12 of W-2); there are spaces to add in for other things such as VA disability, etc. then you have to adjust for the local rates. The ones I do all of the time, I know already. But for other places, I go to the IRS online worksheet and plug in the figures then I find what the local rate is and I can put that into the ATX worksheet to get it to match the IRS figure. If any of my income figures change later, the program adjusts for it because I have already put in the local rate etc. Be sure to add in for sales tax on a car boat etc. there is a box to check to take sales tax vs. state tax. This is very useful when you have someone with AMT and sometimes it saves on the state return to use sales tax when AMT has negated the state tax deduction on the federal. Of course, you have to look at it both ways- some times one is better other times not... depends upon how far they are into AMT... And of course, for some states there is no advantage.

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.

Now I understand what’s behind the gold star