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This is our family at the local 4H park in 2011. If Kim, my son Colin and I could be there, we would, I will be in Toronto... Have fun everyone! Post pictures!

I am just making my list to pack and looking at the (ridiculously long) list of chores I need to finish before I can leave. REALLY looking forward to seeing everyone, and hoping this northern girl (with the temporary high thyroid that makes me extra hot all the time) won't melt in the Tennessee heat! Here's a picture of Doug and me that Gwen took last year. But Doug can't come; it will just be me.

I'll risk stepping over the line, but this truly is an equal-opportunity political rant. It applies to all political parties and politicians, regardless of the jersey they wear. Whenever a budget problem arises, the politicians wring their hands and tell us the ONLY way out is to reduce services that directly affect the public. The solution is always "we're going to be forced to sell the firehouse !, lay off police officers !, etc". There's never any thought of looking at city hall to see if there might be a little fat to be cut, or maybe a slew of non-essential bureaucratic positions to eliminate.

How many offices does HRB have? Do you think they net more from company owned stores than the franchisee stores? Makes sense for them to cut back. The new tax law is going to attack many of their customers. Me? Not so much. I have few customers like that. But. The big firms are going to muscle in a shrinking pool. THAT is what we have to be careful of. This from Black Bart^^^ No yet... so I gotta work still. Rich

Ours (AR) is the same (standard fed/ item state if you want), but I think my practice will still be adversely affected. We do lots of older folks who keep working after 62 at a diminished wage plus pensions plus the taxability of Social Security which keeps them filing. They're empty-nesters so personal exemptions are irrelevant, but the doubled standard will render the SS non-taxable. Next time they can mark W-4s "Exempt" and they're done with it. While SS isn't state taxable here, standard ducks are very, very low so while I may do a few, I can't charge full price for half a case. Too, our state revenue offices still hand out printed tax books for middle-aged DIYers (the old heads mostly won't fool with it) and millennials can do it online for zero to $12.95 (I can't beat either of those prices). But...the office building is paid for, so eviction's off the table.

Next tax filing season is going to be "interesting". I'm already working through a scenario with an extension client who has a HELOC which is partially acquisition debt and partially not. Ironically he is hit by AMT in 2017, so I'm having to explain how the loss of part of the interest on the HELOC in 2017 will also be an issue in 2018 even though AMT won't be an issue for him then. In the past few days, another client asked a seemingly simple question about the tax benefits they would realize via a charitable donation of a car. The opportunities to mess up that answer were almost unending, and trying to logically explain all the permutations made it sound as though I was deliberately trying to obfuscate the issue. We really are going to need to rethink the stock answers we're been able to offer in the past to a number of fairly routine questions.

I set my young clients up for direct debit, just like many of my clients of all ages. And, I give them the link to Direct Pay, too. HRB is not my competition. CPA firms are my competition, but I'm less expensive than they are. I'm still pricey, but don't have their overheard with OIH. More importantly, I offer service 24/7/365. Me, not the intern in the back room doing all the work while the partner only signs. Even my millennial clients appreciate service. They have no desire to learn a skill they'll use only once/year and won't improve their resume! I sometimes have to go all maternal on them, but they thank me for it !!

I remain confused with your facts. Was a new entity formed on April 14th? Or was the sole proprietor a disregarded SMLLC which decided, on April 14th, to be taxed as an S-Corp? The answers to those two questions will shed a great deal of light on your question. And just for the record, there is no such thing as an S Corp. There is a corporation or an LLC TAXED as an S-Corp via election. But to state that the "CPA told her to become a S Corp" lends no clarification to your question.

Pretty soon they'll develop a way to tweet your tax return in.

More states either need to do this. I force a number of MD returns to itemize and pay more federal tax to save even more MD tax.

Good luck if you are thinking that the new regulations will not affect your pool. I also think the way you do and that's why in 2016, I made $6.53 millions less than William C Cobb and he didn't even prepare a tax return for a client. In the past, some people have posted here: "I got this [or a few of them] millennial who thought he was smart and filed his taxes for free on line and now I have to amend it" "These smart people increase my clientele". I have always answered with this type of comments: Do you know how many people are e-filing their own returns? You having to amend a few of them, is not match to the possible clients you lost to free efiling? I have added: If you don't believe me... see how many people are efiling themselves. I believe free filing is our real enemy and not the big companies. As some one said "I believed that then and I believe it now". Let go to the numbers with the new regulations: Let say I have a couple with a high school student, age 17 or 18, who worked and can be claimed as a dependent by his parents. This millennial filed his return for free or by paying $12.95 as someone mentioned. In the past, when the parents come to us with their $100K W-2s, we cried out and said "we have to amend your child's return". Guess what.. not anymore. The child will get $12K standard deduction and the parents will get $24K standard deductions for a family total of $36K. As you know it is hard to sell to a client this statement "your child made a mistake, I can correct it but you will have to pay me $100 and you will have to pay $300 to the IRS", which is not the case on my scenario. Also someone said that ACA was a job security... guess what, ACA is a joke. People who make a lot of money most of the time have insurance and the ones that make less, don't mind paying the penalty. Of course ACA penalty will be non-existent soon so our "job security" will be kissed good-bye. As we lose clients for our attitudes, for their age, illness, income and peer pressure, it will harder and harder to recruit new clients. Remember that the strength of businesses are the parent(s) with students on their first 4 years of college. That market is tiny and it becomes tinier when we have clients making more than $90K or $180K when MFJ. So, if you don't prepare business returns, it is time to start taking some classes and start diving into that market. That market seems to be solid and it will always be.

Oregon is the same, no tax on SS. However itemizing for state only isn't less work, so I am not lowering my fees.

I agree with rfassett's post above that you need to know those facts before we can help. Then, there's this bit of confusion that I'll answer in a general way below that may, or may not, apply to your client's situation depending on what you know and tell us in answer to rfassett's post: For this or any other entity where the year has a beginning date other than the 1st of a month, the instructions for Form 2553 are clear on this, and I believe (don't have a cite for this) the revocation (if this is a new entity) would follow the same pattern and date. If your client has formed a new entity with a beginning date of 4/14/18, the 2 months would end on 6/13/18 , and 15 days after that would be 6/28/18.

The last two comments, while somewhat funny, they have a lot of truth. That's a business opportunity that we cannot take advantage of. So that's a big threat to us and believe it or not, it is around the corner. Millennials is not a market that we are going to be able to attract, but whey they come to your office, all you need is to have different type of charges and the password for your wireless. The spent all the time sitting in front of you on their phones and they don't ask you questions. When it is time to sign, I feel bad that I am going to interrupt their session but they sign, pay and leave. Catherine is a fast shooter... I meant the last two posts before Catherine's.

They are also likely moving to a cellphone app for millennials (and others) to do their taxes the same way they do everything else.

I agree with John's insight that it is wise to pay attention to what Block is doing--they have the resources to do the number crunching and projections. I think that the upcoming season will be booming for everyone due to all the confusion, but once people get the realization that itemizing won't do them any good and their refunds are shrinking due to lower withholding, that business will drop off. I read Block's conference call transcript, and there's a lot more going on. Interestingly, millennials comprised something like 35% of their new business--evidence that young people are now working and don't have time or inclination to learn taxes or attempt their own? I think the office closures are a response to competition. Back in the heyday of RALs, Jackson Hewitt and Liberty were opening offices wherever they saw Block's busiest offices. And where they opened anywhere else, Block opened to lure traffic away. Those days are over and Liberty in particular is losing franchisees, closing offices, and may be delisted. No need to have all those offices so close to one another if a competitor is gone. Block said most of the closures are within five miles of other Block offices, more like the distance used to be before they decided to out-office the competition. Block does know something, which is why they were on a mission to buy out small independents. Are they still doing that? They knew for some time that software would replace the easy-return market, and this week they acknowledged that they will do something about pricing. Didn't say which direction they would move prices, but they do charge a lot and likely can't see a way to justify the fee when a large share of their clientele no longer will itemize. When I worked there years ago, they said that changes in the tax law drew a lot of business. They staffed accordingly, and they were always right. I think this upcoming season will be crazy busy for all tax preparers. While those who no longer itemize may DIY after that, I don't think anyone who is self-employed (including the part-time gig folk, those who sell occasionaly on the internet, etc) will ever attempt their own return. Ditto for landlords. And with the magnitude of the changes under the new law, I believe a lot of preparers who were thinking about retiring will just do it rather than try to learn all the new rules and unlearn the old ones. That too will drive more business to those who stick it out.

In Oregon, where you are allowed to itemize on the state return even when you are taking the standard deduction on the federal return and the state standard deduction is very low, I anticipate no effect on my practice.

I think that it depends on your niche in this business. Most of my clients are probably either already filing short form, or they have businesses/farms/rental property and that won't be any simpler. I do very few returns that have itemized deductions only. I may lose a few clients, but I don't think that it will substantially impact my business.

She could have used direct pay with no fee.

Back in 2013, Charles Krauthamer wrote the best article on this issue that I've ever read. It's entitled "Hail Armageddon". (I'm going to miss him tremendously)

One millennial owed tax. Told her to send a check with payment voucher; her response was "I'm a millennial; I don't have checks. Now what do I do?" LOL. She got a bank check, because she didn't want to pay the credit card fee. And she's going to get checks.

Be careful, there is a waterfall (by/under a bridge) along this route. A stop to sight see here, has sucked many an hour out of my days.

I have wondered whether VA and other states will allow itemizing even if the standard deduction is taken on the federal. This woke me up, from the article, "H&R Block, like many tax practitioners, tends to charge larger fees for more complex returns. " I don't charge enough for more complex returns, so this is my gateway to step into reality.

I agree with you, John. I think that if I did a lot of EITC returns, or returns with itemized deductions being the main separation from a short form I would be very concerned. And even though I don't anticipate much impact on my business (at least not right away) I do suspect that if I want to sell my business and retire in a year or two, or four or five, this will probably impact the marketability of a tax firm in general. Time will tell - and it would be interesting to see if they anticipate growth in 2025 when the laws for individuals will revert back to their current status. I think it is 2025 - I don't plan to be in business that long.

I would see more business for them, for every tax preparer.

i have family that live in Knoxville, Lenoir City, Murfreesboro, and an Uncle and Aunt that lived 8 miles from Crossville. Edsel is giving you the best route to take from Gatlinburg. Been there many times, and he is spot on.

Gail, I hope you can make it. Gatlinburg is about 2.5 hours if you can navigate around Pigeon Forge. Pigeon Forge is on the way out of Gatlinburg, and during most days it is jammed with tourists and you had best plan for at least an hour to drive as little as 3 miles. (I am not exaggerating) BUT - you can avoid Pigeon Forge. Ask someone in Gatlinburg for the backroad to Townsend. It's not far, and you make a leisurely drive alongside a small cascading river until you reach the community of Townsend, the "back door" to the Smoky Mountains because it is so much less commercialized than Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. From Townsend take big highway (four lanes) U S 321 westbound. You will go through Maryville and cross the Tennessee River at Lenoir City. These are towns with a little traffic but nothing as time-consuming as Pigeon Forge. Continue on Hwy 321 all the way to Interstate 40 where you will travel west and be in Crossville in about 45 minutes. This is about the best I can do - use Mapquest for more explicit instructions. Hope to see you - Edsel

Gail, no need to bring anything. I'm borrowing tables and chairs from church.

Agree with cbslee and would further state that the 75 day clock begins ticking at formation of the entity or at the beginning of a subsequent tax year of that entity.

Normally, if the election was made in April, wouldn't the effective date be January 1, 2019 ? Or is this a brand new entity ? It's not clear from your post.

Britain's NHS is the largest non-military organization in the world, in terms of employees. And if you want real health care, you have to leave the country...