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I got my PTIN in 1999, as soon as I heard about it. Not having my Social Security number on thousands of tax returns is a no brainer.

I think Medlin is making a good point here about information you don't have not being used against you. Once we store something electr5onically we tend to keep it FOREVER. Is that really a wise course? Should we be looking for a timeline to delete files as well as the old timelines for destroying files?

Try electronic filing, it's wonderful! We use UltraTax for tax filings and store the returns, original tax docs, signatures etc in their electronic "file cabinet." We can also send what we prepare in ATX like 1099s and W2s to there, as well as correspondence, sales tax returns, notes, IRS letters, you name it. You can achieve the same thing by saving files prepared in the tax program to specific client files you create and scanning signature docs or whatever and saving them to there as well. It is so easy to sit at your desk and pull up the client files while they are on the phone. They need copies of their W2s for the last two years? Right there. You don't even have to print them, just fax or email right from your desk. And you don't have to dig out paper files, find what you want, and they put the files back in the right place in the physical file cabinet (we were never good at that part). The only paper files we keep now are Forms 2848 with original signatures. I also keep tax docs for estates because they are often reported for a calendar year and since most of my estate tax filings are for fiscal years, it is just easier to have the paperwork where I broke down what belongs to the decedent and what goes to the estate, and which fiscal year gets what. I highly recommend that you purchase or create some kind of electronic filing system that will work for you. This summer, hire a high school or college student to scan and file. Then call Shred It to come get the whole pile. PS. We will not be switching to ATX for tax this coming season as we had planned. There are so many changes in the tax code that it will overwhelm us and staff to learn a new program and the new law simultaneously. Also, there is a little more confidence that UT will be at least a little better at getting the new programming right. It better for the $18k it costs.

Mine is low 6 digits starting with a 1, and the 4 of the digits relate to my birth date, so, yeah, easy to remember.

That's one good thing that came out of the PTIN mess. Before that a client paid me with a third-party check that bounced; then stole my SSN off his return copy and opened two rent house accounts under my name in a nearby town. Six months later the power company called demanding payment of my long past due electric bills. No, no...you're being much too hard on yourself. Granted, no one could ask that you do more, but see, you just need a little adjustment to your outlook on such things. I, for instance, subscribe to the view of the late Groucho Marx who famously remarked "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would be willing to have someone like me as a member!"

Yes, I need to develop a document retention policy and have all my clients sign and choose if they want a longer period retained. I was thinking I'd keep 10 years but give the clients the option to keep as few as 4 years or as many as they wish. I've had to refer back to 10 year old returns before. One problem I have is that my backup provider keeps deleted files forever, theoretically. So a backup would be available in case of a court order. There is a cumbersome process I could go through to remove those files from the backup server... or I could switch to a new backup service after deleting a bunch of old files.

The IRS allows 10 days to perfect a return and 5 for an extension.

The answer depends on if you are regulated by only the IRS as an EA or other preparer, or if you are a CPA with additional requirements by the state board, or if the state of VA also has a provision regarding tax return or workpaper retention.

I agree Bart. I don't want to chance it. I think I got messed up last year when they dropped the fee. I guess I thought I didn't need to register each year.

Whatever your legal (and legal defense) requirements are only. Not so finite to be destroying every day, but grouped by an annual "destruction day". Separate cabinets grouped/marked by date to be destructed. (From the idea that if not required to have cannot be used against you, and no good deed goes unpunished.)

Because they have thousands of people with all that information? Why spend 30 minutes trying to unlock one particular name instead of just moving onto the next name which probably has all three credit accounts unfrozen?