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Lady just called - said "We can't get this TurboTax thing to work right or something. Are you busy this weekend?"

I wondered where he went when I told him not to come here unless he's willing to pay me to prepare an extension. Apparently he moved to MO.

Client calls Sunday and asks when I'll be in the office. M-F from 7-4pm each day at minimum. Sometimes later but I routinely have appointments outside the office in the evening. He'll be in between 12-1 on Monday. Easy stuff because he's almost completely retired now. He calls on Tuesday - just couldn't make it but he'll be in tomorrow and I repeat my hours. Calls Thursday at 4:45pm and wants to know why I'm not in my office. Calls today - he can't make it today because he works from noon-6pm. I mention I was in the office at 7am but he forgot about that. What hours do I have on Sunday? It's an ultra simple return, he's going to owe about $1k because he doesn't withhold taxes on his pension, he'll be completely shocked (again) that he owes and he'll have no clue how he's going to come up with the money on such short notice. Can he make payments?

I get the "I thought obtaining payroll software would do my payroll for me" from time to time.

So if tax payer doesn't want to have to deal with depreciation and recapture upon sell of home, best to stick to simplified?

But, if you don't have a home office, you can potentially lose a big chunk of your mileage. If mileage is part of the Sch. C expenses, and they are claiming distance from home to the first work location and back from the last work location, then the loss of the home office causes the loss of the mileage. I was told one time that the only reason the IRS challenges home office is when they think they can get mileage deductions removed from the return. They don't care about a small percentage of your utilities coming through the return, they want to go after something that will have an impact on the bottom line tax. Tom Modesto, CA

I have been having recurring bouts of glacial internet service with pages loading so slowly they don't load at all. My ISP sent me a new router which initially worked ok then yesterday the problem reappeared. They now suggest my Ethernet modem may be starting to fail. I initiated a full security scan yesterday afternoon (Microsoft Security Essentials) which always take forever. I got up this am to find the computer had reverted to the start up screen and the scan had aborted. Oddly enough the system speed is back to par more or less so I activated a second full scan which will finish in several hours. I have had some problems after these updates and wonder if it may have had something to do with this matter. I likely will replace this old reliable model but Lord knows I am not tackling Microsoft 10 until summer.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3387984/widespread-reports-of-freezing-with-yesterday-s-win7-and-8-1-monthly-rollups-kb-4493472-and-kb-4493.amp.html

Please disregard ... I see a post from March 9th

I've used the Simplified Method when clients tell me they're going to sell the house soon. And, for my clients who can't track their home expenses, of course! But, mostly, Actual.

But worth looking at the difference in the yearly deductions too. The simplified gives you a tiny deduction, and over the years, that's a lot they could be saving.

Medlin, what new fields would be on paystubs? I only glanced through it, but none of the (many) worksheet info would go to the employer, that's all for the employee's benefit. Have you seen a draft of the actual W4 page that will go to employers? I'd guess it won't look much different, the new stuff is all for the employees benefit. And yeah, most employees are going to throw up their hands and guess. Employers aren't going to be to thrilled either, if they have to give a 6+ page form to everyone. More money for the paper mills, I guess.

But if the space is not used regularly and EXCLUSIVELY, then they can't take home office and therefore don't have to depreciate.

I guess a professional discussion is not your style, nor is the allowance for a different perspective. I was trying to share what payroll pro's do (not give any tax advice to employees, including help with preparing a W4). I was thinking those who tell their clients to withhold a flat percentage are not up to date with the W4 not having a flat percentage option might want to give useful advice, rather than giving advice (while accurate) which cannot be used, and could actually take more of the preparer's time to have to calculate a suggested W4 item after already calculating a flat percent. The client who has received a flat percentage rate to use is goign to complain that someone is a problem, maybe they will blame their employer, maybe they will blame their preparer. Why take that chance when it is easy to do the figuring and give them a W4 ready for their signature? The new W4, if it is similar to what was already proposed, will make it easier for the preparer to give useful numbers, since it allows for dollar entries, not made up status and allowance. The numbers should already be at the preparer's fingers. The complicated part will be when a taxpayer prefers not to divulge (to their employer) their additional revenue amounts, but the form allows for entry of credit/deduction amounts instead of (maybe also in addition to, I cannot remember) specific income amounts. Whether or not we like it in principle (it really should not be as hard as it is), complication in tax processing is what we all make a living on... candidly, no only likes complication, but a real flat tax method would have us all looking for other work - which is timely given the proposal to prevent the government from providing free efile methods in perpetuity I was just reading about.

Microsoft has announced that they are blocking updates to systems which use Sophos security software. There are a number of reports that users of Avast security programs are having the same freezing problems.

I have never sent the 8453 as long as the detail was attached. I don't think it's necessary when you electronically attach the detail to the e-file. I only send it if they have given away a car and I need to send the charitable receipt attached to the 8453.

If you read the article, the problems seem to revolve around the use of an antivirus program called, "Sophos", which is from England. However there appears to be no official response from Microsoft, so the actual details are a bit sketchy.

I was not suggesting you pay anyone anything. I was just pointing out that the difference is less than $2K because they'd have paid for a second tax return if they'd filed MFJ. Did they ask about 2017? If not, please don't do anything until after the 15th and you've had a good sleep. Then, you can think more clearly about what you did or did not do in a prior year. We're all human and sleep-deprived and working against a deadline. Stay calm and carry on.