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We won't be told, if at all, whether or not our clients' data was compromised until after the 5/31 deadline to renew with discounts !!!

Form 8821 might be more appropriate - the tax pro would receive copies of any notices issued but not be responsible for responding. IMO, form 2848 carries with it representation rights and duties to respond.

Plus, being able to check the client's account for things like estimated tax payments.

The Form asks for Year(s) and the Instructions state: You may list the current year/period and any tax years or periods that have already ended as of the date you sign the power of attorney. You may also list future tax years or periods. However, the IRS will not record on the CAF system future tax years or periods listed that exceed 3 years from December 31 of the year that the IRS receives the power of attorney.You must enter the description of the matter, the tax form number, and the future year(s) or period(s). If the matter relates to estate tax, enter the date of the decedent's death instead of the year or period. If the matter relates to an employee plan, include the plan number in the description of the matter.

I've met preparers who have all clients sign the POA when they sign the engagement letter every year. And, some that use prior and future years on each form, so a new copy is not needed every year. I have a client sign a POA when needed, but I put prior/future years on the same form. Once in a great while, if a client alerts me to a potential issue, I have them sign a POA while they're here, prophylactically.

I was just thinking today, how nice it would be if I got copied on these notices. Sometimes the client gets with me right away, but many times, they bring it with the tax papers 10 months later. But, I'm not willing to get those forms for every client. Too many, too much.

Not a surprise at all. I bet they don't know yet if the data is compromised, and even if they do, they are not telling us yet. If they find out they are compromised, I would think it is their responsibility to notify all the affected parties and give them the free monitoring for a year. I think we will be shielded from liability, however, we will have an obligation to notify our clients as well. The degree to which we incur cost in any efforts to protect our clients will be an issue open for discussion. There have been so many of these breaches in other companies, I think if there is a data breach, WK will handle it just like Equifax, Yahoo, etc. Tom Modesto, CA

Aren't we getting carried away here - international tax attorneys? All the IRS is interested in is getting their cut. This house or condo was purchased so a college student would have living quarters. GingerM is in AZ, so I assume her client is also. The bulk of the college students in AZ live in the Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale area. Some properties there were going for under $50,000 not so many years ago. I would treat is any other rental.

It would indeed be a cold day in Hades for me to get money BACK from the federal or state governments ! Some years back I had to contact my state senator to receive a $27 refund from our Department of Taxation.

Why not have the client ask the prior preparer where the amount came from? On what basis was it put into the tax return? What other schedules in the return does that calculation effect? SE Tax? Pension Deduction? AMT? QBI (or hasn't 2018 return been done yet)?

Exactly. plus when it's a positive adjustment you get a four year forward spread.

Isn't that what Form 3115 does, makes a 481a adjustment in the current year as a positive or negative amount?

If it was an unknown strain, which was undetectable, how would they even know whether any data was lost ? It's not like someone stole the crown jewels. The data doesn't disappear, the hacker just leaves with a copy of the data.

In Return Manager, under the Reports menu, you can export a client list and open in excel.

Look under the Tax Warehouse Tab.

I am not aware of an way to export the return data to an excel sheet or anything, unfortunately, but what you might be able to do is customize the columns in the return manager and add the "business" column. Then just check the "individual" returns box and you can sort that new column by the "business" net income. I am not sure if this will also include pass through income, though, but it's worth a try unless someone else has a better idea.