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I've lost clients, too. Whole families. But, I gain clients. Whole families. I have more work than I can handle and would prefer to be losing clients by attrition to ease into retirement. I have enough trouble sleeping with an achy knee and those sit-bolt-upright-asking-myself-if-I-remembered-to-do-X-on-a-tax-return moments. I'm not going to add I-wish-I-hadn't-given-in-to-that-client moments. They can trust my expertise or I WANT them to leave.

I tend to oversimplify taxes and overcomplicate everything else. If you buy an asset thinking you'll sell it when it appreciates without you working on it, you're an investor (Sch D). If you buy a house to fix up and you think your work (including the work you do to hire the other people who work) will lead to income, you're a dealer (Sch C). Yeah, I lose a few clients being like this, too. Not many, but I'm fine with it. The last one qualified for EITC whether I used Sch C or Sch D, but I hope she had an investment gain that knocked her right out of it the next time she fixed up a house, and the guy who amended my return lost sleep over it. What to do, what to do... Yeah, I know, he didn't, but still...

The person who is already a partner may be comfortable with some sort of reworking. A potential new partner might not be comfortable without investigating current status. (Nothing is free...) So personally, I would setup a new entity, with the new partners, even if there has to be a slight variation on the "legal" name. My experience comes from resurrecting a long ignored social club (started in the early 1900's). I became involved in the 80's, and would not be part of the board until there was a revived corp (MC club, putting on events, substantial liability). Attorney said it was crazy to revive - even if complete books and documents were avaailable - and instead, started new, with a very slight change in the corp name.

I do too, but I'm not fine with it (Unisom helps with the sleep). Low audit odds and lax enforcement seems to be stacking these up during the last few years - a perception is being created that we don't (pick one): get in out of the rain/ know as much about taxes as the big-box people. Aw, okay; so you guys aren't buying the ethically-challenged approach. I guess I'm still smarting from a last-season loss: long-time client questioned about a second 1098 she wanted to deduct and finally admits it's on a (never-before listed) rent house, but says "We don't make anything off it; it only makes the payment" (bet you've heard that before). I rejected, she left, took three relatives' cases with her, and was at Block's down the street an hour later. Oh well; I have my ethics courses (if I can keep affording them) to keep me warm. Hey - client joke: COP: Where did you get these drugs? PERP: Some dude ran by and gave them to me. COP: One of these days I'll arrest a guy named "Some Dude" and the judge is gonna throw the book at him!

You don't know what could be attached to that LLC, even if inaccurate, especially with missing partners. Person A can ask his colleague to dissolve it with the state -- if in your state that would free up the name. Then Person A can form a brand new LLC, choosing the now open name.

No more drinks for you today, Max.

My approach is about the same as this. Of course, in the 1098 case described in my previous post there was no choice or "maybe" about it, but I still think the house flip is a judgment call to be determined by your above factors. Regarding your experience of "In 27 years, I have only undergone 3 audits, all over 20 years ago." - that very closely resembles my track record.

The only time I called in had to do with uploading into their portal after I imported a return from my laptop. It didn't happen with every file but occasionally it gave me an error message. I contacted support, he tried a few things, couldn't figure it out, promised me he would look into it and call me back. A couple of weeks had passed, in the meantime I found a workaround, so no big deal. Then the phone rang and it was the same guy from Drake who called back with a fix. It didn't completely solve my problem, but he emailed me the fix and said if it happens again this was what I needed to do. So when it did, it saved me a whole lot of time and frustration because I already had the steps needed to get it to work. I am very pleased with the service. It reminds me of the good old days when ATX was small and cared. Had the same team stayed with ATX I would never have left. I would gladly have paid more for the program! With the current owner of ATX I feel they are only interested in the money, not me nor my time. Not so with Drake!

If there are no tax differences for filing single, the return could still be efiled. The IRS doesn't know who is married and who isn't. They are only interested in getting the right amount of tax.

Eighteen years is a long time, but not in respect to 9/11 as that day remembered by Americans seems like recent memory. As a former NYC firefighter my memory is reinforced everyday. Seeing the children of friends lost that day, now grown up, hearing the hoarseness in the voices of friends who now have permanent respiratory illnesses, and talking to those who are continuing rounds of chemo therapy and radiation, 9/11 is present in daily lives of so many firefighters and police officers. Remembering the days after 9/11 there was a shower of kindness from around the world. Firehouses were decorated with flowers, messages, and photos. People brought food with tears in their eyes, and hugs were all around us, there were a lot of hugs. Firefighters let it be known to the wives and children of those lost that they now have many surrogate fathers in the firehouse who will always be there for them. This continues to this day as we've watched the children grow up, go to college, and get married. We're still there for them. Please keep all those lost and their families in your prayers, they still need it more than ever. Never Forget, Bill

Thanks, Bill... for who you are. Praying always.

We will keep you, those lost, those not, and those still struggling, in our prayers, Bill. Thanks so much for all that you and they did. And we won't forget...

Bill said it....Thanks Bill.

Drake's tech support is pretty amazing. Last year I had a problem with the format on the DE 2210 where all the figures were correct but were printing 1/2 line too high. It's a little hard to explain, but numbers ended up in the wrong boxes. Connecting with the tech support person that monitors the company's forum, she put me in touch directly with the state programmers via email so that I could send them the pdf of the incorrect form and another correct presentation to show them the problem directly and as it should appear. There was another instance of working directly with the programmers, the details of which I don't recall, but I doubt this level of interaction directly with the programming dept would be possible with ATX.

Hands down the best tech support. Hardly finished email on "disaster" problem with Ca and had response.

Edsel didn't give us enough facts to definitively determine if it was all disallowed, but it is a good point and Edsel should know. We don't know for sure what adjustments the IRS made and if the adjustments were for all years of farm activity. Edsel, were there were any profitable years, or if there were eventually so many loss years that the TP eventually ran into the hobby loss rules? Too late now to do anything now, but I'm curious if you tried to argue the point that your client did have a profit motive based on cash flow before the depreciation deduction. It's been many years, but I had a very similar scenario with depreciation causing losses each year that the IRS questioned, and we ended up with no changes on examination, and this exam was one where the IRS requested invoices for every expenditure on the return. The agent was so beligerent, she tried to disallow his business deduction for trash collection on a multi-unit apartment complex saying that the TP was driving for miles and miles with his own trash to deposit in the bin, and the expenditure was too high compared to what she paid at her private residence! We shut that down by providing his own trash bills and I finally had to get her supervisor involved for stupid she was dreaming up.

I'd write "Refused" in the space for her social security number and paper file. Hopefully here isn't a big refund hanging in the balance. Does the fact that he hasn't filed in 3 years and she refuses to provide the social security number cause you to feel uneasy in any manner? (For me, a couple of alarm bells are sounding.)

I'm also thinking out loud, and I have no direct experience with this but do think this would fall under the category of involuntary conversions that includes seizures. When the IRS sells the property to satisfy the debt, if it ends up with excess proceeds, those funds are returned to the taxpayer. Doubtful that would ever happen, but it does seem that this would be reported as a sale. Also to consider when reporting this is that the IRS tallies up all costs associated with the seizure including costs to remove and sell the property, and if the sale does not go through or property is returned to the taxpayer, those costs incurred by the IRS are added to the balance owed to the IRS by the taxpayer. With that in mind, I would think that those costs incurred would be considered additional expenses of "sale" that would reduce any resulting gain from the transactions. Lastly, if any personal property was seized and sold, remember that a loss from the sale of personal property isn't deductible, but any resulting gains would be taxable.