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In @Jack from Ohio voice "Run Forest Run", don't dirty your hands, you already knew this was a mess when you initially turned him away. Now for two of the best quotes from Judge Judy: "Beauty fades. Dumb is forever." "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining."

I appreciate all of your replies. I have retained Rita's reference for future possible use. I informed him today I can do him no good (regrettably). He is a good man and was truly attempting to help that family but the audit indicated birth records for those kids. He had a misunderstanding with their mother when she moved and neither she nor the former wife will raise a finger to help. He himself cannot get the records so I can see no way to keep his filing status or credits intact. I did WARN him of the real possibility this very thing might happen. Now he will learn a difficult lesson.

The step child is still his step child, and the step grandchildren are still his step grandchildren: https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2014/06/23/step-kids-remain-step-kids-after-divorce/#82fc21271b04 A birth certificate just proves somebody was born. Your issue would be proving they lived with him for the proper amount of time. If you take this on (I might if he could convince me they did, and produce plenty of dated documents with their names, and his address - like school records, medical invoices, Forms 1095 B, etc.) here are two documents I'd read first: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p596.pdf https://www.eitc.irs.gov/eitc/files/downloads/f886-h-eic.pdf

I tell the heirs of all my elderly clients to look in ALL the pockets before they toss/give away clothes. Coat pockets (and mens' suit pockets) tend to be places older folks stash cash "to be safe". Especially when they were old enough to remember bank crises. Good to know it works for birthday gifts, too! A couple of years ago, I bought some small tools as a birthday gift for Doug, and hid them in a cabinet. I *knew* they were there, but could not find them! Turned out they had fallen off the back of the shelf and were wedged behind - out of sight and almost out of reach. I found them in time for Christmas.

We're Proud for you Bill... We share in the joy of your discovery....... Bill on his way to get that card...........

Yes, but there is always next year, I hope she still has the box they came in.

Whew! Found it. Was in a winter coat pocket, nobody would think to look there, I was right. Also found my draft card, my college ID with a picture of someone who looks like Che Guevara, and a money clip with an inscription from an old girlfriend (better scratch that up). Thank you all for your well wishes and support. Elrod had me down to a T, as soon as she left I went wild, because 3 hours can go very fast when you are under the gun. Oh shoot, got to run out.....to get a card.

It should be very "clean" for the recipient. The other item to check, and it may take work, is if the message is actually received. Email is getting less and less reliable (see below). Hopefully the security portal has a tracking and reporting method, so you can see who received their messages, and who opened them. --- I happen to have a relatively large number of Moose Lodge clients (likely using my payroll software to pay their bartenders!). Most use use an email account controlled by their national HQ. The national folks have decided to use a cloud based email "anti spam" product, which has very aggressive settings. The problem is not that our emails were flagged (since this can easily happen to anything resembling a receipt), but that they block messages with a not so easy way for the end user to even know what was being blocked. The end users are lodge members, who may or may not have any technical expertise, and likely assume the national handles the email system for them. For me, this meant every lodge was calling or writing asking why I did not send their receipt! (It is never that they have not received the receipt, it is always assumed it was not sent - since many consider sending to never fail.) After loudly complaining to the folks who are being paid to filter the messages, they white listed my domain. While this is good for me, it is not so good for Moose (and any other customers of the spam filter company) if they really want to be "secure", since all it took was an online chat to get on their white list. (Virus companies do the same thing, proving how useless paid protection is, since any system with a whitelist makes the protection worse than useless, since those on the whitelist could go rouge, get hacked, etc.) The other ALARMING item I was remind of, and why secure/encrypted email is important when needed, is the filter provider has full access to all inbound messages. If you were to send a non secure tax return (PDF can no longer be considered secure), this is one more point of attack you may not even have been aware of... and I had forgotten this (I do not use such a service) until the filter company sent me headers from messages which went through after they white listed my domain!

I believe that Virginia considers birth certificates public records and they can be obtained by going to a DMV and paying a fee. I am not sure what information he will need, but if he claimed them on his taxes he obviously has birth dates and social security numbers. That being said, i tend to agree with ILLMAS that you should refer him back to the "expert" that filed his return and claimed all those people and credits.

auto-UNcorrect version of "definitely" was my guess.

Congratulations! Does this mean you don't need Gail's second pair of earrings?

Get a really good engagement letter, and get a BIG retainer, up-front - and make sure it CLEARS - before you do anything for this guy. And tell him right off the bat that his chances are not zero, but not good. Put that in writing in the engagement letter, have him sign and date it, and you both keep a copy.

Wow, that is truly scary! What else can we do to help identity thieves ???

I only use password protected pdf files for out of town clients of which I have very few. Every one else has to pick up their returns at my office,

I handled an EIC/CTC audit for a grandmother a few years ago, and it went great. She was really the grandmother, and the kids really lived with her while the parents were incarcerated. She had been my client forever, and I had plenty of "proof" before I prepared the return. We got some more items together, and IRS was satisfied. I really hate refundable credits, but I felt very comfortable that she was entitled to the refund. I certainly would not go out on that limb otherwise, correct.

I have an FBI agent client who has made it very clear that all documents must be hand delivered or picked up. Email, pdfs, drop box type accounts are all forbidden with him because he said they are all vulnerable. His wife rolls her eyes but he says you'd be surprised how often they are hacked. I still send encrypted pdf files because clients want them.

Thanks, Yardley. I will look further into this. I suspect most will be flummoxed by it as my clients are, well, of a certain age and are now experts at using encrypted email though that took some time. Or maybe I'm not giving them enough credit. But that seems like a reach to cover so few clients.

Poor Bill.... I can see him now, taking advantage of those 3 hours... Good luck Bill...

"effeminately?" Not sure what kind of line that actually is given the definition I Googled.

There is effeminately a line we all have. Crossed today by someone asking how to change paychecks to the owner's name and SSN because the employees are not eligible to work in the US.

Margaret, this NY page should help. CPAs aren't considered "tax preparers" for registration if they don't offer RALs or RACs. If they do offer those products, then that puts the preparer into the "facilitator" status. It seems that if you only do the one return and haven't done 10 in the prior year, you do not have to register. https://www.tax.ny.gov/tp/reg/tpreg.htm

You're fine to file one return in NY. Catherine is correct, 10 is the magic number. NYC is not so scary, just way too crowded, and prices for parking spots are like condos

Would you like to sell a pair? I still can't find the necklace and jewelry store doesn't have it anymore. She has a hair appointment tomorrow, 3 hours (the full boat, color and all) so I will be tearing apart the house.