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I've been turned off by the IRS for decades.

Controllers are allowed to compile a set of financial statements for management's internal purposes, and is typically part of the job requirement to do so. To be clear, the statements Tom asked about are not being issued directly by him to any third parties. Company management would be handing them over to the company's outside CPA that has been hired to audit them. The outside CPA firm is the party that is "issuing" the audit report as part of the complete set of financial statements by doing a lot of work that gives reasonable assurance that the monetary amount and other disclosures fairly represents the position and results of operations of the company and are not materially misleading to the reader. Except for very large clients, I really wouldn't expect anyone other than the CPA firm, or in-house CPA or CMA, to write the notes to the financial statements, especially with the complexity of today's reporting requirements. Sounds too much like someone is passing the buck here, and yet the CPA firm will still be required to go through its disclosure checklist to verify that everything is adequately disclosed, and if something is missing, they'll still have to address it in communication with management to have it corrected. Tom, I agree with PapaJoe that you can start with updating from last year. Basically, that is what the CPA firms do to update from the prior year's statement, and then add or modify as needed. The problem with the CPA asking you to write them is that the auditing firm expects you to know what disclosures are required, and exactly what information on those subjects must be included, either in the financials themselves or in the notes.

Copy and paste from last year. I bet that's what your CPA firm does. Update dates and amounts as necessary. You only need to write a new note from scratch if something is added or is different from last year.

Found it myself. Had my screen to big and couldn't see it in the details section. I think partly is because I am getting tired, working too many hours for these late comers. I need to figure out how not to be in this situation next year. I need to have a drop dead date, if not in not going to be done.

Notice 2020-76 extends the due dates under sections 6055 and 6056 from Jan. 31, 2021, to March 2, 2021, for insurers, self-insuring employers, applicable large employers, and certain other providers of minimum essential coverage to furnish to individuals the 2020 Form 1095-B, Health Coverage, and the 2020 Form 1095-C, Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage. However, the notice does not extend the the due date for these forms to be submitted to the IRS! If you have to have these forms complete and submitted to the IRS no later than Jan 31, 2021, what is the point of extending the due date for issuing these forms to employees? Who makes up this stuff?

Current estimates are that the IRS still has a backlog of 2.5 million unprocessed paper filed 2019 Form 1040s.

I received this email today: Congratulations! To thank you for repeatedly renewing your preparer tax identification number (PTIN) early, you have the opportunity to renew your PTIN before the season opens to other tax return preparers. The PTIN system is ready to accept your renewal from today through Oct. 15. Should you miss this opportunity, you can still renew your PTIN during renewal season beginning later in the week. All PTINs expire on Dec. 31 and must be renewed annually. You must have a valid PTIN if you plan to prepare any federal tax returns for compensation or you are an enrolled agent. The renewal fee is $35.95 and non-refundable. Get started at www.irs.gov/ptin. I was not aware of the renewal fee this year. Is anyone else planning on renewing their PTIN this early?

I didn't receive an invite to renew early and wouldn't do anything that reduces my sleep time until after 15 October! But, I usually get to it right after extensions to get it done and over with.

I did this today as well. Thieving you-know-whats. It's so sad that we have to pay to work for the IRfrikkinS for free.

Don’t quote me on this, the AICPA or our state’s society prohibits non- CPA (licensed) on preparing financial statement to present to third parties and worst prepare notes. I believe this applies to when compilations and audits are required, I remember in the past sneaky clients would say, can you send the bank our companies financial statements on your letterhead, here is our QB backup, they are already done. Read this: https://www.accountingweb.com/aa/standards/new-financial-statement-service-a-gift-to-cpas-and-clients Maybe they think you are a CPA

GAAP, partnership, audited financials. Knowing the specific industry may also be helpful if there are specific guides for it. Fwiw, I use only the guides from PPC (Practitioner Publishing Co) through Thomson Reuters. If looking at its products, I'd start with the guide called "Preparing Financial Statements" that goes through each major item on each statement and has a chapter on disclosures that includes summary and comprehensive checklists of required disclosures, either in the statements themselves or in the notes. The appendix to that chapter also has some illustrative notes. PPC also has a "Trends" volume that I believe is also included with this particular publication that has complete financials submitted by practitioners that includes the notes. The index to that guide allows the user to look up examples of individual notes by subject also. PPC guides are the only ones I've ever used, and I'm sure other publishers of reference materials will have something along similar lines, including WK/CCH, and the AICPA. PPC non-subscription products have a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. Those on recurring subscription have a different cancellation policy.

I'm also not a CPA and haven't had to learn footnotes. (My MBA is in finance, but I was only one accounting course short of a double major in accounting. My best instructor told me to major in accounting but to never tell anyone or I'd end up doing all the grunt work!) I do know that CCH has great textbooks. Also, webinars. And, they purchased CPELink a few years ago, so all the CCH CPELink education now benefits from the CCH inhouse experts/CPAs/lawyers as well as their stable of national speakers/writers. I would think AICPA would have great resources, too. Good luck. They are lucky to have you. Compute the CPA firm's hourly amount on their $60K per year ($750/hour?) and apply it to your 2,080 or more annual hours -- and ask for a raise!

Not yet. It's always sometime in mid- to late November.

Like not needing tax preparer?

Quick fill it out before there's another interim final rule!

Just count backwards 3 years: 19, 18, 17. We can only efile 3 most current years. 17 will drop off as soon as IRS closes efiling in November (usually).

No, you'll have to paper file. E-file current and prior 2 years.