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Husband texted me that he was running late and I answered with what was supposed to be "ok, thanks for letting me know" that I sent as "ok, thanks for loving me now." Then I started to send "geez, I should proofread before sending" which started to convert to "Cheese Arthur profit..." which started me laughing so hard that I had tears running. It was at that exact moment that a representative from the state's division of revenue returned my call. All I can say is that poor woman must think I'm totally nuts, and that it's a good thing I don't text much with my clients.

THIS!!! STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. If you don't take care of yourself, you will burn out and get stress illnesses. I came to this realization some years ago and stopped working one day a week. Usually, but not always, Sunday. Found out that if I took a day for myself I got more done the other six days than in uninterrupted seven without end. Any client who expects instant response any day or any time of day is a client who does not respect us and who is definitely under-paying us. For me, if you want 24/7 instant response, you had better be be a close family member. Anyone else gets me as I choose to respond. If they don't like that, they can go down the street to someone else, and (likely) pay more for poorer-quality work.

And sometimes it doesn't take much. I needed a break and went and pulled garlic mustard (invasive weed) for ten minutes. Out in the fresh air, listening to the birds, watching the puppy next door try to herd a flower pot, and getting rids of weeds before they flowered. I felt great afterwards, and was able to come back to my computer refreshed.

Hey, I do have one more question. How many times do I have to click "Accept Cookies" before they send me the cookies?

I've cut out anything I don't enjoy. I only work for a few hours each day, even during tax season. You do need to take care of yourself! You've been working in tax for 42 years! 42 years! Stop right now and take a walk. And tell yourself you will do the same tomorrow.

I am happy to report I see the Print Screen button, only 10 hours later.

That's what I have done. I have scaled back to the point where it's sustainable, a bit less than half time. I plan to keep working as long as my health will let me, since I still enjoy what I do and I like almost all of the clients I have left. Admittedly, it's much easier to do this, since my practice is small business write up, payroll, and business entity tax returns. The only personal tax return clients that I have left are people that I like.

Is it possible you can just scale back? I'm at a point in life where I don't actually "need" the money. This year has been quite stressful and I admit it's been quite freeing to play the Seinfeld Soup Nazi and tell clients this is their last year. For the clients where there is mutual respect, I'll keep doing returns for several years. The ones that want to be demanding jerks can do so elsewhere.

When paying by check, your client is sending a check with the magnetic information for his bank routing and account numbers on it, as well as his signature, and probably even his branch's name and address printed on it. I'd be more worried about thieves who steal mail they know contains checks, "washing" the checks, and using them to steal everything from bank accounts.

I think the license info doesn't roll over because we are supposed to ID everybody every year. I have also noticed that university information must be entered every year by IRS requirements and they don't roll over anymore. For my practice and taste, ATX is the best in the market. Stand alone installation, who opens the program knows what forms and what questions to ask (at least that's what I believe), interface and price look good.

Yeah, I am back to working 3 1/2 hours a day now

AND the authorized individuals and their EINs in Fiduciary/Corporate/Partnership returns.

Before the court appointment, the daughter can act as a personal representative and sign the 8879. It's trickier when there is a refund, but with a balance due I agree that the IRS will gladly take the money from anyone. She should write "personal representative" after her signature.

THIS!!!

is that last years drivers license information would roll over.

and ignore the fact that DLs only expire every 4-5 years, depending on the state. grrr.

If it still growled when you opened it!

If ATX still worked like it used to prior to 2012, I would have never left for Drake.

I definitely aspire to reach this level of comfort/confidence in my practice management.

Yes, one of my client put the state's payment in the IRS envelope and they cashed it, they have authority to do that, and the state was nice enough to return my client IRS payment back to them.

The IRS will take money from ANYONE - taxpayer, personal rep, executor, neighbor, friend, dog-catcher. All they need is a valid check (or bank account, for direct debit) and the tp's ssn in the memo field. As for refunds - even then, they'll send money to anyone who requests it with Form 1310 properly filled out. Even before court appointments, if you check the boxes promising to be good and give the money out in accordance with state law, they'll send it. But whether it be a check or a deposit, that will need an account, and that requires more hoops (estate ein, appointment of representative, etc).

I always refer to it as auto-UNcorrect. And yes, I've had some "corrections" that resulted in the same laugh-until-tears upon reading what it thought was better than what I wrote. No good examples off the top of my head, but there sure have been some doozies!

You're a cookie, Rita.

I guess if the amendment is for a filer, then the social security number is freed soon. In my case, mother claimed child and when grandmother claimed the same child it was rejected. I amended mother to free up child's social security number and it has been a month and still grand mother's return gets rejected. In my case, I think I will have to wait until the 1040X is completely processed before I can efile grandmother's. To efile 1040X, the original return MUST have been efiled.

That reasoning always makes me laugh. If they are getting a refund or a stimulus check, they are more than willing to let the IRS "know" their bank info. Do they really think the IRS can't get their bank info any time they want? (The easiest way is with Form 1099-INT, which the agency gets every year.) If the IRS wants to seize your bank account, they will seize your bank account whether or not you gave them the specifics. The majority of my clients pay balance dues and ES with direct debit, and it has always worked smoothly. Last year when the IRS was partially closed I was getting calls from clients frantic because their paper checks had not been cashed, although eventually they were.

Taking screen shots with the computer, using the Print Screen button, or Windows Snipping Tool or the new snipping tool in Win10 is a basic computer skill everyone should learn. I see blurry photos of screens in the ATX facebook group all the time and I just shake my head and scrool on by.

After 42 years of tax seasons, I feel the same way. This has been the worst for too many reasons. I am just trying to stick it out until 65 (16 months!) so that I can get Medicare in place of ACA. I don't even know that my business is worth selling. I wish that I didn't love most of my clients, but I honestly am sick of the liability and stress of doing it on my own and feeling guilty every time I do something not work related.

so far behind, too. Glad to know I'm not the only one. Me too, have a client who owes, I've redone twice, and still the same. He says it isn't fair. I said, not enough withholding. Told him the same last year. Ready to send him on his way.

NOT today, probably not even tomorrow (I think I'm collapsing for a long weekend) but next week I have to deal with a client whose mom quit claimed the house to her kids, who sold it. They think it's not taxable. "But it was an inheritance!" Um, no, it was a quit claim! I suspect the basis is going to be really low, unless there were a lot of improvements over the years. So.much.fun.

I don't believe it's an IRS requirement since Drake rolls over DL details every year.

And the child's age was on the left and not a scroll over to the right.

If the child's 1040X was paper filed, you should wait until it shows up on the "where's my amended return" link at irs.gov. That can take months. I'm glad to hear that efiled amendments are going through quickly and allowing parents to efile sooner. We must have a dozen of these scenarios every year in our office.

For the year the employee turns 21, you use the entire plan year's compensation, not just the portion after attaining age 21. One of the requirements for SEP plans is that the employee must have at least $650 in compensation in 2021 ($600 in 2019 and 2020) BUT PLANS MAY BE WRITTEN WITH LESS RESTRICTIVE REQUIREMENTS, and that sounds like that is the case of your client's plan. Be sure to recheck the plan documents for this though. If the plan is less restrictive by not having a minimum compensation requirement, then this employee would be a participant for 2021.

Glad you solved your problem Rita. Once upon a time I did a print screen and pasted it into Word and it worked.

Oh poor tax payer - isn't it just a pain to have to get paperwork corrected........Why is it always our problem to figure it out when the TP is too lazy to pursue the correction?

I've never been so far behind. Really trying to figure out how to make a career change!

There can be security on PDF files that prevents things like printing and editing, but I've never seen one that blackout the whole page. (That'll put a dent in your toner!) We only view PDFs on screen anyway and would never want to print a client document out. One way I get around security on these protected PDFs (so I can add notes to the document) is to print the PDF to another PDF.

Agree with Dan, except that Pacun said that the taxpayer is a general partner. Pacun, keep in mind that the guaranteed payment of the majority partner is an expense against income to arrive at ordinary trade or business income, so it could be that the other partner paid enough in the 2020 year to create the loss you are reporting. It is possible that in a future year this partner may not draw out enough as guaranteed payments so that the restaurant shows some trade/business income, and your client's share of that will be on the K-1 and would be available to offset the loss that is being carried forward from 2020.

The term ordinary income can be confusing since it comes in different types and flavors In the broadest sense, it is any source of income taxed at ordinary rates which basically distinguishes it from capital gains. Ordinary income is then broken down into different class types such as rental, interest, dividends....and so on. These classes can have different characters: such as passive, active, investment, earned, SE.....etc. Your clients share of the income/loss is reported on his K-1 as ordinary "business" income since it is his share of the ordinary operations of the business. Since he is a limited partner, his income is of passive character, therefore his losses are either suspended or used to offset passive income. The only way he would have SE income would be for services provided to the business. For example, if he decided to spend his lunch hour busting tables and received compensation, that would be classed as Guaranteed Partner Wage subject to SE tax.

I bet you the IRS will be happy to get their money. I efiled one a few years ago and I only had the daughter to sign form 1130??? . She got the refund and no problems.

I tried direct debit ONCE - on my own tax return. It did not end well and will never offer it to my clients. They are given vouchers (1040-V or 1040-ES) and advised to either send checks or pay online via IRS Direct Pay. I use IRS Direct Pay to remit my taxes.

I try to keep the ball in the client's court for this very reason. I give them Forms 1040-ES and tell them to write checks. I have a handful that want me to have IRS directly debit their account when I submit the e-file. I'm sure that handful of people now think I screwed something up. They'll be sweet about, but I know what they're thinking, and I know I'll be dealing with their phone calls this week. Got a text Friday, in fact. I'm just glad 95% of my people who owe at filing pay with 1040-Vs and checks because they don't want IRS knowing their bank account information. /s

I had a similar situation where the child filed on their own, claiming themselves. I filed the 1040X for the child. It had been accepted when I checked an hour later and the next morning I filed the parents return claiming the child and it was accepted.

My client did have 2 incidents of ID theft from his credit union recently. He finally got through and agent also didn’t have an answer as to why he got the letter. Agent asked 3 questions, how much SS did you get, how much estimated tax did you pay and where did your pension come from. After 3rd question agent said Bingo, you’re good to go. My guess was that someone tried to file for a refund in his name, but I filed this guy early and he owed. I hear IRS is getting good at stopping ID theft.