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My motto "Procrastination on your part does not mean emergency on my part". After a certain date, clients wanting to drop things off or uploading documents or finally answering those last questions are told that they will be extended and I will be starting or completing their returns after June 1st. All clients whether relatives, friends, etc. We are in business for ourselves, we make the final decision regarding our time management and mental well being. I have rarely received pushback for giving them that information and they are free to go somewhere else.

Usually their bill is slightly higher plus the cost of the extension if needed. I especially take pleasure in charging the extension fees and then completing the return the day after for those special types of clients.

I needed the extended deadline. And, my clients right now just cannot get it together, or they get it together and hide it from themselves. H*ll if I know. So, yeah, they pay more than a "normal" client, but I betcha I make less per hour. One couple picked up yesterday, sweetest people ever, big project: Form 1040 with A, B, C, D, E, three 4562s; Form 1041, TN FAE and PA returns. He came in to pay this morning, I guess it would have been too easy to handle that part yesterday. Talked my ear off. After he left, I looked down at the check. Not signed. Agree with Ron: it's them, not us.

Capital loss as long as it was an arms length sale, to an unrelated party, and not used personally or intended for personal use before the sale.

Congress has been under-funding the IRS for so long, I usually give them the benefit of the doubt when they screw up. I'm glad the administration wants to fund the audit department better, but I hope they also increase the general funding. Meanwhile, i have a printer I'm not using....

I am in Texas, extended date is June 15th. I don't trust IRS to not send letters, so moving along as if May 17th is deadline. That and I have other state clients... arggh. I hate even going to May, wish it was April 15th. Just screws up another month of my life. I agree with the first reply, don't bill more, but end up having just a little more dollars in the bill if they bring late every year.

Passed to the bene's on the K-1. Very common to see on a 1041. Tom Modesto, CA

Yes, one the life lessons that I have learned the hard way is that you have to care of yourself in order to take care of others.

If I weren't winding down my practice or it was just cash, I might not be worried. After 42 tax seasons, I am thinking very seriously about getting out sooner than my previous plan of 70. We lost my mom and my husband's brother already this year. My husband's COPD is much worse after having Covid and I need to do more around the house than ever now. Life is too short and I think that I would like to enjoy the first several months in the year for a change. Once I hit full retirement age in a couple of years, I might just find something else to do that is not so stressful. My sister is a mess mentally and it is taking at least two hours every day to talk to her and calm her down. I can't wait until she gets another cat scan to see if her brain tumor is coming back. I still love my clients, but this year has been hard on them because I have had so many personal issues.

She is a part time musician, part time college music teacher and plays music at her house of worship. All three stopped last spring, so she applied for unemployment. She had no income coming in. Now, MD is asking for all of her unemployment back because she got W2s and 1099s. They interviewed her by phone and decided she wasn't entitled to any unemployment. I told her to contact her politicians and the Baltimore news stations and make a ton of noise. Go after the fraudsters, not a hard-working mom who legitimately needed the money to get by.

Some states are of the opinion that unemployment compensation is bad and they make it almost impossible to collect. Then they like to falsely claim that their unemployment rate is low. MD is not one of those states but this clawback needs to be halted.

What would be our due diligence? What do we ask for re value of house, ownership, mortgages, etc.?

Thanks. I was hoping you would both say that.

Double your fee and hope he goes away!

For RE but not for AAA.

This is why I decided in the mid-90s to never have book depreciation. I don't have any publicly traded clients. But, to answer your question, the balance sheet is supposed to match you books, so you are correct. But he is correct that AAA should be 33,000. ATX has a reconciling worksheet for AAA to RE and get rid of the 2,000 other reduction in AAA (assuming that is your depreciation difference).

You are correct

Usually, for those that come in after March 31st in a normal season. But I've been so burnt out this month I forgot all about it, so I only charged a couple of PIA folks.

ILLMAS, your link worked. Thank you!

Decedents home was sold and the stepped up basis was equal to the sale price. The closing cost produced a loss of $35,000. What happens to this loss.?

I sure was glad to see this discussion. Just ran into the exact same situation on my final return before the 17th and was planning to come here to ask about it. The only difference is that mine was a K-1 from a trust. Glad I procrastinated. Thanks for the excellent replies to Max, and thanks to Max for asking such a fine question.

To answer this part of the original question - No, 3115 is not appropriate and will not be a remedy. This is not a change in accounting method. The taxpayer missed making the election, and there is no way to fix that now.

Yes, that is what I am saying. Please see cbslee's and TexTaxToo's posts above also. Rev. Proc. 2010-51 says this: "By using the business standard mileage rate, the taxpayer has elected to exclude the automobile (if owned) from MACRS pursuant to § 168(f)(1)" and that election must be made by the due date of the return including extensions. The time for making this election is in §301.9100-7T(a)(1) and §301.9100-7T(a)(2)(i)(A) that says:

Maybe it is - from Pub 463: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463#en_US_2020_publink100033937

Basis can NEVER be negative. Whoever prepared that K1 basis worksheet did not know what they were doing. Partners have basis worksheets too. I would ask for the final K1 with basis worksheet for the 1065, but I probably wouldn't trust it after the mess they made of the S corp basis.

Have you actually seen the return to know that both were actually deducted? Just guessing, but is that what the client thinks, that both were deducted but weren't really? I'd want to see for myself and not rely on what the client is saying. I mean, every program allows the input for both methods and it will choose the better of the two, so if he did that and actual exp+deprec was higher then that is what may have happened. Also, client may be thinking mileage was used if he entered it for the program to calculate the percentage of use for business purposes.

It's 100% your choice not to put them on extension.

Like all of you, we are trying as sweet as we can, but there are always people we dont like. Especially, relatives, soo hard, late and demands time and fees, how can I ask a fair fee from relative. I always wish they forget and I can put them on extension, but they wont, they pop up at last moment and say, it is easy..... so sad....

For some years now, when people ask if my fees are negotiable, my response has been, "Yes, but only UP!"

Join the club! I am SO done with this tax season.

I’m just a little bit tired right now. Just a wee bit.

I only go to their site if I need to rehang an e-file that got hung up. Otherwise I use this site. When I go onto the other community board it sometimes scares me to see some of the questions and answers.

may 17 still not enough time

Without the extension, most of our returns would have needed to be extended. Some forms were just barely ready by 4/15. 6/15 would have been ideal this year.

It's amazing how many customers think the IRS is doing preparers a big favor by giving them an extra month to prepare returns. No way. I wanted this season to be over April 15th, and I suspect most of you felt the same way. To answer the original question, my fees tend to go up during the season after I am drug through the garden on ongoing changes and PITA stuff I hadn't foreseen going into the year. So late filers are subject to the maximum fee - not by design but by what happens.

Automatic extension. Fee's are determined at a later date.

Most clients get some sort of Courtesy Discount. Until the last week. Discounts are done.

Flipped property in a Schedule C is inventory.

I would think that "flipped" property was not like kind to rental property

cbslee is correct. Keep in mind that even if there was a valid 1031 exchange that was properly set up and executed, there wasn't though, the fact that he took money from it would make at least that much taxable and indicates that not enough was spent on the new replacement property for the transaction to be totally free of tax.

Based on the information you have provided, there was no 1031 exchange. 1031 exchanges involving the sale of the old property and the purchase of the replacement property have to be handled thru a Qualified Intermediary usually involving investment real property. There is no after the fact magic you can perform to address this situation.

In my engagement letter, I stipulate a deadline by which time all, and I mean ALL, data must be received in order to timely file. If this isn't met, I caution that I may extend their returns at my discretion. It depends on my workload and how I feel. If I do extend, well, that costs extra, but I don't charge extra for preparing the return. I bill time. As it happens, many of the late comers tend to email and drip documents in bit by bit. Sooooo, every email I read and respond to and every document I address, well, I'm billing time. At my age and situation, I will not go to extraordinary lengths to complete a return when my conditions are not met. I'm fortunate with the majority of my clients and not afraid to lose one that doesn't play well with me. YMMV

The reason they are copying and printing is because many of their software systems aren't capable of sharing information. The reason that their systems and hardware is so out of date is because Congress hasn't appropriated the funds to update their systems and hardware. Then on top of that Congress and the While House keeps making so many last minute changes. I would have thought that this group of people would understand why we are in the mess we are in. Unfortunately, I guess it's human nature to scapegoat the low hanging fruit. I really feel sorry for the people working at the IRS because it really isn't their fault.

Im always curious as to people who can file early in tax season, always wait until the last minute. Going forward, I think I am going to add a surcharge for those who come in the final week and expect their returns to be done before the deadline.

For those clients who are routinely late, my invoice calculation seems to come up charging more than I normally would. Hmm.

IRS needs to move to paperless. What are they copying and printing? And who thought asking Grover Norquist about this was a good idea. He is full of .

If you need any assistance with OHIO return, send me a PM, and I will assist you. I work part time at a firm, and we will do1,800-2,000 OHIO returns every year. I can help you.

I don't know if your client is lucky, but our state has not returned calls for weeks for people who were victims of identify theft.