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Get a free Google Voice number and give that out as your firm's cell #. Then you can type texts on your computer and receive texts, too. All of your texts will now be in one place that you can access from anywhere, and not just stored on your cellphone. You can decide what happens when someone calls that number. We have ours set to just take a message.

I dropped my fax line a year ago with no regrets. I plan on dropping my landline after this tax season. Right now I think that 70% of my communication is by email, 20 % by text and 10 % by phone. Actually the biggest issue is that younger clients don't check their emails.

You can change your IRS and professional contacts online. Filling out that change of address form at the post office notifies most financial institutions. When we moved, I hadn't yet gotten around to notifying Vanguard, bank, etc, but their mail started arriving at our new address. Landline may come as a package deal with your internet provider so you may just port your number. I am not comfortable doing financial anything on my cell so keep the landline for that purpose plus the fax. Also, see how cell service is at your new location before you bail on the landline. You are not addressing the really big hassles about moving (trying not to think about them?) We moved two years ago and we will NEVER do it again. It is work going through every single thing you own and deciding what the heck to do with each and every one (keep, sell, donate, recycle, junk). Then you have to do those things (pack, sell, donate, recycle, junk). You have to get the old home ready to sell (fix that drip, paint the bathroom, replace that screen, etc.) In your new place, you have to decide where to put everything and unpack it all, realize what's missing and go buy it (shower curtain hooks, door mat, electrician to install extra outlets, whatever). Take as many CPEs in January as you can because you won't have any more time. That said, it can be so worth it! We love our new home and community. As for retirement, weigh how much you love what you do against how much you love to do the things you have planned in retirement. (Definitely have plans.) It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Keep a few select clients, or work at a CPA firm just during tax season, or ditch it all and have fun doing the things you haven't had time to do. They're all good choices so you can't go wrong.

I really want to move to a single level house in 2022 and downsize. I also probably want to keep my practice a couple of years longer but am seriously contemplating retirement. How hard is it to change all those things with IRS - address, phone, PTIN, gosh knows what else? I'm also not keen on paying for more stationary but would have to do so, I think. And I was going to give up my land lines when we move but am not excited about client calls (along with all the spam calls) on a cell. I would also have do something about getting a new fax line as I currently have a second land line dedicated to that (which I list when I don't want to list my regular number - good for screening spam calls, I think). How have any of you dealt with this or should I just, at 75, call it? My license expires Dec. 2022. Any and all advice welcome! And if I should retire, how and when is it best to let clients know? My practice is too small to sell and, of course, no one else will treat them as kindly as I have .

I hate texting, typing on the tiny keyboard on my phone. But, as cbslee says, the younger clients don't check their emails often. The older ones either, if they're no longer in business and communicate mostly with their own younger family members. So, I type out my replies via email and then text them to Check Your Email. Have to do that with our own grown daughters, too.

We plan on moving to Colorado in a few years to be close to our son and I swear that I will be done with my business by then. I don't plan to retire, just find a part-time job that is not tax related and somewhat enjoyable. I have moved my office location three times and have worked out of my house for 10 years. I had lovely clients that moved me twice and set up my office. It was a huge pain to move and I won't move my office again. Changing my information was easy. Unpacking was a huge pain. I receive my faxes over the Internet, but still have a landline. My cell service is not the best in our neighborhood and I want a real landline to stay on hold with the IRS. I was not planning to retire for 6 years, but I'm thinking about three if that will work for us. My husband's health has gone downhill so much the past two years and I am spending so much time taking him to medical appontments and taking over the housework that he has done for the last ten years. Since we lost my mom this year and had to clean out and sell her house, our kids have been helping us (forcing us) to get rid of things that we don't really need. If has really been cathartic (and sad sometimes) to see that it has made a difference. It has taken a lot of time and many, many trips to donate and recycle stuff. It is a good thing, because if something happens to my husband, I won't stick around here long and will have to downsize alot to live in Littleton. If you still love your business, downsize it until you are comfortable and keep working. I wish that I still loved this job, but after 45 years of tax seaon running my life and the constant tax changes, I am ready to take it easier. I will miss my clients, but I have lost a lot of them the past few years due to age and illness. I lost three (two from the same family) in 7 days this month. I need to buy sympathy cards by the box. Just do what you think is best for you. Bonnie

We lost our house in a northern California wild fire in 2018. As far as my practice went, I had no problems even though all paper records were destroyed. We got our computers out. I had already begun to downsize and THIS made it easy. As far as the IRS and California franchise tax no problems what so ever. Address, phone numbers changes went well, even though we were out of a permanent residence for four or five months.

Sounds like your client is reporting on both 4835 and F and your concern is a CP 2000. I don't know if the IRS system will net and match the amounts from both 4835 and F to the 1099-G. To be safe, you can enter the full amount on line 3 of F and then back out the amount which is reported on line 3 of form 4835. Or, if your client is at low risk for heart failure, you can reported the exact amounts on each form, inform you client of a potential IRS letter and see what happens.

MC, you can allow popups on certain sites in Firefox. Copy the web address, then go to tools>settings>privacy & security. Scroll way down to "block pop ups" and add the site you want to allow in the exceptions box.