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Many years ago I had a few clients who owned multiple rental properties. Most were constantly complaining they weren't getting enough tax deductions and at the same time complaining they had to pay too much for the services they obtained from their vendors. Eventually the conversation came around to the fact that I was one of their vendors and maybe I could help out by reducing my fees. Their sense of entitlement was boring and took up a lot of my time in unproductive conversation about tax-avoidance schemes. Eventually I got rid of most of them and stopped taking landlords as clients. I found most of them too cheap to keep.

Did you prepare and efile this return through ATX? If so, why not look at the forms that were actually transmitted. As I recall, ATX does show that information. ETA: Now that I've merged the two topics, I see that you paper-filed this return so that ATX will not have an e-file record of the forms.

Please keep this thread going as you go through the process. I am interested to see how hard it is and what value it provides. Tom Longview TX

PIA is not that new. They've been around a long time. PIA has been criticized by the security community for keeping "logs" but for general non-illegal uses it is probably fine. To add to the other comment about the FBI person saying use a VPN - for PIA that would be pointless for true anonymity because you use a credit card to sign up and instead of the ISP having all your browsing habits, if the VPN keeps logs - they have all your browsing data. Do you trust your ISP more or your VPN provider? That's the question you have to ask. Suffice to say I think it makes sense to rotate and use multiple VPN providers. I use RingCentral and I have no problem using for example Surfshark VPN to access my RingCentral administration. An alternative to VPN would be to use a third party solution like AnyDesk or another remote desktop option to simply access a computer remotely or virtual instance. I personally use an Unraid server at home that's plugged into business class fiber internet. High quality VPN shouldn't slow you down at all. I am in Asia right now as we speak, working on ATX at home remotely through a VPN with no slow down. For kicks I did a speed test. I'm getting 130 Mbps download and 15 Mbps Upload. This is more than sufficient for 99% of us. For what it's worth, if I need to upload huge files - I'm not doing it through VPN anyway if the network I'm using is that insecure.

Simplified to a "post card", resulted in a 2 page 1040 now being about 5 pages on average. Gotta agree with @Lion EA

Simplification = I get to increase my fees!

When I filed my mother's inventory with the state years ago, the attorney told me that she was the only decedent she'd ever encountered who had cash in her possession!

Unfortunately with our audit so low, audit roulette works for many taxpayers who brag about about it to their friends who then complain and whine that we need to do something because they pay way too much!

That's not what she or most people want, but who knows what we'll end up with... if anything. This battle has raged since the 90s, at least.

And along that same line, it is not common practice to itemize every single piece of personal property owned by the decedent on form 706; 10 pairs of socks @ $5, 6 blue jeans @ $10...........etc.

I agree with you Sara, those items are immaterial, and right or wrong I have never itemized them out on form 709.

I doubt that any of us even question clients about these lesser gifts. I've filed lots of gift tax returns but have never asked if they also gave their offspring $25 with a birthday card, bought them a sweater for Christmas, or took them out for lunch last Sunday. Nor has any client volunteered this info. Should I be asking? Would the IRS actually ask about this? The only ones I can think of who would care would be the states if the giver eventually applied for Medicaid. Christian, Pub 550 contains detailed information and an example of how to report previously taxed interest. Essentially you report the amount on the 1099INT when the bond is cased (which will be all the interest the bond earned since purchased), the enter on another line "U.S. Savings Bond Interest Previously Reported” as a negative number. This will include the accrued interest her dad reported when he transferred the bond and the accrued interest she was required to report each year after that. Since most savings bonds are online now, and this one will be when transferred, do advise your clients to create an inventory at treasurydirect.gov. You enter the bond purchase date, face amount, and serial number, and you can update it each year. While treasurydirect will give you the accrued interest each year, only the inventory gives you the lifetime amounts as well. This way when the bond is cashed you have a clear record of how much accrued interest was already taxed. (I once complained to treasurydirect that I couldn't find the total accrued interest, and they told me to use the inventory feature.)

Send your client one of many IRS vs real estate professionals cases

Senator Warren should try doing her own tax returns this way and see what results she gets. She wants the IRS to provide a government version of Turbotax without considering all the problems people have had with TT. It is so bad that that TT has had to hire EA's and CPA's to help taxpayers prepare their returns. Will the IRS be providig help as well with IRS employees that have had only a rudimentary course in taxes?

A realtor who exaggerates, what a surprise! /s/s/s

LOL. The IRS might not be going after clients for fraud, but they will most certainly disallow some credits and assess penalties and interest for late payment.

I had similar one to this. Other people saying makes lots of money. So I ask could tp if they could get other people sch e and lets compare. NO deal. So how much is truth?

This was a penalty for under payment of estimated tax for 2020 ! I sent this in in October 2020 and here in July 2022 I get the notice. I think I included a Form 2210 explaining that my income is usually increased in December in some years due to unexpected capital gains. My payments in 2020 were more than my tax bill in 2019 but all to no avail. So I will likely be filing a 1040-X down the road. In 2021 I paid much of my tax through withholding on an annual IRA MRD since these payments are regarded as paid evenly over the year. I doubt I will recover any of the penalty and as noted in attempting to discuss the matter with an IRS rep was politely informed she did not have access to the specific forms on my return. I have rarely ever paid any kind of penalty and have discovered their efforts on behalf of the taxpayer begin with something on the order of "Do you wish to make arrangements to pay your penalty? " and go downhill from there.