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I have talked with many of my fellow tax professionals and I keep hearing that if the mess at the IRS does not get cleaned up they will be leaving the field. They are tired of spending hours replying to IRS letters on simple matters and then getting no reply to the letters for months and months. Clients waiting over a year for amended returns to be processed. Clients continually call to see what is going on and then are upset when you tell you don't know, waiting on the IRS to respond. And you can not get through to anyone on the phone, and when you do, the person can not (or will not), help to fix the matter. Clients are frustrated, tax professionals are frustrated, and the IRS just doesn't seem to care.

I do that too. It's a great summary with the flow of the old 1040.

"The IRS has initiated a pilot program that now requires Practitioner Priority Service callers to repeat phrases before being transferred to an IRS assistor. This pilot uses speech recognition to help ensure a live person is calling and not a mechanical device. The new process is intended to improve customer service by reducing unnecessary wait times" Well this would definitely short circuit CallENQ

Yes, because he has had the account for at least 5 years, he can withdraw up to $10K penalty free under that exclusion as long as he meets the requirements for a first-time home buyer.

Yes, underpayment of SUT, Workers Compensation Insurance Premiums & other state and local taxes plus penalties and interest.

Only heard the stories. For CT, the phrase most often used is the Audit from H%!L.

So there we go. "Wanted: Receptionist. If you are good, you will do anything and everything."

Think I've posted this before, but it's worth repeating. I read somewhere on an IRS TIGTA (IRS's version of police Internal Affairs) report that they reprimanded a division of IRS for using as a password the word (no, not a convoluted, lengthy combo of numbers, letters, characters they ask of us) PASSWORD. Didn't say if upper or lower case required - your choice I guess.

Has anyone ever been involved in an employee vs independent contractor state audit? If yes, what were the consequences of treating an employee as a independent contractor? Thanks

Well said. Tom Longview, TX

My son did that several years ago when the limit was $4000. It made a huge difference and he is now set with real estate. I'm not sure of any requirement that the 10% penalty exemption is restricted to contributions. It seems a bit confusing to have exceptions but not for earnings, too. I did not look at IRC Sec. 408A(d), the reference given in Quickfinders.

Recently there was a lengthy article detailing multiple security problems at many different IRS programs. A recipe for failure: Too many tax law changes, not enough employees, not enough funding, lurching from one tax year to the next tax year putting out one fire after another. As I have said before, 'A slow moving train wreck headed downhill." Long range planning is not a strength of our elected representatives!

I've used office supply places like Staples and also Amazon. I order by part rather than set as I don't need 5 copies of 1099.

I'll put it on my to-do list!

Ouch! I think I am looking at 3 years. But I don’t know that my clients will allow it.