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Interesting. I have a Dell laptop and when I plug the computer in to a surge protector, I get a warning about my power supply. When I plug into the wall outlet, there is no warning. I wonder if there is some kind of surge protection built into our power cords and when you put a second surge protector on it it messes with the current. (I never understood why I needed that black box on the cord). Just a tech ignorant accountant talking out loud. Tom Longview, TX

Thanks for the feedback and heads up on the Cinven connection. I in the process of demoing TaxAct since I am basically concentrating on individual returns. So far the cost savings may not justify the lost of features in Drake and the effort to learn a new software system in this stage of my career.

"Blame Colorado. Beginning in 2022, the state began imposing a retail delivery fee on retail sales of tangible personal property delivered by motor vehicle to a location in the state. In order to apply, the sale had to include at least one item of tangible personal property subject to sales or use tax. The retailer is required to collect the retail delivery fee from the purchaser and remit the fee to the Colorado Department of Revenue. " "Significantly, Minnesota and New York are now proposing their own retail delivery fees, similar to the Colorado statute. In fact, Minnesota is looking at raising its proposed retail delivery fee from 40 to 75 cents. " "Not surprisingly, the Colorado fee has drawn criticism from the business community, according to Scott Peterson, vice president of U.S. tax policy and government relations for Avalara. The fee has to be reported on a separate return, so every retailer has to file two tax returns monthly — one for sales tax, and another return just for the delivery fee — that's a big step backward in simplification." Since most states are predicting declines in state tax revenue, I expect these delivery fees (Tax ) will spread to more states.

You forgot the "U" in Fubar

Treasury requires you to file past six years to get back into compliance--I believe if they do not have a current issue with overseas accounts, then statute of limitation (5 years) applies? [not a lawyer]

Dear Marilyn, So sorry to hear that! So glad you were able to get away and hope that did not spoil the R/R too much! Best, D In WI

Try a different protector. They do wear out. Also, use a quality protector, maybe not a power strip for "$9.99" (if that is the case). The power "wart". It is generally an AC/DC converter, going from AC to what seems now to usually be 19v DC. DC is likely better for the equipment, and probably mirrors (close enough) what the battery pack provides as nominal voltage. Also makes it VERY easy to support US and EUR power sources without altering the actual product. In many cases, they provide a simple wall adapter as the wart can manage the different incoming power. For instance, in our RV, I added a TV. Since I want to be able to run it off battery, and I know how the power wart functions, I cut off the wart, and wired the TV directly into a step up converter. Did the same for a dehumidifier which runs when we are home. The benefit is the items run off the 12v system, so battery, but if plugged into AC or running the gen, they still run. To go off the ledge, since the ladies in our family like to use their hair irons and dryers, even when not plugged in, and their pod coffee maker, I upgraded to LFP batteries and installed a quality inverter. so they can power up even when we have no AC connection and cannot run the generator. Of course, these things are built in to high dollar RV's, but we don;t have a long enough space at home to keep one of those monsters.

I certainly sympathize with anyone learning a new software system--I tried OLT two years ago (I put about half my clients on OLT and left half on ATX) and was not unhappy with the product, but it certainly raises the stress-level messing with new software. When I demoed Drake years ago, I quickly found I was not in the mood to learn a new system. So there is a big intangible benefit to keeping the same software (which the software companies are well aware of).

I had a client yesterday with a balance due notice from 2021. It didn't appear to be first notice since it didn't have the line by line changes section. Rather than wait on hold for hours on the phone, I asked if we could set up an IRS account for her. She agreed and I was able to figure out that 2 of the estimated payments they told me they made for 2021 somehow got posted to 2019 tax year. Of course she then remembered that they received a refund that they didn't know what it was for. LOL! I think I'm going to go the online route rather than phone calls going forward if the client is willing. Much easier!

Thank you all for your concerns and comments. Since I am on vacation for this week, I am down to my Surface Pro 3 which has had very little use and is a little hard to get used to, though I do have the keyboard. Nevertheless, I am a little afraid to even turn it on. The laptop that blew was in perfect condition with not a lot of hours on it. There were no signs of warping, leaking or swelling. My Granddaughter tells me that her office is constantly watching for warpage of keyboards as the first sign. When I get home, I will try to send you pictures of the junk.

The punishment for competence.

I tried to get rid of one PITA client this year by suggesting VITA and local free-file services, telling them I had to increase my fees but they could get good service for free. Nope; they came back saying they'd rather pay me more, because they like and trust me. Ah, well.

correct And most likely is 39 year property unless it can be proven otherwise per reg 1.856-10 (d): (2) Inherently permanent structure - (i) In general. The term inherently permanent structure means any permanently affixed building or other permanently affixed structure. Affixation may be to land or to another inherently permanent structure and may be by weight alone. If the affixation is reasonably expected to last indefinitely based on all the facts and circumstances, the affixation is considered permanent.

We all know how the TCJA significantly reduced the deduction of Home Office expenses. Just read an article that a workaround was to use an Accountable Plan to deduct the same expenses. Just set up an Accountable Plan and reimburse the S Corp or C Corp owner/employee on a monthly or quarterly basis for all of the same expenses that you would deduct for a Schedule C Home Office including mortgage interest, utilities and depreciation. I have never run across this idea before. Just wondering what everyone thinks of this approach?

Yes, an accountable expense reimbursement plan has always been useful for employee reimbursements, because even before TCJA unreimbursed employee biz expenses on Sch A were not a help to non-itemizers or to those where AGI limited their other credits/deductions and no help for most states. After TCJA, it's about the only way for an employee/owner of an S- or C-corp to be made whole. The corp gets to deduct reimbursements made to employees per their plan; the employees do NOT have added income. Been using accountable plans for my clients since decades ago at HRB. A snippet from TTB: "Author’s Comment: An S corporation with an accountable plan in place can reimburse shareholder employees for authorized expenses. Under a properly structured plan, the reimbursements will be deductible for the corporation and excluded from the shareholder employee’s income. See Accountable/Nonaccountable Plans, page 8-11, 1040 Edition/Deluxe Edition."

Back in 2021, I did some research on mining and did an cost profit analysis. Below is part of the post we had posted. Granted in todays video card and electric costs profit will shrink. Our electric doubled this past year. Current electric delivery rates in our area are around .10 to .11 cents per kilowatt hour. Again the post below is from 2021 when bitcoin was "In the News" and electric was around .048 per kilowatt. At current values (hash rates, difficulty rate and bitcoin price) a single Radeon 570 pc rig would earn around $3.00 - $3.50 per day (after operating costs). Thats $1,095 profit a year. Now build a PC rig with 6 Radeons would earn you $6,570 profit a year (at current values). A 6 card pc rig would cost roughly $1750 to $2,000 to build. After 4 months the rig is paid for. Now the latest ASIC Miners can earn you up to $250 a week or $13,000 per year. At current levels. But they cost around $6,000 to buy. An ASIC would pay for itself in 6 months. So in the long run ASIC's are the way to go. I predict bitcoin will be around $5,000 per coin in about a month (if not sooner). And with the governments around the world on the fence about cryptocurrencies, that alone is making shit volatile. Now if the governments come to a consensus and acknowledge cryptocurrencies, well one could see bitcoin shoot up to $100,000 in a few years. But then again, they could all go belly up !! Very interesting and unpredictable investment.

There are huge companies with the best computer farms and there is no chance for regular people to be profitable mining. If you have $300 a month for electricity, you are better off buying $300 in coins every month.

I have a client who has been a miner for years, long before it was the in thing. He just put in a solar farm to help power it. In all these years, he has never earned enough crypto through mining to cover his gigantic electric bill. It may take lifetimes to cover the cost of the farm. I suppose if the price of the crypto he earned has gone up a whole lot in value these costs may be covered.

Exactly, a high school custodian saved $17,000 on electricity by using the school power on a handful of machines.

Look at all the Crypto companies currently in bankruptcy. Safest way to invest in crypto is as a "Miner". Buy or build a couple dedicated miner PC's or Asic Miner and let it go to work. Helps if you own your own Nuclear Power Plant to runs these energy hogging miners too !!!

Warren Buffett says that if you offered him all the Bitcoin in the world for a total price of $25 he would pass. Cathie Wood says Bitcoin is going to be priced at $1m per in 7 years. Crypto is not an investment as it offers no ability to perform a discounted cash flow analysis. It is a speculative instrument like gold or Beanie Babies.

And sidewalks, driveways, fences, etc. are land improvements depreciated over 15 years. Of course, valuing those would be difficult without a cost segregaton study and that may not be worth it for these properties.

Congratulations, friends and colleagues - we all lived to tell the tales and file another day. Take it easy today. I set up some payroll taxes and will dig out a couple of bills that probably need to be paid in the next week or so, and then I'm gonna play hookey for the rest of the day. Here's a congratulations gif that I couldn't figure out how to embed. Hooray!

Finished up a couple of loose ends in the morning then took one of those naps where you sleep so deep that when you wake up you have no idea where you are, what time it is, or how long you slept. Turned out to be almost two hours.

Today I treat myself to my first ever (just because) hairdo at the salon. I might work this afternoon or I might just take a nap. Ah, sweet freedom.

I checked my last few e-files, and have been reading the news. A person has gone missing around here, so that’s weird. jklcpa, congrats!!!

I filed some papers, paid my electric bill and the personal payroll taxes, and downloaded a couple of personal bank statements while I was online paying the electric bill. Outside of that, I puttered, and poked around a little looking a kitchen rugs online to put in our new kitchen. Didn't have time to look before the season started up. Didn't see anything I liked. And I sat and enjoyed a truly lovely cup of tea and drank it hot without having to microwave it even once. I may celebrate such success by going to bed early.

I woke up with about 12 things on my to-do list. I just turned the page over and decided I'll 'find' it tomorrow.

What a wonderful feeling. Congrats.

Annual inspection would clear parking on my street, if we had such a thing. Sometimes an HOA sounds better than worse.

The only accident I ever had was on the day after tax season ended, so I tried not to drive anywhere on that day.

Haha, I'm sitting in a line right now at motor vehicle waiting to get a car inspected. Not much fun! I did something yesterday though that I'm very happy about. I made my final mortgage payment.

I think sometimes it’s our fault clients or people in general treat us bad, because we permit it. A couple of years I had a tenant that had every excuse to pay the monthly rent, the rent was paid late, but paid, this happened for a couple of years, until I had a talk with them. They had the nerve to get upset because I was no longer a nice person and threatened not to pay the rent, they were evicted in less than a month.

Just arrived at vacation home on Friday afternoon. Long awaited R and R. We were waiting for repair man for WiFi Thermostat. Had just finished unpacking and I plugged in my 17 inch laptop. We were standing about 4 feet away and heard what sounded like a shotgun blast. Turned around to find my computer and anything near it completely engulfed in two to three foot flames. My husband grabbed a towel and smothered some of the flames and out the door with it onto the lawn. The battery had exploded. I still haven't gotten over the shock. There went my 17" Win 10 Acer laptop that I loved. Just be aware to never walk away from your laptop when it is plugged in. We don't know what happened or why, but we could have lost our house if we had not been right there when it happened. I am thankful and sad at the same time. I could have been badly burned or whatever. Hot, flying plastic is imbedded in a few things. Of course, Homeowners insurance is $1000 deductible. Hardly pays to file a claim. Just want you all to be AWARE!

Probable failed/damaged battery; thermal runaway (can think of it as being like a short). Tech is much better now than a design which is likely 7+ years old.

"As of March 4, 2023, taxpayers made a total of 17 million attempts to contact the IRS by calling the various customer service toll-free phone assistance lines. The IRS reported that 4.4 million calls were answered with automation, and telephone assistors answered 3.5 million calls and provided an 80.6% level of service with a five-minute average speed of answer." Now I understand. They included every automated response as a successfully answered call