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I certainly get the message and intend to do some changing. Hopefully my assistant will be on her own next year and take a good portion of my load with her. If I didn't really love this work and my clients, it wouldn't be so hard to let go, but I know that I have to. Thanks for all of the encouragement. I just noticed that the last return I filed today did not include a 1099-G that was not in her folder. I am fixing it and calling it a day.

You are speaking directly to me. As a warning. And I thank you because I needed to be reminded. I've been doing taxes since 1986 or 1987. On my own since I think 1990? I have brain fog right now but it's close. Many, many of my clients are about to be "fired." It's best for all of us. After almost 40 years? Time to put myself first.

I am thinking about doing all my business in the "other office" down the hall, and use it exclusively, that will resolve the issue.

Yes you have to take care of yourself so that you can help other people.

Sounds good, but I would suggest this substitution: After reflecting, I realize that I need to reduce my workload to a more manageable level.

i totally agree. I can remember working 11 hour days and drinking lots of coffee. I have been gradually cutting back the last decade and now I just work mornings

When I read posts like some here in this topic and others, and I think back to the workload I endured in my earlier career, I worry about some of you and about us as a profession overall. I haven't made nearly the amount I could have for whatever talents I have, but I have made a concerted effort for a healthier work-life balance and am happier because of those choices. This work can be extremely rewarding, but I believe that it shouldn't be at the expense of our health and well-being. I wish you all well, hope that you recover quickly, and are able to enjoy some quality time away from the office. I also hope to see you here in the off-season as we continue to work at a less hectic pace.

Then for sure an allocable expense per the code. 280A - Disallowance of certain expenses in connection with business use of home, rental of vacation homes, etc. Paragraph (c)(1) allows an exception per legislative grace: "Subsection (a) shall not apply to any item to the extent such item is allocable to a portion of the dwelling unit which is exclusively used on a regular basis" That is very straight forward in saying if a certain utility is not used in the business, and in the exclusively used area, it is not allowed. The author of this article takes the same position https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2020/may/deduct-home-office-expenses-coronavirus-remote-work/ : "Not all indirect expenses may be included in the allocation. For instance, utilities and services not used in the business, lawn care, and the first telephone line to the house all must be excluded. An example of an excluded utility would be propane gas supplied for cooking on the kitchen range." Another article, same position, https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/expenses-related-to-your-home-office-are-deductible And that article goes on to say "If you believe that your business accounts for significantly more (or less) of a particular utility, you should increase (or decrease) your business percentage of that utility bill accordingly" I agree with that, if for instance your client has a business that consumes 40% of their water usage, but only exclusively uses 20% of the residence; then use 40% as the allocable portion per the code. The code is the authority, the IRS worksheets and pubs are not. This thread has changed how I look at the OIH utility allocation on both a professional and personal level. I don't anticipate any of my clients jumping ship as I bring them into compliance with the code.

Client has probably been watching too many episodes of “Yellowstone”. Wants to project the Kevin Costner look when riding into town. Maybe wearing a logo vest as well? it’s probably good you passed on the engagement. Think about all the bad things that always happened when John Dutton didn’t get his way. It often ended with a trip to the “train station.”

Absolutely agree too. No job is worth sacrificing your health. I’ve learned to pace myself, only because my time the last two years have been tied up with caregiving at home, having a 101 y/o mother 232 miles away that I need to relieve my brother every month, who is ready to shoot himself. So finding a balance to safeguard my health was imperative. I found that balance and never felt better. I hope everyone here can do the same. Congratulate yourselves, you made it!

100% agree with this.

You have to consider as well that a smaller truck cannot haul heavy trailers. I have a client that has a nice 350 that I know is occasionally used for personal stuff (hauling the boat.) But if you consider how much a loaded trailer weighs when you load a piece of equipment on it thats weighing 20,000 lbs, you need a pretty big engine to move that thing, and stop that thing. Then add a few hills or mud, then he needs a big truck. He needs to keep track of usage, but this kind of truck is basically a piece of equipment. I tell my farm and contractor clients to take pictures of the trucks hauling something heavy so when asked I can let the auditor from NYC know that this truck has a purpose.

Kathy, I think this is spot on along with the recommendation of management of workload. I have been thinking about this for several days now after an encounter I had with one of my 5's. She called and said I had forgotten to include the payment voucher for NYS. I wasn't sure how I might have missed that but said I would send her a PDF of the return and she could print it out. She said Ok and that she would go the library and print it. I sent the file and got a call a day later. She was all upset because it was going to cost a lot to print the return ( all she needed was the voucher not the whole return) Well after more allegations of not paying attention, etc. I explained that all her tax docs are on one side of the folder and the returns, e-file docs, and cover letter are on the other. I hear some ruffling of papers and sure enough there was the voucher in with the return all by itself. This all occurred on April 14. Thanks for allowing me to rant and for the very wise and diplomatic wording of the termination letter.

And by training, I am an engineer. I know the breed very well indeed. There are some who get lost in the weeds and fixate on unimportant details that make no difference whatsoever (worked with some of those as an engineer, too, and they're just as insufferable there). It comes down to having to be right, whether they know what they are talking about or not, and not trusting the expertise of anyone who is not them. I don't want a client who does not respect my expertise, and any engineer, at this point, starts on on probation as 90%+ of all the disrespecting clients over 30 years have been engineers.

I think you should've led with that !! Dan really sums it up.

Agree, make it positive and not like you were on the brink of going over the edge. Also I do not agree with pricing a client out your practice as you need to be accountable for your billings.

I decided to keep it very simple. This is what I came up with: "This tax season was rather hectic for me, especially toward the end. After reflecting, I realize that I need to reduce some of the workload to maintain my sanity. While I have enjoyed helping with your tax prep needs over the years, I think it’s best that you make other arrangements for next year. I wanted to let you know now so you have ample time to find another preparer." Thoughts?

Reminds me of the guy who called yesterday and asked me to file an extension. He never brought his paperwork in for the extension that I filed last year. We told him that we didn't have time for him. He said, "Doesn't she know who this is?" My assistant told him that I did know and we didn't have time for him. He hung up. Goodby!!

Good thing there is a handy supply of paper right there to document your business purpose... Tom Longview, TX

Only if you keep a contemporaneous log

Is it "ordinary and necessary" to "do your business" during working hours? Asking for another friend. Tom Longview, TX

Are you saying they did not take the credit over 10 years ago, but want to do so now? Why would they receive any letters? Maybe I am not following you here. Way past if 10 years ago.

Look on the positive sign. It's over, until Oct. which is never as busy as Apr. I screwed up royaly and now have to report the bad news to a client with an LLC. Forgot to plug in the LLC income to the SE page. It's going to add about $12K to his tax bill.

If someone did that to me, I wouldn't have wasted an hour and may have considered not continuing on with the client, all depending on the tone of the lecture and insistence. Probably not over rounding though. Twice in my career I had returns ready to file, took them back from the client and disassembled them, handed original source documents back, and showed the (former) client the door. However, it was people who had outright lied, insisted I file a certain way, and when I refused to file fraudulent returns, accused me of not knowing what I was doing! Fine, they could go find someone else!

Yesterday was the worst day of my career. Patti said that nobody liked her; I don't even like myself. I finished last night at 10 PM with two pages of extensions filed; swollen feet, an aching back and exhaustion. I am trying to get things done this morning that have been neglected for months. Let's get some of these bills paid, etc. Turns out that most of them were already paid. Must have done it in my sleep. I prepared a deposit which will sit here until someone goes to the bank for me. My assistant showed up all grumpy after I almost had to shove her out the door last night. She will never know how close she came to being fired. You see why I don't like myself today.

Did your clients sell that first home in the intervening years? The credit owed is settled up at the sale. If sold for a loss, it's erased.

I think that's really strange, because usually if there's a FTHB credit and a 5405 required, the efile will reject (in my experience ... having clients who didn't tell me they took said credit and needed to pay it back).

From a CPE talk I gave back in 2023; (staged) me under my desk after fully reviewing the disaster I had inadvertently accepted as a new client. You may find amusement in this, @mcb39.

This Tax Advisor Article should be helpful where they discuss the meaning of a"Limited Partner" in name only: I give the law firm high marks for creativity but after you read this article you should file an extension and you will need to have a serious discussion with your client . https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2024/may/limited-partners-and-self-employment-tax-a-new-test/

The instant I think a client is not being truthful, they become an ex-client. That's a hard red line for me.

For reference, this home based business does use water, including a steamer table that uses quite a bit.

Okay, now we're getting silly but isn't this a fun 'relief' at this season's point?

Who could imagine this would get into such detail? Thanks, Catherine, for providing this 'fun' diversion in these last grueling days of the season. It's certainly led us into some interesting rabbit holes (just in time for Easter)!

Our clients can spend their money foolishly. But their record-keeping better be accurate and organized, so I can make sense of what's deductible.

A client walks through the livingroom to get to the OIH, but we can't use the sq' of the LR as part of OIH. Regular and exclusive. My clients can use my hall bath, but it's not part of my OIH, so I wouldn't allocate the bathroom part of my water to my OIH. I keep changing sides on this. Probably 'cause I'm too sleepy to read the code.

I thought it was so preposterous I didn't even go into the other methods. There has to be concern as to whether such an expense is ordinary/necessary, and also whether we are being told the truth.

You could have used actual expenses - gas, maintenance, insurance, etc. This way it doesn't matter what the mileage was, if it was 100% farm use. Then tell the client to keep a log from here on.