Leaderboard

OK; this was SO adorable. Mr. (Elderly gentleman) said he hoped to see me again next year. I agreed and said we would dance. So he thought that was a great idea and so we danced out into the hall where his daughter and son-in-law were waiting for him.

Candy, Cheez-its, pretzels, sometimes dinner and frequently breath mints (for me and my clients) for the obvious. How many of you have a can of Lysol or Febreeze under your desk for those special but unforgettable clients?

Did you find the GIrl Scout yet?!

it does not spill like beer - (which I did last night at 2 am) and oranges squirt all over - trying to be healthy! unless it's chocolate and it melts

Long time client. Has a rental, royalties, detailed schedule A, 2106 etc. Because they are friends, we always gave them a discount. Last year, their son talked them into going to Liberty so he could get a $50 referral payment. They also got a very heavily discounted return. Like only $17. But the bill would have been over $550 without the discount. So this year they want to come back. Sure, send me over your 2013 return. Roll the return from my software and put in the numbers from last year so I can roll the return again. Guess what, they don't match up? Why? Well, the rental has NO DEPRECIATION on the 2013 return. I keep looking at the schedule E and I don't see the depreciation. So that $17 return that got your son $50 cost you $1400 in Federal and State Taxes paid in 2013. Now I get to do the amended and the 2014. I bet they never leave again. And there will not be a discount this year. Tom Newark, CA

Awww, that's so sweet. Thursday, I had an elderly gentleman come in with his forms to see if he had to file. I told him no, if that was all he had, he did not. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a $25 gift card from Cracker Barrel. He said, "That's what you said last year, too, and you're awful sweet to let me come in and ask. Have a big lunch on me." He got a hug.

Or down the front of your shirt! M&M's may not melt in your hand but they sure do between the sisters!

Judy, That's great! I won't even count what I have left because I will be sick. I'm tired and very sick of almost every return having some strange issue this year.

I'm almost done! I have 4 ready for pickup on Mon/Tues, and 3 others on extension. Of the extensions, all are finished and ready for p/u shortly after the 15th except for one procrastinator promises to bring me data sometime soon. That leaves one partnership for my brothers' business and their two personal returns. All of their bookkeeping is done except for the 46 assets to scrub from the depreciation schedule and fill out the 3115. THAT is why it is last. On Wed I will be feeling like this:

I have a preacher who makes 6 digits, the church bought him an SUV a couple years ago. Now the church is buying him a house. And i live in rural western NYS!!

you gotta hate eating chocolate at your desk and accidentally having a piece drop between your legs onto the chair. Then, by the end of the day you have this nice little brown spot on your fanny. it's usually popcorn on my desk.......... :pop: :pop:

I have one where they get a Comp letter from the Realtor that says the rental value of the Pastors home is $4,800 a month. I am in the wrong biz. Rich

it is call the tax season 10 if I am lucky

I eat chocolate too fast for it to have time to melt. Besides, it's still cold here in CT, so melting is not a problem. Gaining weight since March is the problem.

I do eight pastors' returns. Four do everything right as far as I can see, including tithing. One of those four complained about my $150 fee five years ago, when I inherited him from my mother, who was charging him $75. I reminded him that the lady before her charged $210, and that was the end of that. #5 I have always suspected of underreporting income (no W-2). He got married this year to a lady who gives 25% to church, and is the best organized little lady on earth, and suddenly his income tripled. I think she held his feet to the fire. So to speak. #6 & #7 are nice guys, but they don't tithe, and they are finishing last in life and have not put it together. (Christians gotta tithe, that's the LEAST we can do.) #8 - Well, I can't believe he's called to pastor. That's the nicest thing I can say there.

I'm planning on sleeping late and scheduling a much needed haircut. I haven't had one since late Sept and have been shaping and using lots of hair spray to glue it in place. It's like fake hair that never moves.

I love ASP's CEO Walter Crouch, headquartered in Johnson City, TN. He attended one of our orientations in Ridgefield, CT, on Thursday. Although, he's not the minister that writes their devotionals. And, then there's you; I love you. And, some of our southern gentlemen posters must be from TN, right? I might check with you when we get our assignments; you can see if we're repairing homes for any of your clients (well, no, because we use code names only and you can't disclose clients; but I can tell you what counties we will be working in by our June orientation and meetings.)

Who knew they made Girl Scout uniforms for full grown women....

If he did, he ain't tellin'!

I have hand sanitizer, stress relief lotion and cough drops on my desk at all times. I keep the chips and beer in a little door on the side of my computer desk!!!!! As soon as the last client leaves for the day, I get a can of cold beer. Candy? Not so much!!

I keep a can of Lysol and a large bottle of hand sanitizer at my desk at all times. The way my clients over-share sometimes seem communicable.

Found a box of Thin Mints!!

Oh, wait, nine. He's fabulous, and will never try to do his own return again. ;)

I hear ya, and I would be in that same boat if I didn't torture myself extra over the last 2 weeks working until 2-3 am and surviving on about 5 hrs sleep each night. Yesterday I was forced to take a short break because I was starting to feel dizzy. I try very hard to finish a day or more ahead because I don't like working extremely close to the deadline in case of some unexpected event like losing power or some equipment failure. Too bad I can't fly my broom around and help you all out with yours, but I'll be on here to help with last minute questions when I'm able.

Yep, the kid that moved out of his parent's CT house into NY in 2013, then moved to NJ during 2014. Still hasn't emailed me back to tell me how the dates of residency break out and if his work locations changed. And, his brother changed colleges into RI and worked a tiny bit while there. And, a partnership included their personal returns this year "because we don't have time to do them on TT this year." And, the new guy has a NJ S-corp with one pay stub but no W-2 or K-1. And, another client works in her father's church and has only a pay stub. And, there was a schema error in another kid's OH return for his tiny job while at college. These Fairfield County kids are so rich that they don't have to work, so why do they work while out of state at college?! Some of them have more state returns than their commuter parents. And the man who promised me his trust had been dissolved; well, it still has one brokerage account and needs me to prep the 1041 before I can prep his 1040. And, the couple that absolutely must file on time due to an IA (I know, but I can't convince her otherwise; they have good w/h). And, the guy who gave me his stuff, and I find it includes a trust due to his wife's death. And, spring break is next week, so the calls started coming in Friday that people are leaving for vacation and wanted to pick up their returns today. I am so tired. Hubby went up to the Hartford area to visit with his daughter, go out to dinner, attend her concert. I really wish I could go, but even if I had I would fallen asleep listening to music. This is the first year that I haven't been counting, because the stack is so visually imposing that I don't want to know. Now to calculate some extension payments....

This must be treated as a sale of the rental and reported on 4797. Not on line 21. Use the amount of debt written off as the sale price. Recapture all appropriate depreciation. FMV has NO PLACE in this calculation. There is usually a taxable capital gain. This is NOT forgiveness of debt, and cannot be changed by bankruptcy. When the client receives a 1099-C, then deal with the debt forgiveness. The 1099-A means that the client sold his property to the bank for the amount remaining on the mortgage.

We even efile extensions for people we have not heard from and are not sure they're coming back. We've had people show up later in the year and I wouldn't want them to have to pay late filing penalties because I didn't file an extension for them.

Must be some house.

Client returned to us this year. Two years ago they had a NOL which we filed the election to carry forward. Last year they went to one of the box stores (won't mention any names but you might think of them if you think of a famous landmark in NYC) due to a promotion to get a discount on their tax prep fee. Guess what the box store preparer left off their return (among other mistakes)? You get what you pay for.

OK, Rita, you're making me a bit nervous about going on this mission trip to TN in July!

I had a client leave me because I didn't get their return done before 4/15 last year and they owed some penalties. I paid the penalties even though they still said they were leaving. They hated the preparer they met with last summer so much, they decided to come back to me. I showed them a little extra love and attention this year.

I include IRA's because Individual RETIREMENT Plan distributions seem to me to qualify. And the instructions also state that you must have retired and the income is included in the Ohio AGI. So an early distribution not for retirement would not count even if included in AGI. IMO

Sorry you've had that experience, amigo. My experience has been just the opposite. The vast majority of my clients are clergy and over the years all but a very small handful (I can count on one hand) have been intent on doing it right. I've had my share of new clients who were clueless and made clueless mistakes but all were willing to make it right when they found out. Don't get me wrong, none of them liked having to pay taxes and they weren't jumping for joy in the instances where I discovered their previous preparer did not understand clergy tax issues and we had to go back and amend to make it right. The point is, when they realized they legitimately owed more tax, they paid it. In 29 years of tax prep I've had exactly ONE (former) clergy taxpayer ask me to do something unethical or try to sneak something past me. Maybe I've just been lucky and stumbled across the honest minority. But I don't think so. I get 'em from just about every denomination, walk of life, and age range and have clients in 26 different states. I know it is popular these days to bash 'em but at least in this area, I think it unwarranted. Anyway, that's my two cents' worth.

go on line, most big companies have a way to do this, you enter original purchase and then the will calc all dividends reinvested and spits to give you a current basis.

Sounds to me like we are all getting just a tad testy. I told my staff earlier today - screw the concealed weapon crap. For the next five days I am strapping that thing on where EVERY one can see it. Go ahead, punk, make my day!

What I hate is when the preacher's wife does it for free so the little gal can save on my ridiculous $105 fee, and the preacher's wife reduces the penalty on IRA withdrawal by the total amount of medical expenses, and the amount that exceeds the threshold is exactly zero. And you tell her she owes $208 in tax and the preacher's wife says you do not and the flying monkeys are like ok, sorry, Sister TaxProWannaBe knows better than me, get outta here, you and your little dog, too.

But, I need another month to get the cranky ones off my back!

Price increase for clients returning after a gap. And, charge for the amendment for the year you did not prepare. I have one on extension like that.

deduct all the heretofore unused depreciation in 2014 - enter it as '481(a) adjustment' on the other expense line

It's drawing to a close, folks.

3115

Multiple naps.

1099B is a sale of stock. This is a company 1099-DIV, box 8 or box 9 liquidation distribution (see box instructions). You should report on 1040 Sch-D with his cost basis as an offset.

That is exactly right, but it's easy to miss the manual adjustments, and clients may not be able to get their heads around the worksheet. I would do the MFJ first, then duplicate it twice and delete info for hubby on one and wifey on the other.