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My son has finished his ground school training for SkyWest and will be going now for flight sim training on the CRJ, which is the plane that he chose to fly. He will be flying for United, Delta, American or Alaska, depending on flight schedules at the hub he ends up at. I am so excited for him. It doesn't seem possible that it has just been six years since he began to fly. All of the sleepless nights, being totally neurotic and following him with a tracker and on flightaware has paid off for him and me. He was so focused and got what he wanted immediately after graduating from college and I am now able to fly with him in 4 seater planes without help from any drugs. I can even sleep while he is flying and not have to pray constantly to keep the plane in the sky. (Some of the planes that he had to fly needed all of the help that they could get.) I look forward to doing a little traveling if my husband's health allows it.

My software has a List feature. I click on the icon anytime I want a detailed list behind a line. Utilities, for instance, in office in home; out here in the boonies that's oil and electricity and maybe something more specific to that client's house like propane. I even use it for just one item when I want to remember where it came form. For instance, when the mortgage interest is paid to ABC Bank; so if I get a 1098 next year from XYZ Bank I ask them if they refinanced, got a HELOC, forgot to bring me ABC, whatever. They think I have a great memory when I ask about their alarm system expense, for example, that they had last year but forgot this year. Helps for nurses and such that have various license renewals that might be every two years or one or three. I use List a lot.

I had to dig up my log-in info just to offer my congrats. (Nephew is still with SkyWest btw.) Jim

Imagine this. Your firm starts receiving calls and emails from clients saying they’ve been the victim of tax refund identity theft. See more at........http://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/news/12219907/what-to-do-if-your-firm-gets-hacked

A number of years ago, my wife's brother managed a supermarket. One day I came to the checkout line and noticed a display bin full of cans of pork & beans labeled "Manager,s special. 3 for $1. This display only. Regular price 33 cents each." He got a real kick out of seeing how many customers would go back to the shelf and replace the cans in their cart with the special price items. Is math a foreign language?

I did get to speak to the IRS today about this letter for my step-father. The efile rejected, as expected, so I called the PPL and they were very helpful. He did let me know that the letter was indeed legit, and that they had received our response and the earlier return was rejected with no refund being issued. He did ask me a lot of questions to verify my identity and both of my POA's. I hope that this doesn't take forever to resolve, since I get asked daily about it. I love my Mom, but she worries about everything!

A relative manages an arts and crafts store and was called over by a frantic cashier. The problem was that the items were marked 5 for $1 and the register was ringing up 20 cents each. Don't know if the cashier or the customer noticed the "error."

Even those cash registers can't compete with people who won't use their brains. My sister managed a grocery store for a major chain at one time, and I remember her telling me about the cashier who called her over because the cash register said to give back 0.25 change, and she was out of quarters. Sis pointed out that she had a drawer full of dimes and nickels, but the cashier still didn't understand - she needed to give them twenty five cents and she was out of quarters!

Eset NOD32 antivirus, Comodo free firewall (does much more than just firewall) and free Malwarebytes (but that's not real time protection like the other two) Would never use or recommend Norton or MacAfee. Too heavy on resources and not as effective as Eset.

I use Malwarebytes and AVG.

I would recommend to the client to amend and pay 2014 and 2015 taxes owed ASAP to limit interest and penalties. This is what I'd do whether or not 2013 was being audited. I wouldn't try to guess at what IRS is going to do, or how long they will take to do it - just do what should be done to file correct returns.

My first "real" job was as a cashier in Woolworth's. My only entertainment was with the cash register - the ones that calculate change for you had *just* come out (and boy oh boy did they confuse the elderly folks!). So I would try to beat the register at calculating the change. I got really fast at it and can still figure faster than the machines. Confuses the dickens out of the math-impaired ninnies I hand the money to.

I try to make subsidiary worksheets for all those break-outs. Specifically because of the items that I would otherwise forget to ask about. Just this year, a client who pays a monthly fee for "suite maintenance" (basically the landlord bills separately for cleaning and snow removal) forgot to include it. It was in my worksheet, so off went the email query. Those worksheets prevent the "Other" section from getting overcrowded; another benefit.

The Internal Revenue Service is warning tax professionals that next year, a new law will require the IRS to hold all Earned Income Tax Credit and Additional Child Tax Credit refunds until Feb. 15 as a safeguard against identity theft and tax fraud. The correct address to the article: http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-practice/irs-to-delay-tax-refunds-involving-eitc-and-actc-next-year-78387-1.html

I can double click on the expense field and a list page will open. I use that a lot for the same reason.

MalWareBytes, AVG, CCleaner.

Malwarebytes and other things my IT guy understands but I don't.

Server was brand new. I built and configured it. Backup to external HD only. No internet method of access to the server. No external method of access to the server. HD is also encrypted using Small Business server 11. I have no fears of my clients' information being hacked or stolen from outside sources. Our website does not connect to our server and does not collect or store client data. I have chosen the KISS method of hacking protection. The more complex and intertwined servers and the internet in any manner are, the easier to be hacked.

I try to break clients of lumping expenses together for the very same reason. I have one doctor who lumps differently every year. I had a talk with him this year after being thoroughly confused.

I remember, as a kid, I owed my brother ten cents and he owed me twenty five cents. So I told him to give me fifteen cents and we'd be even. He was absolutely *certain* that I was trying to cheat him out of the money I owed him. Even after taking the coins and showing how it ended up the same both ways, he was still convinced something funny was going on and would not budge. For all I know, he feels the same way now, forty-five or more years later. Sometimes I think we are doomed.

That's too funny! Sometimes I try to be helpful and give them the loose change to round it off to make it easy for them. So many times they can't figure out the change and think I'm a fast change artist. Once manager had to come over to help. Got to stop doing that, it's a time waster....for me.

That's an inappropriate installation. Everyone knows that duct tape is the only acceptable means of attaching an auxiliary cooling unit to an electronic device.

I believe preparers who put most expenses on the "other" line have a method to their madness. A detailed list of expenses helps you know what to look for the following year and to catch anything that's missing. If someone has a service contract for their HVAC and you lump it in with utilities, you might not remember to ask about the cost the following year. And some of the categories on the C, and the E for that matter, are so broad you're sure to miss things. "Office expense," for example, includes paper, toner, postage, maybe the IT guy and window washers, etc. If the total seems too high it could raise a flag, so maybe it's best to break out a few of the included items and put them on "other." There most be a middle ground for using that line.....

Yes, me too. You can go too far in either direction. LOL.

If it is legitimate expenses and there is not a line that better fits, use it. I have seen Sched. C with almost every deduction listed there instead of on the front.

I like "Marketing Seminars Expense".

"Other" and list it as seminar expense.

Unfortunately, it IS that bad. One of my acquaintances makes a habit of asking high school and college age kids wherever he sees them (bagging groceries, clerk at a convenience store, etc) what years were World War One fought, and who the US fought against. Not a one of them has ever been able to answer him. A few have been able to answer for WW2, but some of those gave answers learned from that alternate-history movie, Inglorious Basterds. So they are learning false history if they are learning anything at all.

I found that DougO had one of these last year by googling the fax number. I guess it's legit and it appears that I will have to deal with Identity theft for them. @#$!!! My mother is already saying that it's because she wrote me a check and I used mobile deposit. I could just cry.