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It used to be hard for me to say NO. Life got a whole lot easier after I learned how. Yesterday, a PITA client who was MIA this year called and left a message saying she had filed her own return. She just had a tax question. Did I return her call? NO. WIll I answer the phone if she calls again? NO. So, I think to remain sane in this job the ability to say NO is crucial....and say it in a nice way, maybe with a big hug

I could wish (were it of any avail) that lawyers who give tax advice were hit with the same penalties that we would get if we gave legal advice. Parity and fairness...

Here is an e-mail I just sent to every @cchsfs e-mail address I have: PLAIN AND SIMPLE - - - THE AUTOSAVE FUNCTION DOES NOT WORK FOR YEARS 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015. WHY IS THIS NOT BEING DEALT WITH? THIRD TIME THIS WEEK I HAVE LOST NEARLY AN HOURS WORTH OF WORK ON A FILE BECAUSE THE PROGRAM DECIDED TO CRASH ITSELF. DUE TO THE NON-FUNCTIONING STATE OF THE AUTOSAVE, POOF!! ALL MY WORK IS GONE AND I MUST START OVER. I HAVE AUTO-SAVE SET AT EVERY 5 MINUTES. CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG, BUT THAT SHOULD MEAN THAT THE PROGRAM CREATES A SAVED FILE EVERY 5 MINUTES? DO YOU NEED SOME RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PROGRAMMERS OR CODE WRITERS? LET’S NOT EVEN START ABOUT THE SERVER RETRY PROBLEM. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. ESPECIALLY IN LIGHT OF THE NICE FAT INCREASE IN PRICE FOR YOUR “COULD USE A LOT OF WORK IN THE FUNCTIONALITY PORTION” SOFTWARE FOR 2016. I WILL BE A THORN IN AS MANY PEOPLE’S SIDE AS I CAN TILL I RECEIVE SOME SORT OF ACCEPTABLE ANSWER. I AM ALSO SPREADING THIS MESSAGE TO SOCIAL MEDIA SITES THAT I FREQUENT. 4 YEARS IS MORE THAN ADEQUATE TIME FOR COMPETENT PROGRAMMERS AND DESIGNERS TO FIX THIS ISSUE. Jack L. Raby J.R.'s Tax Preparation RANT OVER....

The divorce decree originated in a civil court. The Internal Revenue Code is contained in Title 26 of the United States Code. The USC trumps civil courts, which means the IRS doesn't have to, and won't, abide by anything but what a federal court has to say. In your case, the IRC says only the mother whom the children live with can claim the exemptions unless she signs an 8332 stating she will not do so. The father can certainly take her back to civil court on contempt charges, but he'll have to win a signed 8332 to be able to claim them. I once had a couple who were divorced in October whose divorce decree stated they had to file jointly that year. I can only conclude the lawyers don't know tax law at all or don't attend to details (software produces most legal docs these days), and judges are too willing to accept what the lawyers agree to without paying attention.

A Rita-style hug?

Thanks and the wrong phone number is a possibility. However, I have had the same phone number for 18 years and counting. I normally deal with higher end clients who pay their taxes regardless of the amount due. None of them ever have any problems reaching me when needed. I must say, all of them respect my business hours and never call me on weekends or show up unannounced. Here is what I know, that for every client I loose, three new clients normally take their place. We added 18 new clients to our client base this last year so for a one man show dealing with the level I deal with, 140 clients is enough. Well, now it is 139. Just saying. Cutting my losses and moving forward.

I thought of this thread today when I read something on www.bogleheads.org Financial Advisor: "Your portfolio need changing. It isn't set up to properly pay for college for the kids." Client: "I don't have any kids/" Financial Advisor: "I was talking about MY kids."

/s BUT THEY are God and can do everything ...... at least --- what their lobby says (maybe because they write the law wording too???) Sore spot for me as I do believe strongly in tax education and having to stay abreast/ahead of what changes ----- but attorneys only need to keep CE's etc. for attorney things and still get to be "ALL" to everyone and everything. (yes, a good attorney usually only does what they should/might have ACTUAL training to do --- BUT ALL get a pass on most else, because of them writing law, etc.) Hence we can not "legally" basically issue or do something attorneys have clerks do and do not really require knowledge or thought (no insult intended to clerks, etc.) but attorneys CAN state tax law even without actually knowing tax law, etc.. rant over --- have a GREAT day.

I don't know how anyone got the 10% plus the sales tax removal. I ended up going back to the 10%. The reps all seem to have different ideas of what the discounts are. I ended up keeping my original renewal, because I am so far behind with IRS letters, extensions, people that haven't filed for years and family issues that I just can't learn a new program. I was nice, because customer support people get dumped on so much and they don't make the stupid rules. I did tell him that I am about to be pushed to Drake, because I am sick of all of the messing around with pricing. I'm sure that the higher ups don't give a hoot.

Mark Zuckerberg, one of the world's wealthiest people and in the tech industry physically puts $.03 of tape over the camera on his laptop - consider what that means.

The IRS will follow its established regulations concerning dependency, etc.. The county judge has no authority over what the IRS regs are nor how they are enforced. This has been standard IRS policy since 2008. You may want to consider terminating your relationship with both of them. Or, buy stock in Excedrin Company.

Very sorry to hear this and will send prayers for healing the family's pain.

yep and you can give print outs to support your items. Most agents will accept this and move on. I would never give up the electronic file on a basic request. It can get subpoena'd but how many agents would go through this for a small business as long as you support your records in other ways. Also it depend if you or your client did the write-up.

I finally got the email with my renewal. I am so ! It is more than my original quote! I am going to call and raise Hell tomorrow. If it is not fixed, then I will cancel the payment and switch to Drake.

working at 70 1/2? Mentioned one day at the office that our rental condo would likely be our home in this metro area when we retire and we'd use our primary home to fund the purchase of a condo in Florida or someplace else. My 82 year old co-worker about fell over - the horror of retiring. Why would anyone want to do that????

Well here is the final outcome. I notified this client that I would be sending them a letter that would outline the position that I am taking with this and when I would forward the payment as well as them signing a form to acknowledge acceptance. The client e-mails me and tells me to forget it and now they don't want me to do anything and once again accuses me of not answering my phone and trying to make a big deal out of this issue and outlines the horrible service they got from me. My response: I apologized for their misunderstanding and that I have not refused to live up to my intentions and would update my records to reflect their position. Here is what I am doing. I am working in my office in another client's books with the phone right beside me as usual. Although it very nice, the phone has not rung so far today. I have printed the e-mail and put it in the client's file. I am still tempted to write the check to the IRS anyway so that I have a clear conscience of correcting my mistake.

Ms TabbyKats, Thanks for your reply as you are correct and what I should have done has been clearly identified. I can guarantee this will not happen in the future. This whole thing started with me trying to help a client who told me they didn't have the money to pay my fees. This is one of those instances where my heart got in the way and it cost me. Yes, I did get paid on April 20. Yes, I should have filed the extension and added those fees to the total but I didn't and now I have what I have. To add further, it took a week for the client to return to my office and sign the 8879 forms which we all know I could not transmit the returns until the forms are signed. This is where things went South because I once again offered to help if the penalty was assessed but had no idea it would take so long for the client to sign the forms. Nevertheless, late filing is still my fault. The Sunday issue just occurred two days ago. The client accuses me of not answering my phone which is why they showed up in my back yard unannounced and uninvited. My business phone is an Android mobile phone and I have not received any phone calls from this client since April. This client has become a PITA. I have office hours just like everyone else regardless of where my office is located. It is really not my concern how the IRS applies the payment. There will be no misunderstanding between the client and my office as to what the payment was for and this will be well documented.

How much were the phones? I'm guessing the cost exceeded the $500 deminimus safe harbor for 2015. With the IRS raising the safe harbor to $2500 in 2016 and offering audit protection of not challenging earlier implementation of the threshold, I might be inclined to expense these. "Effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service in Notice 2015-82 increased the de minimis safe harbor threshold from $500 to $2500 per invoice or item for taxpayers without applicable financial statements. In addition, the IRS will provide audit protection to eligible businesses by not challenging the use of the $2,500 threshold for tax years ending before January 1, 2016 if the taxpayer otherwise satisfies the requirements of Treasury Regulation § 1.263(a)-1(f)(1)(ii)."

And, starting with them now, you know where they came from, where the numbers are coming from.

Andrea, if you want to keep this client when he's an S-Corp, there's no time like the present to get good at something new. We are all terrible at things until we are good at them. You can do it. Heck, I think half of my job as an adult is to Google things. We are here for you, too. And good ole IRS publications and instructions are invaluable. They act like they hate you at first, but it's an act to see if you'll hang in there.

The absolute WORST way to get any sort of financial planning advice is by watching a TV show !!! And that's not to blame the show, really, because they almost all do warn people at the end to talk to their tax advisor before following this advice. But the tax code is so complex that even if 5 clients have exactly the same amount of income, from the same sources, the odds are high that at least 3 of them [and probably all 5] are going to end up with different tax outcomes.

Unless you know the person's entire financial situation, making blanket proclamations can be very dangerous and why people get in trouble. They read somewhere that this is what you should do when in reality it was based upon assumptions that don't reflect their situation at all. Age of the client, their health, how assured they are tax laws or government entitlement programs will not change in the future, their pension or inheritance expectations and their total of assets are just a few of the factors that make blanket generalizations worthless at best, more likely dangerous to the uninformed who think they are informed.