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Host of tax law changes, including changes in filing deadlines, face tax professionals and their clients this year. https://www.macpa.org/tax-pros-clients-face-new-tax-law-provisions-filing-deadlines/

Catherine's FileinTime looks like it will do the job, $300 first year then $100 renewals and I can import the tax items from my tax software and just have to add the other stuff manually.

They've tried this twice(?) before and stopped both times because it cost more than it earned and made the public hate the IRS even more. Aggressive commission based collectors who actually phone taxpayers will be confused with the phone scams that are happening. I don't see how this can't be an even bigger disaster than the last time it was tried.

I will try Judy's 10 Key. I am just so fast with my actual 10 key that I'm not sure if I will ever give it up. I guess I'm just old.

I know of a CPA that has an adding machine with worn out numbers, calc you later.

I work with CPAs, and I believe no one with this credential can imagine working without one of those big, noisy machines on their desk. Maybe the noise has the satisfying sound of work getting done. They even make fun of my little solar powered Casio that I use for quickie calcs. Hey, it has perfect sized keys, a change sign key, and retains numbers in the memory even when the machine is off. No ribbon, no battery, and it's quiet. Cost about $10. I can't imagine why they don't use Excel for serious calculator work. I add up piles of receipts in one column, move to the next to verify, and if the totals don't match it's easy to scan to find the culprits. If you have a zillion numbers, you can write a little formula for column 1 - column 2 and instantly pick out the mismatches. So why is it that CPAs are wedded to their desk calculators? Luddites?

Yes, this model: Edit to say - sorry this is so large!!!!

I smell a rat!

I just use Foxit PDF viewer's typewriter feature to paste tapes into my PDFs. Free Acrobat reader has a tool to add text too but you can't right align it to make your tapes look right.

I had one from a small set of utilities (no longer around, doggone it) called Desktop Dozen. If you use Adobe Acrobat, the Tic, Tic, and Calculate plug-in (from cPaperless) does paper tape calculators right there in your pdf and saves them on the page for you.

thank you so much! and no more passwords..........

IT'S JUST SO EASY TO STAPLE YOUR TAPE TO A PILE OF RECEIPTS, AND IN AN AUDIT, THERE IT IS, IF YOU HAND THE AUDITOR A BOX WITH 15 PILES WITH THE TAPE ATTACHED, ALMOST ALWAYS THEY CHECK THREE PILES AND IF THEY ALL MATCH, THEY ACCEPT THEM ALL. That said, I gave up mine around 05. Went to Judy's 10 Key and never regretted it. http://www.judysapps.com/TenKey.htm Easy to print out the tapes, if you wish, or save as pdf in the client's file.

Abacus consumes no energy or paper and requires no ribbon. <mind blown>

So you are saying I should get a newer model????

Here's a link to the Facebook group, if you want to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1424243784534391/

From the Tax & Accounting Practice Group on Facebook: This post by popular demand. LOL. I'll preface by saying that although I really love my system now, that it's really up to the individual to find what works in their own office. I'm a solo practitioner and found many of the products out there are really aimed at teams making them bloated for what an individual needs. I'll also say that I've looked at and done trials and betas for 6 - 8 Workflow management solutions and found reasons for why each didn't work for me. Not least of which is the price tag. When you are a one-person office you have to weigh how much you can afford. The app I'm using does have an affiliate referral program, but I'm honestly so thrilled to have something that works for me that I don't even care about making a commission on the recommendation. It's called www.gqueues.com it's a Google product and the paid subscription price is only $25 per year. That's right just over $2 a month. It has the ability to put in due dates and make them recurring. Frankly that feature alone has me excited for payroll now. But it's given me the ability to list all my jobs and it lines them up for me. Now I just work through the list and don't have the distraction of all the other work on my desk.

In Catherine's post she was referencing the OP stating the poll worker was only paid $108.00. This amount is less than $400.00 the amount required as to be claimed as self-employment income. So, I agree line 21. I also agree with Rita, based on the income figures. No choice there but a Sch C.

I still suspect that while some of this does happen probably more of what's actually happening is bad preparers are denying filing fraudulent returns. It's nothing new, but with the additional ID theft data the IRS is collecting it probably changes the bad preparers stories. Before, the IRS would inquire about a bunch of fraudulent returns that were sent by an EFIN and the ERO would claim they didn't efile those returns. IRS assumes EFIN was compromised and shuts down the EFIN and issues the ERO a new one. Now with the ID theft data, the ERO makes the same claim and the IRS responds "But it was your computer." Thus the bad preparer is going to claim someone must have remotely controlled their computer to submit the bad tax returns that way. At that point, the IRS can either call ERO a liar or they can accept the story. Given budgets and costs I'd bet most of the time it's not in the IRS best interest to try to build evidence and argue and so they instead accept the bad preparers claim that someone remotely controlled their computer to file the fraudulent returns. Resulting in IRS warnings to the community that hackers are targeting preparers and submitting bad returns that way. That said, the possibility of a hack scares me that I'm paranoid about security on any computer with tax data. Not because I'm worried about someone filing fraudulent returns through my computer but rather because I'm worried about someone obtaining taxpayer data from my computer. The IRS warnings might cause some people to improve computer security which is absolutely a good thing. There's no down side to the warnings.

Thank you, Judy. I feel like 95% of tax preparers would slap it on Line 21 because they would get away with it. Maybe 96. The LAST thing we should be doing is trusting people to prepare forms correctly. They don't.

I am resurrecting this old thread as I have two election commission members, each works every year, going to meetings, training poll workers, working at the polls, etc. They each made $1705 in 2015, and the SSA threshold amount for election workers for 2015 is $1,600, meaning every dollar was subject to FICA. The county puts this in Box 3 of Form 1099-Misc. Every. Year. (It should be on a W-2, I know, but, I'm not chasing that rabbit.) So, to satisfy the tax gods, this belongs on Sch C, does it not? https://www.ssa.gov/slge/election_workers.htm https://www.irs.gov/government-entities/federal-state-local-governments/election-workers-reporting-and-withholding

At least one office supply company still sells it; I bought a new package of 100 sheets just a couple of months ago. We use it in our pistol matches to make two copies of the score sheet at once.

From your question, I'm not sure if you mean working for a presidential campaign committe, or working at an election site. It's taxable either way. If it is working at the polls, it goes on line 21, other income. Do the bunny hop and on the list of other income, you will find "precinct election board duty".