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I start 1099's and W-2's for my payroll clients on January 2nd (or first business day of the new year). Then e-file them all the last week (time for corrections of any address changes etc., before e-filing). 1099's later in January are for the onesie-twosie folks who still hand-write checks. Then in November or December, I do the prior-year 1099's for the contractor who *always* runs a full year late.... (Yes, I have an email and paper trail asking for the information over and over and warning him of the penalties he will be hit with.) As long as records are electronic, there is no reason to delay these past mid-month. Even for a large company. The key, as Jack noted, is to have COMPETENT people in the accounting department!

If we want the IRS to compare early filed returns to the W2s, then we need the earlier filing date. If payroll is computerized, there's no reason we can't start processing W2s after the final payroll in December.

Maryland didn't notify me (personally) that the rules were changing, but they posted on their website that in order to prepare taxes you needed to be a CPA, EA or to pass the exam they had prepared. Before the Love case, the IRS didn't inform me either but their website mentioned that you had to pass the tests if you wanted to prepare taxes for other people. Are they required to notify tax preparers o tax preparers need to know the requirements? Another question, if you have been doing taxes for so long, why don't you sit on the exam which is a very simple exam you don't have to explain how long you have been doing taxes?

There are lots of cases where something designed for the PC loses functionality on the Mac. Excel for Mac is another good example. It works well overall, but some minor functions work differently on the Mac and those quirks can be very annoying in some cases. As has been stated - each has its own strengths and weaknesses. The key is knowing which is which. "Knowledge tells us a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom consists of refusing to use it in a fruit salad."

All good arguments and probably everyone here agrees these things should be done. But most clients? I'm not optimistic.

Agree. It is 2016. Companies must come up to speed with 21st century technology and business protocols. This will mean that huge numbers of companies will need to hire competent and experienced bookkeepers. When the IRS fines start rolling in, there will be incentives for such a change.

I would never drop my snack but the thought of Form Coconut struck me as the funniest thing I've heard in connection with information returns. I know, the material is unending, but still...

Ain't it the truth. I'm really going to miss that 2-28 fix-foul-ups time. Sometimes I just give employee copies to the client before 1-31 and keep the red ones myself for error corrections and 2-28 mailing (lots of folks disregard the possibly heavy fines). It's usually all you can do to even get clients' info by 1-31. This may help on ID theft, but I'm pretty sure IRS will appreciate the cash windfall from late filing. I can hear the penalized clients now: "Why didn't you.....?")

Yup, gonna have to agree with that. Buy whatever your software requires. The software I use on a daily basis is available for both MacOS and Windows, and I have both, and don't feel strongly about either of them--they've both got their pros and cons. Apple hardware is well-built and has a price to match the fit and finish. You'll find that most Windows computers of similar quality come at a similar price--the only difference is that Apple doesn't compete in the low-end of the market. Lets say for the sake of argument that MacOS is inherently more secure than Windows. It's not going to matter, because you'll be using Windows to run your tax software whether that's in a VM on top of MacOS, or running natively with BootCamp. I will say that it's more common for Apple users to evangelize for them, and I think that mostly has to do with Apple not playing nicely with others. You can't use Facetime or iMessage on Windows or Android, for example, because part of Apple's business model is to keep their users trapped within their ecosystem.

I wish the 1/31 was 2/15 and I don't care how far they move the 2/15. There is always somebody who gives me an incorrect SSN. If not, I can screw that up all by myself. I hate that we won't have February to fix those things.