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It would be even more pleasant if somebody paid me to chat. There's that...

I work at my home office. If I have to put shoes on, someone is getting a bill.

I agree with everything said about keeping the clients out of your office so you can get some work done. Use US mail, Fedex, drop box outside your office, private delivery service, email, text, (anything but the telephone). The same rule applies to obtaining missing info, asking follow-up questions, and getting clarifications. 90% of the time you don't need to speak with them or see them.

There's money in 1040s because there are more of them. Start getting into 1065s and 1120s, and not so many preparers do them so you can charge more. I do plenty of 1040s, but the big bucks come from 1041s. Many clients come to me with estates and trusts because their regular person doesn't do them. Tax law is so complex that I think eventually we will all have to find a niche. No one can possibly know all this stuff. (I refer out foreigners with US income unless they are here are the most basic visas; don't want to make a mistake with those. I'm sure the people who do them charge A LOT.) You'll end up doing your 500 1040 returns and the pro at foreign taxes will end up doing 100 returns and I'll end up doing 25 1041s and we'll all make the same income. You will need to have a strict appointment schedule to fit in those clients. I won't. Your life will be much more relaxed after tax season; mine won't. I'm amazed by those of you who have clients walk in anytime to drop things off and chat, or pick up returns and chat. What pleasant days you must have. Our practice is just too big for that.

Drop box = no chatting, interruptions, or meeting with me unscheduled. Plus, they can return e-file signature forms and payments in a secure location. Before that box was installed I was meeting with each client twice, or more. Some still request a drop off appointment, but now I meet with many only once when they pick up the finished product.

Well, you do have a point, Rita. Reminds me of the time I was speaking with a banker at church, when another member walked up to us. She reminded me of a previous conversation when I had told her she should not apply for a separate Fed ID Number for a sub-ministry of the church because it needed to fall under the blanket exemption the church enjoyed. She said she had called IRS and they had told her it was OK to do, so they sent her the application form and she had filed it anyhow. I thanked her for letting me know and she went on her way. The banker then asked if it bothered me that she didn't listen to what I had originally told her. I told him it really didn't bother me that someone didn't value advice I gave for free, because people frequently pay me for advice they don't follow...

Why is this so complicated? The father did NOT pay the loan but instead gave the cash to the son, who did pay the loan. Son gets to deduct the interest. Now, since they are both legally obligated, and if the interest is say $5k, I don't see a problem with Dad making half the payments and son making the other half (with Dad's money). In that case, they could both deduct $2500. That might be a tactic for next year. I have always had a complaint about the limits on the student loan interest deduction. For single filers it starts to phase out at $65k AGI, double that for MFJ. These are the people who make too much to get grants so rely on loans. Make less and you can get Pell grants; make more and you can presumably afford the cost of college. But make $65k and you can't get grants and can't deduct all your loan interest either. Just another one of those items congress passed to make it look like they were helping voters out with college costs but wrote rules denying those people the benefits. (Exactly like the credit for the elderly--how many of those has anyone actually done?) And don't get me started about why it seems no one actually saves for their kids' education. The student loan situation is crippling our young, they can't move out of Mom's basement or start a family, total student loan debt is larger than credit card debt, blah blah. Easier to complain about the high cost of education and loans than to put away even a modest amount every month when children are young to ease the burden when the time comes.

Personally: Install files can be digitally signed, or not signed. It is, in theory, a way to show the file was not altered from upload. Signing used to prevent an on screen message saying the file could not be identified, now a message is shown either way. Since MANY do not want to pay for the digital certificate, many files, and safe ones, are not signed, making the "security" of a signed file moot. Since the old certificate system is known to be suspect, dual signing a file is not a good option. Nefarious folks can get a digital certificate too, so the signing is not all that valuable. Also, the signing code was changed to something more secure. If using an old browser, the old browser cannot recognize the current certificate, causing more messages. For business purposes, one should not be using an old OS or browser, but it happens. Some simply do not feel staying current by spending a few hundred dollars is worth it. I even hear from business people saying they cannot afford a new computer every three or four years. Then, there are the "security" programs which take money to protect the user from themselves. They fail miserably, with a large number of false positives, to a point where one has to know how to disable the "security" to install programs they want to. If the "security" program has to be disabled, it is not worth using. (The culprit is not catching known issues, it is when the "security" program is set to guess at some problem which has never existed. Guessing wrong actually makes the "security" vendor more money, since it appears they are doing something to keep you safe. In other words, the "security" vendors have a negative incentive to be accurate.) So, our files are not nefarious, and are digitally signed. Using Virustotal, they are shown as clean as well, other the random false positive of a few really sloppy "security" software vendors. Virustotal is a great resource, since it checks a file against ~60 "security" vendors. There are folks who never update their "security" software, so while the "security" vendor's current status is clean, the old non updated program shows an issue. I get a call that our software is dangerous. There are "security" programs which will download a file, then delete it, without forcing the user to make a choice, or even warn them. I then get a call saying our download does not work. With XP and Vista, and.or a non current browser, our file does not appear to be signed, since the old OS/browser cannot read the new safer signature, which is another call. From the OP "identity is unknown and it may harm your computer", the implication is the file is not signed at all, or the OP is using an outdated OS or browser. It also does not imply the OP cannot ignore or skip past the warning, since it says "may". That is typical of an unsigned file, or an old OS/browser. If they did have some sort of certificate issue, then there likely would be more reports of an issue. I can only guess, since I am not ATX, nor have I seen an image of the actual message.

Also be less complicated if somebody hadn't made that seventh post. Grrrrrr. LOL.

Yes, we can only hope, and I thank the Tax Gods every year that I don't need a new computer for the program. So far, 2016 looks good for my 2 machines.

Gee, could it be because we didn't have that information until later in the discussion?

For Drake users, we have been assigned an efile password. All we have to do is enter our EFIN and password, click confirm and a message comes back that we are approved for efiling. The password assigned to you is located on the same page as your license numbers.

Drake Pre-Season Release is available for download.

Exactly this ^ . No worries about running out of work. Anyone who thinks otherwise, remember that no matter who is in power, what is promised, or even if we were to move to a flat tax, we would have to transition from what we have now to what would be. Think about just 2 areas of carryover and the transition rules that would be needed for capital loss carryovers and unused passive losses. Then we'd have the lobbyists and special interest groups clamouring for their deductions or credits to still be allowed, or for some special handling. Even if we went fully to a flat tax, with all of various legal entities we have, we'd still have volumes of rules to define what constitutes income, who it applies to, and at what rate of tax. Yes, our jobs are secure.

Only the child can take the $2500 in your case. If I were the father, I would be paying December from my account directly to the lender.

We do hourly appointments from 9 to 5 Monday to Saturday. With a 1 hour and 30 min. break for lunch. Give 1 hour to each client. Collect our fee at each appointment. We do 500 1040 returns during the normal tax season with no time for a second appointment. Our average return was $178. this year. Do another 100 after April 15th. We don't bill. That's why I can't mess around with should I provide my e-file summary page or not. I have to be ready now and not have a snag in late January. We only do 1040's. I feel that's where the money is.

You can also make the client appt thru ycbm *for* them - they then get an email with the reschedule link. I've done that for some folks who dither on times - I pick one and let them change if they want.

Crank, like you, I can't find anything that says they both can't take the deduction.

Oh, I may be taking that too literally. (You paid interest on a qualified student loan in tax year xxxx). Gotcha. Yes, it's on page 33 of Publication 970.

Rita, I don't think that is correct about the who makes the payment. I'd have to look for an official cite, but pub 970 has this: Interest paid by others. If you are the person legally obligated to make interest payments and someone else makes a payment of interest on your behalf, you are treated as receiving the payments from the other person and, in turn, paying the interest.