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Jingle bells, Ready your Dells W2s soon on their way Oh what fun it is to ride With our community all the way Hey, Jingle bells, client yells I need my refund today Oh what fun it is to ride For the day we get our pay Jingle bells, ATX cells Tax bingo all the way Oh what fun it is to bide For the day we can shout Yay! Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way Oh what fun it is to ride On a one horse open sleigh It's Christmas! Happy Holidays to All, And to All, A Good Night!

Last year I went through the same thing with a client. But she did the unthinkable and made my wife cry. I fired her. She called up and went off on me. I was polite and stood my ground. She called her sister who was a long time client and I lost that one too. Her brother, who was in the middle of getting his last 7 years of unfiled returns cleaned up by me did not even think about leaving. He begged to stay. I think that you should talk to him if you can keep your cool. Explain that you cannot take on his work if he is not going to do his part. You need the records and if he cannot provide them in a timely manner then you will not prepare the return. If this guy "gets under your skin" and causes you to lose your cool, then do it all in writing. Just my 2Cents. Tom Newark, CA

Peace on Earth, and Goodwill to all on this board! Dan

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! May you all have a blessed holiday and a healthy and prosperous 2017.

Merry Christmas and an even HAPPIER NEW YEAR !

Joy and happiness to all. While it is often said Christmas is not like it was when we were young, nothing says we can't still think young. Merry Christmas.

Wonderful!! Beats the pants off the nanny payroll snafu I was battling much of today. Hysterical client calls in tears...and it got worse from there. I *think* we have it under control; Merry bleeping Christmas, though. Sheesh! This is what happens when clients do NOT listen to me.

If the kitchen equipment is in the building, looks to me like the building is already in use. Does he have to be serving customers in the dining room to be "in business?"

I agree date of original owner dod FMV unless basis has changes during the trust period such as improvements or destruction.

Gosh, I dunno. These situations are such personal things (between them and their quirks and us and ours) that it's hard to generalize. I guess the question is: Would you take him back? Under the circumstances, I don't think I'd do anything but wait and see if he phones or comes in to talk in person. If he apologizes and you're willing to do the work, then all's okay - if still hostile then I'd tell him it's his fault, that I notified him monthly and he ignored it, so I'm not doing his taxes anymore. This works - I did it once, but the downside was he gave me a cussin' goin' out the door which I ignored (he was quite large). Besides, it's against the law to shoot anybody not moving toward you although, just in case, I keep a .38 in the desk (you never know). Hmm, come to think of it, that scenario doesn't need to be repeated -- probably would just go smoother following Rita's suggestion (let it blow over).

BEFORE.............. During............ After.............

No way. You don't really want this client, do you? I would politely state what you have said here, that he never signed engagement letter or any binding agreement and that your monthly reminders did not spur him into acting on them. That being said, even with no engagement letter, unless you specifically addressed his procrastination in those monthly reminder emails and the fact that you continued to send them may have given him the impression that this was business as usual, especially if this was typical of your relationship with this client over a number of years.

Copied from the ATX Blog: The IRS is issuing this alert to warn e-Services account holders of an uptick in a previously reported scam designed to capture usernames and passwords. If you receive an unsolicited email you suspect could be a scam, please forward it unopened to [email protected]. If e-services users have already clicked on the fake logo and provided their username and password, they should contact the e-services help desk to reset their accounts. Posted 2 hours ago by Stephanie Bradford

When I logged in, and the site gave me the notification that I had been quoted by Rita, I was glad to know she wasn't hugging me... Rita: That was very sweet of you to say the above. Some days, its nice to know that it appears to others that I have a clue. And these folks? The *knew* what they were getting. They needed to make a change because there are some other major changes coming in their world, and they needed better representation. They were actually embarrassed to give me the return... I give them credit for that. Ya'all have a happy holiday season, OK?

Are they using that equipment to prepare the catered food? And is the catering business in the same entity as the restaurant? If so and so, then yes to your question. Merry Christmas!

My understanding is that the rule is "within 30 days, before and after", so I would add 1 more day to January 23rd.

I don't believe the issue here is how to report income from an incorrect 1099, I think we all know how to handle that in order to prevent a CP2000. The question I see is whether the IRS could use the assignment of income doctrine to tax the income at the individual level instead of at the corporate level. Case law says yes: unless there is a "contract or similar indicium recognizing the corporation's controlling position" between the corporation and the third party (Mary Kay). That is actually the 2nd step. The 1st step requires that the shareholder be a valid employee of the corporation and under control of the corporation. In the 8th circuit case of Haag v Com, Haag was a doctor who was a shareholder and employee of his corporation. Haag prevailed. First, there was an employment agreement between Haag and the corporation. Secondly, the court recognized agreements for services were effectively between the corporation and the third parties. In comparison, reference was made to the case of Roubic v Com in which a group of radiologist formed a corporation. In that case, the agreements with the third parties were held by the individual shareholders, so income was held to be that of the shareholder's, and not the corporation's. In another case, Sargent v Com, The 8th circuit court reversed a Tax Court ruling of assignment of income and Sargent prevailed. Sargent was a professional hockey player who set up a corporation. He entered into an employment agreement with the corporation. (step 1) The corporation in turn signed a contract with the team. (step two). The key is to obtain an employment contract as well as a contract (or similar indicium) which recognizes the corporation's controlling position. (See your business attorney for details.)

The hugging notification is down right now, but mine generally are nice surprises just for clients. Merry Christmas my very clued in friend.

Jack: I do as Rita and others on this thread have stated. Many larger corporations, with many folks working for them as sub-contractors, want you to be personally liable for any act detrimental to the firm, Like Mary Kay. So they put the $$$ on a 1099, and will not allow you substitute report to a EIN Corporate entity. Currently, I have one with a 1099-Misc for over $350k a year. He bought a Corp from a retired broker, and the Broker Dealer refuses to report the income to an EIN entity. I do not understand why these big Corp's are so stupid about this, and allow you to substitute reporting. Rich

You did well on that one! Rich

...paid in advance!

I might just edit my email from "you're fired" to "you're fired in two weeks if you don't get your in here" and resend. I probably would not say anything else and let him calm down. He'll forget in a week anyway. If he shows up before the two weeks is up (yeah right), carry on as usual, except my rates went up from a year ago.

He's throwing a tantrum. He missed the 10/17 date for 2015 taxes and has given me nothing - but now is upset that he has to find someone else with "no notice" claiming it's like he walked out of a job halfway through a kitchen renovation (contractor). No, it's more like he walked away from a job that was discussed but never had a plan approved, a contract signed, or a deposit paid.

What's he upset about? Not sure what he means about the 2-week's warning. Following his normal practices, he has at least until Dec 2017 to get his 2016 Forms 1099-Misc prepared and the 2016 return completed. I think that's plenty of advance notice.

Yes, I've had partnerships where one of the partners put his SSN on a W-9 instead of the EIN. Stuff like that happens. Put the income on Sch C and back it out. I for one am not waiting around hoping a 1099 gets corrected. We dream of that, but we have crap to do.

I've had a few 1099 forms come in the name and SSN of the SCorp officer. I entered the income and then a corresponding Other Expense on Sch C with a notation "Nominee income to EIN XX-XXXXXXX" (Scorp EIN). Never a problem.

If you scroll the cursor over the link (don't click it!) the entire address will be visible. Oftentimes you'll see addresses with weird extensions. Delete. As for bad websites, you just have to depend on your security software. A few years ago I read that a lot of sites that showed up in Google Search were dangerous, but I haven't read anything recently so I trust they've cleaned up their act. Yahoo's email accounts were often hacked so I never trusted messages from Yahoo (even though lots of my clients have them). I get a lot of weird messages from Linked in too. Now that Yahoo has revealed the two biggest hacks of all time, nobody should use it for their home page. I too use irs.gov for the home page at work--saves a lot of clicking.

Firefox warns me about suspicious sites (sometimes falsely, but better safe than sorry), and Eset antivirus monitors my internet traffic and blocks malware. I have the same setup at home and since my SO is a bit naive about these things, it has saved us on more than one occasion.

I have used the method that Rita describes for many years and have posted it here more than once. It also works for 1099's that should have been reported in Box 3, but were in Box 7, changing the wording to "......reported on Line 21".

Merry Christmas to you and yours from me and mine!!! God Bless us - everyone!

All of the net profit will ultimately be taxed at the individual's rate whether or not the income is on a Sch C or is in an S corp. The savings would be on the payroll taxes incurred in the S corp vs the entire profit being subjected to the SE tax on the Sch C's profit. Let's say that the net profit is the high end of $50K you mentioned, and if the client did go the S corp route, let's say she pays herself wages of $40K. In this example there is the SE tax savings on the $10K difference that is roughly $1,300, and the closer the W-2 wages are to the net profit of a Sch C, the less the savings. I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn last night, but this seems like a bad idea to me. It might save that SE tax, but it also puts the client on the IRS radar for that assignment of income, and the client would incur the additional expenses of whatever corporate licensing fees OH imposes plus the additional professional fees of incorporating, accounting and preparing the S corp, W-2s and other payroll filings on top of the individual returns now being prepared. It does not seem worth it to me to save a net of a few hundred dollars, and the lower the net profit we are talking about, the less the savings. Another factor to consider is what each client's situation is for health insurance. If the person is not covered under a spouse's employer plan and is paying premiums individually, the client will lose the above-the-line deduction for self employed health insurance if shifting the income away from the Sch C. I'd have to see a comparison side by side of where there are more savings, including the effect on the state returns. What other savings am I missing in this picture?

Merry Christmas and a VERY Happy New Year to all my friends here!

Merry Christmas!

And a happy, healthy and successful new tax year!

Merry Christmas!

Yes, Merry Christmas.