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We also have more fresh air than most Post Offices, too! And it really doesn't take that long to make a drive thru, as it turns out.

Crank...is it worth the headache? If she balks at a $150 fee, how good of a client is she? I don't know what was entailed in her return, but $150 seems reasonable, certainly when you compare it to The Big Box Stores. Sure, you did the work and you SHOULD be paid. You DESERVE to be paid. With that said, if it were me, I'd seriously consider placing all her info in a box, hand it back to her and move on to your next client, who probably completely respects you and your abilities.

I agree with JohhH (as usual). I would do as he suggests first. If she doesn't want to do that, you could ask her to pay what she considers a fair price and wish her well, with the understanding that it won't happen like this next year. I don't know why she wouldn't go for that. If she somehow still does not want the return you prepared, I would return her documents and wish her well. The end. You do not need the bad publicity all over town that you "charged her for nothing."

A lady here drove thru our Post Office yesterday. Broke the whole front wall out. My mom heard it on the radio and called me and asked if I was at the Post Office.

I'm envious! Our post office does not even have a drive through!

Offer to let her pay you in installments or else when she gets her refund. What do you have to lose? Your time is already invested. Set aside ego & emotion and focus on the business aspect. It's a one-off event, do the only thing left to try and turn it into a profitable one.

Someone I had never heard of wanted to have an estimate on how much I would charge to do their tax return. I gave them a massively ballpark spread outlining that I didn't have the information required. They emailed me a copy of their basic information via a couple pdf files which I didn't trust. I ran it through several online scanners that found no problems. I started opening in Chrome (which is safer than most other options) and it had a link indicating I needed to open in Adobe software. I found a website that would test the link - yep. It was a virus attack website. Be VERY leery people. If they had emailed me on a busy day I might have just ran with it. Their first contact didn't have any attachments and they responded normally.

I haven't shoveled my front walk to the mail slot in my door since the last storm, but they do keep coming. Lost one gal who's life got simpler in semi-retirement, so she's trying it on her own. Sorry to lose her, but will be even sadder if I lose her dad along with her. They're both nice to work with and no more than the usual chasing for missing info. Just lost a more complex couple who took a LOT of time. They'd moved farther away but like to both interview and then pick-up/review in person each year, which has become a hassle for them to schedule between their trips to FL and medical issues and also a hassle for me to fit them in and VERY time-consuming. Both very intelligent: he a banker and mellow and she intense and tracks everything in pencil on dozens of pages, does sum it all up, but even that is a few pages. I need to tie everything from her pages into their tax returns to satisfy her, including pieces such as medical where some premiums end up on page 1 as SEHI with the excess on A or the LTC that is less than her payment due to IRS chart. They then take their paper returns home to go over again and either sign/mail or book yet a third appointment to question more details. (In recent years, I've required third appointments to be AFTER tax season; but that means they chose to mail returns on time and I've been stuck with amendments if they actually had new information for me.) I can't charge them enough for my time, so I don't think I'll miss them that much, even though I enjoy working with intelligent people. They always want this mid-February to mid-March time when I need to work on 1065, 1041, and 1120-S returns (not to mention recalculation of their SE payments for January based on her preliminary pages and MANY questions in January when I'm trying to get out W-2s/1099s and payroll reports) so I think I'm fine with them finding someone closer to their home, finally. In the meantime, a couple of clients have sent referrals and a couple of individuals and businesses have opened new business entities, so I have more clients when I'm old enough that I'd like to lose clients by attrition. My core clients are just receiving their 1099-Bs and calling.

If you decide to let her pay you when she gets her refund, I would ask for a post-dated check.

Judging by the time we're all up and at our desks this is a good sign. Hope that case of shingles is mild John, had my shot a few years ago (very important for age 60 and over), so did wife but she did have a very mild case a few years later and never remember her complaining. She did blame it on the shot though. Same with flu shot, she got the flu, now we don't get them and no flu, although I don't go out, I send her to the post office. Don't forget to wash your hands when you come back in honey.

During what seemed like a routine week it hit last Thursday Feb 8 for me. Every day since then has been more coming in than going out (lots of mine are mail-ins and drop-offs in my mail slot). Now if I can just get rid of this case of shingles that reared its ugly head over the weekend... Thank God it's a mild case since I had the vaccine about two years ago. From what I've seen and heard from others, what I'm experiencing is a breeze. If you're a seasoned citizen, be sure to get your shingles vaccine.

With this years software... Just clearing all the right boxes on the 8867 for anyone entails a $150 fee. It goes up from there. But, I would give her papers back and say "see ya!" Rich

Just a thought - since your fiscal year end is in 2016, which means your fiscal year beginning is in 2015, are you using the 2015 software to generate your extension?

Yes. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor sheets of plate glass could prevent that lady from getting that timely postmark.

Lots of good comments. Thank you all. Still scratching my head over this one. We'll see how it plays out.

Sounds like she was unhappy with the recent rate increases. But the important question is, did she get her mail posted in time for the last pickup of the day?

I agree with all the responses above. (well, I have to especially agree with Rita since she said she agreed with me). Each response has its pros and cons, nothing is a sure thing, but you have more info. You can't do all of them simultaneously. So, Crank, you are going to have to decide which suggestion or combination of suggestions works best for you, taking into account your own personality and the gut feeling you get from your limited interaction with this woman. That's what we do in business - we make business decisions.

This is what I do for a number of clients, or if they don't write checks, I ask that they leave me a copy of their debit or credit card with approval to charge it on a certain day. We write out an agreement and they sign it. I have never had an issue and have been doing it this way for 20 years, but if you let them leave without some sort of payment, I chase them all year long and usually do not have them return until they think I have forgotten about it which of course never happens. When they do finally return I remind them of the past due and require payment in full for the past due and current due before I even begin, reminding them that they would not go to work and expect not to get paid would they?

Yes, I am steady here. Adopted a 10 yr old rescue in November, my first dog in 8 years. She's very docile, a great door greeter. Never barks, and lost an eye to glaucoma last month, so she winks at everybody. It's a great season so far. John, praying for healing for you!

Got overrun last week and this one looks to be the same - they're coming in the windows (all good, of course ). How 'bout y'all?

For those that are getting refunds via direct deposit and can't pay out of pocket, I offer FeeCollect and they love it. I simply tack the processing charge for the bank product onto their prep fee and we are good to go. If they don't use direct deposit I will occasionally allow them to pay me when they receive the refund if I know them or their family well. Otherwise, I quote the fee up front based on the info they give me and tell them that as soon as they pay me I will prepare and file the return.

Before we all need this: Jim Cummings reading Star Wars' Darth Vader in the voice of Winnie the Pooh. Link is safe - unless you consider guffawing to be dangerous. Jim Cummings Reads Star Wars as Darth Pooh and Darkwing Daine Jr

Most of the payroll returns are done (w-2's and 1099's), although a couple of clients with new contract workers did NOT read my notes about "due 1/31" and just got me info over the weekend. I have had very few tax returns come in, so far. In a way it is terrifying, because it just means the onslaught will hit even harder. But folks here have mainly been digging out from our back-to-back winter storms. The ones that have come in are mainly done. Always the "missing item x" issues but turn around has been quick because we are not yet swamped.

Yep - I have about three to four weeks of work in front of me. And it shows no sign of slowing down.

Thanks for the info everybody. We've been getting these every now and then, but had no clue what the "messages" were. Tried calling EF center today, held for an hour, and then they chimed in and advised they were closed. I think IRS should be required to track each practitioner's calls and at season's end award $1,000 to whoever heard this the most: "Our representatives are still assisting other customers. Please continue to hold."

Read the text you quoted. The bonds must be issued in the name of someone over the age of 24, e.g., the parents. Banks that sold the bonds were not always good about explaining that to purchasers.

IRS has warned of this two-part scam. First the inquiry and then the PDF. I've received several that were one-part: Just emailed me tax docs, out of the clear blue sky. Just use your head. Why would anyone pick YOU out of a universe of hundreds of thousands of tax pros? No different than the Indian princesses who picked you out of the entire world's population to cash their checks. Colleague got a text today from the "IRS," demanding payment for an overdue tax bill and threatening arrest. Same script that the Indian call centers used on the phone. CI shut them down this fall and it was just a matter of time until other crooks stepped in to fill the void.

Because we have easier ways to hurt ourselves...

No need for that! We are all in this together and are here to lend one another a hand when we can. Your turn is next! Glad I could help this time!

Maybe, not sure exactly, but the ATX customer support did call me back just now and they had to reset it on their end. All fixed now. Thankfully it was less than an hour wait. =)

Sorry, you will have to read a lot before I get to my point. Let's say... when my back was wet, I went to look for a job and my employer ask me to write down my social security number and I wrote down 213-65-3234. I started working and I got a W-2 with SS# that I invented on the spot. If the year was 2016 or before no problem. I went to a tax preparer and he was able to apply for an ITIN and he is able to efile subsequent years by entering that SS# listed on my W-2 on the W-2 form of ATX and my ITIN on 1040. Year 2017 comes and now my W-2 comes with social security ***-**-3234. I don't feel comfortable to call my employer and ask "can you tell me my social security number"? In my case, I will have the old W-2 and no problem. If I start working in 2017 and I invented that number, then when I am ready to prepare my taxes, I will not know the whole number. That will cause some issues to the IRS person who will assign an ITIN and to my preparer when he tries to efile on subsequent years. How about when I am a US citizen and my social is 577-32-2333 and my employer makes a mistake and my W-2 is under 571-23-2333 but I cannot detect that issue because my W-2 reads ***-**-2333. Just a thought.

Very neat Catherine, That fellow has talent.

Just watched it. Good video. Im not sure I can extract the money from her but also, I cant hold her supporting documents hostage either. Of course I wont give her the completed return without payment.

Reg 1.1213-1(e)(1)(iii) is the authority, it refers to "capital expenditures" for medical purposes. It doesn't say anywhere that the capital expenditure must relate to your personal residence. Capital improvements to make a vehicle handicap accessible and to allow a handicapped person to operate it are also deductible. The purpose of the improvement must be for medical and not personal purposes. If the improvements on the vacation home were made to allow access by a handicapped person and not for the personal enjoyment of the whole family, then they should be allowed.

Oregon requires a Driver's License or State I D Card. However you can still efile without either, in which case Oregon uses alternate verification. I efiled a Federal and State Tax Return without any I D this morning, received acks this afternoon Probably because my client has filed a tax return every year for the last 70 years.

Are you a busy tax preparer and people don't respect your time?, this video is for you:

I'm in CT but have NY commuters, so I subscribe to NYS e-newsletters, check the NYS website, belong to the NY/CT-ATP which has state updates during our 2-day December seminar as well as lots of networking with NYS colleagues during each dinner meeting and seminar, subscribe to CCH's e-newsletters including their State Tax Review and Tracker News - State Tax News, and read everything I can, not to mention having NY colleagues that I can question when needed. I already had copies of both DLs from my Singapore couple (US citizens) with a NYS rental two months ago. This wasn't a big surprise. For 2015 taxes, I had to get DLs from my VA (? one of those southern states) clients. I started warning my northern clients last year that DL information might be a state or even federal requirement in the near future. We knew this was coming. NYS isn't the only state requiring DL information for 2016. Expect even more next year. As an EA, I do NOT receive CEs for state education toward my license renewal or even for NAEA membership, but I consider state education very important to my career so take courses re CT, NY, PA, MA, multi-state returns, etc.

This has been the biggest benefit of scanning records first and entering from the scan. Even W2s can have tiny bold-faced numbers that are hard to read. I'm always zoomed in. I can also keep the lights in my office lower.

If you are scanning docs in, you may find that it's easier to enlarge on your screen.

As easy as they are to get, we are just asking for them again and scanning them into the digital file cabinet with the current year work papers. I do not need one more thing to keep track of - like THEIR expiration dates.

I am filling it in even though it's not technically required. Kentucky has had lots of issues with fraud in the past couple of years. Maybe entering the info will help and maybe it won't but it only takes a few minutes to enter.