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I am telling you, people consistently give me the crappiest, rustiest, oldest paper clips they can find, which they then use to clip together documents that don't belong together. Where are they getting these nasty things?!? They leave rust on the documents! They have to be older than me. And . . . it's amazing the smells that paper carries. I open an envelope full of 'bits', and there's a giant whiff of anything from perfume to cigarette smoke to pickles. Eeegads. People must try really hard to make these packages this 'special' for me.

I have clients who send such smokey paperwork that I put it in a sealed plastic bag or else my office just stinks! OTOH, I had a pizza restaurant bookkeeping client whose paperwork smelled delicious

I once had a client who delivered & maintained Porta-Johns for construction sites... Oh never mind...

The smells are what bother me more, especially the papers from heavy smokers. That gross smell gets on my hands too. Years ago, the firm I worked for had a fish market as a client, and the smell on those papers was nauseating and probably the worst I've ever experienced.

I especially hate the plastic clips in cute shapes. This is no time for cute, people. And of course, I'm with you on the rusty ones. Be sure your Tetanus shots are up to date.

I have a client who used to bring me all her documents in one of those tins they use to sell Dutch butter cookies. *Everything* smelled like butter cookies - but there were no cookies! So I told her she had to start leaving some cookies in the tin - or bring stuff in a folder. Sure 'nuff - folder. Piffle. I was really hoping for the cookies. In fact, maybe I'll have a piece of shortbread now.

try having farmer clients............

If I had a pizza restaurant bookkeeping client, I would require more than smells! You bring something that smells like pizza, and it had better be followed by the real thing!

On a brighter side, I have an older client whose tyvex envelope upon opening gives off a strong scent of Nina Ricci or maybe it's Chantilly (I worked in a drugstore during college so I know these things). Always makes me smile, I actually know it's hers before opening. But the smelly, stinky, stained documents with their last meal on them, I'm thinking of going to those nitrile gloves, except that hearing the snap of the glove upon putting it on gives me frightening flashbacks of the doctor's office.

Well, you've all got better stories than me. Only one I can think of is my beauty shop operator client who clips all her papers together with hair clips. No, wait. I remember receiving a large box of all someone's papers -- it's probably been 25 years ago, but in the bottom was a half-eaten sandwich. Thankfully, it had mummified.

Assuming the client was on the accrual basis of accounting for tax purpose, the income is recognized in the year that the liability is known to be overstated. No amended return is necessary. No messing with retained earnings permitted.

Terry, There is no penalty for filing a gift tax return late if no amount is owed with the return itself. You are correct in stating that he should file the return, even though it is late, and that the gift will not trigger any immediate tax, it will just reduce his lifetime unified credit on the $5.45M of taxable estate exclusion.

SLOW... Fast.....

Catherine, You need one of these........

My husband keeps telling me that. New client this year paid $750 last year to [big box store which shall remain nameless] when my fee for that same return is about $280. It only took me a half hour; I felt bad charging that much - until I saw the prior-year bill.

My hubby got all excited when a large Lord & Taylor box arrived for me, thinking a grateful client had sent a gift. I took one look at the return address and knew it was just a tardy client sending all her tax documents, plus every other piece of paper she had, for a couple of years. What a letdown.

Offtopic - client received a 1099-C for a credit card writing off $4,500 in balance due. Client tells me initially they hadn't made a payment on it in years but he was getting ready to pay it ALL off. With the code given I told him it is highly unlikely they will ever ask for the money again and it's on his credit report as lost. Now all of a sudden he's obsessed that the credit card company has screwed up his credit rating. His not making payments for years isn't applicable?

AND... They will want documentation of all the entries on the worksheet. Every time I have told a client to be sure to have documentation for all debts and assets, they decided just to pay the tax...

I have a dashcam in my car, maybe one day I'll upload a video and make you watch it for 30-45 minutes of my commute

I have a 12 to 15 minute commute. Depends on the buses, and if the High School is arriving for class in the morning. Rich

@Elrod - just WHERE do you find these wonderful clips?!?!

Stairs. Careful if you get a new pair of work shoes (slippers). My latest pair has a slightly longer sole in front, and I tripped going UP stairs.

Here's my view on Post Office days.

We all hate when this happens because we are not sales people, maybe we are not charging enough.

I really detest it when shysters sweet-talk the elderly into doing *stupid* things with their money. Couple years ago a client got convinced that converting her IRA to a Roth IRA was the cat's meow. Oh, she and her husband got *slammed* with tax that year. But the shyster got his juicy commission so what does he care?

Looks like Lion covered that very well and yes, software does a good job. I left NY too, but with all my NY clients I stay in a NY state of mind. Just can't wear my Red Sox shirt around them, it irritates them.

If on my golf cart, 20 seconds, if driving my Jeep 30 seconds. Office is separate from my house and has it's own road to it.

To the firm where I work part time, 26 miles, 35 minutes. At my home office, 1 minute as including pouring my beverage.

I had mine unchecked BEFORE the update. The update changed it. (@#%^*#%#$% designers and programmers. Changing MY preferences)

30 seconds for me to the basement, faster if I fall down the stairs.

Your software should do the heavy lifting after you tell it the date your client became a NY resident, but some forms to look for TR-579-IT is the NY version of 8879 IT-201-V is the payment voucher IT-203 is the NRPY base form IT-203-D should flow from the federal Schedule A IT-2 details the W-2s IT-360.1 for moving into or out of NYC (NYC tax is calculated, but flows to IT-203; just a separate schedule and not a separate return for NYC) Yonkers has their own schedule, also. IT-2105.9 if underpaid If your client had any NY-sourced income while still an IL resident or IL-sourced income after a NY resident, you'll be using more columns in the allocation. If the company did not change/client does not have separate W-2s, you'll need a paystub with year-to-date information close to when he left IL/moved to NY to allocate his wages between the two states. I usually do a spreadsheet and then input the income items: wages, interest, dividends, capital gains, etc. I proofread on the forms and not from the input screens to make sure everything flowed where I expected it to, nothing doubles, nothing is missing, the amounts from the two states add up to his federal, etc. Moving expenses go on NY as the state he moved to, if the company did not reimburse him for deductible moving expenses. Your software should flow everything or almost everything after you prepare the federal and give NY the date and allocate anything your software cannot. I don't have any NY residents currently (moved to CT &/or NJ), but come back with any specific questions and hope a NY preparer jumps in.

18 miles, 25 minutes. It's my podcast listening time... unless I'm fed up with the world, then I crank up some hard rock. I take the scenic route out of town to avoid school buses. It's a mile longer, but I'd rather see this than the back of a school bus.

I detest caps everywhere except tax returns. It mostly has to do with on screen reading and small fonts on tax forms.

Elderly client had half a million in a savings account. Someone talked him into investing in 2015. 2015 was a down year so he sold everything after losing 80k. BUT the investments that the Wall St. broker put him in paid 55k in dividends. He didn't need the income! So he lost money overall but still has to pay a lot of tax. And he'll never live long enough to deduct that 80k at 3k per year. Somehow, we never got the 1099, so we just got an IRS notice... with a substantial understatement penalty. He'd be miles ahead if that money was still in his savings account. TGIF!

I thought about that, but it's just too simple a return. Wages, $1 interest, social security, capital loss carry-forward but no brokerage transactions or dividends. That's it. It's close to a 1040A and I'd gag trying to tell her she owed me $375 for that return.

When I see the previous year's bill, mine is never less than 50% of what they paid last year.

Every time I have used insolvency, the IRS has written back asking for a copy of the insolvency worksheet in the publication. So you might want to keep that handy.

You will get this message on any return that you do not have full coverage for the full year checked. It is just a reminder of how the client can sign up for the health care, it is not any thing that we as tax preparers have done wrong, it's just a reminder that the client needs to remedy the situation for future years. Thing is it is also showing up on dependent returns where we are specifically told not to check the box. I have had several of these, don't lose any sleep over them.

Black Bart, I have gotten these in the past and I found that if I open the return and from the e-file menu and select display rejection errors, that I get to see the messages. I have written ATX about this to see if they can add new menu option do display messages.

Yeah, mine's going "smooth", so to speak, but I'm also getting replies that a few returns have been "accepted, but with messages" by IRS. Called EF center and the people there are clueless and can't tell me what the messages are. Don't know what to do about that except we have double-checked the returns again and can't find anything wrong. So anyway, I guess we'll just live with it until they start rejecting them altogether.

If he reaches the then-limit while alive, he will owe tax with that year's gift tax return plus any subsequent returns. You don't wait until after he dies to pay tax, just until he reaches the limit. I think. None of my clients have given that much away, so I haven't had to look that up lately.

60 miles - an hour and 15 minutes on non-snow days; an hour and a half with weather. Up until 2 and a half years ago, I had a 5 to 7 minute commute. But in anticipation of retiring someday, we moved to a piece of God's country. Believe it or not, being there at the beginning and ending of the day makes the commute tolerable.

One Mile - 4 minutes

My office and house are also 9 miles apart. Morning commute is about 20 - 30 minutes; afternoon can vary from 15 - 45.

Guess I am the odd one out here - I absolutely *detest* all-caps and stay away from it as much as possible. I find it exceedingly hard to read and annoying to deal with. But that's just me.

I am with you Joe...Let us turn off the Blue Triangles. I know how to search if I need too. I do not need to be reminded on EVERY line item. Sheesh. Stupid programmers. I can build it, I don't have to use it... Rich

Go to your preference and select client communication and I put a check mark on the box that says will be efiled when 8879 is signed and returned. Otherwise you will have to change it on each client.

But would you like them in a group Maybe with some chicken soup? Or would you like them one by one, Maybe that would be some fun. Would you let them on your screen If they helped to keep it clean? Would you like them if they spoke Or perhaps told a funny joke? If none of these can ring your bell Then perhaps the blue triangles can go to .... !