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It is still in the tax code. Are you going to risk your license? To each their own, but until the Treasury writes new regulations, I will ask the appropriate questions and make relevant inquiries of my clients for the positions they take on the tax return. Including the penalty tax related to the ACA. I will not sign my name to a tax return that I know to include false information. Tom Newark, CA

Bart: You don't need to worry about doing his work. I think he was shopping around because he called me too. He seemed honest enough, so I gave him a fair estimate and he sent me his thumb drive. I'm opening it right now and it looks like everything is strictly on the up and up34324234-2934-=02-0`-2``=9210=`0`02-12`-2`-2`-2`12`3=01243-09137849082374012734=-ipdjk;sdjfasnm p qkjsd ]po mi=I r2r-ir i3 ] ^^^3_(_)(*&)*tilt()))++)+ 3 m] o 3o #####

The guy who had his unemployed, degree holding wife drop off an accordion file on Oct 10 paid about twice as much for the bookkeeping. They returned from vacation on Oct 17. I feel pretty good about it.

You just can NOT save some people from themselves.

This looks like as good a place as any - could it BE any more cumbersome to enter assets in ATX? It's a space ship up in here. And it's as if you can see one star in this whole universe at a time. The scrolling. The trying to widen the place you want to see. The fighting with the date. Come back here, why do you want to jump to the day, let me enter a month, for the love of God...

The con men (strike that - I meant to say con persons - we here in Dogpatch observe all the PC amenities) are apparently gonna be flockin' here to get their "short forms" done. Who know, maybe John H. was right when he said price and distance were no object -- except I b'lieve their focus is on fleecin' the sheep. Somebody here the other day said all we used to have to watch out for was Nigerian princes, but they're a little more savvy now. This guy acquired a local area code number to make his pitch. First off, although he wouldn't give HIS name, he was very insistent on US maintaining Circular 230 strict confidentiality (never heard THAT one before). Next, said he'd send all his stuff to me on a thumb drive with links. Told him not to worry; although I have a friend who writes The Weekly Wiper gossip-column, she would cross-her-heart promise to keep mum. On the down side, I advised him that, while we don't deal with thumbs, we must occasionally give obnoxious people the finger and I believed he qualified. Must have been the sensitive type 'cause he hung up. .

It is a best practice to always collect Form W-9 from your vendors before making payments. This will ensure you have all the information you need from them when preparing your 1099s at the end of the year. Once you receive the W-9 back from the vendor/payee, if they have checked the C Corporation Box, the S Corporation Box or the Limited Liability Company Box with a “C” or “S” noted, you are not required to prepare a 1099 and send to them. For vendors/payees who have marked as their tax classification: Individual/sole proprietor, Partnership, Trust/ Estate or Limited liability company with a “P” marked or Other, then you are required to send a 1099 to them. The only exception is all payments to attorneys should be reported on a 1099-MISC as mentioned above. You should retain indefinitely the Form W-9 to support your filing or lack of filing a 1099. If you are unable to get the EIN of your vendor, the IRS requires you to withhold 25% from any payments you make to that company or person. This is referred to as backup withholding.

The responses sound reasonable to me. My clients know better than to ask that kind of question. They learned along time ago that I march to the beat of my own drummer and don't give a flip about what other practitioners do. The folks on this forum being an exception to that statement, of course!

I do not do any shoe box clients. If you can not produce a spread sheet or at least a a sheet with totals they must go elsewhere.

Amen, sister Rita (as my parson-client would say)! And I thought I was the only one goin' crazy with this.

Just looked at NC and MA for gift tax. Neither State has a gift tax. MA, however, does have a one time 1,000,000 exclusion and then the estate tax kicks in. So, for my client, no State gift tax. Thanks to all who replied. It sure is a great thing to have you folks here.

I love the ones that don't realize you have caller I.D. who call and ask things like "where would you put the amount shown in such and such box on the the tax return?" or "could you tell me what it means if there is a number 1 in box 7 on my retirement form?" Come on, seriously.

My last client who had a local broker that wasn't up to snuff....no, a guy who pretended to be a broker....had a nice racket going on...a local ponzi scheme that although did enough damage, wasn't allowed to continue it. Hate saying this even today, but after my discovery and a lot of heat from law enforcement sources, he committed suicide. I still feel bad, however, there's a lot of investors out there that feel even worse than I do. My client was the fortunate one who was told to try to get all of his money back (plus fake earnings), which he did, while the powers to be was assessing the situation. Funny thing about this is that my client tried to warn his friends who referred him to the pretend "broker" that it was a ponzi scheme, however, several and one couple in particular, stands out in my mind as they chose to keep their money with the "broker" because it was making so much (on paper). The couple's professions were nothing to sneeze at. One was a college professor, the other a nuclear scientist. Nothing shocks me any more!

Thank you, that is very helpful to know.

Verification Code can only be: Hyphens Numbers 0 through 9 and Uppercase letters A through F

Thanks for the reminder to look for these! I wonder how it's going to work when clients upload photos or scans of their W-2's that are not *quite* in focus. It's hard enough, sometimes, to see the wages and tax figures!

"My neck is on the line to have this documentation. I will not put my ability to perform my business at risk due to your lack of having or wanting to provide this documentation. Call your Congressman."

I take the standard deduction but have dividends,interest, capital gains, SS, IRA RMD, and have an installment sale involving principal and interest, but as a former tax pro, I can handle it.

I have been asking people for a few years now. They don't question me anymore. When they call to make the appointment, we ask if they have children, if yes, we need school, medical or daycare records. We also ask for Insurance cards. When people asked, I said, the IRS is asking for. This year, I was tempted to say "we have a new administration and they are tough", but I didn't. That explanation would work though.

A CPA was on the radio today saying that there is no penalty and that the software was not updated but he knew how to make people "NOT" pay the penalty. I guess it is a good business move on his part, he will send the box unchecked and when the letter from the IRS arrive to his clients, he will charge them to answer those letters or to amend. I am with Bulldog Tom, I will check the box and I will ask clients if they had health insurance. Most of my clients have it so I will check the box. When a penalty needs to be paid, I will ask the people if they want to pay the penalty or if they want to receive a letter from the IRS and deal with it later. Why will I create extra burden on the IRS by not checking the box if I know my client and everybody on the return had health insurance? Why will I leave the box unchecked and have my client receive a letter from the IRS when I settle it with a check mark at the time of creating the efile file? I will waste more time reading the yellow alert than checking the box. This is the proof I commonly get when getting EIC or CTC: School records Vaccination records Insurance records or cards So I am getting insurance records or cards already why not send a complete return which will stand no matter where ACA goes?

My seniors are more complex, in spite of paying off their mortgages so taking standard deduction. They have many, many, many sources of income: SS, IRAs, pensions/401(k)s, SEPs/SIMPLESs, capital gains, interest, dividends, and lots more interest, and maybe a part-time job or SE &/or renting out a spare room or renting their house until it sells while they move in to a smaller place (did they get 1099-S?), and LTC benefits when ill and double-checking RMDs and which were ROTHs and which were inherited and....

The current Republican tax plan is for individuals to get a $12,000 per person standard deduction. $24k per couple. The only thing that could go on the Schedule A is your mortgage interest and charitable deductions which in most of middle America doesn't get to $24k for a couple. State taxes, real estate taxes and medical would be waved as deductible items and in return the AMT is eliminated. That would make most seniors (just an estimate), ultra easy tax returns.

I took a chance...

What is nice about this is that --- it is just like reading the IRS instructions //// /s - oh, so concise and easy to follow ... Many people (f they actually thought about it) would find the cost of the "program", time spent reading instructions (even interview) and still "wondering" if they have it covered would be BETTER off with a PAID Preparer. Less stress, worry and a number of benefits for future occurrences. But then , people are strange (includes me) and just get it in their head that DIY is less costly and better ---- how many times have I been "proved wrong"? Usually to have extra or more costs to "fix" what was done. There is hope for even the knowledgeable client, as they have better things to spend their time on. ///// They just need to learn that!!!!

That is so true. Another returning client, only W-2s last year, just confessed that he was going to DIY (why do they do that?!), "but I bought a house". We have learned what that means. Well, itemizing doesn't help him. Yes, I will do the Sch A anyway. It's easier than explaining. Yes, I'll go over it at pickup. But, wait, what's this? Oh, I cashed out my retirement. No. That's not what he did. It's a 1099-B. They don't know what they don't know.

ff buckets of bits on the bus, ff buckets of bits, take one down, short it to ground, fe buckets of bits on the bus! fe buckets of bits on the bus, fe buckets of bits, take one down, short it to ground, fd buckets of bits on the bus! We made the mistake of teaching the girls to count in hexadecimal, and they proceeded to sing that song on the way up to VT on vacation one year. We were astounded at how far they got before losing interest. We think it was the challenge of keeping track in the new counting system.

I love when codes use the hexadecimal alphabet.

It will work the same way it works when you can not read the amounts in box 1 or 2. I ask people to upgrade their iPhones or take a better picture.

I meant for the IRS to force that box on ALL W2 just like the social security number or the name. So if the IRS enforces o it on the W-2 creators, then all W-2 will have it. Then they will for the ERO Transmitters to require that code just as they require a SS#. I am glad to hear that all round characters are zeros. 0/O or 00/OO, one is skinner than the other. 0FD32 and OFD32 are different. Believe that code enforcement is coming down the pipe unless not even 1 identity theft occurs this year.

Yep gotta go with Ringers. I do the same thing and have been for many years and have never been question. Nevertheless, doesn't mean it can't happen.

There is no letter o in the verification code.So if you see 0, it will always be a zero.

I have a full time person that does all of that for me. But I make the client understand up front that I charge her out at $55 per hour and that fee will be added to the tax prep fee. I actually like shoe box clients. That is a profit center for me. If I did not have a person like that the client would understand that I would charge $90 per hour to do that kind of work. They could either pay me to do it or take it home and bring it back summarized.

I absolutely charge more for a shoe box than a well sorted/prepared set of information. No question about that and I make the client aware of that beforehand. If they choose to bring me a shoe box, they will be charged more. Fortunately, I don't have many of those.

Figuring out if that teeny, tiny character is an 8 or a B is a pain. I wear my reading glasses to prepare tax returns, but those 16 digits are really tough to read. Do I include the hyphens? I've done it both ways. And, I know I missed one originally, but spotted it when noticing that one of their other W-2s had the code. And, have you seen the one where it's buried in the name/address box?! Big companies have employee numbers anyway, so it took some time for me to realize where they'd hidden the verification code. Box 9 or within the name/address, right? What a stupid system.

I enter it on the 8283 as: Name: Goodwill, Salvation Army and others (17 pickups) Address: various, zip code = same as in T/P address Date of Donation: 12/31/16 Then put in the date of purchase (varioius), cost , FMV = Total, method = thrift shop pricing. The only wrinkle is when the total FMV exceeds $5000, then you need to report as multiple donations to avoid the "appraisal" of used clothing and household items.

I have a feeling they would send a wet noodle thru the mail, maybe one to us and one to the taxpayer, and say, "Hit yourself with this, we're not refunding a tax that you owed and paid. Sorry that your neighbor got out of it. Don't be hatin."

The LLC is not a federal entity; it's a state by state thing. At the federal level, an LLC defaults to sole proprietor if one member and to partnership if more than one member -- to either of those entities a biz would send Forms 1099. If the W-9 says the LLC is taxed as a corporation, either S or C, then a biz does not have to send Forms 1099, but it can. There are other subsets, such as attorneys and healthcare providers, but that wasn't the question on this thread. And, a biz can always send Forms 1099 to all of its consultants if it chooses.