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I keep an air horn next to my phone.

I'm just over here trying to decide whether to call new client or not. He's called twice and dropped the name of my most PITA client. Yay. I'm wondering if this is a PITA added referral.

When a new individual client comes in, we have a checklist for setting them up. One thing we check is the state real estate records for their house (fortunately, MD has a very nice website for doing this). We need to know if they're in town limits, but we also check whose name the house is in, when they bought it, how much they paid, how many square feet the home is, and whether they've applied for the homestead tax credit. So far this year, two new clients had not applied for the homestead credit. This can save them 100s or even 1,000s a year in real estate taxes. Just an FYI as a value added service, in case your state has a similar situation.

Rapidly push a number of phone buttons...Beep....Beep....Beep....Beep....Beep...

To lessen the potential for post-filing-season problems for practitioners, Whitlock recommends they have the taxpayer sign the following disclosure if they decide not to check Box 61 on the return: “In the course of the preparation of my 2016 U.S. Federal Income Tax Return, I have voluntarily chosen not to report whether there are individuals on this return for which the Individual Shared Responsibility Payment (Penalty for Not Having Health Insurance) would apply or that no one on this return had Health Insurance for which the penalty may apply. “I understand that I may receive a communication from the Internal Revenue Service, experience delayed refunds, and face subsequent collection activity to recoup this payment. “Although my return preparer has thoroughly explained the issue to me, I have made the decision not to complete Line 61 on the tax form and have so instructed my return preparer. “I further understand that should I request my preparer’s additional assistance in this matter the fee paid for the preparation of the return does not include representing me in this matter should the need arise. Should I engage my preparer to represent me in the matter, I understand an additional fee will be required and determined at that time.”

Catherine, I have a client (retired PE teacher, or whatever the PC term is for that subject now) who keeps a coach's whistle by her phone for that very reason.

I tell you, there are times I am SO very tempted to simply scream into the receiver. No words, just a blood-curdling scream. At the least, that caller will be out with a ruptured eardrum for a while. But I don't.

Since the 1st of the year, I have similar emails from Fedex, UPS, and DHL requesting a response. for shipments I wasn't expecting.

Here's a great site the State of New Jersey offers which provides real estate tax information including prior year amounts, lot, block numbers. https://wwwnet1.state.nj.us/Treasury/Taxation/TYTR_TLSPS_WEB/Taxlistsearch.aspx

There is some amount of money which will remove the PITA flag from any client. The trick is knowing what that amount is. In the extreme, one 500k per year customer might actually be easier than 500 at 1k per year. While not PITA related, I often get asked about creating a Mac version of our software. I always say I am willing, for the price it would take to at least break even. No one "bites", because it would be cheaper to buy a PC and printer every year, just for one program... With Apple not yet, in all these years, having reached 10% of desktop users, the market is too small for something other than a very specialized program which cannot be had on a PC. (Gone are the days when the publishing world all used Apple because the defacto publishing software was Apple only.)

I like that idea better, Lion. That way they get ruptured ear drums, but I don't get a sore throat!

The sad thing is that 1 out of 7 people that receive those e-mails respond and either get hacked or send the crooks money. It is a very lucrative operation.

No, I reenlisted in the fall 2016 and the deal was pay $xx down and we'll bill the remaining $xxxx in February 2017. Somewhere down the line, I had a fraudulent charge on my credit card, and got a new account number. I neglected to tell ATX about this, so really it's my fault. But sending me to update my phone numbers was really not the best way to handle that one, I think. Anyhow, you could never offend me, Tom, what is wrong with you?

Do NOT call. If he reaches you, tell him you have no openings for new clients this season.

It seems there are too many crooks out there these days, Bill We all need to watch it.....

Rich - my apologies! One would think that at this stage of life, I would know better! With that new information, I stand by my recommendation but also believe he received bad advice from the attorneys. Just my 2 cents.

Not going to happen in my practice. My client's tax returns will be prepared according to current law, which was not changed by the EO. All due respect to Beanna Whitlock, but she's come up with some other ideas which OPR stated were unconscionable.

Ron: He did contact the attorneys handling the case. Was told to deposit the checks. She was still listed on the accounts for that matter, although it has been 4 years. Rich

There is nothing easy about the taxable Social Security calculation unless their income is so low it is zero or so high it is 85%.

Read other post about free efile and then call him. Grab as many clients as you can now. Remember our 30% of the population limitation.

I got one last weekend from AT&T notifying me that they had finished their server upgrade and I could upgrade my account features by clicking on the link provided. Tom Newark, CA

Got a call today. They said "Your Google account needs to be udpdated." Since I don't have a Google account, I said "Goodbye."

Nothing new, and not unique to tax prep. Food gathering, accounting, repairs, construction, all these things "could" be done DIY, but few do. The key is to "sell" the service, meaning saving the customer the time to learn and perform the task properly, allows the customer to spend their time warning using their own skills, or enjoying leisure time. A certain number will always prefer to DIY, like me, because we enjoy the process, enjoy learning, already have the skills, etc. There are plenty who would rather use their time for other pursuits.

Just received an email from Amazon saying my order has shipped, a fancy smancy Dell computer, $1600 worth. I never ordered this so I called Amazon and they said it is a spoofing email that many people are getting. Now I need to Google "spoofing email" as I never heard of these. She said don't respond to it (I was born at night, not last night). It's a mine field out there.

I have been figuring the SRP, business as usual, but have two that TOLD ME they wanted to wait and see. Ok, great. Now I have another person with the SRP and very upset about it. He didn't know he'd get a penalty and didn't know to try to get a subsidy, even though he's 38 and lives with mom and dad who DO get the subsidy. They're retired and he's underemployed. Exactly who we like to subsidize. /s He also got EIC. I gave you that background because I'm pretty fed up with how this has all panned out. Plus, he bitched about my $125 fee. My question is, do I have an obligation to tell him he can ignore Line 61? I won't do the return that way for him, but should I tell him?

ADMINISTRATOR: Please take my comments and post these links the same way you posted "Tips and Tricks". I think you can delete all comments that are not related or the ones without any links so we have only the juice.

DITTO

I get concerned when someone is called a "straight shooter" in one sentence but acted fraudulently in a previous sentence (forging a signature to get a check cashed). The correct way would have been to return the check to Walmart and request it be re-issued either in the estate's name or the widower's name. However, if I am the widower, and for the amount of money involved, I probably would have done the same thing. I think I would forget the return for the deceased and just put the income on his return, paper-filing of course, with an explanation of nominee income. Good luck!

Did you try to file a prior year return and they tried to charge your credit card and it declined because you did not have it updated? Just wondering? Don't hug me if I offended you. Tom Newark, CA

OR if they earn money directly linked to the USA in the future (regardless of US citizenship or Green Card "holdance"). Yes, you can deposit on any bank but you have to disclose it by checking the box.

I've seen some that showed a level premium for all 12 months that did add up to the total amount paid, within pennies each month, even though the actual payment for Jan was the prior year's rate and then adjusted for the over- or underpayment in either Feb or March depending on how late the person signed up through the Marketplace. If that isn't the case with your client's form and there are outright errors, he should request that the Marketplace issue a corrected 1095A, otherwise he will get a notice.

Oh my last client could probably DIY. Wages, some interest & dividends, mortgage , & RE tax. Except for the stock options and pension payout part of his golden handshake which was earned in PA, NY and CA. If not for the NY it would still be easy.

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.

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....