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I'm gonna have to agree with that one. Ok, I always agree with you three. Yesterday one showed up with sale of four rentals, ok, five, but whoops, we'll have to look up the paperwork on that one... haha... And all the rental expenses for all the rentals on that spreadsheet with all the personal household expenses. You know the one. Whoops, you're going home and fixing that.

And just to elaborate, this client is a PITA who calls often asking about what to do with each property, some owned solely, some with mother and some with husband. Should I get a heloc on this property, how about a like kind exchange, etc. She's always got me looking stuff up but I don't really mind because "I'm Billing Time" (Thank you Elrod, and the acapella group), maybe that's why she's miffed, I don't have all the answers off the top of my head to save her money. She treats nickels like manhole covers.

Well, not a Road-to-Damascus-scale sudden insight , but enough to make me realize we're not the only ones with multiple clients who people say goofy stuff to. While the barber skimmed my thatch with his hedge trimmer, I was complaining about interviewing a Schedule C client who, when I asked what kind of truck he drove, looked at me with astonishment and said "Why, Bart; it's that same old Chevy I've had for years!" The barber, unflappable, came back with "Yeah, I understand. When I ask how they want their hair done; lots of 'em will say 'Same as usual'."

First they have to buy it... Then they gotta get it home... Then they party with friends.... Then it's nap time.....

Reminds me of an experience I had when serving as an Electronics Technician in the US Air Force (1966-1970). A group of about 6 of us were nearing the end of our enlistment and we were scheduled for proficiency testing. It wouldn't make any difference, aside from possibly a promotion a month or two before discharge, along with more responsibilities just when our focus was on getting back to civilian life. We were sitting around a table discussing strategies to score as low as possible on the exam, just because we were bored and wanted to mess with their minds. Our group had a reputation for spending lots of off-duty time at the Airmen's club or partying in the barracks & off-base. Hey, don't judge - we were a bunch of single guys with an average age of 22. One career-type NCO was trying to persuade us not to do this on the exam. When everything else failed, he said "Hey, you guys like to party - if you score well you might get a promotion. That would mean you'd have another $100 a month to drink more beer!" The guy to my right looked him in the eye and replied in his most deadpan voice "Sarge, we couldn't possibly."

In my experience, this is the mentality of the typical multi-rental owner. They act as though they have a right to maximize their profitability matter how much it inconveniences others. They squeeze every penny out of their service providers.

This is because we're too nice to them, and they think they are our favorite client and we have nothing better to do than remember every little detail of their life. I have one with about a dozen rental cottages on Cape Cod and she's miffed when I can't remember which one is number 9. I said to her, "why don't you give them names, if you don't, I will." I still won't remember.

Pacun, I'm not losing him over the ACA. I've had this family for three years. Parents retired early, and grown @$$ kid won't hit a lick at a snake. They want special treatment because they CHOOSE to loaf. Hello? Get jobs, People! They are entitled little moochers who call me about everything, and complaining about a very reasonable fee was the last straw. I'm not losing them; they're losing me. I'm not helping him get out of that SRP. I am that hard headed. I sure am.

My favorite is when they say I got into buying properties business and want to deduct all my loses.

Well, this gentleman is delightful and neat as a pin. I guess you can't judge a book by the cover of the other book they referenced.

Just thought (even though I intend to stick with the law), I charged a $600 penalty to a client the day before the news broke. Sure hope they don't listen to the radio... (but there's still hope; lots of people can't decipher a tax return any better than I can an insurance policy).

I received an email from Capital One two days after I logged in to my account to pay a couple of notes I have with them. The email stated that I must update my account with them and provided a link, of course, that I didn't touch. The sender was [email protected] letter wasn't very nice as it said if I didn't update my info, it was going to do something with both of my balances and make reference to the way my account is paid each month. I said no, it can't be from Capital One, then the rest of me said, that sounds about right for Capital One....had horrible experience with them while refinancing....nobody wanted to do their job....anyway, I decided to call and let them have it if it was in fact, Capital One.....NOT! Immediately the person told me that their address always has capitalone in it rather than just capital. He asked me if I clicked on the link and was very happy I had not. The email looked EXACTLY like their other emails look, so be careful out there. Funny part about this is that the guy at Capital One told me I needed to run my virus scan, etc....and I told him the letter could very well have come from someone hacking Capital One. And, I really feel that's what happened! ANOTHER CAUTION: I brought up the link to log in to my AOL email account and received an error that my password was incorrect. As it's a long password, I figured I had entered it wrong, although I was extremely careful when I entered it as I just wanted to enter it once. So, I did it again...this time error message again, with a note on top of where I enter my username that went something like this: AOL HAS DETERMINED THAT YOUR COMPUTER HAS A SECURITY ISSUE. PLEASE CALL US AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AT 1-800............ Sure nuf, the AOL sign in screen was identical to the one I have seen over the years and I've been with AOL for at least 30 years without any problems. And, yes, I called the number. And, hell no, I'm not going to tell you the rest of the story, just going to say if you use AOL, DON'T CALL THE NUMBER IF YOU GET THE SAME KIND OF MESSAGE I GOT. I LIVED A NIGHTMARE FOR 2 DAYS UNTIL I WAS SURE MY COMPUTER WAS CLEAN. The sophistication of these hackers increases as time goes on.

You go, girl!

By which you do *not* mean "she drives over them without a second thought" I take it?

I'm behind in e filing because I'm waiting on clients to give me their driver's license info for NY returns. Especially the kids away at college partying while I'm working to get them more beer money. You think they would be right on this.

I print out the suggested FMV from the TaxBook and give it to them to do a detailed list. Others also available online from Goodwill, Salvation Army, DONATE IT, etc. I won't take "xx bags" and "xx boxes." Only took one year and all my regulars got it. Now I get reasonable values and itemized lists. Well, it took a few more than one year to get the message....

Yeah, I wonder if it isn't a lack of fraudulent returns with all the new security systems in place.

I quoted the posts into a new topic to keep this one intact. Hope that is helpful.

1.- Scammers are not efiling either. 2.- People have not received their Obamacare papers and their refunds were put on hold last year so they are taking their time collecting all the info. 3.- Tax preparers started their season late. 4.- People were told that their refunds were going to be hold until Feb 15th.

So is cheap toilet paper. Don't know how to do what Jack did, but my hand is definitely up. Waaayyyy up.

Well that was torture, but character building. If I did the worksheets correctly, and I actually printed them and did them by hand, he could have gotten a plan for 202.35 and the subsidy he qualified for would have been 236.63. So, his required contribution amount is zero. So, yes, it was affordable. But I could also be wrong... Raise your hand if your health has declined because of stress associated with the Affordable Care Act.

WORST TECHNICAL SUPPORT EVER -- 1.5 HOUR ON MY THIRD, EVER HIGHER LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE, CANNOT FIX WHAT IS OBVIOUSLY WRONG -- I HAVE BOTH AN ACCEPTANCE AND SLIGHT LATER REJECTION FOR THE SAME FORM 1040 -- THE REJECTION IS FROM EFC, WHICH ATX CONTROLS -- THE EASY FIX IS TO REMOVE THE LATER REJECTION AND THE ACCEPTANCE WILL BE DOWNLOADED DURING THE NEXT RUN -- HOWEVER, SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE EVEN AFTER REMOTING INTO MY WORKSTATION -- EVER SINCE 2012 THIS MAX SOFTWARE HAS BEEN PLAGUED WITH PROBLEMS THAT REQUIRE HOURS OF REVIEW BEFORE ITS SOLVED -- I BEEN AN ATX USER SINCE 1998, BUT THIS IS MY LAST YEAR. TOO MUCH LOST TIME TO CRAPPING SOFTWARE

Delaware - for New Castle County property records, this link brings up lots of property data including sales history, zoning, size of lot, permits, size and type of building, and with additional links to the actual tax and sewer invoices for multiple years: http://www3.nccde.org/parcel/search/ Delaware - for New Castle County, to search for a will: http://www3.nccde.org/will/search/ Delaware - search for businesses licensed in DE at DDOR: https://dorweb.revenue.delaware.gov/scripts/bussrch/bussrch.dll Delaware - Kent County properties, to search by name (or links at left to search using other criteria): http://kent400.co.kent.de.us/PropInfo/PIName.HTM Delaware - Sussex County properties, to search by name or parcel number ( I had to add year to search otherwise detail didn't come up): https://munis.sussexcountyde.gov/MSS/citizens/RealEstate/Default.aspx?mode=new

The best I've found to search by municipality in CT: http://publicrecords.netronline.com/state/CT/

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.

It's functional now, just sent in 2 returns. It's still early here out west.

Posted at 9:45pm Thursday Feb 23 Please be advised that we currently are performing unscheduled maintenance for the Electronic Filing Center, resulting in some errors sending efiles or retrieving acks We appreciate your patience, and please check back here soon for updates on our progress. Posted 8 minutes ago

Thanks, LisaAnn! We both are taking Pacun's advice. It's a good excuse to end the day!

Taking Pacun's advice.....ending my day and will try again in the am.

I just tried to e-file and I'm getting the same error.

Shut down your computer for 30 seconds, then test your internet connectivity and try again. BETTER YET, go home to rest and try tomorrow. It doesn't make any difference if you transmit today or tomorrow, provided you don't offer RALS, which I hate.

Rita, I think you have an ethical obligation to give him his options, the best of which is to file an extension and see what happens. If he insists on filing now, and he insists on filing a silent return, you can tell him you won't do that and he will have to go elsewhere. One thing which is lost in this conversation is the fact that our clients trust us to give them all the information available, and that includes information which may be inconvenient to us. If all the taxpayer wants is to have all the lines filled in, he can get that done with Turbo Tax at a fraction of what he pays us. But I could be wrong....

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.

Here's the Pennsylvania site: http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/Pennsylvania-Assessor-and-Property-Tax-Records.htm In my opinion, it does not provide as much useful information as the New Jersey site.

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

I keep an air horn next to my phone.

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.

Just be careful that the client isn't using his or her cost instead of what the charity will sell them for. Sometimes it's easy to pick up. I just had a client who donated four pair of sneakers for $400. I don't think Goodwill gets $100 for a used pair of sneakers. Or the one who donated two bags of clothes valued at $1000. Another gives entire bedroom and living room sets away every single year (valued at 10K+). She must re-docorate her home on an ongoing basis. I either call to make sure they are using FMV or just cut the listed amount to 10% of whatever they listed. I usually enter each slip individually but draw the line at 10 or more and take the easy way out.

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.

Ever notice how they relent when it's a case of big institutions with entire departments dedicated to accounting that get the "relented" - but when it's poor schmucks like preparers and/or the general public, we just have to deal and if it's too much too soon with too little notice well that's just too doggone bad. Grrr.....

And maybe getting that EIN. For God's sake, we gotta be sure our worthless form comes from a legit institution, not a pretend institution. So our useless number there might appear to have some cred. It's really ironic that our institutions of higher learning can't be trusted to do a little bookkeeping. I mean c'mon.

I agree with others above. I would pay the interest if the mistake was mine.. I would also pay the interest to make this client go away! If you don't, you risk this client bad-mouthing you forever. Your client seems pretty determined to make you pay and I would guess would not hesitate to make online complaints about you on the web.. Good luck

If the mistake is mine, I pay all interest and penalties. In the realm of the business world, you must decide if the amount of business you may lose or retain for the $60 is worth the $60.

In my experience, the proceeds have almost always exceeded the basis.....

In general, the granting of an easement for a limited use or a limited time reduces the basis. See Rev Rul 68-291. If the proceeds exceed the basis, then there is gain. It is is a perpetual easement, then it is a sale, even thoough the title does not change hands. Maribeth