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Hell froze over today. Not one but TWO of my clients came up with their original purchase docs for stocks bought in the 1980s and '90s! One even had the annual statements of reinvested dividends (which I had to add up, but I was so overcome with joy that I didn't mind).

I start early, so by 5pm, there is nothing much nice about me. If I took clients in the evenings, I'd be arrested by my own son, for murder. I think we should all get Medals of Honor when we get through a season without killin' somethin'!

Darn, I was hoping they could file as a threesome.

I can get a lot of work done after dinner when the phone's not ringing and clients aren't expecting an immediate reply to their email and when hubby stops walking in my office, sitting down, and trying to show me some video or something that could wait until dinner! So, I end up working very, very late. I take few face-to-face appointments, but make them in the afternoon.

I'm the same way - didn't mean it like it sounded. Some days I'm shell-shocked by five (closing time) after dealing with clients all day, but am a night person and can recoup after supper and two hours rest. I don't take any clients after five but can get a lot of work done between seven and midnight (or later) with nobody to interrupt. By late clients I meant I'm still getting some heavy-duty cases to work. The quick-refund-big-box franchise down the street now has an empty parking lot and is looking out the door hungrily 'cause their clientele has already come and gone.

Came from this pdf from the IRS site: 4491_filing_status (1).pdf

I work up a return - client failed to tell me she sold one of her rentals. grrrrr Then when it is time to pick up the return hands me a stack of MLP K-1s she had never had before. Then wonders can she sign the return while she's in the office? Will it be done today?

Absolutely. And thank your clients for their service and heroism. The argument is substance over form. The law clearly states that the money is tax free, regardless of what the paper from the payer says. It is no different than getting a 1099 for Misc Income that should have been coded to rents. Just because the amount is in the wrong box does not change the substance of the transaction. Just make sure you have your documentation solid and be ready to appeal if the IRS denies the claim. Tom Modesto, CA

Gah, what next! There's always burn or mulch too. One more great reason to go totally paperless. Maybe I'll offer my chips to my neighbor with the dirt farm that could churn it in with his used mushroom soil compost, and no one would touch it then.

Because the deceased's tax year for the individual return ended on the date of death, and on that date of death the deceased's marital status was married, and because the widow(er) remarried, that person gets to choose MFJ or MFS.

I wait eagerly every weekday for the door to close after my last employee leaves. I have an amazing team, but I need quiet and no interruptions to just slog through returns. I, like Lion, take very few appointments. I don't have the patience anymore for individuals to hand me one document at a time after staring at it for several minutes trying to tell me what it is. The appointments I do take have to be before 15 March. I make a few exceptions, but a very few. With the late 1099-div forms this year, I'm only half-way through the returns I need to complete, and I'm starting to panic a bit. On March 23rd, I always take an official 'count' of what's waiting in the queue and how many returns I have to do per day to meet deadline. Aaargh! Why do we do this to ourselves. This is a crazy profession!

As a broker, we have cost basis info on all trades going back to 1932. We used to get tons of calls asking for really old cost basis information and with mergers and stock splits it would become a nightmare. For ATT I came up with a spreadsheet to plug in the original cost and it spit it out. Around 2000 a bunch of firms got together and proclaimed everything has a cost basis of $2 per share because it was essentially impossible to figure it out and the major firms were purging their systems of the data so that they didn't have to look it up.

I stopped taking night clients last year and it is soooonice... I have a prior 911 dispatcher answering phones for the season - no one gets by her - drop box baby! or 9-5 M-F

But I already paid tax (10%) on my IRA, so I didn't have to give you the form.

Publication 3920 states that terrorist attack related injuries and illnesses that contributed to retirement would be totally tax free. Since 2009 the City of New York has made taxable a portion of all disability pensions for monies received after 20 years of service. The publication states that taxpayers should have agency (fire and police in my cases) issue an amended 1099R. City won't do it stating legal mumbo jumbo issues. I have a few guys who would like to file an amended return with attached documentation from pension bureau stating pension is due to WTC related injury or illness. Do you think this will fly and worth a try?

Solid documentation being IRS code, not pubs. But their own code - now THAT they would have a very hard time arguing with!

If anyone needs a reference for this, it is Reg 1.6013-1(d)

The only problem with efaxes is you learn to hate people who fax upside down.

Me too. I came in most days but only got 1 or 2 returns done each day. You can't make that time up!

I was at a CPE Class about 10 years ago talking to another EA. He had a Murphy bed and a shower in his office, worked 14 hour days all through tax season said that he did 800 tax returns by himself. The only help he had was his wife who did copying and assembly stuff 3 days a week. He worked a few less hours on Saturday and Sunday, which were the only nights he went home and slept in his own bed. He said he made enough money to take most of the remaining months of the year off. Thirty years ago I could have worked that many hours, those days are now far in the distant past.

They always seem to want that new tractor or some piece of equipment. I like to take the loss and add back depreciation and interest to get an indication of potential profit or being close.

My fax machine broke down this year, and rather than get a new one I went looking for an electronic service. I tried eFax but they could not port over my current fax number for some reason (probably because of the rural area I live in.) However, RingCentral was able to port my number and I have been very happy with the service so far. And I love deleting the junk faxes instead of finding them printed. And I can save the file as PDF instead of printing. I did have to pay for the service because I wanted to keep the same fax number we have had for the last 20 years.

I use an ordinary fax machine. Second landline phone number with a special ring costs me $5/mo. Fax machine does not answer the main ring.

Me too.

Only titled assets go can go into a trust. It is called funding the trust. For instance, if a home is not titled in the name of the trust, it is not part of the trust, . However, It is still part of the estate and a trust can make election to be treated as an estate. All trusts will say that all non-trust assets are to be distributed by a will. These are called pour-over wills and are included in the trust papers.

RitaB would remind us that it is OK to kill these clients. I would recommend putting them all on extension. Training to give ALL the documents next year.... tell 'em since this is new information, the returns need to be re-done and you're going at the bottom of the queue. Extension, and next year give me everything the first time (as if they'll do that, hah). I get less forgiving as time goes on.

It's the sound of that screeching halt when the Sch C info they give you is a mess. No cost basis on brokerage statement and they have no idea. They sold their business on an installment basis and have no contract. OOOOF!

My 2 ¢. The 1st 1099R looks like the TP cashed in a non-qualified annuity. TP had made contributions of $8,900 (Box 5) and cashed it out for $10k (Box 1). Only the $1,100 should be taxable. I just did one of these recently in ATX and only the box 2a amount showed up as taxable. Check your input. The 2nd 1099R is a nontaxable exchange (Box 7, Code 6). I am confused by the fact that the company checked the box "taxable amount not determined." If it was truly a non-taxable exchange, then none of it would be taxable and that's why Box 2a was blank. Perhaps you need to get more info from the TP. It may be that the TP exchanged an annuity, life insurance or LTC policy for a new LTC policy or a hybrid life insurance/LTC contract. Maybe the $25k that went to the company was too much and they refunded the $2,589? Also had a similar one recently. It was an exchange between 2 non-qualified annuities. Box 1 $94K, Box 2a blank, Box 2b Total distribution box checked, Box 5 $61k, Box 7 Code 6. I believe that the fact that yours had the "taxable amount not determined" box checked is what's causing ATX to tax the whole $25K. If the TP did not received the $2,589 as a refund and actually received the whole $25K, the company should not have put a Code 6 in box 7. Then, I would put the $2,589 in as the taxable amount.

But I didn't take any money out of the brokerage account so it's not income, right?

Yeah, just love it when they call and just found something new that you had no idea because it wasn't on previous year's return. I had one this year with a consolidated 1099 for a brokerage account that was opened 2 years ago, thought it was not taxable and not needed for return.

I'm starting to panic more than a little. I got the flu in late Feb and was so sick for a full two weeks that I couldn't work and then was finally able to work enough to meet the March 15th filing deadline because I had the accounting or bookkeeping in good enough shape to complete those. It's taken a full month to recover completely, and now though I'm in a real hole with the individual returns. How ever many I finish in a day, it seems I'm getting double that many in.