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Well, I decided to come out of retirement and will be doing some contract work for another firm on a very part-time basis. Retirement is great. You can pick and choose what you want to do. Anyway, I look forward to interacting with you all again.

Soooooooooooooo filing season starts February 12th! I am assuming I can still go ahead and efile these early birds who fly in and ATX will forward them to the Service on February 12th. I'll have to explain to the clients that any refund due will be late in coming right ? Like most of you I too am expecting fewer clients this season. I usually advertise in February but have decided not to do so this year. At 78 I haven't been dependent on the business for income in ages but I enjoy it and interacting with those I serve. My family have been involved in some form of small business for four generations and some 150 years and it sorta runs in the blood. Sadly I am the last Mohican.

For anyone who doesn't have the information, I'm going to send them this link and tell them to get back to me after they look it up. https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof-wmsp/notice I sent out my letter last week. It had two main points. 1) No in-person meetings; 2) Plan for extensions.

I've heard the 3 dots menu referred to as the sushi menu and the 3 dashes, stacked vertically, is the hamburger menu.

One day when I was feeling blue, someone said to me, "Cheer up, things could be worse!" So I cheered up, and sure enough, things did get worse!

That's my thinking too. How could it get worse? We've been battered around like a ping pong ball at a championship tournament. I was planning on making this my last fulltime year as the work is not as pleasant as years past, but with all the time spent inside last year it may have benefited mental acuity, and kept us busy not dwelling on all the negatives in our world. I will still try to slow down but I am finding it difficult shedding clients, who goes and who stays, so many are like family and friends. Knowing it's time is a good reason, and with all the additional work, clicks, schedules, and requirements it just makes sense. Sounds like I'm trying to convince myself.

I'm using that. Sold.

I'm only 60 but I feel you! I've already refused to take anyone that's had PPP, EIP (except one existing client and she only got the 10k 'free' loan). My international client is ex-patriating soon. Anyone that quits me, hey it's fine. I figure the computer I just bought will be my last.

I sure hope they give us a new file-by deadline as well. This year, I will be notifying all my out of town clients that they need to find a local preparer. I'll also tell my larger (Sch C) businesses to look for someone else. I am walking toward the sign that says "reTIRED." It will be a slow walk, and I'll keep my small, easy local clients. But I'm so tired. This business isn't fun anymore. They can blame the pandemic all day long, but it ain't the pandemic. The IRS has been beating us up for a long time. Congress doesn't move in time for anything. Nobody does their job anymore, they just blame the other guy... or "the pandemic." So tired of it all. Donna Downer

Okay, I will try that. And it works!

Editing is still allowed for 5 minutes after a post is made. This change was made a couple of years ago after someone here kept going back and changing their posts after I'd responded to them, making it seem like they'd never said what they'd said and making my responses to an issue seem like I was making things up that had actually been said. If anyone sees something drastically wrong with their own post, everyone still has the ability to hide their own posts in their entirety and are able to post a correct response. Those hidden posts are still visible to Eric and I but not to the general membership. The limits on editing, and allowing hiding but not deleting posts, allows Eric and I to see the actual posts as they occur.

Thanks, John. Very helpful. I appreciate you posting it.

This is the way I understand it. I have a mother who didn't have any children in 2019. On January 31st, 2020 she gave birth to a child and qualifies for Head of household based on my interview. She quit her job on January 14th, 2020 after earning only $1,000 to give birth and to take care for her child. Even though, her job in cleaning has always been available as an essential job, she didn't go back to work in 2020. Since she earns $500 a week, in 2019 she earned $26,000. She is a new client and will bring copies of her 2019 filing. So will prepare her taxes and I will enter $26,000 as earned income. I will quickly make a note of how much she will get for EIC and ATC/ACTC. In this case, I know for fact that someone who earns $1,000 gets a tiny bit of Child tax credit and I also know that someone who earns $26,000 will get the full $2,000 or at least the $1,400 refundable portion. So I will concentrate only on EIC. Going back to the return, as soon as I enter, $26,000 as income for 2020, I will get EIC = $2,514. I will make a note of it and now I will enter the correct information for 2020. As soon as I enter $1,000 income, EIC credit drops to $349. Now I know that for this lady, I will be using 2019 income. So, prepare the return and look for the place where I will enter her 2019 income and I will verify that her EIC is $2,514. Now, Same situation as above, except that this lady earned $15,000 in 2020. Since I do a lot of EIC and using 2019 earned income is optional, I know that I don't need to bother with 2019 income because she is in a "sweet spot" for 2020. But if I am not confident, I will enter $26,000 for 2020 and make a note again that EIC is $2,514. Then I will enter the correct amount of income ($15,000) and EIC credit will jump to $3,584. In this case I will prepare the return just like business as usual without looking for a place to enter 2019 unless it is mandatory. Now the trick is if this lady earned $5,000 in 2020 and $32,000 in 2019. If enter $32,000 (2019 income), EIC is $1,555 and if I enter $5,000 (income for 2020) EIC will jump to $1,709. Without looking at the tables, I know that I should use 2019 income in this last example, because in this case the Child tax credit will be $2,000 with $1,400 refundable, which will be more beneficial than the $154 that she will lose in EIC. As you can see this will be tricky unless the software comes to our rescue and requests: "Enter 2019 earned income" and the software will select the best choice for us. How many of us know by heart what is earned income for EIC? Someone said "4". Yes, only 4 of us know for fact what earned income for EIC is by heart and I am not one of the four. So, if I get a new client with only W2s, I will use the suggestions above. But if I get a client with different types of income, I think I will prepare their 2019 return and then roll it over so get extra help from the software. If someone can double check my suggestions, I will appreciate.

I always file extensions and like many of you I was preparing returns back when we had to enter our SocSec number as preparer. So it’s out there everywhere and I’ve always been a little concerned about ID theft and a false return. As soon as they opened up the ability to opt in I got on board. It took about a minute. It’s my understanding the IRS will now automatically send me a new one every year.

One reason that everyone is so down right now is that we just got through the tax season that never ended. We couldn't do much in April because we were too busy taking calls about the stimulus payment and business loans. July was just like the usual April. Immediately after it was time for extensions, and October was just like April. Then it was time for CE. In between there were many more calls from clients who needed help with loans, retirement distributions, new W4s that are incomprehensible, and on and on. We never got a break, and for those who took a few days off there was no travel so we never really got away from it all. Another reason is that there were so many changes to the tax code, and changes to the changes, that our brains are overloaded. We now have to take update courses to the updates we already took. One poster said that she just didn't feel competent going into the coming season, and I think that feeling haunts many of us. Hang in there. We've mastered huge changes before and will again. The new heads of the IRS and Office of Professional Responsibility seem to hear us and to be genuinely supportive (as opposed to treating us like enemies of the gov't and their personal hit men). As the virus winds down and the IRS and congress get their acts together, things have to get better.

Just know you are not alone, Donna. So far I am fine with out of town (and country) clients and Sch. C's are few and easy. I am in a bit of a bind now, though, as my computer guy decided I was to take over from his retiring accountant. After gnashing of teeth and tearing of some hair, I decided to prepare the return (2 S-corps and 1040) ONCE because I don't want to alienate him. I have emailed multiple times that it has been many years since I've done corps and the engagement letter will be pointed but looking at 2019, they were fairly simple. We shall see but ONCE only. My license expires Dec. 2022. I doubt I will even contemplate renewing for another 3 years but it depends. I have no EIC or really any lower income folks. But I really don't want to keep learning more new stuff! And it's getting so hard to do anything online with 2fa and codes and changing passwords and and and. I do want to keep the little gray cells active but maybe there is a better way.

I sent my "new tax year" email to clients on January 2. Looks like I may need to follow-up with another email to update the efile date of February 12; but more importantly to offer additional guidance on what clients should be providing me in regard to stimulus payments. Did they receive the payment(s) and how much exactly?! It should be a "fun" season!

Took a NYSSEA updates webinar for three hours last night. That speaker (Frank Degen, former NAEA President and former NYSSEA President) also said you can choose to use 2019 earned income for the purpose of calculating both the EITC and the CTC/ACTC -- all or none -- only if the 2019 earned income is higher than 2020. So, I haven't read it myself but have heard it in no less than four webinars from four different speakers I admire.