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To see if the address they sent to is real (no bounce) and most importantly, to troll for a reply/unsubscribe. The reply gives certain information to identify you, which is gold/platinum for hackers. For instance, if you reply from a cell, and are not properly masking certain things, the recipient of your message/reply can geolocate you fairly well, and in some cases, within a few meters. If you reply from your desk, the same place you have data someone might want to get at, unless you do certain things, you can certainly be geolocated reasonably accurately, and more importantly, the route to your computer is decipherable. I will not go deeper here, but this is stuff any script kiddie knows or can look up, let alone the "professional" hacker entities. Like the security company who posts their head's SSN as proof of their protection, with proper security, it is not a big deal if someone knows your IP. BTW, long gone are the days when an ISP would actually change your IP often. It is easier for them, less support and all, to essentially give you a static IP, which only changes on certain rare events. Even the bounce you received is likely a fake, as they don't want you to know they "got" you until they see what they can sell the information for, or until they get what they can.

I went with my gut feeling and did not take this prospective client on. The more questions I asked, the more skeptical I became.

A quote from a Bloomberg article this morning on MSN: "A coalition of 250 business groups including the US Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and National Association of Manufacturers has lobbied hard for the legislation authored by Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith and Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden. Boeing Co., General Motors Co., Deere & Co., Caterpillar Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. are among the companies that stand to benefit, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. The measure would restore expired tax breaks allowing businesses to more quickly recoup the costs of domestic research and development, interest on business loans and investment in equipment." If you want to know what Congress is going to do....follow the money. Tom Longview, TX

Filed the W2 - which - back to another post about ID.me I can't seem to log into SS this year so I mailed in the W2 and W3. And I asked the client to not ask me to prepare this next year:) Like I said- This gave me a headache! Let alone - last minute!!

My son, who works in IT security, once told me, "Mom, if you knew what I know about the internet, you'd never use it." Scary that he's probably right. Never, ever respond to those emails from people supposedly looking for a new tax pro. Of the tens of thousands of tax preparers in this nation, they just randomly picked you?

Eerily calm now. Since about 1pm pacific, few messages. I suppose all who are timely submitting W2 data have done so. It has been a long four months, and I am ready for calm. Maybe the longest four months I have had (work) because of the repetitive issues with W2 efile questions, and a large number of new customers wondering why their low paid employees are incorrectly getting zero for their calculated FWH. I am thankful for those who heeded my nags and gained access to SSA timely. The one which is nagging me today, and it could not have been associated with anyone here, is a complaint (not a question, just asking why the calculations are wrong), as a customer's employee's accountant said 1% was deducted for FWH, when "it has to be at least 10%". Like the decades old joke about "I cannot find the ANY key to press", I have yet to see any W4 setting or calculation for FWH to be a flat %. Well, the exception is not a flat %, but the current form allows essentially turning off FWH calc, and selecting a flat dollar amount for the year. My client says the employee is raising a large stink, and is not listening to the employer telling them to pound sand, the amount is correct for the instructions FROM THE EMPLOYEE on their W4. The customer has gone quiet, after my last advice to ask the accountant to provide a signed valid W4 showing a flat % for FWH. Should have led with the last advice... While writing this, received a good old annual "why is federal withholding less this month than last month, with no changes to earnings or W4? Does the software have an issue?". A couple of clicks, and onto the next.

Did you get a new computer this year? Seems to me I had to do that same thing the last time I got a new computer. Tom Longview, TX

Ah, it gets better! The attorney told the son (or so son reports) that the paperwork to direct the custodian to send $X to the church does qualify as a written directive. I've asked him to get me a copy of that email.

I always find offering last years returns is the first give away, actual potential clients never mention that in a first email. Also, the scammers frequently pretend to be some big corporate CEOs, cause yeah, that's who'd be contacting us. Today in addition to the 2-3 like that, I got one telling me "Thomas" shared tax files with me via Dropbox. But it didn't come from Dropbox, which I'm guessing a legit notification would. Don't know, I don't use Dropbox. Guess "Thomas" is just out of luck.

In that case amend the 941s and have the payment to the HSA reversed.

The first time I tried to use login.gov to log into the SSA BSO on Saturday, it failed. The second I tried using a different link to the SSA BSO, it worked. Who knows?

I ended up with a personal account to log into for SSA using that login.gov and then I realized there is no longer a link on that page for SSA BSO. I had to Google to find the BSO page and found that my old username show up in a drop down box on the BSO page that allows me to access it and file W-2s. If that hadn't worked, my backup plan was to use an online site to prepare and file them.

Kind of like the promotions I receive for "Living Trust Seminars with a free dinner"

I've been using it for 3 years and am very satisfied with it. It also offers KBA for electronic signatures at $1.16 for each document and not each sig. This means only $1.16 for MFJ 8879 with two sigs. This offers the advantage of having both signers sign the 8879 even though they are several thousand miles apart.

See here for the applicable interest rates for January 2024. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rr-24-02.pdf

We use www.yearli.com which is own by Greatland which use to be Nelco. Lordy...getting old. I remember efiling with dial up with Nelco. What a long strange trip its been !!!

Can you pull the transcript? I get hand written 1099-nec's all the time from clients. Never had a hand written K-1 but it isn't prohibited. My guess is she produced the tax return themselves?

@ETax847 Does that handwritten K1 make you queasy? Does it substantially change the return, as in it is going to generate a great big refund? Was the original K1 (if there was one) also handwritten or was it computer generated? Is the original return also handwritten? Who prepared the original return and why aren't they amending (always a big flag for me if there is not a good answer to that question)? Who prepared the entity return that spun the K1 to your prospective client? How much of that entity does your prospective client own? Lots of questions, very little info in the OP. Trust your gut. You should be able to distinguish the BS from a legit taxpayer just trying to do the right thing. Tom Longview, TX

I took a different approach. I am not including it in my engagement letter. I sent the BOI instructions to each of my affected clients and told them in the email that I could not prepare it and I was letting them know about their requirement as a courtesy. Not being argumentative, just asking. By putting it in your engagement letter, are you in a backhanded way telling your clients this is a tax issue? I did the above because I don't feel it is a tax issue and it is not my responsibility to even notify them of their requirement to comply. In the same way I don't tell my clients it is their responsibility to file their annual SOS report or their county property tax returns. Tom Longview, TX