jasdlm

Thank you, Judy. I really appreciate it. I had a definite meltdown moment yesterday morning. Trying to buck up today. It's so nice to have friends here who understand. I can't believe I've been haunting this board for almost 20 years! My gratitude to all of you. I hope we continue to help each other make it through the season for many years to come. Doni

I emailed a client 10 days ago: "I don't have your blah blah blah brokerage statement". HIs response TODAY: "I know. I intentionally didn't send that to you because it is long". Woe is me. And tired is me. Woe and tired.

I overslept this morning and consequently my son was late for a 7:00 am call for a school activity (albeit only 2 minutes late, but isn't everything magnified right now?); he's at the school with no breakfast and a pocketful of granola bars and a latte (mother of the year right here). I yelled at my husband this morning for making a coffee mess all over the counter and not cleaning it up or throwing away his trash. I used a few 4-letter words (which I truly NEVER do), so I think I scared him half to death. Then I came to the office and thought I was going to break down crying. This is ridiculous. I think we don't realize the depths/effects this pace/pressure have on us. One of my staff members gave me a pep talk which really helped. 'I've worked for you since 2008. You've never not made it to the finish line. You've got this.' I pass this pep talk on to all of you. We've got this. 10 more days. Palm Sunday and Easter. Renewal and rebirth and and incredible amount of Grace.

Client has 2 K1s from estates (father and grandfather). Both hold rental property in MN. One K1 includes a MN k1 attachment and one does not ... consistently for the past 3 years. Both rental properties are in MN, so I put both on MN non-resident return, but it there something I'm missing? Is there something I'm not thinking of that would cause one of the properties to not require a NR MN return? I'm just perplexed.

I'm really sorry about the rotten day. That stinks.

The karma of my talk of 20/day has circled back to me. I just spent 3 hours trying to calculate an accurate basis for someone who sold 2 shares of stock he held in an S-corp for the last 17 years (I was not doing his returns for those 17 years). At least he could look up the original purchase price of the shares and had all of the k1s going back to the initial ownership. The Universe is speaking to me.

I'm so sorry. I feel you. It's pretty bad. I find that I'm not holding my tongue very well. A client called me out of my office (staff came in and said 'client x says her return isn't accurate') to tell me something preposterous about why her refund should be larger (some 'folklore' tax rule). I looked her straight in the eye and said, 'who told you that, your hairdresser'? After a moment of stunned silence (from both her and me) where I thought she might take her things and leave for ever, she burst out laughing and apologized. Another client emailed me 3 times this past Sunday morning and texted me twice (call me crazy, but I do not respond to email from the sanctuary). After the service, I finally responded to him with 'why aren't you in Church'. No response, but he did send additional emails later in the day, so I assume he's still okay. I might not get so lucky next time. I need some 'be nice' pills.

Yeah!

A typical client will have usually a k1 or two, maybe a few rentals, a fair amount of investment income (w/ foreign tax, 199, sales, etc.), W2s if not retired, a random schedule C (because they are often profs who consult as outside business), the younger ones have kids, older ones retirement distributions (many exempt from State tax because of an agreement between the State and the governing board for the Universities), maybe an energy credit of some sort, stock gift to charity, etc. There are, of course, returns that take me hours and hours. I'm super lucky because I have someone who pre-enters many of the returns and gets better every year at doing so ... it really helps me get to the meat of the return after I quickly proof the data entry, and I have an amazing staff who do all the scanning, copying, delivery to clients, etc. I think this is part of the reason I can sometimes knock out several. I also don't take client meetings (with very few exceptions) during the season. I don't need someone to hand me a document and tell me it's their 1099 ;). If they want to do that, they can, but it has to be early in the season or on extension. Corporates/partnerships take much longer, and I'm not always hitting the 20 on personals (as I said, until this season it was 12, which I could pretty consistently hit). It might be a pipe dream ... and it's more likely on a weekend day when no one is interrupting me. It's just the straight math for what I have to do to finish everything in house by the 15th :(. We'll see. There is someone on the board who by himself does 1000/season. I think his name is JIm. Does anyone else remember that? I'd like to know his system!

I can't really, either, consistently, but its the goal I have for myself from now until the 15th (not the 18th). If I can come close, then given the extra weekend (sans Church and family meal on Easter), I'm hoping I can get done with everything that's here. Goal in the past has been 12 a day once corporates were finished and the individuals one can get done before the corporate deadline, and that has by and large been manageable, but with added clients and the first 'real time' season in two years, that increased to 17.286/day (I know, I know ... but we're bean counters, right?). I figure if I aim for 20, maybe I'll make it? Hmmm. Not going to lie ... as I get tired, I start picking up returns out of date order (line jumping) so I can do easy ones (clients kids, etc.) to boost my numbers for the day so I can sleep at night. Works until I run out of those :(. I can't believe how we (tax preparers) live for 65 days out of the year. 96 if you count January and everyone's year end mess. Eeegads. Curious about others' daily averages, or if I'm the only weird one who plays this numbers game to try and motivate/encourage myself to work harder/longer.

Was there a resolution to dissolve/liquidate?

I always think that with enough espresso I can power through 20 returns a day at full capacity ... until I spend 15 minutes of my day (that I will never get back) trying to figure out why there's no place to enter/flow through the basis from a 1065 K1 to form 7203, which I actually went to the trouble to manually added to the return (the form adds automatically for an 1120s k1, of course, as appropriate). DUH moment didn't come for a full 15 minutes. Called myself an idiot, deleted the erroneously added form, and finalized the return. Oy Vey! I hope I'm not the only one.

I told two different clients yesterday that I was going to help them find an accountant who could better meet their expectations. First one said, we want to use you ... sorry I was a b****. Second one sent a very nice email asking to stay. My son and husband both have Covid, and by best count, I have 250 returns left to do. DON'T even think about messing with me.

I don't always do a Schedule C; sometimes I take it straight to the 1040 but subject to SE Tax. Maybe I'm not supposed to do this, but they don't have a 'trade or business'.

Why does it always take me 2 hours to calculate this ... you would think I could follow my spreadsheets from year to year. Why don't I just trust the ATX calculation and move on. Why am I trying to force the capital gain to fit an exception so I can distribute it and avoid the surcharge. Why did people create complicated, restrictive trusts in 1998 and then never update to simplify when the laws changed. Why didn't I pay better attention that day in Class. Woe is me.

I have done summary entries with wash sales for years and never had a problem. If I'm doing it incorrectly, the IRS hasn't bothered to fuss about it.

Happens to me multiple times every day. It's a total drag.

I assume not turbotax. It didn't look like what I usually see from turbotax, and it was done by a local preparer. I just thought it was excessive and wondered what others do.

That has been my experience on joint returns.

Sorry. It's really late, and perhaps someone already figured this out on another thread that I can't find, but on the elections tab, the 4th tab over is PPP Loan, and you can generate the statement there (in ATX).

I am using docusign. It has worked pretty well. A few of my older client couples share an email address, and that's a problem (2 signatures = to email addresses for docusign verification), but other than that, I have liked it, and so do clients. It also gives them an electronic copy of their return. It's not super expensive.

New client this year. Has 1 W2 and 1 1099 div (I don't usually get returns that are that easy; he's the son of a client). I requested the prior year return, of course. 52 pages. Worksheets, statements, statements for statements, instructions ... I don't even know what all. When this guy gets his return this year, he's probably going to think I didn't do it correctly ;). Seriously, what do you print for clients (if they want a hard copy), or what do you .pdf if delivering electronically?

Thank you! That is exactly what I think, but I can't figure out how it would ever be just $6,000. I will add to my question about MAMalady to also ask about JJStephens. Miss them.

Retired Episcopal Priest has a pension of $45,000. Church Pension Group (payor) has designated all payments (for all retired clergy from the pension fund) as housing allowance (I looked it up for 2021 to make certain). Retiree lives in a very nice condo. Real estate tax, monthly maintenance fee, utilities, etc. are substantial. Prior preparer (for whom I have a lot of respect; I've worked very closely with him for years and never seen him make a mistake) only allowed $6,000 housing allowance. What am I missing? FRV is at least $24,000. Thanks much. BTW ... did MAMalady retire?

Sorry CBSLEE. A partnership with no organizing or legal documents (that started before I was even in grade school). Since time began, they have each been claiming 1/3rd of the income and 1/3rd of the expenses (including depreciation) as prepared/distributed on a sheet of paper by the accountant for one of the 'partners'. I apologize for using the term loosely. I actually see quite a few of these (what I would call partnerships but no formal legal entity and no 1065) with clients that come in from the agriculture sector. They've all been doing things this way since the mid 70s. What would you call it? How should I refer to it? I believe the IRS would consider this a partnership. They should be filing a 1065 (and should have always been), but that ship has long sailed. Curious what others do when they get a client (only one of the partners is a client) who has been filing this way on a farm or rental property for years. Do you push the 1065 issue or refuse to take the client? I have a small handful of peeps like this.