Janitor Bob

In the past few years, I have gained many new clients through Facebook...and correspond with many current clients the same way....Text, facebook, e-mail....all preferable than face-to-face in many situations.

I also always offer the clients a Jack & Coke.....because everyone like a cold refreshing Coke and who would not want Jack at their meeting?

Scan all client documents and notes and save them to a folder on my PC and external drive (as well as pdf version of their return). Clients love it when they need a copy of a document later in the year (or years later) and I can print /e-mail it for them quickly and easily.

In situations like these (and I have a few), I always have the client sign a statement attesting to the specific points (i.e. child lived with them).

I currently have Professional liability (E&O) insurance through Norman-Spencer. Due to the number and type of my clientel (approx 150 low-moderate income...indiv. tax prep only...no advice, no bookeeping), I have only ever carried a $10,000 policy.....costing $176/year. It is renewal time and I am now wondering if I should pay $277 and bump that limit up to $25,000 I also do NOT have coverage for "Tax Advice" because in the past, I never offered advice beyond that which is related to a specific return issue....I'm just a preparation guy....but now I'm starting to get a LOT of clients having me run "what-if" scenarios to see the possible future tax-consequences of various actions. (i.e. If I take $7,000 from my 401k to pay medical bills, how will that affect my taxes next year?). In such cases, I always run the client a dummy "what-if" return for current year assuming thay had taken their action the prior year...so they can see what the affect would have been this year....then tell them the affect will be similar next year barring any tax law changes, of course. Is this considered "Tax advice"? If so, sould I add a "Tax advice" rider to my policy for an additional $71? What say all of you? Is $10,000 enough considering that mt clients are all low-moderate income.....even the wildest mistakes on my part would not have much of a dollar affect in amounts dur or penalties. Adder for tax advice?

well...that lasted about 20 minutes...don't people understand the phrase "contact me for an appointment"? I pretty much have to wait until after 10:pm to eat, change clothes, poop, or shower...because NOBODY WILL LEAVE ME ALONE!!!! I'm losing it...time for a drink before I pop a vein

All clients scheduled for this evening have re-scheduled...I might actually get some work done and get a quick run in!

I had that a few days ago....and I did not have ANY returns open! I had not had that error before and fortunately not again since....But I have no clue why....I have had multiple years of ATX running at same time...with multiple returns open in both...while also having Internet Explorer, Outlook, Excel, and Itunes running with no problems....then out of nowhere while only Outlook and ATX are running (no open returns), I get a low resource message and ATX shuts down....Hmmmm

Depends on what you consider a mini-vacation. I'm lucky if I have time to put on matching socks until mid-March, but middle or end of March, I sometimes take a day or 1-1/2 days off and go somewhere with the family just to refresh and re-connect. Full multiple-day vacations are reserved for after tax season.

sorry...one return open in 2011, three open in 2013...2011 lacked that feature.

I am certainly no export in this area, but it seems to me that each site would be a principle place of business and mileage from home to principle place of business is not deductible...so I would think it would be commuting. If boss required employees to drive to a main office and then to the site every day, then I would think mileage from main office to job site would be deductible...but that is not what we're dealing with here. but again...others on here seem to be more of an expert on this...hopefuly they will add input.

Irritating is that the box that contained the ATX disk smelled like licorice. I hate licorice.

Just for kicks (and to convice myself that my new PC was worth the money), I opened ATX 2011, 2012, and 2013 and then opened 2 returns in each.....No problems.

None of my prior cities (Troy, Piqua, Vandalia, etc) have forms in ATX this year. At first, I was annoyed, but now it feels liberating. Especially since the General Form has been updated so that when you type in the city name, it fills in the address and remit to felds. Now, I can focus on just one city form and not worry about waiting until each specific city form is available.

The problem is that she does not live in a taxing school district...he did/does.....So I think I will use his for simplicity.

Taxpayers separated in September 2013....legally married as of 12/31. She remained at old address and he moved to another city. It is MUCH better for them to file jointly, and they agreed to do so (and have 1/2 of refund deposited to each of their accounts)....But before I even get started, I'm stumped on this otherwise simple return....WHAT ADDRESS DO I USE ON THE RETURN....His current or her current?

I know many of you are more experienced at this...so though I would request you input..... Client's "official" name on prior year return (Self-prepared) and on subsequent IRS correspondence is "H Roy".....uses first initial of real first name and full middle name. He goes by Roy, but of course, I need to make my return in ATX match what was on in the past....which I assume will match Social Security. Question.....How do I enter this in ATX? The only thing I can think is to simply use "H ROY" as his first name with no middle initial. agree?

"Special" trip is to run a 10k in Bend, OR.....what did you think...that I would get married...and lose my HOH filing status?! Not as long as my daughter qualifies as my dependent! As a Tax professional, I know that rarely is it financially beneficial to get married...I'll just keep my "sugar Mollie" for now.

Ouch...there goes that vein in my head again. I would LOVE to give the HOH to the dad...but what about the exerpt from Pub 17 that David1980 pasted above...it seems pretty clear that only mom can claim HOH if she qualified....but she does not so this makes it seem that neither can claim HOH if mom claims the dependency.

I have my fair share of FAFSA clients that are understandably in a rush....including myself. I always share with them, however, that filing the FAFSA with estimates and not finalizing the FAFSA until late March rarely has any negative affect on the amount of Financial aid received. I think its only if you wait much past April, that you can see reduced aid.

That is how I have it right now (both single)....besides...HOH is of no benefit to mom....but it would help dad...I wanted to make sure I was not "cheating" him of this filing status.

but HOH can only go to the one claiming the dependancy...agreed?

Or....since his income is so much higher (and he pays "most" of the bills), should I put dependency and all of its advantages on him even though they both want it on her because it produces larger refund? Maybe they both don't qualify to claim her since it appears that the child only meets the support test for the father. my brain hurts

Bingo! This is exactly what I was reading and it seems pretty cut and dry...though I would bounce it off this forum...now. Based on above that I read and shared by David1980, I put Dependency and all of its advantages..including HOH on her even though HOH would help him more.

That was my initial thought as well.....and that is what would be best for them...but the reading make it sound as if ONLY the one claiming the dependent can use the HOH status.