Margaret CPA in OH

I never answer unidentified calls on either my land line or my cell. I have voice mail available and virtually no callers that are unidentified leave a message. I've done this for literally years. There is the odd occasion that a number has been spoofed (I think that's what it's called). Last year there was a call identified as my township government office. I didn't answer it having no expectation of a call from that office. There was no message so I did call that office back and asked the reason for the call. That office did not call so I alerted them to the issue.

For those who have a desire to help, one place which usually does not bite politically is foster care / CASA. The bite is you do have to become a little more self aware about town as you may run into a "parent" who believes you helped take their child from them, but in most cases, those folks don't bother seeking revenge. I just became a CASA last fall and finished my first case 3 weeks ago. I get my second child/family this evening. Definitely no politics. For those unfamiliar, CASA is Court Appointed Special Advocate and the advocate is a trained volunteer for the child/children. So many children need an advocate, someone just on their side only.

Hmm, Form 1023 is the application for tax-exempt status.

I began in a 4 person firm and found auditing incredibly boring. I thought I had made a serious career mistake. Then tax season rolled around... Made my days! Master's in Tax and never looked back.

Oh my, you do have lot going on! Your health, physical and mental, should be the highest priority, in my opinion. I'm glad you have a diagnosis and plan for treatment. I would suggest that you migrate your payroll clients to another provider/service midyear rather than waiting until year end. It will be less stressful for you and you can be available to help the process. My guess is that your clients will appreciate the care you are providing as you have for all the past years. I would also guess that the potential loss in revenue would be not so much while easing the stress you would otherwise be having. You could assess a charge for assisting in the migration and helping clients choose the right provider. They will have to make changes anyway and may will be grateful for your hand holding on the path. When I decided to stop doing business returns and payrolls after my other CPA assistant retired, this process worked well for me. I still retained several for individual return preparation and some chose payroll services. I believe they all appreciated a transition period, my guidance and oversight and lack of abrupt change. Best outcome wishes for all of your future moves.

Congratulations to all! What a beautiful baby... I want one!

Ooo, good observation! Again, I don't think they will push it. If so, I may bill them for the 'research' which, at this point, would be more than the deduction let alone the tax savings!

I think that would be appropriate but probably for a lot less than the amount charged. At 14 cents per mile, I know the drop off was not 1,450 miles away. And I really doubt that paying for a commercial transport service would qualify as a charitable contribution. I'm hoping the charge was listed on the receipt. If not, I would think to myself as I have done for other 'contributions' was this for charity or tax deduction?

I just wrote him that there should be written confirmation of the donation. If part of the acknowledgement for the furniture donation, I would expect the additional amount be shown on the receipt. I'm not too worried about this, though, just thought I would ask as I wasn't sure. Thanks!

Wow! I'm glad I no longer do business returns, especially S-corps. At least the few that I did do had something close to a reasonable salary. It's sad how much we are being held responsible our client (mis)behavior even after the fact. It seems, in this case, unless the client self-prepared the corp return, any preparer would be held liable even if for a new S-corp client.

Clients are moving and donating furniture. Several items went to Habitat for Humanity. The value of the furniture was $170 but HH charged them $203 for transporting the furniture. Is this charge also a donation? I would like to think so but...

I, too, prefer live seminars but also find the cost exorbitant for my very small practice. I will have to bite the bullet this year for tax with the SECURE Act and other changes. I still might do it online but pay money for it.

This is an interesting thread! I am semi-retired working only tax season and with about 50 individual clients. I spun off all business clients about 8 years ago when my other CPA retired. I don't have enough hours in the day! I am the church treasurer, sing in the choir, play handbells, am on the worship planning committee and am kitchen coordinator (aka Kitchen Witch), attend zoom Bible Study Tuesday noons. I am also a CASA volunteer (court appointed special advocate) and see my child/family twice monthly plus court meetings. I go to the gym for HIIT (high intensity interval training) 4 times weekly (not as intense as those 40 years younger!), Tai Chi every Friday and Yin Yoga Saturday. We are on summer hiatus at the moment but our Classics Book Club meets weekly to discuss the current book. We just finished the Iliad and the Odyssey in May. We have 2 cats to care for and lots of birds and animals in the Certified Natural Habitat in my back yard. I feed and water numerous critters daily including a turkey that just moved in. Then there is the usual yard work, laundry and grocery shopping (recreation for me). And 40 hours of CPE for the CPA license and 12 hours for CASA. Last weekend I just competed in the National Senior Games in Pittsburgh in the Power Walk 1500 m and 5 K (did not come in last so yippee). My 'baby' brother was first place in those events as well as Race Walking both distances. These are by age groups, the oldest competitor in our events was a 94 year old gentleman and an 89 year old lady. I begin my 12 week training for the fall half marathon in October. I did spend 3 weeks diving in Papua New Guinea in May and we will go to the Poconos in August for husband to play golf. Then family reunions in Branson and Cleveland. Trying to schedule friend lunches is always a challenge as they also seem to be very busy. But at least I am realizing how very important they are as a dear friend is having surgery tomorrow for breast cancer after her months of chemo. Then comes radiation. And now off to meet a client for lunch as they are moving to another state. I hope to keep them as clients and friends.

Thanks, Judy. The message apparently is just as you noted, the return was attached and we are alerting you. Well, duh! It is exactly what I expected to happen and the tab with forms e-filed show it attached. I guess it is just some strange confirmation that the program did what was expected. I've e-filed some hundred plus SD returns (attached with the OH return) and have never before seen this message. I guess I will not worry until/unless the client comes to me with an issue. Where did you find this list of codes? I guess Mr. Google knows all but I honestly didn't think to try that. Thanks for your help!

Thanks, it is always in all upper case. That's been my default since 1996. This is a school district return and the Ohio return was accepted. They are supposed to get a $34 refund not owe so I will pursue next week. Just a bit annoying, never happened before and I've had lots of school district returns. Always something... Thanks, now go enjoy the evening!

I am assuming that field 1 is the first name of the filer. IRS accepted okay, OH accepted okay so probably not the first name (and it's a rollover). Is field 1 something else?

But no real message. When I looked at the return, the Rejection Error was Ohio OH-SD100-010 with the verbiage The following school district returns were attached to this transmission. In other words... Fields commonly associated with this error 1 (in a red box) Well, of course I included a school district return and the forms filed shows it was, in fact, included. Why is this an error? And what does the field 1 mean? And what, if anything, to do about it?

This would be my choice: Have her pick up in person, because she dropped off in person? Have her sign a receipt listing her documents picked up?

How scary! So thankful it wasn't worse for you, bad enough as it already is. I just returned from my dive trip to Papua New Guinea and had to remember to have all dive light and other lithium batteries in my carry on luggage. Your experience drives home the point about the dangers of these potential battery fires. Good reminder about laptop batteries, I would not have considered that but will now. And remind my husband who leaves his on all the time. Yikes! Now to check everything else that might have lithium batteries. Try to enjoy the rest of your vacation!

Or just sit your self! That's what my husband in training for 50 years now finally conceded. He says it's more comfortable and he can read, too.

And look into segregation of items that could have different lives but have to be identified.

From RitaB: I have two Sch C folks whose QB reports were worse to me than if they had brought a shoe box. I finally created a fill-in-the-blank organizer for them two years ago. They both act like I'm a rocket surgeon, and it's a pleasure (sort of) to prepare their returns now. Yep. I just entered the categories off Sch C, added a bunch of lines for assets purchased, date, cost. Assets sold, date, proceeds. And a separate page for vehicle information. People who don't understand accounting create trainwrecks with software. It's true. I give those organizers to virtually every business owner now; amazing that they think they're so helpful, and it's just putting the lines from the tax return on anything besides a tax return. For several years I have been providing the organizer sheets from ATX that sound just like your worksheets. I think it's also helpful as it shows Prior Year amounts. Some folks fill in the amounts but I also check the backup numbers. Some folks don't bother but can easily see the comparison with prior year figures in more detail than the Two Year Comparison may not convey.

I've had German scholars who received these in the past but didn't recall immediately how I entered the data. So I went now to the handy dandy KB and found: Resolution Form 1042-S reports a foreign person's U.S. income subject to withholding. The income can be entered on the Ln 21 - Other Inc tab. The federal tax withheld, if applicable, can be entered on the Ln 64 - Tax WH tab. If income is entered on a Schedule C, it is not considered other income, therefore, the return must be paper filed. I did look at a copy of one of those in a client file and recalled that there is a code in the upper left corner describing the income attributes. My clients were all paid salaries. I am puzzled about why this retirement money was on a 1042-s but maybe look up the codes. My clients all had ssn's, too. Is the employer foreign? Is Empower Trust Company foreign?

In ATX in the input sheet under (a) Transaction type you can choose 13, Inherited Property.

Guess I inadvertently fell into this because it seems virtually all of my extensions have payments to be made, too!