Lee B

The robocalls to my office landline have dropped significantly since I only answer those calls which have a clients caller ID. All of my non business calls go to my personal cell phone where I only answer if I recognize the caller ID. If not, they can leave a voice mail which the robo callers and spammers don't do. The weirdest thing is every 2 or 3 months I get a text message in chines characters?

Several years ago my wife received a call and the spoofed number was her own cell phone number For years I have used my answering machine on my office landline to screen calls. As soon as the answering machine activates the robocalls disconnect.

I have discovered this year that the IRS has different subsystems that don't always communicate with each other. In your client's situations, just because the IRS or the U S Treasury was the payee doesn't mean your client or your client's correct account was posted. You or your client will have to call the IRS. You will need the transaction trace number for the IRS to track down where the payments went.

With the IRS you can make Estimated Payments via an online account, IRS Direct Pay or EFTPS or the state equivalent, which I find to be more flexible than using direct debit in the tax return.

T D Ameritrade, Charles Schwab and Prudential have also been sued for failing to protect personal Information.

Dennis, I totally agree.

I apologize. I posted without reading all of the details. Thanks to Catherine and Patrick .

As a practical matter, I doubt that conservation easements impact any of our clients. It's one the areas that's been abused by the wealthy and their advisers. The IRS has struggled to deal with this area due to the lack of expertise, which it sounds like it has resulted in their belligerent approach to this issue. To take one difficult area of tax law and apply that to the whole agency is an exaggeration which may make you feel good but frankly I don't appreciate it.

I currently use Medlin for my smaller clients 10 or less employees. I did an extensive search for payroll software back in late 2021. At that time Patriot was struggling with handling Oregon payroll taxes according to according to one of their Tax Departemt employees that I talked to.

All of their money, lobbying influence and political contributions will protect them. There will be a negotiated settlement and the class action attorneys will get a very big payday.

The key question is, "When do you cross the line from the proper recording of client transactions to making decisions which should be made by your client?"

"Users of tax preparation websites in seven states have filed a class action lawsuit against Google, claiming it engaged in wiretapping, following a similar complaint against Meta. The complaint alleges tax prep companies like H&R Block, TaxAct and TaxSlayer sent private tax return information to Google using Google Analytics technology, which may include email addresses, data on users' income, filing status, refund amounts, buttons clicked and year of return."

Earlier you implied that the owner has been funding losses for decades. If so how would they be able to repay the $25,000?

Whether or not they are lying, a total reconstruction is almost impossible. If you are going to take on a client like this, the best you can do is nail down all the balance sheet accounts and move forward.

If it was my client, first I would nail down all the balance sheet accounts as of last year end to the best of my ability. I would use a 3115 to correct the vehicle depreciation, then remove the vehicle from the balance sheet at the original cost. Then the remaining loan balance as of last year end should be reclassified to APIC. Good Luck, you have a lot of work ahead of you.

I have never been impressed with TripAdvisor since they got caught multiple times suppressing negative reviews. I do think it sends a message about the strategic thinking of Cinven since private equity investments firms usually expect their investment to be returned in 5 to 7 years.

Yes, there seems to be an ongoing stream of Audit Firms getting fined for substandard work.

Can the client provide any financial statements or a trial balance for any of the years? What information did the client provide every year to whomever prepared the tax returns? Can the client go back to the prior tax preparer and obtain complete tax returns?

"Unlike Form 8938, the FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is not filed with the IRS. It must be filed directly with the office of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, separate from the IRS.Sep 28, 2022"

II clicked on the link. It says overtime pay exceeding 40 hours in a week for a full time employee will be exempt form withholding and from Alabama Income Tax. It doesn't say overtime premium? Very strange law.

I agree, the most enjoyable part of my work is the monthly small business accounting tasks, second is payroll. For me tax preparation is a necessary evil, which probably explains why I don't do any estate and trust related work.

"Drake Software ("Drake" or the "Company"), a provider of comprehensive professional tax preparation software, today announced that Dermot Halpin has joined as Executive Chair. The appointment follows the completion of the acquisition of TaxAct, a leading provider of digital, do-it-yourself ("DIY") tax filing assistance software and services, and the combination of TaxAct with Drake under a single holding company. Mr. Halpin brings significant leadership experience building and scaling high-growth consumer marketplace platforms. Throughout his career he has led businesses operating worldwide, and previously held senior leadership positions including President of Attractions and Vacation Rentals at TripAdvisor and President of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Expedia. He currently serves as a non-executive Director at Datalex. Datalex is a public software developer headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. It works mostly with airlines to develop travel software, such as booking websites." So the Executive Chair of Taxwell previously held executive leadership positions at Trip Advisor, Expedia and an airline travel software developer

"Headquartered in Franklin, North Carolina, Taxwell (formerly Drake Software) is a leading provider of tax preparation software to both professional tax preparers and individual Digital Do-It-Yourself (DIY) filers. The Company provides the tools and resources that users need to build their businesses and properly file federal, state and local taxes across the country. Taxwell employs c. 1,000 people across its Franklin, NC headquarters as well as in Dallas, TX, and Cedar Rapids, IA. More than 90,000 tax professionals and 3 million DIY tax filers throughout the US use Taxwell annually, and each year the company processes millions of federal and state-accepted returns." Taxwell is the parent holding company for Drake and TaxAct set up by the European private equity firm Cinven. Supposedly, Drake and TaxAct will operate as separate subsidiaries.

Oregon requires every one to licensed plus 30 hours of CPE every year. With the number of baby boomers retiring, we actually have a shortage of accountants and preparers. The national tax prep firms actually charge more than I do.

"The most common reason students didn't major in accounting is that they just didn't find it interesting — but very close to that is the ability to make more money faster in other fields, and the burden of the 150-credit-hour requirement." To be honest, when I was a staff auditor for Coopers & Lybrand, it was very boring!