Gail in Virginia

Have you looked on eBay? I put in android phone and sorted from lowest price, and got some that were a couple bucks for the phone and ten dollars for shipping. You might find something that will work for you from there.

I have never used a trakPhone, but I am wondering if some pay as you go phone like that will work over Wi-Fi so that you don't need a phone plan if you are only going to use the phone in the office?

Around here I am not competing with TurboTax as much as other preparers who seem to do this as a hobby based on their prices. One of the preparers in the area retired and I picked up some of her clients.. She did a farm return with about 20 items of depreciation, a W2, some bank interest and dividends, for $125. I cannot, and will not price a return like that as cheap as that. But that is the price that I am compared to.

I did not share fees because I am inclined to think that what I charge in rural Virginia would be a far cry from what you charge in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I price by the form, and a basic 1040 with a w2 and no itemized deductions or earned income credit would be $85. Most returns are not basic any more, so prices typically start at $100 and go up from there. A family with each spouse working, and two children (no EIC, but with CTC), and standard deduction, savings interest and no investments to report would probably run around $125. I find it difficult to articulate the price of a tax return, but a $200 or $300 return is not uncommon. Some of the returns that I see from other preparers make my prices look high for this area but I am okay with that. I have been trying to inch my prices up, and did do a more major increase this year since Virginia has raised their minimum wage and my cost for someone to help with filing, copying and answering the phone went up accordingly.

I do payroll for some small companies and have always given them paper 941's to file. I have had several of them receive requests stating their form was received for third quarter but was not available to IRS, please resubmit. So I am reasonably sure that 941's were among the forms destroyed.

Or at least a lot of it!

I wonder if the full name on the caller ID would be State of Oregon Correctional System, or some such?

I don't think that you can. But I cannot provide a site to back this up - I am just basing it on my (limited!) understanding of what an MEC is.

Very scary! I am glad your office was safe!

Wow! I am glad my imagination isn't good enough to truly picture what those agents saw and how it affected them. They deserve a medal. And out deepest thanks.

I have ProSeries networked, with three users, unlimited efile, unlimited states, 1040, 1120, 1120S, 1065, 706, 1041, and 990. I don't remember the exact price but when I changed it was not a lot higher than ATX.

I have been doing taxes off and on since 1972. Stopped for college, and to work in banking for a while (ended up in employee benefit plan administration with a trust company, so still compliance with IRS!) before returning to tax work part time. Never wanted to be a self employed tax professional but here I am. the more due diligence requirements are place on preparers and the less responsibility on clients, the less I want to do this. I wont take a client whose information is unreasonable on the face of it, but I don't want to face penalties because i did not give them the third degree about the information they gave me. Retirement looks better all the time. Or at least changing to only doing tax returns for people I like and taking the rest of the year off.

If i am understanding it, the entire amount of gain on the installment sale will be recognized this year because the installment sale has been converted to a regular promissory note. Principal and interest will continue to be paid, but only the interest will be recognized as taxable income going forward. That way the heirs will not have an installment sale to deal with, just interest income on the note.

Since I am below the Mason-Dixon line, does that make me Southern Fried?

I am so glad both Beth's daughter and Carol's daughter were able to walk away from serious accidents. Thank God for all his blessings. Sometimes it is important to stop and remember out priorities! Prayers for everyone in the final grind of this season!

Actually, I would just show up with the tax returns I don't have the energy to finish. That would be worse than tar and pitchforks!

Thanks for trying, though, Pacun. I wish there was one number for all those affected.

I don't use ATX, but I thought your question was about setting up the VA estimates to be automatically deducted from the bank account at the appropriate times during the year. I know that I can do it with ProSeries, but I am not sure about ATX. And maybe I misunderstood what you were asking.

Thanks for looking. I was assuming since they had no income tax there would be no tax on a real estate transaction, but the ways governments can find to get money out of non-residents, and even citizen/residents, are myriad and convoluted so I thought that I would ask.

I have a Virginia client that sold a home in SD last year (not personal residence, but rental house). I don't see any withholding for SD on the settlement statement, so I am assuming since SD has no income tax as such there is nothing to file there. But if anyone on here has experience with that state and can confirm that for me, I would appreciate it.

Maybe you should do a wellness check on him - he may have had a heart attack!

I am wondering if instead of planning to do rental repairs in the workshop, his thinking is that he stores all of the tools that he uses in the rental repairs in this building and therefore the use is for the rental properties.

You don't have to have expenses. If there aren't any, fine. My concern would be the due diligence question asking if you prepared a complete and accurate schedule C. Especially if the amount of the income is low enough that adding expenses would reduce his EIC and he TOLD you he had some expenses but no receipts.

I have wondered if a taxpayer could file form 3911 if they disagree with the IRS about whether or not they received a stimulus payment. I have one client that got the letter saying he and his wife each got the $1400 last year. but he swears that they did not. Ordinarily I would suggest a phone call but we all know how well that works these days. I gave him the form and suggested that he could try mailing that in, but warned him it might take two years to get a response because paper isn't working so well either.

I think he actually meant the consolidated 1099, which includes the 1099DIV and the 1099B. I am assuming that like me his fingers sometimes just keep typing what they are used to.