FDNY

I will finally be telling procrastinators that they need to file an extension. The drips and drabs coming in now are driving me nuts. I'm a list driven person that schedules other projects in the off season after some minimal time in the office to clear up other work. I'd rather let those people get to me in October like they always do, when it fits my schedule, which is how it has always worked out, making the negative of procrastination a positive for me.

Good, some clarity and certainty is welcomed in this time of uncertainty.

Why don’t they just make it October 15th and call it a day, let’s be done with this. Still clients waiting on refunds, processing, processing.

I would agree it’s C19 delay. I have a few, no credits. This situation was on the news the other day, and someone owed $11K and IRS has not cashed the check for months. UPS lost 3 of my Amazon packages or still in transit they say. The mail is slow. I guess patience is the keyword today.

I started in 1984 after finishing some accounting courses at Queens College and taking a tax preparation course at the old Sobelson School in Manhattan. My first clients were firemen and their families and I would work on the top floor of a 3 story firehouse in the early hours of the morning when fire calls quieted down. If I did go out on a run I would have to leave everything on the table, no security of a clients info. Looking back that was not a good idea, it was a bad neighborhood and one time when we came back from a fire the TV was gone and they stole our shoes. To this day I still have many of those clients, and if I'm up at 3am, I still go to work on the top floor of a 3 story townhouse, but my shoes are now safe.

I hope they secure these trailers and there isn’t a fire. Those fires get very smoky and paper doesn’t like water. Sorry, that’s how I think, but on the positive side I’m sure the firefighters will save what they can if adequately notified.

The governor of Georgia just said he didn't know asymptomatic people could spread the virus. Now I know what ignorance is bliss means. This is why we are where we are, God help us from this type of ignorance.

I now know 8 people (and 2 that I don't know personally) with the virus, 2 are over 80 and suffering at home as they were told they would be better off there. Each one's family is now infected. They are all from NYC. The last few days I work from 6am to 12, then after lunch I spend some time on the phone checking in on older clients and friends. Everyone is home when I call. I sense a lot of understandable anxiety, fear, and worry. But having a conversation helps to smooth things out a little especially since many people don't know what to make of this. I feel that staying in touch helps us to cope.

This is true. Some years ago I posted here that I had a message from the PTIN desk that my PTIN may have been compromised. I called them with the number I had on file and sure enough they issued me a new PTIN. And as a note, there were no fraudulent returns filed under my number so their system worked well, for me anyway.

I am using the 7/15 date that will show up on the letter and sending out the returns. Hopefully when the I receive the authorizations I will have the update and be able to e file with that date. Also we have the states to deal with, and I thought not touching my face was something to remember to do.

Can’t you work from home?

Scammers already guaranteeing fast deposit of your new "federal check." If I ever find one of these guys I am going to need bail money.

He must have been in prior good physical condition.

I hope by now most people understand this is not media hype, nor business as usual like a normal flu season. The rate of expansion has exploded in the last 24 hours. NYC's mayor is considering a shelter in place because one of my upper echelon sources told me there is a community hospital in NYC that is already overwhelmed and full of cases, he said it is a disaster. This morning I heard Mass General said their rate of new cases just quadrupled in the last 24 hours. My source and I think the only way we beat this is go to total shutdown which he thinks is going to happen within the week. Just look at what other countries did and are succeeding. The other option is let everyone get infected so it passes through that way and lose millions of people, not a sane option. Everyone, especially the millennials out there partying like it's 1999 must get on board. I've contacted all my remaining clients, I will not be accepting any more mail ins, only electronic and will be doing extensions if they can only mail. The next few days will tell us everything, plan for the worst, hope for the best.

I sent out an email to all my clients whose packages I have not received that I would only be accepting electronically sent docs by the end of the week. Watch, I'll get a flood of mail on Wednesday and Thursday. Some of them called today and wanted to talk about the virus. The older ones are very scared and I tried to calm them and explained they should have a plan. I got little work done today but with a possible filing extension on the horizon I could use the break.

That was excellent Catherine, I read it twice. Something must have happened about an hour ago. At close to the same time I got an alert from the NY Daily News that NYC schools would be closed immediately, then a red alert call from the small city I live in that our schools will be closed, and all this while watching governor Baker telling us, no in restaurant dining allowed from March 17th on. That's going to be a lot of lonely corned beef. What I think happened today was Dr Fauci hitting all 5 Sunday morning news shows and telling us that we need to do better. He probably saw the kids partying in bars Saturday night like it's 1999. Then they come home and infect their family members . Like governor Baker said with a serious face, "it's not all about you," so he pulled the plug on bars. And yes, poor St. Paddy's Day, I assume they were considering that day is one of the biggest party days on earth, at least that's what I remember from all those parades. Fauci explains that the current rate of infection is exponential and it will probably double every 3 days, that's 100 million people by May 1st. Whoa! Put on the brakes! I think that's what happened.

April 15th 8am

Yes, that’s difficult as you touch your face numerous times without even thinking. Try to always have clean hands. If you are out remember to use a wipe to clean hands after touching hard objects. It’s a crazy time, and these precautions seem silly but look at Spain and France on lockdown because it is escalating possibly getting out of control and overwhelming the medical community. Don’t believe it can’t happen here, it will unless we smack it down. So far it’s mostly personal decisions, NYC subways are vacant, they’re getting the message in old NY.

I do all my business mostly through USPS or email. I did visit the PO everyday at 10:30 so I could shoot the breeze with Joe the maintenance guy and sometimes the counter people. But now I go before the PO opens and if I have to sign at the counter I'm first. Since I did some pro bono work for the maintenance guy he opens the side door for me if he sees me so I am always first. Now I open the door with a disposable glove. If I need to go to the counter I have a wipe to clean my hands when I get back into the car. It's the times we live in, I don't like it but it is what it is. I have to stay safe, there are people who depend on me and I will do my best to not let them down.

Lee is right on with these facts. Since the flu mortality rate is 1/10th of 1 percent, that's where the 30 times higher comes in to get to 3% ( I don't have to tell this to a bunch of accountants). If you calculated the rate of current confirmed cases and deaths we are around 2 1/2% now. I am in contact with my cousins in Italy and I think we are about 3-4 weeks behind them if we're lucky. They were dying 100 a day and the quarantining is needed to stop the transmission. It looks like it is the only method that works. New Rochelle NY had a serious outbreak and they are trying to stop it, imagine that happening everywhere at the same time, something not out of the realm of possibilities if we don't take serious measures. We'll get past this but the medical community is afraid of being overwhelmed and older people are afraid of being a victim. That's why nursing homes are in lockdown. We need to stay calm, know the facts and take proper precautions, but a 1 month Netflix Binge Watch Quarantine Holiday would go a long way to end this, and what an amazing stock buying opportunity. Stay safe out there, it can be an unforgiving world at times.

That does sound strange and wrong info. I'm with you on them trying to entice him to take the voucher. I have a client who works for a big travel agency that books big groups and she said they may go out of business, or at least lay everyone off. My cousin teaches in Milan and she said they are doing virtual classwork. But many of the people in the north decided to go south to escape so the government shut down the whole country. They had to, there were over 100 dying each day. Now I need to polish up on my Italian to call all the relatives, they need support, this too will pass, I hope.

Me too, you’ve got to be fair, it will pay off in the long run.

Yes, they can have as many SEPs, IRAs, or ROTHs at different brokerages as they want. Hopefully they know not to go over contribution limit. Happy birthday and don’t think about this stuff the rest of the day, that would make my birthday complete.

It's called "ATX Online Communities." That link would be helpful because they don't make it easy to get to it when you log in. Makes me think they want you to look at everything else they have to offer before you finally hit the right buttons. Thanks Eric.