Matthew in the PNW

Agricultural Industry. I have a 2 month busy season ahead of me with the company so that makes me a sucker for punishment. 

It's official. Hiho Hiho, it's off to Ag I go. I wish you all the best! Thanks again for all the feedback over the years (whether I was lurking or active  )

Wow, I just dealt with this.... WHAT A PITA! I'll add another sun to your power of dislike.

15 minutes ago, Jack from Ohio said:

And you do not have State, School, or municipal tax returns.   If I only dealt with 1040, I could triple my return count.

I did an ohio K-1 last year. State returns are a ridiculous burden on the taxpayer and then us. Everyone else has my condolences.

Probably already have "bad" credit.

Not to take away from the focus of the post...

The 1/2% savings compared to the $35 (?) fee to set one up doesn't make sense to me financially, and I figure those clients probably already have been credit. I believe the $35 fee is reassessed every time the client breaks the agreement isn't it?

I figure charging them a fee to help with this typically doesn't make sense. If they don't have the money now, they will likely miss a payment again and be back at square one.

A lot of assumptions on my part. 

25 minutes ago, Catherine said:

I had one guy send in documentation and PAYMENT on a CP2000, well before deadline.  They cashed his check and then sent a 90-day letter!  So he has a tax court petition ready to mail in time for the deadline, and we're waiting to see if they deign to respond to the documentation sent by ... something like the end of June.

I had a client paper file (they wrote numbers in by hand  ) in July 2020 and send payment with return. The IRS cashed the check and didn't process the return. By February 2021 I finally conceded to the clients wishes and drafted a new original paper-filed return to mail off. My other client with a 3520 issue (and $24k penalty) is getting the nasty grams from the IRS but there's nobody to call and no one to process, so that will be a total nightmare for months I'm sure.

Sorry, I'm not sure since we don't recommend those for clients. No savings, a lot of hassle, and if they miss a payment they seem to get kicked off their own payment agreement.

I had one recently where I couldn't find a number to call. That might have been for form 3520 though... which they don't have a unit or competent agent to address correspondence on.

I saw where the IRS is trying to hire appraisers to help audit conservation easements... I also saw where they are trying to hire cryptocurrency specialists since they've been contracting that work out.

To say they are failing at "customer service" would be an understatement! I'm not really sure what the point of the phone lines are other than the EA and CPA lines, since they can't offer tax advice anyway. Just have a collections line if that's the case. Government 

We have a few newer preparers and I was supposed to do review, but ended up getting all the complex returns, so it varies from two days per return to one return in 3 hours. I do NOT want to know my actual average.  We did the PPP loans in our office so we don't have an end in sight on the return front.

7 minutes ago, Catherine said:

...forged GED...

That's funny right there... and too true.

I've never included a code. Just written something along the lines of "The taxpayer is ineligible for efile due to...". 

I'm heading out for the day.

Ex-line 21?

Child info isn't throwing a diagnostic?

On 4/28/2021 at 2:41 PM, Lynn EA USTCP in Louisiana said:

Wish I had seen this 10 days ago.  

You and me both!!!

Thanks for sharing Margaret, it's nice to know others are reaching that point too. If I had a pretty face I would do youtube like one of my clients who expects to gross $200K in his first full year of being monetized. Sadly I'm just a fat, bald, middle-aged male who's passed his prime

Was the industry always like this?

In case anyone was thinking they could file a late 941 after tax season where all taxes due have been paid and the deposits made timely... I have just confirmed this is not exempt from penalties. All of the guidance indicated that penalties were assessed where taxes were due. 

On a call with the practitioner line, the agent said she had talked to a taxpayer two calls before me where they had a penalty for failure to file... even though there was no tax due on the 941. 

The three agents I've asked before this didn't say this. They were either clueless or said my hunch was right (turns out not).

Also, if you need to call on a client and the account has an amount due and in collections, then the new department's number is 1 800-829-0922.

If you guys don't hear from me again, it's because I started this industry in 2013 during the repair regs, then we had the oboma-care reporting, then the trump changes and now the covid laws. With the PPP loans, ERC credits, countless calls just to ask if Stimulus payments were received, and the gymnastics involved with our tax strategies... I'm over it. I think I've had it. Industry is looking peachy to me. I'm just waiting for clients to start calling asking why they're getting advance deposits for child credits this summer, and then the angry conversations next year when they ask why their child credits are smaller than normal (and thus why they owe tax + penalties + interest).

Thanks all for your feedback and willingness to share and assist. I will likely be hanging my spurs up with those that "couldn't hack it", but I just wanted to say thank you. 

I haven't tried it yet, but could you update her rolled-over return to make him the primary and add his info as reported while also voerriding her carryovers to zero, THEN start the amend process? 

18 minutes ago, jklcpa said:

Has anyone looked at the Bitcoin investment that Paypal has.  I have one client that says he bought some in Jan of this year, and the Paypal site says it does provide basis information.  Whatever investment this is, it isn't like owning Bitcoin directly, and it can't be used to directly pay for anything.  To me it sounded more like a mutual fund. 

I haven't heard of that myself JKL.

Max, do these software providers simply offer a place for the holder to enter the information each time there's a sale, or is it more like they agree to let the software track their individual investments on an ongoing basis in order to keep real time information? I ask because I know my clients wouldn't track that by inputting each sale themselves.

I just realized this is 2021  I guess my mind just blanked when I read 2020 *shivers*

I agree Margaret, if it were my call.

On 1/15/2020 at 10:05 PM, Max W said:

Unless a client keeps very good records, tax reporting of cryptos is going to be a nightmare from hell, worse than reporting stock sales where basis is not provided.

Because of the trading of one coin to another, the basis tends to get lost.  On top of that, each coin has to be converted to dollars and each type of coin has its own conversion rate which varies on a daily basis.

There is software designed to handle a lot of this, but you will still have to know when each coin was acquired, so records have to kept going back several years.

The reporting is done on Sch D/8949

Some crypto coins issue a 1099-K, but usually for only large amounts.  The 1099K only shows the sales and if this is not reported, the IRS will issue a CP2000.

 

Yes, I just researched this and determined a "nightmare from hell" is as good a parallel as we can draw. 

The IRS just released as well that conversions are also taxed. Any coin (stake) earned during "mining" also needs to be reported as ordinary income under "Other Income". So I created a spreadsheet to track basis and got three conversions into a 43 transaction year and said "STOP!". I will never be able to charge for this.

I'm not even sure how to do the currency conversion peice yet.

The IRS has sure put a lot of burden on our shoulders.

2 hours ago, Abby Normal said:

Part of your rollover procedures (start a list now and keep adding to it) should be to open each return as soon as it's rolled over. You want to make sure it opens without errors, and closing it creates a backup before any entries are made.

We also have extensive notes in each return that we copy/paste into our engagement worksheet notes section to make sure we don't screw up the return or miss anything.

Interesting. We've never experienced issues with the returns not opening, so never considered this step.

We currently keep our notes in a word document within the client drive, so we don't need to open the return if the client calls for a reminder of what's needed.... I did start using the ATX reviewer notes last year though and found those very helpful. Our notes, if anyone reads this thread later are

• Open to client
• Open to preparer
• Open to Reviewer
• Client Conversation Notes (We're adding this for 2020)
• Notes for next year

It sounds like I don't have an option on the letters, but do see there are multiple approaches to this and should decide which path to follow now rather than later. Thanks for all the help everyone!!!

7 hours ago, Abby Normal said:

No. You have to discard all rolled over letters and then add them back. I've been using ATX since version 2013 and we almost always discard all letters after rollover. This year it's part of the rollover/emgagement checklist.

It would be nice if rollover preferences had the option to not rollover letters and to automatically add the current letters, but alas...

The 'discard multiple forms' feature makes it easy to discard all letters, however, and it's equally fast to add them back.

I'm heading up most of the processes and procedures at our office, and only wish I had time to write a rollover checklist. At this point, I can only aspire to be a supreme guru. All in good time.

Am I correct in assuming the "discard multiple forms" process is the one I am familiar with which requires you to open each return separately in order to discard the rollover letter and upload the new one?

3 hours ago, ETax847 said:

I'm having some issues with the Client letter as well. If a client has a Federal refund the language is "Your return shows a federal tax refund of $xxx.

However if the client has a state refund it reads as follows: As requested, your Illinois 1040 tax refund of $xxx will be deposited directly into your checking account. 

Why doesnt the Federal Client letter pick up on the fact of the refund being deposited directly in the checking account.  I have selected that refund option on the 1040EF?

 

Sorry ETax, I'm not sure. Washington (still) doesn't have an income tax, so I'm not very familiar with the state settings. 

Great suggestions on the federal letter edits. I'll probably place that in this client's "Note to preparer" document. We're in the awkward growth stage with a couple new preparers coming on, so I don't trust them to roll the right letters over, or myself to check for it on 04/15.

I'll try to investigate further on the custom paragraph within the default letter "after" tax season. 

Is there a way to have ATX add a paragraph on the ATX generated letter when filing form 3520?

After filing multiple previous years, one of our clients potentially didn't mail the 3520 and claims to have never heard of receipt confirmation. They are claiming we take care of everything of course.

I would like to ATX to automatically add a paragraph for returns with a 3520 that states to mail it in separately and to send it certified mail for receipt confirmation. I know ATX will do this for IRA Contributions, but wasn't sure if there were edit options to have the software do this for other items as well.

A penalty like that makes you want to decline these taxpayers as clients, or get a 2848 on file so we can call to confirm receipt! If only we had that much time on our hands