rfassett

Shoot! I was hoping you would give that guy my name! Good luck! I think you stand to make some money and learn some things along the way. As I stated previously, the road is not an easy one, most especially with an uncooperative client. But use every tool available to you including the IRS. As I previously mentioned, I encouraged the IRS to issue a wage levy against my client because I was convinced that that was the ONLY thing that would get his attention. I did that, however, with full knowledge that it could, and would be, reversed if the client became cooperative. Again - Good luck!

I am on the tail end (I think) of one very similiar to your case. IRS had concocted a 2001 tax return with a pretty significant liability. That is what drove this guy to me. But nothing had been filed since. His story? "Had a Sch C business. Momma died. Momma left me half a million dollars. Closed my business. In my grief (Mama's death), I blew half a million dollars (Mama's money) on gambling, booze and easy women." (Mama would be so proud.) Says "I was irresponsible with everything and did not file any tax returns but I want to come clean now." So I get a nice retainer up front, prepare the returns after "pulling teeth" to get the information and begin working with the IRS. Have a plan completely worked out with the IRS onboard contingent on the 2009 tax return being completed and sent to the IRS by the first week in March (no big deal because now all he has is one W-2)and the return shows a refund (which will be applied). Return is completed in plenty of time but client does not show up to sign it after numerous promises that he will "be there tomorrow". April 14th I get a call from the IRS threatening to file a wage levy. My advice to the IRS? "Do it". Ten days later client calls and says "IRS is leving my wages. How come?" Duhhhh, gee, I wonder. Well, after being paid more money by the client, I got the IRS to release the levy, and the client and the IRS to agree to a plan. At the moment everything is hunkey dorey. But we will see for how long. Two important points about your case: 1. His problems are not your problems. Keep that perspective. And 2: This can be a very good profit center for you. Bill at your PITA rate with payment in advance of services rendered. If you have worked through your retainer, do not do one more thing until you have another retainer to work against.

Praise God! Praise God! Praise God! Thank you Father, for hearing our prayers! And all of the glory and all of the praise and all of the honor belongs to You, and You alone. Amen!

If there is comfort in numbers, I am waiting for several PA20S/65 from when the form was approved (about the date you stated) and even more RCT-101's from March 12th. My pile of "e-filed returns in process" has become nearly unmanagable this year. I mentioned to my wife the other evening if she thought I could qualify for a government pension since I am doing so much of the postal service's and IRS's work.

I just went out front and hugged a client that was dropping off his information. Caught him quite by surprise, I did. Told him how glad I was to see him. For the past ten years he has been within the last two or three to bring in his stuff (THE last, more times than not) (two W-2's, a 1098 and a couple of bank 1099's (nothing that could not be done at the end of January - and he is always well over-withheld, go figure)). I told him I was glad to see him because that meant tax season was officially coming to a close. Woohoo!!! I just put it in coast mode! Twenty two in house to do.

Remember, only the good die young so the majority of this board should live a long life! :~) taxbilly

My goodness, bs, it speaks to the depth of your distraction that you even THINK that you have to apologize to this group. We are all brothers and sisters here and are not afraid to carry each other's burdens. That has been evidenced over and over. I read your post and my heart got heavy. And then I read Margaret's post and my heart got heavy. I weep for the both of you. This is a brutal business, make no mistake about it. And it can be very unforgiving. I pray for a minimal amount of distractions during tax season because, frankly, I am not sure how I could function at all with the kinds of distraction you two are carrying. So, even so, I pray for you now. Oh Lord, my Lord, how majestic is Your name - in all of the earth. You were there before there was time. And You will be there when time is no more. I thank You for that, O God. Father, one of Your children here is hurting - nay, Father, many of Your children are hurting or tired. My prayer Father, is that each of us would take time even now, even this moment, to pause and reflect on how good You are. But Father, I do pray for BS. I pray Father for resolution to that situation. Obviously there has been a great deal of the "unknown" in the situation. I pray that You, O God, will give BS that peace that simply can not be understood, but for the fact that it can only be found in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Please watch over BS now and in the days to come as the surgery is anticipated. I pray for quick and thorough healing. But nevertheless, Father, I pray that Your will be done. Guide each of us, O Lord, in the way to go and help us to be ever mindful of Your great provision. And help us to be ever mindful, that our time here is but for a fleeting moment, and then we continue for an eternity. Father, I thank You for hearing my prayer. And I will be careful to give YOU all of the praise and all of the glory. For Thou art worthy to be praised! I pray these things in the name of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! Amen and amen!

My secretary tells them when they call. Our office will be closed on April 16th for a long weekend and will re-open Monday morning at 8:00. I just hang a sign on the door.

This is fun! Dear client, I am sorry that I am an idiot. You called and complained about the fee I charged for your $220 tax return and said you will not be back next year. I checked my records because that amount did not ring a bell. There were, in fact, two returns, and the fee was $205 for the both. You made the check out for $220 and my secretary gave you $15 cash back. Tell me again how much I charged you for your return? Oh never mind. Help me out MAS - YOU ARE FIRED!!!

Dear Client, I really do care that you could not get along as husband and wife. And I am really sorry that you did not see one cent from you 2006 refund (because your spouse took it all). I will try harder to be at his house when the check arrives so I can make certain he does not forge your name when the 2009 check arrives. It took the postman too long to arrive at my last client that's why I did not make it in time for the 2006. Oh - here's a thought - CALL YOUR FRIGGIN ATTORNEY!!!!!!!!!!!! Here is a truth - if I make it through the next nine days without going postal on somebody, it will be only be by the hand of God!

I concur. THE thing that would cause me to change software suppliers would be a sales offer or a sales call in the heat of the battle. I can not imagine ATX would send out a renewal offer before April 15th. If I would get one before then, it would find itself in the round file in a new york second.

I do not think the program will fix issues with your spread sheet. If your spread sheet does not have the sale and corresponding cost on the same line, then I do not think it will show that way in the program. I did one this morning that the client had prepared according to my specs. He had 248 transactions, they all matched up purchase and sale and date bought and date sold on the respective line in the csv file. I imported that into ATX and it could not have been much sweeter. It did take me about 15 minutes because the dates did not import for some reason. So I copy and pasted the dates. Created another column with an F for filer and yet another column of ones for transaction type. I copied and pasted those into ATX, changed 5 transaction types to fours and four transaction types to sevens and I was done. Absolutely amazing. The client had actually emailed me the csv file last evening, ahead of our scheduled appointment at 9:00 this morning. When we walked into the conference room I threw the Schedules D and D-1's on the table and said I was up all night inputting that info and he owes me $2,000. He is a brand new client and does not understand my humor, I guess, because his chin hit the table.

Now that does not sound good. I hope he has paid you well over the years for you to assume that risk.

The IRS must think you are a responsible party for this debt. Why would they think that? It has been my experience that the IRS has made several attempts to contact your client before that lien has been placed. If you are receiving his mail, you should have received those notices, including the certified version. If you did not receive these, your client is playing games with you. I agree, contact the practioners hotline to find out more facts about this issue. And take their guidance.

At the start to the day 129 (6.45 per day) to get done.

And I live within 10 miles of the Ohio line so I get to do several Ohio returns as well.

Hi Annie, Assuming you are using ATX, on page 1 of the PA-40 (not the "data" page), click on the 1099R worksheet at the bottom and click on the down arrow in the box that says "Select for PA purposes" and on the line for the income you want to exclude. Select "non-taxable". This will allow the 1099R info to flow to the PA W2S as federal income but will keep it off of the PA 40. You are correct, with limited exceptions, pension income is not taxable in PA.

I think they are tired of us interrupting their work so they pulled the plug. They will probably plug it back in before they leave for the day. :)

Congratulations! I will not say he's cute because my dog thinks that is his name. Skeeter is our office dog. He is maltese / shizu mix and all I hear all day long is "he's cute, he's adorable", blah, blah, blah. Truth, though, is, that in an otherwise professional office, he has been very good for PR. He is just 10 months old and his best friend is my German Shepherd (who does not get to come to the office - but she is my baby). They get along marvelously. But enough about my kids, congratulations again and I hope he brings you and your family many, many years of joy.

Taxbilly, I did take the time to spend time with my son when it mattered. I was at all of his performances in whatever manner and at whatever time they took place. And I was home for him when it counted. I was the Dad that was there - always. He is now studying acting in NYC. Young man? I have not been called that by anyone other than my 75 year old Father In Law in a long, long time. The freedom is what makes this schedule possible. Understand, I do not intend to run this pace forever - just as long as it makes sense and as long as I enjoy it.

Wow - six weeks. I was thinking a nap would be nice. But six weeks? You must have been really pushing the envelope. I will not say that I have it figured out completely, but alot of it has to do with pacing oneself. I arise every morning at 4:30 and am in the office by 5:30. I eat breakfast while I am updating software and planning my day. I then work hard until noon and take a half hour for lunch - away from my desk. At 6:00 I change venues and go home and have supper and then work at the computer there by logging into my office system via gotomypc. So by 7:00 I am back to work and work until 10:00. That is my routine 7 days per week. On April 17th, I go to part-time and only put in about 50 hours per week on average. But I do understand what you are saying. One day, when the boy gets through school and when money is hay. That's the time things will come my way. On that great come and get it day. :)

I agree completely with the others. File extensions. If they are pushing NOL's there just is no need to punish yourself with this, unless you just have nothing else to do. But just as point of reference as to what others do, in my practice, March 1st is the deadline for in-coming info to have a corp return completed by March 15th. March 25th is the deadline for individuals. Any incoming information after those dates have a higher likelihood than not to be extended. And we tell the folks that at the beginning of the season when we do our pre-season appointment setting. And we remind them when they bring their stuff in after the deadlines. It is not a punitive thing, but rather a mechanism by which I can pretend to retain a semblance of sanity. We do extend quite afew returns, but the very, very vast majority of them are completed by the end of May. We do not sit on extensions waiting for the next deadline. That said, I work an average of 100 hours per week from the third week in January right through the fifteenth of April because I would rather not extend returns if it is in my power. Good luck!

Why would there be SE income from an S-Corp K-1? Partnership K-1 sometimes. But not an S-Corp. BTW, you scared the crap out of me. When I first read your post I thought it said the K-1 info was not flowing to Sch E. I have done a ton of those kinds of returns already and would have had a heart attack if they all missed that.

Here is a link to one that is on my website http://www.cpasitesolutions.com/content/calcs/SimpleLoan.html But I have to say, in the manner of full disclosure, that I have been using the aforementioned TValue for serveral years and really, really like it. But if you just need a quick report, the link should set you up. You might need to cut and paste the link into your browser.

Knocking on wood, I have only had two calls this year, so far, in the "is my return done yet" category. I pre-schedule my returns in December which for the most part smooths out the workflow for the season. I have been able to stay pretty much in front of the madness, but it takes commitment. Oh, the two that called? One, the husband had a minor stroke two days afer dropping off the tax info and the family wanted the return done (even though the son already had POA) before the client got any worse. I did, in fact, set aside every thing else after that call and had their return done within a couple of hours. I learned just a couple of hours ago that he has since had a massive stroke and is not expected to survive the week. The other is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. It is about a $1,000 return and I completed the 2008 return in late April (on extension) last year and the client finally picked it up and paid for it two weeks ago. Late last week she dropped off the 2009 info and called the very next day to see if it was ready. Without going into the sordid details, she was one of the few this season that have been able to hit my hot botton. (I still have not looked at her info.) :)