BrewOne

right, ordinary and necessary. I accepted travel expenses for a dog trainer's trip to Sweden, but it was for a certification course not offered here.

You have to be careful about which category of Social Security income you are referring to. And beyond my ability to explain in just a few lines. But you can work, as long as you can't do "Substantial Gainful Activity" (current limit $1,620 a month of earned income).

Our local office (Tallahassee) closed awhile back but I recently found out it had reopened (in a new location). You used to be able to walk in and talk to an agent in about five minutes, even take your docs there and they'd do your tax return for you. Hard to believe.

If I have the 2023 SSA-1099, I will estimate their 2024 amount. Just had a call from deceased client's family who can't locate the SSA-1099 and had spent hours on the phone trying (unsuccessfully) to get through to the local office. Fortunately, when I checked the 2023 form, there was no withholding. Not sure what I would do without a 1099 where there was withholding--I'd probably leave the withholding off and let the IRS sort it out, but in our "brave new world" not a great option.

we were trending towards this anyway, and we may soon be close to 100% of notices starting with "CP"--the computer will be the only one watching the store. Dealing with a notice will be another matter...I would suggest establishing a de minimis $ amount that it's worth messing with.

And if you have a large practice, there are firms that when you check the 3rd party authorization box, will do weekly sweeps for you and alert you to upcoming IRS action (they claim something like a 6 month heads up on an audit).

I have several years worth on one 8821, like 2020-2025 (you can go out 3 years on future returns). I pushed getting the authorization for a couple of years in the off season to my clients and about 80% eventually responded. Those who didn't, I encouraged them to set up their IRS account so they could take a peek at what was going on. I don't charge for it, to me it is priceless to find out about a client's problem before the IRS goes into action. Most 1099's, W2's are on a transcript before then, but there are K1's and whatnot that take awhile to show up. Look too early and something might not be there yet, but wait too long and you're past the extension deadline.

I've offered this service for the past few years, although I wait until late September, early October to make sure the IRS has all the documents. I've caught many items, as well as seeing their 5498's and matching up 1099-R's to make sure an RMD was taken. Most recently, a client told me in February he only had a $2,000 IRA distribution plus his Social Security so no return was filed. I checked his transcript for 2023--it was about 90 pages long (turns out he has two brokerage accounts that were actively traded). When I told him he needed to file he said "But you told me I didn't need to!" I might add I don't require them to sign an 8821 to be a client, although I know preparers who do.

I think one of Block's problems is being a publicly traded company, where 8%+ annual growth is a constant requirement. When production from the golden goose (refund anticipation loans) dropped and online filing took off, they felt compelled to squeeze more money out of fewer clients. Certainly got away from the founders' idea of helping folks file their taxes for a reasonable price.

I just did a 2023 return with 2024 installed on the same computer--had no issues. With regard to support, I have not heard of any software program where the support is improving. I base my choice on the quality of the software I'm using and if it is compatible with my brain. I am amused each year when ATX posts their phone hours for tax season but doesn't give you the phone number.

So, the labor charge submitted to the vendor was denied. That leaves the business owner with the actual cost of the labor as an expense, not the "book rate." Or maybe I missed the whole point.

From Pub 504: "Benefits paid to a spouse or former spouse. Benefits paid under a QDRO to the plan participant's spouse or former spouse must generally be included in the spouse's or former spouse's income." Code Section 402(e)(1)(A) refers to payments from a plan assigned to an "alternative payee"--not sure this would cover someone paying the ex out of pocket. Would it have been possible for the plan to pay the ex and not your client?

Publication 590-B does not articulate the RMD rules for a Roth; sends you back to Chapter 1 (Traditional IRA) to determine RMD for a beneficiary Roth.

A.J. is great, always enjoy his presentations. IRA's are anything but simple--unfortunately unless the custodian is looking out for the client, the account holder can really screw up.

I would like to eliminate partnerships just because of some of the potential issues but I don't feel like I can drop existing clients who will get major sticker shock going to someone else for a 1065. I feel like I have to do 1041's because of the demographics of my clientele (I inherited about half my clients from a 90 year old preparer) and usually the estate returns are only for one year. I'm okay with complexity if the client didn't deliberately seek it out (some folks just love to complicate their lives). My biggest beef is with brokers who have clients invest (often trivial amounts) in limited partnerships with no regard to the tax preparation consequences. I know H&R Block loves a K-1 with an amount on nearly every line (generating about $1,000 worth of forms) but I don't.

Marilyn, I think it's the former (practices not taking new clients). When I went out on my own, there were four of us (enrolled agents) on the same floor of an office building. I'm the last one standing (and not for long). I'm afraid the personal service we offer is disappearing.

oops. I missed that.

I had a client who, after being told they owed a significant amount, said he'd given $12,000 to his place of worship. I said I needed to see the receipts--he was half-right, he had $6,000 in monthly contributions and a year-end statement for $6,000.

I had to start over when I changed authenticators.

Received an email this morning from the IRS that my IP PIN was available, retrieved it with my ID.me log-in.

On prior years, I can sign into ATX without any kind of MFA.

Joan--mine are not requiring MFA. I signed up for MFA when I downloaded 2022 and 2023 but it only required it once (and no authenticator) when I downloaded the software. I don't know if that's a violation but I feel it should be up to ATX to fix it.

"Contemporaneous" was taught to me as meaning: by the time the taxpayer files their return. So you are supposed to have it in hand when you file.

I've charged contingency fees on amended returns (when my usual fee would wipe out a significant portion of the benefit); that may be out under the new regulations.

Update: I deleted the authenticator on my iphone and went back to the App store. Turns out, when I entered BitWarden in search, the search results did not have BitWarden at the top. So I screwed up by clicking on the top result and downloaded some unknown authenticator app. This time I downloaded the real thing and it is a much cleaner process. Geez...one more year...