Cathy

Frannie, I'm assuming you aren't a tax practitioner as this is your first post. There are many, many factors that need to be considered before amending this particular type of return (situation). It's best to get professional help before the grave is dug deeper. Take care, Cathy

On my Iphone, I downloaded and installed a free program called "Hiya" that will block known scam or fraudulent numbers, and since installation, I haven't had any of those calls on my cell. My landline is different, however, I enter those suspicious numbers into Hiya and it tells you if it's a scam or involved with fraud and gives reports that other callers have written on those numbers. I then take those numbers and block them on my landline which is a business line so I can't register it for DO NOT CALL. I have a couple of other local businesses so I really need to answer all calls..... especially the ones that use a local prefix number. Lately, I've been seeing on the caller ID of the landline...... "Invalid Number".....I've seen that ID several times on different numbers. I know there is a way that a caller can make the caller ID appear as if someone locally is calling you when the call is really coming from Timbucktoo......now I'm wondering if the phone company (ATT) has found a way to identify those type of callers.??

Max, I would refer IRS to their seminars, meetings, conferences of which it was recently made public the enormous sum of money that IRS spent on different ones.....just google: "irs and enormous money spent on seminars". I think that once you take some of those figures you will find and divide them by the number of employees in attendance at different ones, how could they possibly say that a measly $15.000 would be an unusual business expense for a self employed business man to try to gain enough knowledge to be able to run his business more efficiently, thereby owing more income taxes because of it!. Good luck!

IMHO, you under charged your client. My very minimum charge would have been $475. Depending on how many other factors were involved in the actual preparation of the returns is the only way I would feel comfortable in telling you if my fee would exceed $475 or not. It's amazing how some people can split hairs in regard to your fees in preparing something as important as their income tax return. And don't let the fact that you are not a CPA discourage you from charging how much your fees should be. I have seen errors on returns prepared by CPA's, their receptionists, and others regardless of what initials they use on their signature line. If said client doesn't return, consider yourself fortunate as he/she is likely to be a thorn in your side every year. Let them go play "winning through intimidation" somewhere other than your office!

Catherine, You are wise to wait this one out. I would think when you said the "Dept. of Labor", you were talking about the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Dept. of Labor? My father worked as an investigator for them before his death years ago. I do remember very well the wages and penalties, etc....that the employer would have to pay their employees once they completed their investigation. The fact that the "contractors" were misclassified as such possibly means that the employees are owed back pay for overtime worked at straight time and/or who knows whatever else. I can remember my Dad having to carry a gun on an occasion or two as the final totals owed by some of the employers were astronomical. I was too young at the time to know enough to ask certain questions, but now I assume any correction of wages that will possibly be paid to the employees this year will be reported on their 2017 W-2's. The agency of the US Dept. of Labor still exists with the same purposes as they had when my dad worked as an investigator as I have called them over the years since his death for their direction on several issues involving different clients. Take care.

The 4883c's are legit (unless they're fake). I had a client who just got one. To me, or rather I should say in my client's case at least, it appears to merely be a way to explain the processing of the return taking longer than 21 days and a way also to impress Congress they are on top of fraudulent returns (not).

OK...discovered I had added Form 8965 to the return. That is the reason the program computed the penalty.

The President had issued an Executive Order that directed IRS to overlook returns that were silent on their health insurance. IRS said at the time they would go along. Read an article a few minutes ago that said IRS ignored "silent returns" and didn't reject them last year as well....don't know how true that is, however, for 2016, unless I check the box on Line 61, ATX automatically throws in a penalty. Does anyone have any experience with the same situation?

That is definitely an HR/Plan Administrator question. You work off of W-2's unless you know one is wrong....yuck....you probably do need to know the answer to that one IF they let him do it....

I now must (per 8867 worksheet and error check) tell a 66 and 60 year old clients all about EIC and children for them to be able to take their meager $500 credit for low income people without children. Like I have time for that!

Have a MFJ client. The husband didn't work at all in 2016 due to him being disabled. Social Security finally approved him and paid him back pay from December of 2014 until January of 2017 when it came through. In the interim, wife had to withdraw from her retirement accounts to make ends meet, and the 1099-R indicates 1 (premature distribution), of course. My question is this: As Louisiana is a community property state where half of the income belongs to each spouse, including retirement accounts, wondering if I will get any flack if I use Form 5329 and the disability code to eliminate the penalty? The Codes don't address the issue...just refers to the "individual". Thanks! Cathy

As your client's "payment due" amount is because of an "unexpected windfall", he/she probably already knows (or thinks) he will owe this year. The fact that he/she got a windfall and didn't contact you when it happened it NOT your fault! Don't take the blame for one second. Just tell him/her something to the effect "it's like I always tell my clients to call me during the year with any questions they may have or if they have unexpected income.....". Continue YOUR rant that had he/she done that, not a penny would be due now! Some people feel better if they can blame their problems on someone else. This problem is his/hers solely. You can also tell him/her that you dropped your crystal ball on the floor last year and it hasn't been working right ever since! Take care, Cathy

I recreated and E-Filed each return. This morning I saw where they had been accepted last night. The returns were rejected by "The Agency", and as IRS was definitely having problems, I guess I just lucked up and filed my "group" of 2 just at the split second of doom!

I had one a couple of years ago that the program couldn't handle properly. I fought and fought with support and they said i was wrong. Finally got through on the E-File help desk and the guy I spoke with told me to override the figures...did that, ATX still would not let it pass the E-File test so I had the client mail the return with an explanation of exactly what happened with ATX software. The client got his refund with no questions asked!

Just to add a side note....I had E-filed two returns at once. The reject garble mentioned "FilingGrp", so I'm trying again filing them separately and seeing how it goes in the morning!

From ATX E-File support site: Updated 4-4-2017 The IRS is experiencing intermittent transmission issues affecting all years and all return types. You may continue efiling as normal, just be aware that acks may take longer than usual. Refer to the IRS MeF status page for the latest information https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/e-file-providers-partners/modernized-e-file-mef-status-page

Anyone else getting returns rejected for some mumbo jumbo about IP Address in ATSubmissingFilingGrp.......???????

Thanks, Lion. I have already given her the homework for tonight, and hopefully she will find something in one of their accounts. Your reply does confirm I'm on the right track though and I appreciate it! Unless the SS employee immediately noticed it was identity theft right away and tried to hide it from my client, I can't imagine why in the world she would tell my client what she did. It'll all come out in the wash as the client is coming back to the office tomorrow and she'll call SS again and let me speak with the representative......but hopefully she'll find the extra money in her account. Still doesn't explain why they would only pay her $800 for 2016, but nothing about this make sense anyway, so we'll have to wait and see. Thanks again, Lion!

Illmas, I had the same problem earlier this year. With my particular client, she had attended the Spring semester of 2016 ONLY. The 1098-T that was issued in 2015 had the box checked which indicated it included the Spring 2016 tuition... I recreated a 1098-T myself before I found out the problem, however, you might want to try checking the box that asks you if the student got a 1098-T with that box checked for 2015. That might allow you to file without the 1098-T if that was your client's situation. Again, once until IRS will accept nothing less than calendar year figures on 1098-T's, they are generally worthless....even then, I wouldn't use the figures from the school without getting the student/parents to provide the actual figures. Cathy

I've had a long time client who in 2014 went with her husband to sign up for benefits. He had met his FRA, she would be 62 within a couple of months of their visit. She was still working earning approximately $22,500 per year with little hope of her wages increasing. Yes, she was earning over the allowed amount each year, however, taking into consideration her earnings versus her allowance, she still would have received checks, although reduced. She received correspondence to confirm above and called SS. The employee she talked to suggested she might want to wait to draw her social security until she reached FRA so her checks wouldn't be reduced. She agreed and has not received any SS checks at all. This year, however, she received an earnings statement (SSA-1099) in her name saying that her Net Benefits for 2016 were approximately $6,400 (Box 5). The statement went on to say that she was paid by check or direct deposit. A note at the bottom includes: *$5,500 paid in 2016 for 2015. She called SS and was told not to worry about getting the SSA-1099 for 2016 as it wouldn't affect her 2016 income taxes (her and her husband's income would definitely make her SS benefits she "supposedly" received as taxable income (85% of it anyway). I have NEVER, EVER seen this before. Is there something I am missing or is it a case of identity theft possibly? Thanks!

Thanks, LisaAnn! We both are taking Pacun's advice. It's a good excuse to end the day!

I haven't been able to e-file a return now for approximately 30 minutes. Keep getting "System error while transmitting e-files" on the screen when I try to transmit them. Anyone else or am I the only "lucky one"?

I received an email from Capital One two days after I logged in to my account to pay a couple of notes I have with them. The email stated that I must update my account with them and provided a link, of course, that I didn't touch. The sender was [email protected] letter wasn't very nice as it said if I didn't update my info, it was going to do something with both of my balances and make reference to the way my account is paid each month. I said no, it can't be from Capital One, then the rest of me said, that sounds about right for Capital One....had horrible experience with them while refinancing....nobody wanted to do their job....anyway, I decided to call and let them have it if it was in fact, Capital One.....NOT! Immediately the person told me that their address always has capitalone in it rather than just capital. He asked me if I clicked on the link and was very happy I had not. The email looked EXACTLY like their other emails look, so be careful out there. Funny part about this is that the guy at Capital One told me I needed to run my virus scan, etc....and I told him the letter could very well have come from someone hacking Capital One. And, I really feel that's what happened! ANOTHER CAUTION: I brought up the link to log in to my AOL email account and received an error that my password was incorrect. As it's a long password, I figured I had entered it wrong, although I was extremely careful when I entered it as I just wanted to enter it once. So, I did it again...this time error message again, with a note on top of where I enter my username that went something like this: AOL HAS DETERMINED THAT YOUR COMPUTER HAS A SECURITY ISSUE. PLEASE CALL US AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AT 1-800............ Sure nuf, the AOL sign in screen was identical to the one I have seen over the years and I've been with AOL for at least 30 years without any problems. And, yes, I called the number. And, hell no, I'm not going to tell you the rest of the story, just going to say if you use AOL, DON'T CALL THE NUMBER IF YOU GET THE SAME KIND OF MESSAGE I GOT. I LIVED A NIGHTMARE FOR 2 DAYS UNTIL I WAS SURE MY COMPUTER WAS CLEAN. The sophistication of these hackers increases as time goes on.

My last client who had a local broker that wasn't up to snuff....no, a guy who pretended to be a broker....had a nice racket going on...a local ponzi scheme that although did enough damage, wasn't allowed to continue it. Hate saying this even today, but after my discovery and a lot of heat from law enforcement sources, he committed suicide. I still feel bad, however, there's a lot of investors out there that feel even worse than I do. My client was the fortunate one who was told to try to get all of his money back (plus fake earnings), which he did, while the powers to be was assessing the situation. Funny thing about this is that my client tried to warn his friends who referred him to the pretend "broker" that it was a ponzi scheme, however, several and one couple in particular, stands out in my mind as they chose to keep their money with the "broker" because it was making so much (on paper). The couple's professions were nothing to sneeze at. One was a college professor, the other a nuclear scientist. Nothing shocks me any more!

If on my golf cart, 20 seconds, if driving my Jeep 30 seconds. Office is separate from my house and has it's own road to it.