Catherine

As I've often said - if they were competent, they'd be far more dangerous than they already are!

I have clients for whom Form 8938 is required, and that is a tax issue. I wanted it very clear in the engagement letter that the requirements are different, and that they are on their own for the FBAR. I don't want a case of someone not filing, then blaming me for not being clear enough. If it's in the eng ltr, they were told clearly *and* accepted it.

Have him pay the balance due now. Stops further penalties and interest from being added to the balance.

"Hey, we're the tax agency. We don't have to make sense!"

I am recommending payments NOW (whether via coupon-and-check, or Direct Pay), and e-file later.

We have the FinCen requirements on our annual document checklist, but for 2023 I'm putting it in the engagement letter, too. As soon as the draft comes out and I can edit it.

The e-signature for a 2848 also has to be approved by the taxpayer through their own online account. Forget that! Not sure I have even one client whom I would trust to do that correctly. I have uploaded wet-signed-and-scanned 2848s to the online submission portal and had them accepted. Faster than faxing them! As far as I've ever been able to tell, Memphis CAF uses the faxed pages as paper airplanes. They don't seem ever to get them entered. I always faxed to Ogden - those at least get entered.

I'd expand a bit on Tom's advice. This is an instance where I'd advise thinking long and hard about putting any assets into joint names. The operating checking account (for the electric bill and groceries and the like) should be fine, but I'd keep everything else separate. Further, if the financially stable person has any health issues or is in a risky profession, the couple should talk to a trust attorney and consider if that person's assets be placed in a trust whose secondary beneficiary is the spouse-to-be, for their benefit but not for their ownership. This gets into legal areas and I'm not giving legal advice - just advice to talk to someone able to give legal advice! Trustee who is not the liened spouse would have to be chosen, perhaps a trigger for wrapping up the trust once the IRS issues are resolved (or not, if the spouse-to-be is still bad with money). It would not be simple or cheap, but possibly less expensive (and peace-of-mind-bringing) than the idea of leaving substantial assets in the hands of one with a track record of making poor choices and bad decisions.

Our now-retired dentist, when he wanted to keep an eye on something, would say "One of three things will happen. It will get worse, it will get better, or it will stay the same." With the first, you act. With the second, you give thanks. With the third, keep watching!

I had one client (fired long ago!) who would promise and promise and promise. At the end, I was charging him quadruple my regular fee plus a late charge, and he was getting IRS late-filing penalties, and he never cared. I got sick of him and dumped him. If I wanted to nag people, I had teenagers at home (at the time).

I just got an email from eFileMyForms stating that 2023 forms are now available. At the least, you can go play, put in your vendors and their contractors. Until you save, put in cart, and check out, nothing happens. @JimTaxes

You can do either. Each 1099 gets added to your cart, and you can check out at once with all of them. Got info for two, and that customer needs to confirm the ssn/ein or amount for the last contractor? Get the two done, go back later for the third.

Probably on January 2nd. I've never had a problem filing 1099s or W2s very early in January.

As if we were not busy enough?

My mother-in-law had a SEVEN-DAY to-the-minute pre-Thanksgiving schedule. Starting from cleaning the refrigerator to make room for it all, grocery lists for serving by number of people, then when to take the turkey out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge, to when pie crusts were prepared, then pie fillings, side dishes, stuffing, and more. She even had charts, on grid paper, comparing roasting times by weight for stuffed versus unstuffed turkeys, plus suggestions for coping with the chaos and dealing with leftovers. It was truly astounding. But this also pre-dated Excel, so it was all on 5x8 index cards, plain paper, and grid paper. 31-page pdf from her paper records. Does that still count?