Catherine

I keep hoping that one of these days they will MEAN it!

I have often found that if I look ALL over for an answer, and simply can NOT find it, it helps to post a query. Because then, the answer I spent three hours looking for pops up from my OWN desk, RIGHT in front of me, where it was hiding all along, to say "Here I am; fooled you!" But it always makes me ask before it will come out of hiding.

And if you're in Ohio, maybe Jack in Ohio is interested in taking on your clients.

Ah; sorry that I misunderstood. Once the FIRE system re-opens, you can file the 1099's, yes. Until then, you could still mail them in. And you can mail recipient copies out, as well.

I buy my newsletters from Tax News & Tips; have for years. They have paper or electronic, black and white or color. Plus they have a mail-for-you service. http://www.taxnewsandtips.com/

If you filed for 2016 in October, then you need to amend - and those cannot be e-filed. If you did not file and the client is just really late, then you have to wait for e-file to start up again in January - or file on paper, now.

It eventually brings you to the same login screen that gives the "out of order" message.

I am still getting the "down for maintenance" error when trying to log in (and boy oh boy just trying to find that new login page is a royal PITA). I have moved my main office, need to update that info in e-services, and of course now cannot. Anyone have any idea how long this is supposed to last?

May it serve you long and well!

ALL my bills start with relatively high per-form charges (that the client does NOT see). If they are a PITA, they don't get a discount (or near so big a discount), and on rare occasion I will add a "document processing fee" or "return re-calculation fee" (this latter if someone comes in with enough new material to make me re-do a completed return - very rare, but it has happened). But not specifically a "missed appointment" fee - because in my book, missed appointments are "found time" (unless I made special provisions for someone), and I find it more of a PITA to have to keep hounding someone for the stock basis info on insurance on their rental house or... the list is nearly endless, and we could all fill it in.

I use https://youcanbook.me/ which is great (and free!). No calls, no emails - go pick a time. I get a confirmation by email. You can set up the hours YOU are available, and they pick from known-available times.

Drake is also really good about explaining their products, if you call and ask.

Magic 8-Ball says "Answer hazy; ask again later!"

OK, Judy - but I will respectfully disagree with you, because one way to cost-shift without being blatant is to be un-accommodating and dense. Eventually people give up trying and go buy for themselves. Maybe it's not at the level of "hey everybody, play dumb and maybe they'll go buy forms at Staples" but there certainly is no indication of the service trying very hard at all to help US out these days.

So once again the service effectively shifts costs from themselves, to us. You, in this particular instance. Yes, worth it (sometimes, at least) when WE choose - but royally annoying when it gets shoved down our throats. [NOT meant to be political!!! It's just factual that they save money by shifting costs onto us; no commentary on why or how or who's to blame.]

Yeah, ain't that quite the word?! "Just" is sometimes the size of the Taj Mahal. Then again, sometimes it's even bigger still!

I used to use Sage Accounting and would still prefer it except none of my clients are capable of handling it, more's the pity. And not only do I not have an iPhone, I still have a *stupid* phone! Voice and text only; no internet, can't even send or receive pictures. Maybe that means I pre-date the dinosaurs. Puts me in with the slime molds, perhaps?

I print it to go with the Payer copies, for my clients. Those "in the know" want/expect to see it. And once, some years ago, a lower-than-expected 1096 total clued in a client that he had missed a contractor - we were able to file the missing 1099 on time. He would not have looked through the stack; he just saw the total and thought "Wait, something's not right here." So I'll keep printing it as long as I can.

Have you tried smoke signals? Although it might be hard getting those reinforced concrete buildings to catch...

That is just perfect! How many times do we get further confused on reading the official instructions, after all? Back in my failure-analysis-engineering days, I had a sign in my office. The last statement read, "But we think that we are confused at a higher level, and about more important things."

The courtesy is for the IRS employees - so they have a shorter queue of calls to answer, and so feel less pressure. After all, we would not want the IRS drones to suffer tension headaches at work, would we? Those are for US, in dealing with THEM.

Y'know, just *thinking* about doing it is probably close to 85%* of the satisfaction of actually doing it, with zero Circular 230 repercussions. Plus, we all got a very interesting forum topic out of it. That help at all, or are you ready to glare at me for my cheek? (*Of course, 93% of all statistics are made up at the time of use.)

efilemyforms is what I switched to a year or three ago. Set up clients and recipients once, and it all carries forward year to year. They print, mail, and efile (including states) for $3.49 per form (then you charge your client whatever you want, to cover your login time and trouble, plus cost). And you get full pdf's (all copies, almost instantly) to download for your records - so when Joe Ninny calls in August saying he lost his payer copies, you can reprint those and charge him for that time and trouble, too. I have used QuickBooks, Drake Client Write-Up, and several other iterations over the years. These online folks have been the easiest to deal with overall.

MalWareBytes - it's free (upgrades to paid licenses also available and pretty cheap too). Different from anti-virus software and CCleaner. Searches for deep rootkit issues. Belt, suspenders, duct tape, and staples... one would hope that would be enough!