Catherine

Ooh, send it to me please @Lion EA so I can see what it looks like all official-like. I just sent the handout pdf's off to Bo yesterday. It's going to be a long day for me, but fun for the attendees. "He to keep the warm side inside" - attend to find out how that weird quote fits in!

You may not live forever doing that, but it sure will seem like it?

I had a client with that issue, 3 years running. Ended up calling the state taxpayer advocate and reporting it as harassment of an elderly taxpayer. They stopped. I mean, fer gosh sakes, the state sends out the funds, collects their own tax, and sends the 1099-R, and the taxpayer has to prove it?! In what universe does that make any kind of sense whatsoever?

I've noted sudden decreases after widespread arrests on a call center farm, then increases - probably when a new center is set up. Answering with a business name, "Who's calling?" or some other non-hello response generally throws off robots. But I'm thinking seriously of NoMoRobo for home and business lines. Don't know how it will deal with a fax - probably won't get through. Lots of calls here come through as a town name; if I answer those I'll start with "does the town of [town name] need accounting or tax work?" and those never get put through. If in a fey mood, I'll answer in a language not-English.

I have met Frank Agostino; a good guy. https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2023/08/irs-backdating-of-documents-highlights-festering-cultural-rot-if-the-irs-doesnt-play-by-the-rules-th.html And for those who won't click links, Friday, August 25, 2023 IRS Backdating Of Documents Highlights Festering Cultural Rot: ‘If The IRS Doesn't Play By The Rules, They're The Mob’ By Paul Caron Bloomberg, IRS Backdating Court Order Spotlights Culture, Attorneys Say: An unusual Tax Court order requiring the IRS to report what it knew and when about misstatements in a conservation easement case, as well as mounting claims of backdating forms at the agency, are highlighting what some tax attorneys said are festering IRS cultural problems, years in the making. The Tax Court this week ordered the IRS to identify when agency personnel found out about misstatements to the court about the date that a $15.2 million penalty against conservation easement donor LakePoint was approved. ... Rod Rosenstein, former deputy attorney general under President Donald Trump, is representing LakePoint in a FOIA lawsuit against the IRS and told Bloomberg Tax he’s reached out to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. He plans to refer to the watchdog claims made by three other partnerships—Arden Row Assets LLC, Basswood Aggregates LLC, and Delwood Resources LLC—who are asking the IRS to admit its staff backdated penalty approval forms in their cases as well. “The question is whether we’re seeing one isolated case or whether were seeing evidence of a pattern of misconduct in IRS,” Rosenstein said. “I think if you’ve looked at these other three cases, it does suggest that there is a pattern.” ... Tax attorneys say it’s the latest chapter highlighting festering issues of IRS culture being taken over by adversarial us-versus-them attitudes at the agency. Conservation easement cases have been especially contentious [Michelle Abroms Levin, a former Justice Department Tax Division attorney,] said. “What they have now is a win-at-all-costs culture, and I hope we can shift back to a ‘Let’s find a right answer. Let’s find the correct amount,’” she said. [Frank Agostino, a former IRS lawyer and Department of Justice criminal prosecutor] ... said this attitude is eroding much-needed trust in the institution and fueling attitudes among taxpayers that the agency is breaking the rules to extract as much money from them as it can. “We’re not the mob, but that’s the worry,” he said of the agency. “The IRS, if they don’t play by the rules, gets the perception of being the mob.”

Not a particularly good sign, although also not (to my knowledge) a particularly bad one. If the guy trashed the prior companies, that would be bad. Explains why I've been getting marketing emails from TaxAct as well as from Drake over the past xxx months.

Not sure if employer is required, or if employee has to fill out a form saying they are exempt.

Lots of people go work in DC for very limited times, and are considered non-resident guest workers not subject to DC income tax. However, any tax withheld they want refunded is mail-in forms only - they don't make it easy to get refunds. The Tax Book or QuickFinder may have details for you. I have one lady who works in DC for a week every year, they withhold like $50 in tax and she can't be bothered to reclaim it by mail.

If you read what I wrote, it was that "the possibility of depreciation being taken diminishes substantially." I also had a client who did it correctly on their own. Exactly ONCE in over 25 years. But the ones who stare at you blankly, ask "what's that?" and have no recollection of it.... it's a fair bet to say it was never calculated or deducted.

Sometimes the best you can do is the best you can do. Question the client, see whatever older returns exist, and go from there. If the client had self-prepared returns, the possibility of depreciation being taken diminishes substantially; they don't understand it so they ignore it.

On those occasions I do answer a suspect call (frequently the caller "ID" comes up as a town's name - with the wrong area code or exchange) I'll answer with, "Who's calling and what do you want?" which the robo-program can't handle. On the very rare occasion that it turns out to be a real person I want to speak to, I'll just mention I thought it was the umpteenth robo-call of the day. We then usually have a lovely mutual grump-fest and enjoy the empathy.

A good start. Personally, I'm about ready to push for televised public hanging of the heads of the companies (not [at least most of the] poor drones in the call centers trying to make a living).

I have had one monitor that developed a single-pixel-wide green stripe. It was well over ten years old, and perfectly functional as long as you ignore the stripe. I did retire it simply because it was an oddball size - kinda too wide and too short all at once.

What is astounding to me is how much he looks like his mama looked when she was born. Same rosebud mouth, same nose, same hair, same just-wanna-pinch-them cheeks. Mama had more eyebrows.

quick FYI after a couple of days I'll delete the picture.

My younger daughter and her husband today gave their toddler girl a baby brother. The handsome little bruiser clocked in at just a hair over NINE pounds. Mama and son are doing well.

Because there are thieves, and they don't give the bleep. Sometimes I hate people in general. My sympathies to your wife for her stolen efforts and fabrics, and your niece for not getting something made for her with love.

I sent a birthday card, years ago, from central MA to south-eastern MA. About a hour or hour and a quarter's drive away, about a week before the day in question. The card arrived nearly a month late, postmarked Schenectady NY, with boot-prints on the envelope. We still chuckle about it.

I'll be doing four hours of training for the CT group Lion is involved in, on September 20th. Don't know what they'll be charging, but you'd have a minimum of two friendly faces there. There's also the New England IRS Rep conference at Mohegan Sun in November. https://irsrepconference.com/

Comes under the heading of "nothing works anymore" and if the payments are re-mailed (I'd include a copy of the "undeliverable" notice, for the IRS to see) they'll get through. Most likely the one competent person in the local USPS office was on vacation or out sick and the others just returned everything. Or someone in a bad mood decided to mess with the people paying his salary and benefits by getting them on the bad side of the IRS.

My hobbies too! Not sporting clays, but target pistol and rifle. Tons of fun, and (unlike basketball etc where your knees are done by age 30) you can keep getting better into old age.

Refund should go to the estate, and the executor/trix can then direct the refund to whomever it should go.

Many thanks to both Eric and Judy.

The few times I've done that, I've treated the payment of P&I as a refund of prep fees. Plus I give a discount on the next year's return (if I want the client back).

Does this lack of response mean no one wants it, or that everyone is away? I'll give it a few more days, then it goes in the giveaway pile.