Catherine

Both year's amended returns show very small refunds (grand total less than $300, if memory serves - and only on a first pass at them, so subject to change). With loss of IC status, the expenses go on Sch A/2% and this client used standard deduction. Expenses don't push into Sch A being useful. I was kinda hoping the IRS would take care of it so I don't have to charge the client almost as much as the refunds to prepare full-blown 1040X's. Thanks to all! I think we'll hold off a bit and see if the IRS sends anything. If we hear nothing by, say, end of summer, I'll revisit the issue.

E-services went down on Tuesday, I believe, and at some point they seem to have decided not to bother bringing it back up since they were planning to shut it down anyway. Try next Wednesday...

A client got a letter from the Dept. of Labor. That agency determined that she was a mis-classified employee in 2014 and should have gotten a w-2 instead of a 1099-misc. Will the IRS make adjustments and return to her the overpaid SE tax (employer portions)? Or will we be required to amend? If the latter, how do we "prove" to the IRS that she was an employee? The DOL issued a letter - by email - telling the client of the determination. I've never run into this before, and am not sure how much these two agencies talk to each other - or what they do with the shared information.

So you had yourself one GREAT escape, didn't you?

OK, Rich! Thank you. The poor sign; it could use a cane, or some crutches.

Wow, Lynn - that's amazing! GOOD for you.

Only for the purpose of hysterical laughter...

I would have charged what you charged *only* if some of the schedules were close to empty - otherwise it would have easily been $50 more and heading north from there. For anything that involves Sch D, I charge per item on the 8949's, so that varies wildly. Some folks with five or six account might have three trades; someone with a single account might have three hundred - guess who pays me more? (Yup; you were right.)

OTOH, I have had a client who has been required by the IRS - for two years in a row! - to confirm her identity before they released refunds. However, I got copies of the letters each time, confirmed that they were legit (by calling *after* checking the phone number listed, getting ID numbers, etc), then set up conference calls with the client. Did this client have any refundable credits? It was the case with my client; someone who had not been to college but went back to school mid-20's, long after being self-supporting, and was claiming education credits.

Sigh. It no longer surprises me, but it still always dismays me when heirs fight and bicker and get recalcitrant, obstreperous, and uncooperative. It makes me want to sit them down and read them the riot act about being grateful for getting *anything* rather than greedy and unhappy that they didn't get more. It also underscores for all of us the need to let everyone know what the general plan of distribution is, and to have copies in multiple places of any document so one jackass can't mess up the lives of many people just by being a jerk.

OK now Rich - you need to post a picture of *your* sign. Inquiring minds want to know!

e to the x, dee-x, dee-t, slip stick, slide rule MIT!

But don't ask me to write the equations. I could have made a stab at those 35+ years ago (but they would probably have been wrong). These days I don't remember how even to start.

God help me, I understood most of this.

I use TaxHelpSoftware to pull transcripts (one year fee ~$300. It's a HUGE time-saver, as it logs in and downloads all the client transcripts faster than I can log into e-services myself. Then, it takes those raw transcripts and turns them into *organized* reports, sorted by year and then by date, with every detail. Estimated payments made, return filing, letters sent, responses - everything. Other parts of the report show audit flags, CSED and tolling events, graphs... it's great. WAY less than Canopy, too.

Me, too. And the home computer once I get home tonight.

Our home network has to have a device's MAC address before it will even admit that it (the network) exists. And then you still need a password - although all the main machines are hard-wire. Wireless is for visiting daughters' phones, and my Kindle. But at the office, everything is hard-wire. Wireless is not even turned on.

We went with the Avery Viewables hanging folder labels a while back. Lemme tell you all, this is file cabinet porn. And a thing of beauty. As for finding ourselves online - yes, I searched for (and found) myself. But the client would have to know my username and the forum keyword from the name. A general search on my name doesn't bring it up. Phew!

Massachusetts is doing similar stuff these last couple of years. I could write pages, but instead will just say that they disgust me.

I wonder, too. All the live classes I go to I look around, hoping to see people under 50. Darned few; *darned* few. I hope that the younger ones are either taking online classes (heck, they do everything else online) or perhaps are going to other groups' offerings. I did go to an NATP conference a couple of years ago, and saw a number of younger people there. Not EA (NAEA, state, or regional) sponsored events, though. Guess EA is for old fogies, or something.

Whyever not!?!? Brand new grandsons are FAR more important than people who make stupid tax mistakes and then expect you to pull a hat out of a rabbit (any half-rate magician can pull a rabbit out of a hat; we're at a higher level, I guess. That baby is not going to have those precious toothless grins for too long - go enjoy him!

I use three different sources, none of which charge me a monthly fee (per-transaction only). PayPal link on my web site, so people can pay from home. QuickBooks credit cards. Drake ePay built into the software, two options (monthly fee for lower %-age, higher %-age and no fee; I use the latter). I have a "stupid" phone, so the Square (and similar) is not possible for me.

You and my younger daughter (age 24). She has a self-imposed restriction of NOT going into an office supply store without direct adult supervision. But, oh, you should see the beautiful filing and work flow systems she devises. *All* my systems for tracking documents and work flow have been refined to amazing precision by Gwen.

@rfassett - you say the sweetest things. A friend gave me a post card with those phrases on it a couple of years ago; I mentioned it in another thread yesterday but decided it needed its own topic.

As promised. "Unfortunately, I can't find those particular documents." Eheu, litteras istas reperire non possum. "I know why the numbers don't agree! I used Roman numerals!" Scio cur summae inter se dissentiant! Numeris Romanis utor! "This amount here, is that what I made or what I owe?" Haec summa, estne quod merui aut quod debeo? "Where do I sign?" Ubi signo?