Catherine

I hope every one here has a wonderful day with family and/or friends. Travel safely!

None of us need or want clients like that, and we are usually glad to see the back of them as they walk away! Anyone they refer is likely to be as bad or worse, too. I have no sympathy for the clients with triple my income, no savings (normal or retirement), huge mortgage payments, and high-end leased cars, who whine about my paltry fee or my expectation of being paid.

Sorry, yes C-corp. Thought that was clear by referencing an 1120 not an 1120S. I said I was sticking to my strengths...

@jklcpa -- thank you, Judy!!

Ain't it just *grand* how their lack of staff (and general incompetence among far too many employees) gets to turn into our nightmare emergency? /sarc/

Hi folks, I'm going to play stupid here (always good to stick with your strengths) and ask. Corporate client (on a fiscal year) has an NOL for fiscal 2015. In general with individual NOL's I have just elected to forgo carry-back because it's a pain and would not have done the clients much good (especially after paying my fee to amend prior-year returns!). However, this corporation got hit with some sizable tax bills in the last couple of years. Plus the owner is in her 80's and we don't know who is going to take over as she slows down in the next couple of years *and* there will still be carry-forward losses for a while even after carry-back. So I'm thinking we should carry this back two years. Question #1: standard amended return for the prior-year 1120's, yes? Question #2: do I make any adjustments on the 2015 return for the amounts that are going to be carried back? Or do I do that next year (which means putting in a reminder to myself not to forget a whole year from now!). TIA, Catherine

Maybe tomorrow - but I'm teaching tonight (US Constitution class) and need to leave early so I can have dinner first. My gut says yes - but it may just be hungry...

You'll have to read the trust document. Lots of times there IS provision for unequal distributions specifically because of disparate ages of beneficiaries. If the trust allows it, the trustee can distribute 1/3 to the nephew and the trust can hold on to the balance within the trust - and pay tax at trust rates on that portion. But if the document says "equal distributions no matter what" then everyone gets 1/3 or no one gets any.

I just love that xkcd cartoon on passwords and have had it bookmarked since I first came across it. And that 27-page document I referenced above is as long as it is because it also contains the lists (where required) of all the *previous* passwords that cannot be re-used (all in strike-outs so I don't get confused), and notes for login procedures. All the stupid bleeping "security questions" with answers, notes that this screen seems to want X but really needs Y or it won't load, don't use anything but Firefox here because the pages don't display properly... et cetera.

@Elrod - that picture was funny but also more than a little disturbing!! Please, remember some of us read the forum while having lunch...

And this, Rita my friend, is an stellar example of why I always ADORE your posts...

Boy oh boy isn't THAT the truth for us all !!

After listening to those lists you start to think the original ailment jes ain't all that bad, y'know?!

Yes! I had some clients come to me new a couple of years ago, who "forgot" to include information on that, as well as "forgot" to bring a copy of their prior-year return. Oh, they got a letter all right, and suddenly "remembered" they had taken that re-pay-able credit. And their bill went up, and I question *everything* they hand me, now.

Driving at high speed...

The biggest hurdle to passing the SEE (once you know the material reasonably well, of course!) is to take the time to parse out what the questions are really asking. Yes, they are couched in conditional double and triple negatives. This is stupid, because it tests your ability to decode convoluted grammar rather than if you are competent at tax issues. But that is the test, and so that is the single key skill to hone.

Preferably after being certain all payments to *you* are up to date. But better to fire them without payment than to have a known-dishonest client. However, it's also possible that the guy is just utterly clueless and/or inept. In which case you may decide to keep him, asking lots more questions in future, and for a much higher price because he's going to cost you effort to keep.

I have a twenty-seven page, password-protected document with all the various passwords I am required to keep. Some of the sites also require that you never repeat a password, so I keep a list of the old ones as well as the current. Ridiculous. And yes, my disks are encrypted too.

Elderly couple (both gone now, bless them - they were darlings) came to me years ago due to an IRS letter (agency was wrong; he was right). His hand-done (no calculator; paper and pencil and brain ONLY) estimated payments for the year were off, for the entire year, by $16.

Ditto, likewise, and me neither!

Please only vote in areas where you have studied the issues and options! None of *us* I shouldn't think, but far too many go in to the booth clueless and fill in the circle or push the lever based on "I dunno; this looks OK". Especially but not exclusively about state/local issues. When in doubt, leave it blank!

Me as well. Plus, you have to CHANGE the bleeping thing every three months. However they do allow numeric increments (password1, password2, etc). I have been sorely tempted to tell my clients to go back to paper systems. And my preferred qb password is a cryptic imprecation directed towards intuit.

Even Cleveland can't feel too bad; their no-Series-won streak is only about half as long as the Cubs' was. They can have a turn next year, and they sure gave the Cubs a good run for their money!

The MaSEA has dinner meetings most months except high summer; 2 hours for the most part. Land Grant University offers a great 16-hour course every year but I haven't made it the last couple for various reasons. There is a law group that runs an excellent representation conference (8hrs) every November in CT (Lion, this might be interesting to you). I have been trying to pick live courses that actually add something to my knowledgebase rather than just fill the hours. I've done online classes to fill specific gaps. I've found some where the downloadable pdf instructions are great and I can save those for reference. It's a rare year that I don't go well beyond the NAEA-required 30 hours. Think for 2015 I skated by with 34 or something.

I start 1099's and W-2's for my payroll clients on January 2nd (or first business day of the new year). Then e-file them all the last week (time for corrections of any address changes etc., before e-filing). 1099's later in January are for the onesie-twosie folks who still hand-write checks. Then in November or December, I do the prior-year 1099's for the contractor who *always* runs a full year late.... (Yes, I have an email and paper trail asking for the information over and over and warning him of the penalties he will be hit with.) As long as records are electronic, there is no reason to delay these past mid-month. Even for a large company. The key, as Jack noted, is to have COMPETENT people in the accounting department!