Catherine

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!

My sympathies! Procedurally, I think Lynn is right.

A nice piece of twine makes a good emergency substitute. But be careful not to tie too good of a knot in it!

one two the number after two.... four five

Me, too! I may just pack it in, go home, and take a nap before tonight's pistol match. Poor head is pounding worse as the hours go on. And the spreadsheet I was working with is now completely done and I have ALL those rental expenses categorized properly. All that's missing is the annual property insurance.... *always* something!

Form 3520 to report; taxes are dealt with in gift-giver's country. Just had to look this up a week or so ago myself. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/gifts-from-foreign-person

I still have a guy from whom I am waiting to get info for the 1099-MISC's for January 2016 (for the 2015 tax year). He gave me the 2014 info this past May.

Glad to be the source of so many ship thrills for you all!

Or just give him a Rita hug and prepare the estate return, instead.

For our amusement today; try the caption three times fast!

I got an email about that and have not even had a chance to read it. I'll add the article to my list of things to read, hopefully before any pertinent deadline!

I set a deadline of September 15th, years ago, and that deadline goes out by email to everyone still uncompleted as of June 1st, and again on August 1st. STILL we get people missing it. Heck, I have a couple of folks who still owe me 2014 information - and one lady who owes me every year starting with 2012! She has lost a couple of refunds for sure, yet she did send her 2015 info (got the last bits Friday) and as has not been the case before - she owes. Oh, well. I was in here over the weekend - but working on slides for a CPE presentation on stock options I'm giving in January as part of the MaSEA annual tax update. I did, while I was here *anyway*, send out a couple of signature forms to folks who got me the last tidbits. One case was the ssn for a new dependent, another was bank info for direct debit for payments. Gee, funny - I don't have any of those signature pages back yet today. I am *not* going to sweat it, and I am going to leave at 5PM today no matter what.

How deliciously vicious AND appropriate! I love it!

At least this SET of thugs. It's enough to make quite a dent.

I am doing my best but my brain reset itself some time early this week and told me, "THEY haven't cared all year - why should YOU bust your butt to finish? They still won't get here to SIGN the 8879's on time; you KNOW that." So I am plugging away and not letting myself (a) stay too late, (b) stress out, or (c) worry about them. I'm actually not real sure how I feel about this new laissez-faire attitude; it's VERY strange and not my usual. Over time, I may get to like it.