Catherine

If he won't help, there's not much you can do - except to tell him you cannot prepare the final return based on air and wild guesses. You are not letting her down - he is.

Not necessarily. Those details run and hide until you ask for help, at which point they come out of hiding as if they had been there all along.

Yes, basis is exercise price plus the ordinary income reported.

Gail, at least he wasn't answering, "This is Ryan, and I'm beyond help!"

When my girls worked for me, they quickly learned to identify themselves immediately - because the three of us are utterly interchangeable on the phone. They would answer, and people would instantly launch into their complicated questions only to be told, "You'll have to talk to mom; hang on she's coming." The flip side is when older daughter had her first job, they handed out the W2s in January. Her response was, "great; thanks!" and the other kids were asking "what is this and what do I do with it?" She started explaining and next thing she knew, she had the entire shop surrounding her as she explained the data fields and where the information went on the federal and state forms. She told me later, "As I was talking, I was thinking to myself 'I sound just like mom...'"

I agree that it sounds odd indeed. Talk to an insurance person not connected with the client or his insurer, and ask how these things can work. See if you can get anything that says the type of policy that it is.

I'd rather pay for a burger than install an app. But now I want a burger, too, doggone it all.

Tom has it exactly right. Document F&C. Were the expenses business specific is key, but exclusivity isn't all-or-nothing. For example, it's ok if the letterhead can later be used for grocery lists, but that's clearly not the purpose of letterhead.

Sounds like you should talk to an insurance agent who sells whole life, term life, and variable life (including universal) policies. See if they can point you to any information sources. I do have one contact who sells insurance; not sure if he sells life policies. If you have no one you already know, I could ask him.

I certainly would never go for a pricier package. I'm trying to retire.

We put the requirement to file in the engagement letter, more clearly than past years' one-sentence fbar notice. But we won't do them (nor the fbar; just the 8938s). Preparer penalties can be vicious on anything to do with foreign reporting. I have my areas of specialty, and this ain't one of them.

Even with well-established clients, if one sends me an email with only an attachment and no verbiage, I contact the client via a new email and ask if they sent me something, and what it was they sent, before I'll open it. Also with personal emails. Took one of my cousins a couple of years to (finally!) get the hint and tell me "these are some pictures I took" or "here's a link to an article on topic X" with the original emails.

Yes, he deserves credit for following her wishes. It was a hefty chunk-o-change, too.

Ah, it gets better! The attorney told the son (or so son reports) that the paperwork to direct the custodian to send $X to the church does qualify as a written directive. I've asked him to get me a copy of that email.

I'd contact Verifyle support on this one, for sure.

Interesting. I have never, in more than 25 years, seen the IRS' direct debit fail. Except for when the client provided the numbers for a closed account!

Well, yeah, and I tell them all the time, but I can't make them listen! In her case, she hung on literally for years (incurable cancer) because her husband's health was failing and he needed someone to advocate for him (dementia, among other issues). She outlasted him barely seven weeks. No energy, time, or mobility to deal with anything but the absolute essentials for several years beforehand. I tried. I really did. As it was, I'm still working on the dregs of the 2022 returns. We got 2020 & 2021 filed the day before she passed on.

The IRS will take $$$ out of a live account. They don't ask for a name, and don't care a dingleberry who is paying, as long as they are getting paid. I've seen parents pay for kids, kids for parents, one couple who paid tax due for a dear friend having a hard year... as long as the account is live, and there are sufficient funds in it, the IRS is happy.

I tell my clients to use a phone scanner app like CamScanner (or any of the others) and not to send pictures because they can't be read reliably. However, I have one lady who keeps sending me heic files. Adobe Acrobat reads them just fine (not sure about the Reader). Click the file, right-click and choose "open with" Adobe. One client would send me everything stapled to a fare-thee-well, until the year (after multiple warnings) I charged him a $50 staple removal fee, so named on the bill. I'm tempted to do likewise with photos of documents.

From my memory, there was a large-ish 1099-R paid to her estate.

She was dying; there were only a couple of weeks between the attempt to get the distribution for her church and when she passed on. That's why the issue with the custodian could not be fixed; she was already gone before it was known they didn't like the way the paperwork was filled out. I'll check with her son to see where the funds were paid to; I know the contribution came out of the estate accounts. That could be counted as money not paid to him.

However, it has been useful to have the facebook group to see or to report what's going on if there is a problem with the forum. I think that's why it was set up; so there would be an alternative just in case.

ALWAYS go up the food chain to the manager. They are usually far more reasonable. And the auditor is required to give you the manager's name and full contact info.

@NECPA in NEBRASKA retire now; people have time to find someone else. Just say "personal issues" or "health issues in the family" and anyone who doesn't respect that you would not want to have as a client anyway! If you do not want to retire, hike the price as much as you need and then $50 more. Your family is more important.