Catherine

and that is EXACTLY the problem! I share your rant. As do many of us here, most likely. Even (maybe even especially) those of us who also have law degrees and law licenses. The good lawyers I know are the ones who get the *most* frosted about mis-steps by other lawyers.

I could wish (were it of any avail) that lawyers who give tax advice were hit with the same penalties that we would get if we gave legal advice. Parity and fairness...

A Rita-style hug?

Good luck!

Not necessarily as simple as it sounds. Some states (MA and NY among them) want the total income taxable to that state listed. It frequently doubles or near-doubles the Box 1 wages, since those two states (depending on circumstances) tax on state income/total income for allocating exemptions and/or give a (partial) credit for income taxed in two states.

Sad news yesterday; my 27-year-old nephew Eric, who had been battling depression for some time, killed himself yesterday. Please pray for him and his family.

You must be very proud!

Client with Sch C business bought a new iPhone in February 2015 for the business. Come August, he managed to drop it out of the car while on the freeway and had to go buy a replacement. Form 4562 with asset bought and "sold" for $0 in same year? Form 4797 for the destroyed/lost phone with $0 sale price and 4562 for replacement phone only? Casualty loss (but then how to tie to Sch C not the 1040)? Bundle the costs for the two phones (lost and replacement) and depreciate as a single item with purchase date of first? "Other expense" on Sch C for cost of lost phone and 4562 for replacement phone? Something I have not listed? Thanks! Catherine

MalWareBytes, AVG, CCleaner.

I remember, as a kid, I owed my brother ten cents and he owed me twenty five cents. So I told him to give me fifteen cents and we'd be even. He was absolutely *certain* that I was trying to cheat him out of the money I owed him. Even after taking the coins and showing how it ended up the same both ways, he was still convinced something funny was going on and would not budge. For all I know, he feels the same way now, forty-five or more years later. Sometimes I think we are doomed.

My first "real" job was as a cashier in Woolworth's. My only entertainment was with the cash register - the ones that calculate change for you had *just* come out (and boy oh boy did they confuse the elderly folks!). So I would try to beat the register at calculating the change. I got really fast at it and can still figure faster than the machines. Confuses the dickens out of the math-impaired ninnies I hand the money to.

I try to make subsidiary worksheets for all those break-outs. Specifically because of the items that I would otherwise forget to ask about. Just this year, a client who pays a monthly fee for "suite maintenance" (basically the landlord bills separately for cleaning and snow removal) forgot to include it. It was in my worksheet, so off went the email query. Those worksheets prevent the "Other" section from getting overcrowded; another benefit.

I have a four-page document checklist that I have used for years. This year's version is attached. If you would prefer a Word version to customize, just let me know. 2015 Checklist - short organizer.pdf

Unfortunately, it IS that bad. One of my acquaintances makes a habit of asking high school and college age kids wherever he sees them (bagging groceries, clerk at a convenience store, etc) what years were World War One fought, and who the US fought against. Not a one of them has ever been able to answer him. A few have been able to answer for WW2, but some of those gave answers learned from that alternate-history movie, Inglorious Basterds. So they are learning false history if they are learning anything at all.

The first page is *always* short - summary of problem, why our position is right, resolution required. The "bury them in paperwork" is the backup pages with anything and everything an ignorant IRS drone could want to look at before resolving anything. Basically I do NOT want any return letters stating "we are still missing corroborating documentation" of any kind.

Client sold all shares in a small business stock in Dec 2015. Was paid the total agreed-upon price in December and cashed the check. Delays in paperwork (new principal too busy to deal with the lawyers, from what I am told) leaves the stock certificate still in her possession. Is this a completed sale, since there is no more money to change hands? Or do I now have an installment sale with no second year (2016) of money changing hands?

And NY will say that only shows the federal. Perhaps the 9325 and the NY efile ack both?

Also a great (silent) comment to her...

Good point!

Really interesting; thank you!

Form 9325

That's always my aim. Plus burying them in enough paperwork to satisfy their supervisor, make the agent think there is nothing else left to give, and thereby justify agreeing with me, fixing the problem, and closing the case.

And it was an argument between my partitioning software and the encryption software (required in MA) that cause the eight-day seize-up on March 22nd from which I still have not completely recovered.

Niven and Pournelle together - sounds great! Do you follow Pournelle's blog, Chaos Manor, by any chance @Gail in Virginia? I tend to read it sporadically. https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/ is the site.

Or take a calculated guess at it. I have found that Massachusetts will NOT give out withholding information -- but if you put something reasonable down and file, hey presto like magic they find the un-findable info, correct the tax due or refund amount, and send a letter. Since we are a flat-tax state, I simply calculate 5.15% of the wages over the exemption. It ends up being remarkably close most of the time.