Catherine

We all knew THAT! Or, perhaps, we all charge way too LITTLE.

I still have the spreadsheet re-figuring my cost basis from when my ESPP shares from GTE got forcibly converted to Verizon - and then later for all the spin-offs. Whenever I decide to sell VZ, I'm ready! (If memory serves I ditched all the spin-offs pretty quickly.)

As long as there is no personal info (aside, maybe, from the email address - and don't we all have a "throwaway" address we use for anything like that?), then there is no issue. Yes, the dumb sites that make you sign up for an "account" when all you want is paint colors or nearby-parking-lot information or something else that should be publicly available. And the ones that demand a phone number.... I give them my old business number from Worcester. Hey, it worked just fine fifteen years ago! (Maybe I should call it and make sure I haven't been subjecting some elderly couple to bizarre telemarketer calls... hmmm.)

That's the one I have, as well.

Jack is correct; MA will not accept ANY prior year e-file.

Hi @Terry D I have an author. A couple of them, actually. Schedule C, yes indeed. I forget the business code but could look it up at my office tomorrow. Standard business expenses can include podcast hardware and hosting as well as web site domains, hosting, etc. Office in home yes but frequently you will just carry unusable expenses forward until a year they make money. In the deep and distant past royalties could be reported on Sch E and not subject to SE tax but that changed LONG ago. They want the SE tax. Which is sporadic for most authors (and when those unused home office expense carry-forwards come in handy).

I have a retired couple like @BulldogTom's folks. They mail everything to me since they moved south for retirement but used to drop it off. Everything of a like kind paper-clipped together with a computer-printed page on top in a BIG FONT saying "W-2" or "1099-R" or whatever. I do try to send it all back clipped the same way.

Where I would tell them that we are asking the IRS to investigate them for the possibility of tax fraud, identity theft, and fraudulent return filings, since they are purposefully keeping papers that were supposed to be delivered to a *known* tax accountant's office. After they change their pants, they would get much more cooperative!

@Roberts there are apps that are local to your computer. Those cannot be hacked externally, at least. 1Password is local and it was one of my criteria for choosing it.

Nice idea. Do you know what you paid for a stock you bought in 1952? Or even 1992? Or when you got three lots in the same year, via RSU's, ESPP's, and QSO's -- which one got sold and what's the basis? Even the nice brokerage statement basis figures frequently need more investigation. And DRIPs. Don't forget the corrections for DRIPs.

I also like the favorite quote types, where you use the first letter of each word. Example (that I do NOT use) "Four score and seven years ago our father brought forth on this continent" becomes fsasyaofbfotc; add your favorite fancy character at the end if you need, or make the first letter a capital.

I've got a client whose (non-work, thankfully) email announces to all and sundry that he is "bi" -- I really, really, did NOT need or want to know that, thank you. That one, of course, is the email he responds to the quickest. TMI!

I have a password-protected document that runs over 27 pages long. Far too many sites require not only complex passwords but you can never re-use so you have to keep track of what you have ever used there. Plus places where you need notes on navigating complex login procedures. I have 1Password for "normal" stuff (banks, shopping, etc) but still need the other file for details. E-services is a good example; lists of prior passwords, notes on how to get to the screen I need, click here, DON'T click this one, if you are looking to get to hither first you have to go to yon... blarg. It's ridiculous, when so many people use passwords like "password."

Since I instituted a $30 paid-in-advance fee for printing out and mailing a new return copy, the incidence of clients who cannot find their copies has plummeted to zero. I do gets calls or emails -- when I explain the fee (and note my handy-dandy "pay my fee" button on my web site), the "I'll take another look and get back to you" crowd somehow never has to get back to me.

Exactly, @RitaB! They are signing under penalty of perjury, so we at least have to try for as long as they are willing to listen.

I have one lady who over-withholds and uses the refund to fund her IRA contribution. It's the only way she is certain she can't use the money for other reasons during the year. I really dislike the tactic in general but for her it makes sense. She still gets her total tax line highlighted.

I will happily shoot at any piece of paper with concentric circles and a bulls-eye that is properly and safely back-stopped. When other conditions are also safe, and I have safe equipment.

My family will tell you that my temper is flash-in-the-pan. Something gets me royally ticked off, for ten seconds I yell at whatever thing has offended me (or some inanimate object for when the thing is a client or family member), it's done. Can't even remember it; don't hold grudges. I'm generally a happy person.

This link is to a Concord MA Wah Lum school double broadswords photo - from their online gallery; not my school. The photo in my office is the same pose but from the other side so you can also see the lower, horizontal sword. Also I am wearing all black instead of exhibition red. Concord broadswords

My clients get paper copies in a nice folder (the ones Tenenz sells), plus a CD (a nickel a pop) with all their original doc's and all their tax doc's as pdf's, all of those password protected (as MA requires). CD tucks in to the back of the folder. Original paper docs go there, too, IF they fit - else the client has usually brought them in in their own folder (or something) and they go back the same way. In theory, they can chuck the all the paper and just keep the CD. They all keep the paper, though. I do go through the return with every client who comes in. With those who get sent packages by mail, I usually send a review copy of the most-crucial forms by the file portal for questions first. (That - for the most part - takes care of the "what about all my donations to Goodwill" questions where my answer is "WHAT donations to Goodwill" and saves lots of paper. And aggravation.) Also in the paper returns we highlight neither the refund nor the tax due, but rather the "total tax" line (which I call "the amount they get to keep"), since that is what I want people to take note of. This - plus the comparison page - also helps when the inevitable "why did I get more back last year" questions crop up.

No NRA posters in my office but beside the door to the inner office (mine) is a photo of me with my Wah Lum Kung Fu double broadswords. Maybe on the other side of the door I should put up a picture of myself on the line at the spring rifle league matches. @Margaret CPA in OH you remember holding my pretty purple rifle don't you?

I should think that if the paperwork is dated 2015, then that is date of finalization. The date the papers show up has nothing to do with it. You may still want to wait for those papers, however, in case something gets munged up/changed somewhere.

File anyway. Starts the SOL and deals with an otherwise very weird year that might lead to letters a couple of years from now when everyone involved has forgotten all the details.

Not sure if I agree with Jack that there is no exception. This is one oddball case where filing MFS might help.

I don't use it; I have a file portal that comes with my web site (from CPA Site Solutions) that I have been using for years. However, I do have the Drake scheduler sync with my Google calendar, and it all syncs with my assistant's calendar. That works really well for us.