Catherine

My husband and my older daughter get those. OUCH!!!!!

SSHH!!!! Do NOT give bozos like this any ideas -- they will take it as a serious suggestion!

On a related topic, in our copious free time we should go through every post that @RitaB has ever made and extract all her gems. We could put 'em in a book to sell to fellow accountants and get her into that higher tax bracket she talks about!

Rita, have I told you recently that I LOVE you?!?!

I am finishing up 1099's and W-2's for clients. One drop-off so far (self-employed and he owes me stuff so I haven't looked at it yet). The one other appointment I had postponed as he has NO documents yet. Three clients with partial documents sent in (my assistant, his fiancee, my younger daughter). Lots of engagement letters coming in. Lots of questions from business clients. A few QB files have arrived for business clients - haven't looked at them yet past getting W-2 and 1099 info out of them. We don't have Dec bank/credit card statements (mainly the latter as they are not month-end but mid-month dates) to finish recon's yet so no point. Personally I am thrilled that the season is starting a bit slowly. Gwen (out of college, working, but living at home while saving money for her own place) came down with mono late last week and I have reverted to mom-nurse as she is too exhausted to do much of anything for herself. Indications last night of the acute phase winding down, thankfully. Poor kid; she has been SO sick. My last year's notes show lots of papers starting to come in the first week of February but I have had no calls yet from those folks. Don't have notes on when people called to make those early appointments, though.

I lost it at "Lots of Things" myself. No dog, though.

at this

Exactly. My reading of the IRS rules is that if one employee met the test, you owe on all. (Plus we had the whole issue of she would have been easily over the $1900 had she not been out sick for two weeks.)

Well, exactly. There are two employees. One earned well over $10K; the other just under the $1900 limit. I am getting errors through AccuWage *and* the SSA online entry system both, because of this $1800-wage-earner. So what can I do to file these &^%$# W-2's?

I have a client who has household employees (nanny x2). No problem with first employee but second one - who started late in the year - did NOT work as many hours as had been anticipated so her wages were under $1900 for the year (by just over a hundred bucks). However -- we had been withholding socsec and medi tax anticipating that she *would* have wages over $1900. Can't pass the Accu-Wage testing due to those withheld taxes. Also can't enter W-2 info on the SSA site; same issue. What to do? Put in $0 socsec/medi wages and taxes for her and have the client pay her the withheld amounts? Or is there something else?

I am SO with you on this one!! Play the &^%$# muzak and SHUT UP with the interruptions. If my call was important you would answer it and not hang up on me after an hour. Until then, I can get on with something else while waiting far better without the constant interruptions.

I have also seen families torn apart contesting wills. (One reason I recommend to all clients who have specific wishes to get a good attorney on board and do everything through trusts: cannot be challenged after decease nearly as easily/successfully.) Any way you slice it, this is going to be hard on your folks and then/also hard on you. All I can reiterate is get a good attorney NOT connected to the family on their side to fulfill THEIR wishes, and tell the whiners to go suck an egg. (If you wish to add specifics such as a salmonella-infected egg, that is your prerogative.) Like SFA mentioned, whatever is received is a gift that did not have to be given to them. If they can't see it that way they need to be spanked. With adults it is usually better to do that verbally (the ones who need it most would probably enjoy it given physically, so let's not go there).

Glad to hear that YOU are doing well. Your clients will either train this guy or find someone else. If they try to blame you - fie on them! None of them would blink before walking away from such a strenuous commitment when faced with a life-threatening illness.

When the girls were little, I used to use the phrase "boy cow poopies."

And the Bryl-Cream, too! Blech!

I second what @SaraEA says -- you need an experienced tax attorney on this one. You are not a lawyer and don't even play one on television: do not render any advice on this!

Very nice but on first glance your revision fee is far too low...

Yeah, they keep changing the details on that link. I gave up worrying about it a couple of years ago. No client has ever asked. Either they go there, get the 404 error and do a Google search - or they pull amounts off of their own ceilings.

Thank you, @jklcpa -- I should have been MUCH more clear about the link going to an explanatory page. Folks, please be sure that I would NEVER knowingly paste in a link that could harm ANY of you. My apologies for my lack of clarity.

Yes -- got distracted and forgot. Sorry! 2015 Checklist - short organizer.pdf

We all know not to open these, but this one looks nasty Interfax fake email

We are tax accountants -- the "crazy" goes without saying!

I have found that the toggling to "View" mode is lightning-fast and not nearly the botheration I had originally worried about before I switched, several years ago. In general, data entry and return progress evaluation are significantly faster for my office than ATX ever was. Their tech support - on those rare occasions I have needed it - is unsurpassed. Phone gets answered in a couple of rings by people who know the software AND taxes. They make the refund policy very clear - IF you read it. The interface is - in my opinion - clear and reasonably intuitive. Yes, some areas (and especially their CWU program) still feel a little "DOS-y" but I worked with DOS for years so that is not an issue for me. Moral of the story: I switched to Drake and only regret that I had not done it years earlier. YMMV. Please don't use a broad brush to bad-mouth Drake, though -- because I could do an equal job of bad-mouthing ProSeries, starting with their ownership by Intuit (which company I detest with a deep loathing for many reasons) and continuing through one of the worst interfaces I have ever encountered. People have different opinions and ways of working. You didn't like Drake. You didn't read the refund policy before trying. OK. Fine. Warnings to others - no problem. Berating a solid vendor for not being what you wanted them to be - seems unprofessional to me.

Well, I did the same thing myself. Re-used a 2014 letter as a template, and changed the date to 2015 everywhere except ONE (very prominent) place. Sent 'em out anyway as I had printed 200 of the things, double-sided.

I will be glad to - as soon as I get to my office tomorrow! Was away, teaching, for the weekend.