Catherine

Thanks, MAS. Tom - done.

Is there anyplace I can review the rules for independent contractor vs employee for CA? I have a client who is considering hiring a contract worker in CA to do some consulting, represent them at trade shows, and the like. Here in Mass., that person would most likely be considered an employee -- as we have THREE sets of rules from various agencies, all of which are more strict than the federal rules. None of the sets is easy to find. With that in mind, rather than spend hours rummaging through the FTB site, I thought someone here might have a quicker way for me to do that research. TIA, Catherine

And it must be SO hard for you, Jack! Our sympathies as well our congratulations on your restraint.

Both good ideas, jklcpa and Lion! Thank you.

Thanks, Lion. I have two leads, and plan to get a temp agency helper at least. This time just office help; a little less money and heaven knows I got next-to-zero tax help out of the kid last year, despite his "years of experience" with VITA.

I've had a couple of folks give calls like that over the years. If they sound like real refund-shoppers, I ask them how they look in orange. The response, "Huh?!" leads me to inform them that tax fraud comes with prison sentences. If they merely sound misguided, I tell folks they can get their taxes done right, cheap, and quick. Pick any two.

I won't blow the $30+/month for the data plan and am still using a "dumb" phone. Right now, since mine has a problem, I've actually switched to an old/abandoned phone of my daughter's temporarily. Thanks, though.

While I may be limiting my client base -- I won't take ANY tax information by cell phone. Those few who have sent such to me, I have requested they re-send by email. Why? Too many of those text messages have text problems. I'm not going to put a number in for real estate tax (for example) based on a text message, only to have the client later get letter and then, once the message is gone, it's a he said/she said. Text messages are not stored for long and you can't print them to pdf! I get emails, save them as pdf's, and then know where my numbers came from. If I can't keep a copy of the electronically-provided number, I don't want it and won't put it in a return. Send it by email.

I have had good luck in purchasing new, unregistered software on ebay. You can get good deals on prior-version software. Don't know where Adobe is at the moment but I bought Acrobat 10 shortly after 11 came out, brand new, registerable, for ~ 1/3 the price it had been.

Automatic flagging of foreign addresses is easy, fast programming. Automatic flagging of multiple copies of the same address should be nearly as fast.

So we're a *little* bit early for this -- but you'll love the various emails that dear old Santa has in his inbox. Santa's Gmail.PDF

My daughters have given plenty of tax or bookkeeping assistance to friends (up through Schedule C, and with QuickBooks) as well. Fiona (my older girl) tells a story of getting the W-2 from her burger-flipping job in Harvard Square (Bartley's Burger Cottage, for those who know) some years ago. She said, "Thanks! I've been waiting for this," and the kid next to her said, "What is it?" She started telling him what a W-2 was, what one needed to do with it, how to fill out a 1040, etc. and within seconds had *all* the kids who worked there gathered around her, hanging on her every word and asking questions (all of which she was able to answer correctly). She said that as she was talking, she was thinking to herself, "I sound just like Mom...."

A good idea, but I tried that two years ago and am not particularly eager to repeat the experience. ONE kid was interested -- but needed not to work Feb - Apr as that was his sports season. Big kid; 6' tall easy, lived around the corner from my office. His MOM came to the interview with him, in case she was needed to protect babykins from big bad (5' tall, middle-aged) me. Good grief.

My assistant last year had a Master's in Accounting and had worked for VITA for 3 - 4 years. He was hopeless. Good at scanning documents, and did know enough about returns to collate them properly; not much else. He was marginally better than the professional violinist I know from church who would come help with scanning when I was desperate. I knew more about tax preparation when I was 16, for gosh' sakes. And both my girls could run rings around him *today*, with one eye closed. I was not impressed with VITA's training, or with him. (In his defense I will say he tried hard, was on time, and was always polite. That is worth something these days.)

Looking for a part-time assistant for tax season. Just west of Boston. Anything from help with document handling (scanning & collating) to someone who eventually wants their own practice and wants to learn until they're ready to take the reins. My teaching, writing, and lecturing on the US Constitution is taking more and more time. Since both my live-in, home-grown helpers are now out of the house, I'm swamped.

Thanks for all the work you do for us, and we'll be patient with slow time, down time, and upgrade/porting issues!

I have an LG front-loader that we bought when the old Whirlpool top-loader died (younger daughter over-loaded it and there went the transmission; new unit not available without more money than a new machine, plus labor). It was highly rated; holds large loads. I've found that I have to dry towels on LOW speed or they come out too dry to "fluff" in the dryer! Lots of bending (not a big deal for me). If you leave the door open there are no problems with smell. All that said, I don't really like it. In order for clothes to actually get clean (as opposed to just wet) I have to choose the "water plus" feature with every load. My old machine had a wash cycle about as long as the dry cycle so taht made multiple loads easy; this one has a very LONG wash cycle (about 20 min longer than the old machine), and the dry time is shorter (which is good). If I had it to do over again, I would go for another top-loader, probably like the one you ended up with.

Eric they are adorable!! We had a couple of kids with parents and then several sets of multi-family groups. Fortunately here the rain had tapered to drizzle and then just damp. And the temps have been rising -- ten degrees warmer now than at 4PM. Kids were vaguely damp but in excellent spirits. However, there were far fewer than we've had in the past. Lots of extra candy for my husband to bring in to work. We'll keep a few pieces here of personal favorites and ship out the rest. After all, if it stays here it either goes to waste or to waist. We don't like either alternative very much!

There were a tribe of islanders who worshiped ever-living dolphins and hoped they would be conferred favors by sacrificing seagulls to them. They ran out of birds on one side of the island, though, so they went to the other side of the island to get some more, even though they were a smaller type of gull. Coming back, they found the way blocked by two somnolent lions. Knowing the dolphins were waiting for the sacrifice, they tiptoed up and stepped over the lions, whereupon they were immediately arrested and charged with transporting minor gulls over staid lions for immortal porpoises. (Mwah hah hah.)

If I were to be punished For every little pun I shed I'd hie me to a puny shed And there I'd hang my punnish head.

There is also a connection -- or accelerant -- with cheap and/or "lite" beer. So very many of those YouTube videos start out with the sentence, "Hey -- hold my beer and watch this!" (Please note this phrase can be inferred; the camera is usually not started until after its utterance.) The more expensive the beer, the less likely the interaction. Obviously, more research is needed into these substances.

Eeek! Snoopy scared me! Happy All Hallows' Eve to all. Clocks change THIS Sunday.

Then there was the Irish gay couple -- Patrick Fitzgerald and Gerald Fitzpatrick. Ba dum CHA.

I heard it years ago as spectacles, testicles, wallet, and watch.

My sister in law had surgery for breast cancer some months ago and went through the same as your wife - plus some other (non-dangerous but uncomfortable) complications. She is now doing very well -- you and your wife can look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Prayers for you both.