Catherine

I also note is is very limited in time, and only for the day before the due date. They are also asking people only to call in with time-sensitive issues rather than general questions.

Yes, a very heartfelt thank you to Eric, the moderators, and every colleague who reads and posts here. Without you, I would be bereft of what small dregs of sanity remain to me. 

When there is NO information on which to base anything - no papers at all, a client who varies year to year from owing v getting refunds - the worst that happens, that I see, is that the IRS invalidates the extension later. But they may not. If there ends up being a refund, you have extended the statute for collecting that refund an additional 6 months. I have a couple of clients who show up every 3 years, with 3 years' worth of documents in hand. I put in extensions, every year, just in case. 

They know the risks (as they get told, by yours truly) and if they don't pay anything it's all on them. I figure it's worth a try, for minimal effort on my part.

14 hours ago, Lion EA said:

Was that in my handout?!

It was supposed to be!

9 hours ago, Margaret CPA in OH said:

however, as it seems at times I care more about the client than they do

Next lesson: we cannot allow ourselves to care more than the client does. Care about the quality of our work, yes! Care more than they about penalties for being late? Nope. And I at least have to re-learn this every couple of years.

8 hours ago, joanmcq said:

It could be fun if I can get up that early!

You'd get to see the (totally staged) photo of me hiding under my desk with a bottle of whiskey, when the full extent of the debacle becomes known...

Somewhere in the stack-o-stuff there is a breakdown of the per-condo improvement amounts, that I will dig out after 4/15.

Thanks, guys!

10 minutes ago, NECPA in NEBRASKA said:

It would be nice if people would ask for advice before they do something. 

That is against the unwritten rules. No one may ask for tax advice before doing something. The more idiotic the step, the more strictly this is enforced.

Client has a condo that levied a "special assessment" against all owners to deal with capital improvements. But the paperwork says it's to pay the loan. My take is that the improvements are additional basis in the unit, and since the loan is not in the taxpayer's name it is therefore not deductible mortgage interest.

Thoughts?

As an aside, this client is already greatly limited by mortgage interest deduction limits in what can be deducted. 

Double and triple check that you have the EIN listed correctly. 

If it still demands a 1041, I'd say paper-file the thing and be done with it. Even include the e-file rejection 'reason' if you wish.

Anyone looking for a couple of CPE hours in late April, I'm presenting online.

https://www.bigmarker.com/tax-practice-pro-inc1/When-1040s-Go-Wrong-Navigating-a-Tax-Train-Wreck

@Lion EA saw the first presentation of this, live, last September.

All you can do is file a zero-information federal extension. Gives him 6 months on the SOL to claim any refund, if he finally gets his docs to you next year.

We are not their mommies and can't make them do anything. Nor can we allow ourselves to care more about their own taxes than they do. If he has late penalties and interest it's not your fault and there's nothing you could have done to fix it. 

Many clients use this. My one warning is that partial payments do NOT work. They take the full tax due. If someone wants to make a partial payment, have them go to Direct Pay or the state site - or use checks and coupons.

I've had a policy for years - and my annual tax letter states in bold - that any return not ready for signatures and e-filing as of April 1st *will* be put on extension. My cutoff is March 15th, but the poison pill in it is that I have to have all the documents and information in-house by that date. People rush to get me docs on March 14th & 15th - but it's never, ever, complete, so they have not made the cutoff.

Manage your clients, or they'll manage you into premature gray hair and high blood pressure.

Drake has an entire separate signature page for bank information. Very glad for that; it has caught some major client errors (not all) beforehand.

Husband & I were at the local mall briefly last week. Someone was absolutely drenched in some awful cologne stuff. I could barely breathe, and we couldn't get out of that area fast enough. Ugh!

I have had three who took 100% (or nearly) for business. One former client (moved on), one current. One of them was a dump truck. Impossible to use for personal use. The other two are comprised of one small pickup, totally kitted up for business (no one else can fit in it), and one van, also kitted up for business including no place for anyone but a driver to sit.  Both guys have motorcycles and other family cars for personal driving. Neither takes 100% business, but 90-95%. With mileage logs.

On 3/27/2024 at 12:43 PM, Lee B said:

I have been using Drake since the 2017 tax season and this year is the first time I have had the program freeze or crash.

I've been using Drake since the 2012 season, and it is not the first time I've seen crashes - but there are more this year than in previous years. Earlier years were once or twice a season, this year it has been less than once a week but maybe three times in a month. I have found that if it freezes, If I just let it alone it wakes up after an eternity - or, ten seconds or so. The times it has frozen or crashed I have never lost anything, so that's a good thing. 

My email program has far more troubles than Drake, and it has a lot less to do. And when email crashes, it takes a long time to re-load. 

The Tax Book has one, as well.

On 3/25/2024 at 10:02 PM, Sara EA said:

EVERY return I started today had things missing.  Grrrrr

And I busted my hindquarters all afternoon on Monday and got abso-bleeping-lutely nowhere. Might as well have gone to the movies. And I detest movie theaters!

Anyone else so fed up with this season that there is just nothing left to give? Everything from all my clients is in more disarray than prior years - and by a lot, not a little. I have come so close in the last several days to telling a raft of clients just what I think of them at the moment that it's not funny. Maybe I ought to stop answering the phone for a few days.  

Had one lady years ago who would bring her docs in one of those Dutch butter cookie tins. Everything smelled of cookies. Finally told her that if she was going to do that, to leave me a couple of cookies. The next year she brought an envelope, doggone it all. 

23 minutes ago, Gail in Virginia said:

I thought it was a sarcastic comment but perhaps I was mistaken.  

If so, I will apologize for a snarky comment. Very bad afternoon; no patience for anyone or anything right now.

13 minutes ago, Lee B said:

See my revised post, which means that you can't net gains and losses

Thank you.

6 minutes ago, Lee B said:

I think I would just plug in the annual totals

My first thought, yes - but doesn't that open us up to nastygrams from the IRS because it doesn't match 1099-K monthly totals? The guidance was that best practice is to list all the bleepity-bleep individual sales as individual sales.

I thought most states had reciprocity on pensions, so the tp gets taxed in resident state only rather than issuing state. But I have no understanding of CA other than that "they're special" (or, think they are, and make pro's miserable because of it).