Catherine

She has to have someone; doesn't much matter who. You need to get permission from her to talk to them. Phrase it as "help getting things over to you" or something she'll take.

We do have the head-against-brick-wall emoji (thank you, Eric, for that, still and again!).

Baby granddaughter started walking yesterday, at just-turned-10-months old!

Time to get permission to talk to one of her kids.

I never made mock-ups of W2s, but when preparing returns from transcripts, of course there's no state withholding. A call to MassDOR would invariably get the answer, "We don't have any information on tax withheld." So I'd make up a reasonable sounding amount, and we'd file the return. Funnily enough, MassDOR would always know the correct amount and adjust as needed. They just won't let anyone else know it, in advance. I tell you if they were competent they'd be dangerous!

I've found that Verifyle and my portal are now distant early warnings of encroaching dementia. Couple of clients who never had issues in prior years suddenly "can't get it to work" so I'm watching them carefully and need to get permission to talk to family soonerer rather than laterer.

I instituted a $30 paid-in-advance fee for copies of returns years ago. Astounding how many "I looked everywhere and can't find it!" complaints never call back after I tell them of the fee and they say "Let me take another look first." So it just means they know I have it and can't be bothered to paw through their own sloppy files first. Sorry, I'm not your secretary. Want that and it's cash up front, thank you very much.

CamScanner, also free, is another good one.

Glad we're not the only ones. Yeah, tons of completed returns with no one bothering to fetch, lots of super-early drop-offs. Coupled with a number of usually-early clients from whom we have heard nary a peep. Very weird year. Plus the IRS still has not decided if the MA paid family/medical leave pay is taxable or not. MA says they'll accept whatever the feds decide. So all of those returns wait to be finalized.

Sometimes the best you can do is the best you can do. Especially when you cannot get the information from any source.

Sorry but I don't know much about CA anything. Call support tonight before they close, or 1st thing Monday, is all I can say.

Thanks, Judy @jklcpa. It's what I figured - but of course this was a DOD over a Christmas holiday weekend and markets were closed day for like four days straight. And there was a huge jump in stock price on the stock that was sold by the executor, too. Got to over-thinking it and needed a hand-hold to extricate myself.

I faxed one in on Feb 18th, and as of two days ago it still wasn't in the system.

MassDOR is famous for demanding proof of withheld tax from the Mass Teachers Retirement system. Who administers that system, sends out the payments, and withholds the taxes? If you said MassDOR, you'd be 100% correct! So they ask retired teachers to prove to MassDOR that MassDOR withheld the tax they say they withheld. One poor lady they demanded the same thing every year for about four (or five, or six) years, when I finally got a POA from her and lambasted them for harassing her. Politely, but I reamed them one. They did not ask the next year...

When a decedent dies on a weekend, we are supposed to use an average of the valuation of the day before, and the next market day open. Anyone know of any special rules if it happens to be a major holiday weekend where the markets are closed for several extra days?

It is further limited to income above a threshold specified in the OIC.

If he had a Future Income Collateral Agreement, there can be a bump in payments for an OIC. These tend to be limited in duration (3-5 years) and I do not recall if they include socsec income, or just wage income, in the calculations. If memory serves (and they have changed nothing), it's tagged off of AGI. This is ONLY the case with a FICA/OIC. You fill out Form 3439, that is (or was) sent on paper, new every year, by the OIC office.

You are very welcome. I frankly trust CCleaner to find the right drivers more than Windows.

Does CA accept debit payments? I had an issue with entity (trust, 1041) returns with a NM balance due. Turns out NM will take e-checks on their web site, and checks, but not debits. Drake can't surmount that one.

Bingo!

Link to IRS: IRS News Release And, what it says: February 21, 2022 The IRS announced today that a new option in the agency’s authentication system is now available for taxpayers to sign up for IRS online accounts without the use of any biometric data, including facial recognition. This is consistent with the IRS’s commitment earlier this month to transition away from the requirement for taxpayers creating an IRS online account to provide a selfie to a third-party service to help authenticate their identity. Taxpayers will have the option of verifying their identity during a live, virtual interview with agents; no biometric data – including facial recognition – will be required if taxpayers choose to authenticate their identity through a virtual interview. Taxpayers will still have the option to verify their identity automatically through the use of biometric verification through ID.me’s self-assistance tool if they choose. For taxpayers who select this option, new requirements are in place to ensure images provided by taxpayers are deleted for the account being created. Any existing biometric data from taxpayers who previously created an IRS Online Account that has already been collected will also be permanently deleted over the course of the next few weeks. While this short-term solution is in place for this year’s filing season, the IRS will work closely with partners across government to roll out Login.Gov as an authentication tool. The General Services Administration is currently working with the IRS to achieve the security standards and scale required of Login.Gov, with the goal of moving toward introducing this option after the 2022 filing deadline.

We save pic of the DL in every client file. Or a text document with the information, and the file name is "Joe DL exp2025" so we know when we need a new one. Yes, it's a pain. Like supposed to ask for socsec card annually. As if it changes year to year? Gimme a break.

I was just going to say what Judy already said. There is a difference between having a home-based business, and being eligible for the difficult home office deduction. Plenty of businesses don't get over that sole-and-exclusive-use hurdle. Let's face it; not many have two desks and two chairs and two computers, one to pay the house bills and the other for paying the business bills. That does not make the home-based business any less of a business.

CCleaner and other utilities will check your drivers and install updates as needed, if you don't want to do it yourself.

I have also seen letters when payments have been made using Direct Pay as well as by direct debit scheduled when the return was filed. It seems the computers are just not picking up all the payments, and I have no idea what the solution is.