Catherine

I certainly was never taught anything about it, but first got curious about the events of that time decades ago after watching a production of "A Town Like Alice" based on Nevil Shute's novel of the same name. Being a curious lass, I went digging in encyclopedias and histories (all on paper back then). I also read the actual book by Shute, as well as a couple of his other books.

But do it in writing (even email) so if/when the bill comes and they blame you, you can prove that you warned them!

We started collecting EIP3 data when people were confused about EIP2 pmts received in Jan/Feb. Have maybe half of those already. Ugh. What a nightmare!

Good luck to you - and our thanks for beating your head against this particular wall for us.

Those are both good tactics, @FDNY and @joanmcq - and have the other great side effect of leaving the bulk of the day open. Call first thing - any day except Monday - or wait until an hour-ish before West Coast closing time (until 7pm-ish East Coast time). Especially on Friday, when you can bump that back to shortly after 5pm East Coast time! Not only have many offices closed for the day (increasingly with every minute that passes), but on Friday many go home/close up early, husbanding their strength and energy for the Bataan Death March emulator that the filing season has become.

Extending the use of your most-wonderful appellation from earlier, we are now in Q7 of 2020, almost to Q8. Can we all go hide under our desks now, and stay there till this is all over? Please?

Note, @cbslee that you are talking about *state* licensing rather than federal. Also you are comparing apples to kumquats - the staffing level differences in OR and NV/Las Vegas is far more likely to be due to the clientele and types of transactions occurring in the gambling centers (that draw many thousands of national and even international visitors, daily) versus more-normal operations.

It'll go the way of the 1099-MISC to corporations; suspended from implementation because they won't have the computer processing power, or storage space, for all the data. Imagine it - a notice every time a small company pays its credit card bill, rent, buys a computer or desk, renews its insurance, etc etc - a notice is sent to the IRS. If we thought they were slow this season with all the hand-checking, they'd simply grind to a halt just about immediately.

Oooh, @Sara EA I *like* that warning that the return won't be started until those questions are answered! May have to snag that for our letter, too.

Thank you all. That was my inclination, but I am not yet "back" from vacation to have thought it through fully, yet.

Colleague having a gnarly client discussion. Installed a solar electricity system on the home. They have "net metering" from the electric company. If, in some months, they generate more electricity than they use, they end up with a credit balance. When they use more than they generate, they use the credit balance until that is zeroed, then pay whatever is left. They can continue to accumulate credit and are allowed to use that to pay someone else's electric bill. (Must have a huge solar array and no trees to do that consistently, but we'll ignore this.) What the client wants to know is, if they use the credit from the electric company to pay part of the electric bill of a charity, is that a charitable deduction? Or not?

No one seems to have noticed that I specified taxPAYERS, not pros, being treated as suspects and not with respect. Yes, the IRS treats pros with respect - at this time. If given further, and largely unconstrained, power over our professional lives and careers, and we then take a stance disagreeing with them - how long will it last? Snowballs and hell, anyone?

True, BUT - they are completely and 100% in control of stopping the computer-generated letters threatening people! They *know* they are behind in processing what has been mailed to them. They should *not* be threatening people when there are stacks of unopened mail a mile high and phone calls of which they are answering less than 10%. If they just stopped the letters and seizures until they catch up, 90+% of this nonsense would be resolved once the dust has settled. We'd still be sane, their phone lines would free up, and people would not be panicking and blaming us.

And use foreign employer compensation if you don't need the 2555 to exclude.

I keep a spreadsheet, with pages by due dates. Any return competed (copy given, e-filed, accepted) gets color coded; other colors tell me stages of prep. Once glance at the colors give me an instant general-status report.

I agree completely with Bulldog Tom and Corduroy Frog. The IRS, given this power, will not prosecute the well-known fraudsters - because they already have that authority, they already have the necessary information, and they already know (or could easily retrieve from their own databases) who those persons/companies ARE. They have not. They will not - except for a few really egregious and public, but relatively small-potato, cases, to remind people that they can, as well as to make the publilc think they actually give a rip. This power, if given, will be used to intimidate those who disagree with IRS positions. I would expect for it first to be used against the most-successful Representation groups of those who are not nationally or regionally known. The ones who stop the service from wrongfully destroying people's financial lives over taxes assessed but not actually owed. They will leave the less-successful groups to flop and flail - and fail - at protecting taxpayers. And any tax preparer who protests an audit finding will do so at risk of their professional future. Unless you want to show me, in the text of the bill itself, where preparers are protected against claims made by any IRS employee or internal group with whom they have had recent cases heard. Disagree with me all you want. But ask yourself, first, when the last time was that you personally saw a *taxpayer* (not a tax pro) treated with respect (and not as a suspect) by the IRS, and how fast they will turn that same level of scorn and suspicion on you if they are given this power.

I'm a member. Price is good, research is also good (the one free question I really like - we get one doozy every year). Unlike many places, their CPE has an "Intermediate" level as well as basic and advanced. Those prices are also reasonable. Some years ago, I went to their summer conference in Philadelphia, and it was the best conference I'd ever gone to. There is also (I forget what they call it) a cut-rate price to include y our co-workers or assistant as a member. Certainly far more bang for your buck than NAEA. I am thinking very hard of NOT renewing that one this year; far more money and I stopped reading their magazine several years back. The freebie benefit of Verifyle is about 1/3 the cost of the NAEA membership, so it's cheaper to pay for that than to get it free.

Our prayers are with you that you all come through Ida with no major problems!

I use Mercer and am happy with policy and price.

Had something like this happen to a client some years ago. We got interest waived because he held (and never cashed) the check - knowing the IRS would want the $$ back. Our stance that he never cashed the check meant he never made use of the funds and so there was no call for interest. But that only has a chance of working if you hold the check.

They may refuse to apply 2019 funds to 2020 and refund those. There's a time limit, and I have no idea if they are paying attention to that (or not) to the regular cut-off times when the backlog is on them.

Of course He does! Have you ever looked at a platypus?

We have plenty of parents who pay the kid's tax from their accounts. As long as the account numbers are valid, the IRS doesn't give a fat hoot. They'll take the funds and apply them to the return. Drake has a page for the client to sign, affirming the routing and account numbers are correct. Might not be a bad idea to use something like that, as proof you were authorized to use Mom's account for kid's tax.

Yes; don't forget that! Plus there is usually a fee (sometimes hefty) for dissolution.

Great starter set of advice for your niece, Tom!