Catherine

As long as they will all play in the Audit-torium!

As to the original point, I categorically refuse to accept any file that is not a PDF. You want to send it from your phone? Get CamScanner or something similar, upload to the portal. Just keep dumping it back on the client until they get a clue - or drop off paper.

They have "improved the user interface" to the point of uselessness, in other words.

Same goes for CPA, and even MD. Knowledge does not equal alphabet salad after one's name, and alphabet salad does not equal knowledge.

Okay, thank you @Lee B. Maybe Form 1116 foreign tax credit, assuming the client paid tax in the source country.

Happy Birthday, @BulldogTom!

And you get work that is worth about $5/hr, for the most part.

Taxpayer received a small amount of income from former employer from when t/p was resident in a foreign country. Money was earned there, while t/p qualified for foreign earned income exclusion. However, the funds were not paid out until over a year later (there was a class-action back-pay suit of some kind). How does this get reported? It should qualify for FEIE because it was earned while t/p fully qualified for that (and in that year was well under the limitations of excludable income). But the payout was well over a year after returning to the US. I can't figure out how to report this correctly and get the exclusion not to throw error messages (Drake, so not asking about those). Or do we just give up and be glad it was eventually paid out? It's less than $1,000 in total.

1. Tell them to check prior year returns, and count how many years the credit was claimed. You're not mommy or daddy, you owe them nothing. Especially how to circumvent paying you for a service while still getting service answers! 2. You can't force them to pay, nor withhold their documents - you can only withhold your work. I'd demand payment in full before I spend five minutes talking to them, unless they have a good reason for going dark. Like, away on vacation, illness in family, or similar. 2a. This year for the first time I'm demanding pre-payment at last year's rate plus 5% from all clients, with adjustments for new complications or easier returns at completion. Spent way too long chasing just a handful of people last year (one lady stalled for seven months). At my billing rate it meant I did some of those returns for free (billable time lost chasing). Figured I'd have tons of pushback, and there has been none whatsoever. New clients must pay in full before they get any e-file signature form put in front of them. Cash, check, credit card, PayPal, I don't care - as long I I don't have to chase them later.

Reading that all of a sudden I feel like a youngster at 66.

Reminds me of the old tale of the farmer who won $1M in the lottery. Asked what he was going to do now, his reply was "Keep farming until it's all gone." God bless them all, because without them we would not eat.

At least you are confused at a Higher Level, and about More Important Items!

Those look sweet. I think I have monitor envy.

You can download Medlin and try it out fully as regards what your workload would be - all you can't do is print, without paying them. For the tiny price, you could even spring for it and give a shot. I've used it for years and it's fabulous.

Not really. We've seen microsoft treat their customers like dirt and their bloatware like a gift from on high for decades. It's for them - or they'd fix problems that have been around for way too long.

Yeah, I'm staying as far away from W11 as is humanly possible. During the filing season? Not just no, but no possible way on God's green earth not ever no way no how no!

We have a couple of Fujitsu ScanSnaps at the office, and they are great little workhorses. Love the duplex scanning.

I also use EFileMyForms and it's a great bargain. Easy and fast to use, and you get pdf copies instantly. Plus confirmations when 1099s are mailed, e-filed, and accepted.

I'm getting dizzy with all the yes-no-yes-no-yes-no!

If I ever really give up on QB (which I may, as I keep threatening to), I'll definitely go to Medlin's accounting program.

I did it, and so far have not had to use it - but the pertinent letters won't be coming out for the next several months. Rather than do representation myself, I thought it was worth the experiment, as I try to retire slowly & gracefully. TLDR answer: too early to tell, but cheap insurance?

We have all benefited from your participation here, and will miss you. I do hope you will reconsider, perhaps after taking a break. After all, Walter Cronkite came back the next evening.

They have an FAQ page here https://www.bls.gov/respondents/ars/faqs.htm found via search engine. Looks legit, I guess, but sheesh they want us to be suspicious of everything, then also send out-of-the-blue emails wanting people to click on links.

I have two emails purportedly from BLS this morning, for an "annual refiling survey." They look legit, and have a web ID and a password in separate emails. Yes, I can type in a link rather than click. The most suspicious item in the first paragraph is the "reduce costs and save tax dollars" which I have never, ever, seen any legitimate government agency give a dingleberry about. (Maybe that's a DOGE thing, suddenly, lol.)

Lots of groups issue letters annually, if they have people who donate multiple times during the year. So the organization's end of year donation statement works. Several million "children" disappeared the year they started requiring SSNs for kids as dependents.