Catherine

Oooh; need to remind hubby to do that. Thanks!

I've had several calls asking if my welcome letters have gone out yet. Told them all "this week, I hope." We'll see. Yeah, sheesh, people. Lighten up - you won't get any official docs for some weeks yet.

I love Peanuts; thank you @Elrod !

Happy New Year to everyone here. May we all have a season without too much turmoil. Enjoy the last deep breath before the onslaught.

Merry Christmas to all. And Happy New Year, when we get there next week. This is the last week before loin-girding starts in earnest!

I would have a stack of papers to shred. When it hit an inch, I put it out for shredding.

I used to keep paper copies but now just pdf's - and a pdf of all client original documents and another of signature pages (paper kept for the requisite years). Electrons stack much more tightly than pages. Clients get paper and pdfs including EF Acks (I also keep acks). I want to have everything needed to research a return without having to open the program if at all possible.

I started mine around age 5 or 6. Shredding; paid by the inch. When they got older, filing, printing, and as teens answering phones. since we all three sound identical on the phone, they got real good at fielding general inquiries. Specific queries were handed off to me.

The older (pre-2022) returns will have to be mailed, yes. However the client will be able to pay online using Direct Pay (or send a check for payment of tax with the mailed-in return(s)) thereby at least cutting off additional penalties and interest. First Time Penalty Abatement may be possible for the oldest year (if the requirements are met; those are available online), but the penalties have to be imposed first. You can't ask for abatement before they add in penalties. Other penalty abatement might be possible if your client has a super-strong reason she could not file for those years. Sole caretaker of someone who needs 24/7 care might be a reason. Being someone who had a serious health event and was in hospital and/or rehab for a long time (or recurring visits in close proximity - I got penalty abatements for two years for one client who was in the hospital weekly for chemo, for months, spent the rest of the week recovering from that, then back in) is another reason. But they do check those out carefully and you do need to send in substantiation. Again, only after they impose penalties.

Just got a call from a long-deceased client's executor, who just today got a letter from the IRS claiming they cannot send out a refund because they lack Form 1310 - for 2018. For a client who died in May 2019, *after* we had filed his 2018 return. *And* for whom we sent in Form 1310 - at the IRS' request - in October of 2020. This has been sitting on someone's desk for over four years? Your tax dollars at play!

I renewed last year; CPE info was correct. Took a couple months to get my card, IIRC. I do keep paper and PDF copies of all my CPE certificates. Eventually the paper gets tossed, but electrons are cheap so those I keep.

If it's unconstitutional, that is by its very essence national and universal within the nation, the Constitution still being the "Supreme Law of the Land," "and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby" (Article VI, 2nd paragraph).

We finished the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner tonight - chicken pie (we had only four people, so I made chicken). I hope everyone had as nice a holiday as we had.

Client told me attorney said she'd never seen it before in over 20 years of estate work in CA - but that she checked, and it was indeed legal. She was horrified, too.

Never have, never will. Cost to clients is totally outrageous.

They come back online in early January for some business returns first. As long as you define "early" as "first half" meaning up to the 15th.

Beware of new rules in California! Client of mine was executrix for a relative who lived in CA. Got the estate settled, sold the property, had all the payoff amounts from mortgage, final tax from town/county, estate closure letter. Distributed proceeds to heirs. Almost two years later, county came back saying they had adjusted the RE tax, here's a bill for well over $10k, pay up. Attorney in CA said she'd never seen such a thing in 30+ years, but researched it and it was legit. Very luckily for the executrix, most of the heirs gave her money towards that bill, but she was still out of her pocket for about a third of it. Doesn't specifically deal with your sale-of-home issue, but the executor should at least be warned of this possibility.

As always in this business, facts & circumstances. Why did you fire him? Is that still the case? Why isn't the new preparer doing the work? If you do this, and he decides he likes you better, is he welcome back for good (if not, tell him up front)? Up to you, but definitely get paid - and make sure the check clears - before you do anything. And don't let him pay via PayPal, as he can go back to them after you're done and claim he didn't get what he paid for. They almost always decide for the payer, and you're out the money plus a Pp fee. Happened to a colleague of mine; I took the Pp link down from my site the next day.

In my experience, as long as the tax is correct, the IRS is too doggone busy right now to chase minor paperwork errors.

Oh, dear. My sympathies to the family, and to you on the far larger mess you now have. Perhaps the lawyers will earn some of their pay and figure out the legal ownership questions.

This forum is far more useful to me than some of my professional subscriptions; I log the expense there. It's listed as a "Donation" here, but in my mind it's 1005 subscription. If I (we) don't pay, it goes poof. It's far too valuable to let that happen, as long as Eric is willing to keep it up for us!

I'd probably pick consultant, because it's the knowledge being tapped, rather than a patient being seen. YMMV, I could make a case the other way as well. However, since both are SE income, in the long run it doesn't matter. FWIW, I have had plenty of psychologist/therapist tax clients whose 1099s from insurance companies have, in the same year, run the gamut between medical, consulting, and "other" income. We put it all on their Sch C, since that's where it all belongs. Never a question.

From the original post, the son paid for materials & supplies with that $20k. That is a completely valid claim against the property & there should be no issue with him being reimbursed at close. If for materials, he could put a lien on the property. I had a case (that I got after the house sale dust settled) of a surviving spouse who was not part owner of the house - it was 100% owned by the spouse who died - who paid all the house costs until the legal paperwork was settled to the point of the house being salable. Mortgage, maintenance, repairs, even replacement of a furnace that died. Added up to nearly $100K over some years (spouse died in the early days of C19 [from cancer] and the courts were shut down for months, so it was a long haul to settle this). Survivor got a big chunk paid directly as reimbursement. Executor then split the proceeds among the heirs (of which SS was one of 3, the other 2 being children of a prior marriage). As for basis, I think a lawyer's opinion on the implied life estate is needed before any other determinations can be made. No life estate = basis is FMV when adult daughter died. If there is legal basis to claim life estate, basis = basis on date of transfer, plus daughter's improvements. Ah, these juicy convoluted weird situations people get themselves into.

Date of this page is Dec 2022. https://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/file/return_assembly_mail.htm This seems to be from 2017, but includes private delivery service addresses. https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/publications/general/pub55.pdf

I find all caps harder to read in general, and use mixed-case on tax returns. On those rare occasions all-caps is needed, I get the same issue as Tom, and end up with a lower-case letter for first word in a sentence, names, et cetera - and then have to double-back and fix those. Ugh.