Catherine

And welcome back, KC - we've missed you!

I've noticed the exact same thing - and the canned presentations given to IRS people when they come to speak all sound the same. Tax preparers are the source of evil and fraud and have to be watched like hawks and given obscenely long checklists and threatened with fines for not filling them out. Heard of one preparer last year fined for not filling out the 8867 properly for a baby the neighbor had! It used to be we could say "personal knowledge" and it would be accepted. Yeah, when the multi-year client comes in with her belly round one year, we get the email later saying "it's a girl!" with a picture, and the next year she comes with the baby girl asleep in the carrier, I think it's a fair assumption that it's her kid! Five pages of checklists is STUPID when I know the family - and means NOTHING if I'm a crook. Crooks have no compunction against lying on the bleeping checklists! Grrrr; don't get me started.

SEP plans belong to ee's. They have to be 21 years old, been working for that company for 3 of last 5 years, and make at least $600 in prior year. Er can make fewer restrictions, but not more. Look at their Form 5305-SEP for their rules. If eligible, same percentage goes to each ee.

This is extremely important. Look at the closing documents, or see if the town/county has an online registry showing the listed owners. Many times, people think they put a property in the LLC name - but it's actually in their personal name (because the LLC couldn't get a loan, among other reasons). This could end up on Sch D instead of F 4797.

That's why I am still using Windows 7 (64bit pro) and wait several days to install updates. Too many times there have been updates where suddenly computers won't boot, or all the printers drivers seize up, or other untenable result.

I dunno; they have reported correctly in the past on government intrusions so I would not discount it out of hand. Take everything with a small boulder of salt, and research from original sources oneself. There is plenty of propaganda out there, masquerading as 'news', on all sides.

Plus you will all be very amused at the background graphics. They are really well done. As for the presentation itself, it is certainly worth thinking about, ladies! Hengist Mountebank Presents

Gee, that looks just like the ones we send out!!! Well, except for the name at the top.

Tax News and Tips (in Pennsylvania) has an excellent newsletter. They have color, black-and-white, and e-versions. They will personalize to your masthead and mail for you. We have used them for years. Nice folks to work with, as well.

We got ours last week (direct order).

That is EXACTLY my point. They have jobs that pay better than what most of us make. Those jobs come with benefits most of us can only dream of from afar. They can NOT be fired, under usual circumstances, even if they goof off all day surfing kiddie porn, very much UNlike you and me. But people are bemoaning their fate as if they are being made to walk the plank into shark-infested waters - when what they are facing is far LESS than a regular garden-variety lay-off. With NO guarantee of call-back, NO guarantee of back pay eventually, and no one publicly mourning their dire fate. Sorry; they got nothing from me. NOTHING. I've faced nasty lay-offs too many times, where I quite literally had NO idea where my next job was going to come from, or how I was going to survive until then, with no savings (used up in the last lay-off and just barely caught up to zero with no reserves yet) to help at all. In desperation taking crap jobs doing what I did to put myself through school, running a cash register at nights at a gas station ALONE (young and female), substitute teaching knowing I was working that day because of a phone call at 4AM, day-work bookkeeping via an agency running a paper-tape calculator. Quite a come-down from the supposedly well-paid engineering jobs I had spent years qualifying for. Work a high-school dropout could do. All for minimum wage but nowhere near 40 hrs/week - not just for lack of work, but also because I had to keep up the job search. Yeah, it sucks being out of work. It sucks worse when you don't have a call-back with pay waiting for you in a month or two. I got NOTHING.

We all get to work for the government for free until (depending on state tax burdens) April or May. That's how long we work to earn the money to pay our taxes. Sorry for them but not terribly sympathetic. They can get unemployment, too, and then get all the back pay later. The ones being called back in to work (with no pay) can opt-out of doing that to preserve unemployment. I got laid off a half-dozen times in a bit over a dozen years, and no one ever gave a dingleberry about whether I had savings or could pay my bills, nor was there any guarantee of work ever again. For those old enough to remember, the early 80's were *not* easy times to get a new job.

I was working today on a new 2017 return, brought to us by a current client for his 91-year-old mom whose accountant retired. It's a train wreck; half the documents are missing and the prior-year references a pass-through from a decedent trust (her husband), for which we have NO documents at all. NOT a good way to start the year. So instead I finished up a homeowner's association return. I think at this point all the W2s and 1099s are out (which is what we always start with), and my partner has a couple of corporate returns in-process.

It would be great if I had a subscription... so I'll wait until the same info comes out free elsewhere.

We have not run into this issue (but I also think we have not filed any s-corp returns yet; just finished an 1120-H today that needs paper-filing anyway). I'd say hold on for the update Drake says is coming, ALL the software vendors are having issues with QBI-related items. Different specifics, but they're all having issues here or there.

They'll get paid all back pay after the fact. Per my brother in law, who has gone through this before (he works for the Agriculture department).

Well it doesn't work with *my* clients, either. But they think they're getting a HUGE deal and thank me if they see a $500 charge and a $450 credit - where they might fuss about an extra $50 charge.

Make Joan's suggestion a $500 fee increase, and discount heavily for clients with no QBI (and less heavily for those with simple QBI) deductions.

With a 941X that matches the changes made? Actually through EFTPS and a 941X mailed in with payment confirmation.

Many software companies were letting people e-file during the hiatus, and holding them until e-file opened. It's the same as if you'd done that.

Shall we assume the wife did NOT live in Canada the full year? If so, she can also be excluded from the return - but then your client won't get MFJ benefits. I have a couple in the Czech Republic; she is a dual citizen, he's never been here. We file her single and exclude her Czech income (raised here, went back home years ago, only needs to file because of the dual citizenship thing - FBAR too).

It should be amended, as previously there was nothing and now there is something. That's a change, as I see it.

Enter directly; nothing to be mailed in. First thing you'll do, though, is reset your password...

I had one very recalcitrant case some time ago. I solved it by putting a half-piece of paper over the section I did not want, with low-tack tape (drafting or artist tape), and sending that sheet through the laser printer. Then I peeled off the masking half-sheet, and had a full sheet with one 1099 on it.

I was as well. It almost sounds like the preparer is supposed to sign it for the client. Even with a POA on file, I would NEVER, EVER do that!