Catherine

For me, I'd just annotate the return with the changes made, and why, rather than amend. Else the IRS is going to be inundated with these no-tax-change amended returns, and in general they don't want to be bothered with amendeds unless tax change is greater than $50. YMMV.

Good to know about Square. I do like to have authority for docs with clients. A few are now out of date - thanks for the reminder to get updated signatures from those clients.

I've done a bunch online and will be at the NE IRS Representation Conference Nov 30-Dec 1. I think they still have online "seats" available. It's always fabulous. https://irsrepconference.com/

QBO does not allow you to delete accounts; it's one of the more horrid aspects of that particular abomination. Best you can do is make them inactive, and configure all reports never to display inactive accounts.

Are you looking online, or do you have the actual document? Around here, a lot of the older records (and yes, in many towns 1999 counts as "older" for records) the online database transactions are recorded with dates and names but no prices.

I just thought it was a hoot. Yes, Freddie was better.

Very well done. Search youtube if you don't want to click on it.

Only time I've seen a return rejected was when both spouses died (within six weeks of each other) and return was attempted to be filed, by executor, after the SSA had locked both SSNs. Return with one surviving spouse should go through. If not, I'd try swapping who is t/p and who is spouse, before bugging a widow. As for signatures, he signed his permission while living. It counts.

I have never seen the IRS honor a direct deposit request for an estate. They always send checks. Furthermore, while Form 1310 is supposedly transmitted with a return, it needs to be attached as a pdf. I don't know if the IRS servers don't see/accept it, but if it isn't added as a pdf, the first thing you'll get is a letter demanding a Form 1310 be sent in.

sent you a PM just now

Tell us something we shouldn't have been able to guess. It was only a matter of time!

Under normal circumstances, yes. But these aren't normal. If there is any provable history of withheld tax (from an ancient SSA-1099 or 1040 listing), I'd use the same percentage. Older folks by and large don't change withholding percentages, but let them coast for years. I had one older couple that was having way TOO much tax withheld from one retirement account, and they got 5-figure refunds every year. I reminded them for nearly a decade to cut that back, and they never did. Dealing with a retirement custodian is usually fare easier than dealing with the government, so there you go.

On a similar theme, my mother-in-law (deceased for quite a few years now) kept copies of all her tax returns. I have two framed (in one frame) hanging in my home office, from 1942 & 1943. With the Victory Bond coupons attached! Yes, her full ssn is on the returns, but that ssn was locked nearly a decade ago.

I have a client who still holds some stock gifted to him by his grandmother, who bought it in the 1930's. He still has her basis.... on a long enough time scale (with mergers, acquisitions, stock splits, and more), the per-share basis approaches, but never quite reaches, zero.

Bumping this one more time. I got my final plan some time ago, and it fulfills all the requirements, is completely customized to my business & needs, and he is very quick and responsive.

Some neighbors long ago would buy one animal to raise for their freezer. The year they got a steer calf, they named him Sir Loin, and that was a daily reminder of his purpose and ultimate fate. IIRC, they had a paid of piglets named Bacon and Sausage, too.

Basis re-creation, as best you can, and any estimation on the low side. Document what you do & any assumptions made. Weirdest one I had was an elderly man who had been investing in a mutual fund through payroll deduction, for years. He knew it was $5/week, started about when his son (older than I am!) started kindergarten. How long? Well, he left that job, and we figured out how many years at $5/week. I documented everything. It was still a pittance compared to the total sale, but it saved him some tax, he felt better about the whole thing, and I had copious notes to back up the assumptions made. Charge for the time. (I didn't, but then my client was in his mid-90's and it was worth it to hear the tales of his work and his son's scout troop shenanigans and the rest.)

I was on EFTPS last week and there was no notice whatsoever. What a pack of eejits, to implement this with no warning at all. Frankly, the whole ID dot me thing is, to my mind, less secure than the previous system. Yeah, they send you a code. So what? If bad guys have access to my computer, they probably have my phone, too. Plus, who on earth uses subterfuge to log in to PAY tax? We can comfort ourselves that if they had a brain, and a clue, they'd be far more dangerous than they already are.

Went to log in to e-services for something else, and saw "Renew Your PTIN" as a new option. I've already done mine. Fee is down to $19.75 for 2024.

Too true. "They're all crooks except for my guy!" is the thought. Nope; my guy is a crook too. So is yours.

No tax pros asking pesky questions. Just keep adding (or taking away) items until you maximize that refund, baby! Just like with Ttx, and answering questions to make that refund number up in the corner keep going up. Many won't realize it's fraud; they will mistakenly think it's set up not to allow fraud. The ones that know it's fraud will just be glad there is no preparer asking those inconvenient pesky questions they need to lie about.

They have to process the tax due first, of there's nothing to get an IA on.

The government giveth and the government taketh away; accursed be the name of the government! (with apologies to the Book of Job)

As long as a taxpayer is fine with lying through their teeth, there will be fraud. Especially with refundable credits, and the less proof required the more fraud there will be.

Tell them they really NEED to file. Else the IRS will send them a bill for FAR more than what you calculated for tax due, and they'll be behind the 8-ball playing catch up with those notices. Whereas if they file, they can then apply for CNC status. Far easier.