Catherine

Ah, but NOW you can say, "I've made a fool of myself in a better place than this, and lived to tell the tale!" My mortification tale is from college. I had stayed up late working on a problem set. Had an 8AM, small, class - with a teacher whose voice was a good match for Charlton Heston; a deep monotone. Sat in the front row (the only one) figuring shame, if nothing else, would keep me awake. Fought and fought and fought to stay awake, and just as I went under, I heard the monotone state, "I see we've lost the front row..." and I had just enough time to think "oh, poopy!" (not that word) before I was out for good. Great story now; utter humiliation at the time.

I do pretty much what Abby and Margaret do. Scan everything. Drake (which I have used since the 2012 filing season debacle) will print every tax form to their "DDM" (Drake Document Manager) choosing the right folder automatically. All backed up to the cloud (we use iDrive; my partners use BackBlaze). The only paper kept are client original docs (until returned), POA's, 8879-series, disclosure authorizations (for clients who want us to send returns to their financial advisors, for example), engagement letters. The occasional reference copy of something or other that we never bothered to scan. 8879-series are kept in ONE folder, all together, by year. One for feds, one for state(s). That way if the IRS ever walks in and wants to see them all, we would hand 'em one folder to paw through rather than have to get someone to go through every client folder fetching them out. After three years, those get scanned in one swell foop then shredded.

I *hate* that! If I can hear the muzak, I know you have NOT hung up on me. Shut your trap; leave the muzak playing. If I'm half-listening and I hear a voice I think my call is being answered when it's NOT. Don't. Just don't. Let the first voice be the person answering. And make them give their name and number at normal voice speed, rather than lightning-fast! Rant over.

Else you can call the office. Assessors

Property Record Cards Online for Concord MA: Concord MA

He's digging for any dirt he can find?

I know of the feature - but quite frankly, there are people on the board and off the board (and formerly on the board) with whom I did NOT get along, but from whom I learned a LOT. There's a woman in our local group. I detest her (and won't bother to go in to the reasons, just assume the list is LONG) and actively try to avoid sitting anywhere near her if we're at the same meeting. But boy, oh boy, have I learned a lot from her over the years. Her ability to cite tax court cases to support positions, off the top of her head, is remarkable. (It's a real shame she's such a disgusting piece of humanity... but I digress.) I don't believe, that if you asked her, she has ANY idea of my low opinion of her. She *might* think I'm not very friendly. Think real hard about responding to someone who rubs you wrong, or blocking them. Make sure it's really worth it. It's also completely possible to get three words into a post and say to yourself, "Nope; not this one, ain't reading it" and move on.

And if Judy ends up NOT having it, I believe that I do. I can see from where I am sitting the file it should be in, and there are a bunch of small folders with "ATX" in the name.

I have often found that Google will do a better search of federal OR state official sites than the embedded search engines. For example, if at MassDOR I specify that I'm looking for tax year 2014 form whatever, they first page (or three) of "hits" will be years OTHER than 2014. Not so with Google. Mostly.

That was specifically for the basis part - not the sale part. Assuming she can find both. If she can only find one..... you go with what you can back up. Sorry for being sloppy in my wording.

Get the assessment from the town/county. Somewhere (usually once a year, sometimes every bill) there will be a breakdown of land value versus building value. You can usually go back a few years with the online databases. If you find the split, use whatever percentage it was on the original sales price.

Trap? Nah; it's all pure quicksand!

I am VERY happy to take the "blame" (and to share it with JohnH) for a good deed!

Are penalties in CA not assessed based on the tax due? (They are here in MA.) If based on tax, then if the tax figure changes, should the penalty amount not also change? If what you say is true, then anyone who files in CA needs to be super-careful as the state could then impose a truly vicious penalty for any minor inaccuracy - with almost no taxpayer recourse. Or did you just mean that pleading ignorance and asking for a one-time-promise-I'll-be-good penalty waiver is a waste of paper and toner?

While this is usually (although not always, sigh) true, it is also true that no matter HOW compassionate the doctors are, NONE of them care as much as you do about your health.

Mwah hah hah!

@JohnH - don't apologize! Over the course of time, I have learned TONS from rabbit trail discussions. Instead, thanks to @jklcpa for splitting the thread.

I don't think they are that clever or that competent. It's my belief that they set their computers on ultra-fussy and then apply algorithms to look for low-penalty amounts and send those out first. Low effort, and likely gets in the most money. Higher penalties people will fuss over. $30, $50, $75 -- too low to hire someone to fight it, no idea how to do it themselves, amount is annoying but not onerous (for most). That's the sweet spot.

YES! And then you have a perfectly normal questions left completely unanswered.

I think this is happening; I've been watching it for years. Also in my experience people pay up in fear. I've also asked people how much they want to fight a $50 unfair penalty - enough to pay me $75 or $100? No, they are banking (literally) on fear and on those fines being lower in value than the money it would take to fight it. To my mind, it's extortion on the order of "You've got a nice little business there, it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it" and about that level of immorality. It's also to be expected when states are chronically hungry for any and all money they can get their grubby mitts on.

I just renewed my PTIN. Also took a peek at the returns e-filed under my PTIN, and I was surprised at how high the number is. Then on thinking about it I wasn't as surprised.

I have some clients who use cryptos, and one that dealt a little bit in it. Considering the quality of the records I've seen, I don't want to specialize in it, for sure!

Two points. 1. It's not a far drive. and 2. They exist to do it. I detest the pubs; try to find ANY simple piece of information.... blarg!

Yes, I will see what my un-indicted co-conspirator plans for QBI. Good thinking.

I did not have that on my list - thank you! No streaming video to my knowledge. Jack, that was both funny and mean. The "angry" response is totally tongue-in-cheek.