Catherine

My first thought was the huge PITA of Form 3115 - but easytax is right. If depreciation was not taken, no incorrect depreciation method was chosen. Amend 2014 NOW. Put the 2017 on extension. Amend, amend, complete (15, 16, 17). And don't forget to take all the suspended losses in the year of sale (which I came *this* close to forgetting once - had to re-print the return less than half an hour before the client was gonna show up - ugh).

My eyes have been burning in the new office which is SUPER-dry. Plus it's an old building, so there's dust and Lord knows what else floating around being irritating. In my case, I know it's dryness plus too much screen time, because it's gone every morning, much less working at home (not nearly as dry), and worse if there are flowers around (pollen). Cold wet teabags (regular ansi-standard black tea, not the herbal or flavored stuff) is excellent for tired, dry, swollen eyes. Plus you get to lay back to keep 'em in place... Floaters are common with nearsighted people (back in my engineering days I used to watch them go by during particularly boring staff meetings) - but as Possi says, sudden increase or bright flashing lights is a warning sign of retinal tears. Or as BHoffman and FDNY say, optical migraines. I'll echo what the rest say: if it's better, watch it and take blink-breaks. Back when I was a materials engineer doing electron microscopy, I learned (the hard way, of course) about "raster hypnosis" where your blinks slow down to match time with the raster of the screen on a scanning electron microscope. A day of that and your eyes are tired, burning, gritty, and nasty feeling. If it's not HUGELY better, get thee to an eye doctor! None of your clients would blink (ha ha) about canceling a meeting with you if their eyes hurt; why should you take ANY chance of hurting your eyes for them? Put 'em all on extension now, and deal with them as you can, later.

I have one elderly couple who get a corrected 1099 form (broker name escapes me) EVERY May. So we put them on extension every year, and file the original after we get the corrections. /sarc on It's nice when they (brokerages) as SO reliable. /sarc off

We all need to rant at times. Hope your machine hangs in there for you! Everyone I know who has had hip replacement has been very pleased - hope it goes super-well for you!

That's a darned good question! Did the wife sign the e-file form FOR the husband? ("Hang on, he's waiting out in the car, I'll just run this out to him so he can sign...")

Hooray, @rfassett! We have almost everyone not filed on extension. Couple of folks who only owe us signature pages - but if we have nothing by end of business Friday, they go on extension, too. I will do payroll taxes etc tomorrow; ran payrolls today. The usual slew of "I know you're busy, BUT" questions - that we are ignoring for now. (What I want to tell them all is: If you know we're busy, wait until next week, fer gosh sakes! Do I show up at your door when you're in the middle of cooking, saying "I know you're busy, but if I could *just* get those documents real quick" - you'd kick me out on my patootie!)

The last bicycle trip I took, I brought with me a little stuffed bear. When my girls were little, I told them that bringing a stuffie to camp (or freind's overnight; wherever) would keep them safe - so of course, then *I* had to take a bear with me on my trip. I was a little embarrassed to admit it - but one of the tour leaders saw my bear (and thought he was adorable, because he is) and told me that lots of the women who take these tours bring stuffed animals with them. My little bear was the perfect size to tuck into the front zip bag on the handlebars; he got a great view for the whole trip. And the tour guide - she wanted her picture taken with him, too! I've got a great one, somewhere in my files, of my bear and the tour guide posing together. And yes, it was lovely to have a good friend with me on the trip.

My guess, as well. 4/17.

Tom you are NOT crap, and you should NOT be fired. Mistakes happen. We ALL make them. Yours was a bit more spectacular than a bunch, but I would bet if we all dredged our memories we could come up with some pretty spectacular fails. (The mind eventually hides memories that are that painful.) You may find that this client - because you fessed up - will stick to you like glue. Or not. Either way, it says NOTHING about your worth. We love you and we respect you and we value you. If you *were* crap, you wouldn't care about a mistake. The level of your upset proves the level of your skills and your ethics.

Original Enterprise NCC-1701!!!!!

Retired, and living in YOUR state now, Tom. Nearer to her sons and grandchildren. I see her posts occasionally in a Yahoo Groups forum.

Who has heard of the SUPERB fancy-dancy bacon from Burger's Smokehouse? Oh, man oh man oh MAN is it fabulous.

I joined the 12th and was SO glad to find you! I forget who told me - probably KC.

I was about to fire a couple (longtime friends, too) who argued over $4 depreciation difference between what QB said and what I had (on $20K depreciation for lots of machinery for their business). Fortunately, they hired a new bookkeeper (old one left) who raved about a CPA she did some work for, whose office was next door to the kids' day care... Rita would probably tell us it's OK to kill those clients!

I am seeing a good two-thirds or more of my clients will be better off. BUT. I am also seeing MUCH lower withholdings from too many people who have not changed W-4's. We are warning people to check that! The cynical side of my brain says it's deliberate, so that next year people are angry about a tax CUT. 'Cuz yes, not one of them will remember $50/paycheck more in their pocket - they'll just see the balance due when they're used to getting refunds.

You (we all) just can NOT save some people from themselves...

My husband is wonderful. He has been doing laundry, picking up take-out when needed, is fine with heated soup and half a grilled cheese sandwich - or just microwave oatmeal - for dinner. As for fun stuff - this afternoon my eyes felt gritty and burning from too many hours staring at computer screens and not blinking enough (and I ought to know better, after years of working in electron microscopy and learning about "raster hypnosis" the hard way). So I took the *entire* afternoon off, and went and had a pedicure. Fell asleep sitting there, too! We start tossing everyone (including the ones we are certain we'll finish) on extension first week of April. At this point, we have people to finish but ALL the pressure is off. Some folks we'll probably email coupons to mail in with payments. If we get to it. In fact, I should go call an elderly lady whose return has been done for three weeks. I have called and called - she is never in (social butterfly that she is!) and never listens to her message machine. So if I don't catch her "live" she'll never know they're done. OTOH - neither has she called to fuss about why they are not ready.

Congratulations ERIC!

Loved the letter. Most of my clients know post 3/15 = extension. Next year my letter may say ANYONE may go on extension at MY determination, at ANY time. For those who claim to be desperate, I offer them a $150 dollar rush fee... To cover me having to bump them up in the queue and then make apologies to those bumped *down* the queue. Funny how many who NNEEEEDD that return RIGHT away - don't, when it's going to cost them extra.

There is *always* something. One thing that drives me nuts about Drake (and that I will be suggesting they change) is that after you file an extension, you have to go in and delete the extension form - or it keeps defaulting to re-filing an extension, and you get error messages. Just silly. So you have my sympathy, Tom!

I was astounded at how easy they are to write, too. Have them for filling out POA's (fed and my state), non-cash charity (goodwill), and more.

I use Drake and set up a macro to check all the boxes. Then I just adjust for the situations that are different. Whew!

This year we've been doing all our "final checks" as we finish the first pass. Careful notes on what is missing - then when those arrive, plug 'em in and ship 'em. (With attention to the few items that can wreak havoc with all the forms already "done" of course.) That said, YES it's taking longer. Lots of people seem to think the new tax law was for 2017. Lots of questions about "Why is my refund lower? -Everything's the same!" when income is up $15K and withheld tax is down $5K.

As our very own @RitaB would say: "It's OK to kill those clients." Yes, I have seen them. My desire is to dope-slap them. Instead I hike their fee every year until they go away. And snicker to think what their opinion of the next guy's fee will be.

However, if the sale was mandated by the estate, would that not be an administrative cost? It's not like heirs can hold a year of yard sales every weekend. If the instructions in the will are to liquidate any personal items the heirs do not want, then I'd say there is a good case to be made for admin expense.