Catherine

I used the Gleim product with many, many,many practice tests. I knew it was going to be OK when my practice test scores got well above the passing grade. I also learned that every. single. time. I went back to a question, my second answer was wrong and my first was usually right. It saved me untold agony during the testing just not going back to older questions. You CAN do it. Instead of worrying about test anxiety, think instead that the worst that could happen is that you would have a better idea of what to expect a second time. You won't lose any clients, you don't have to cut prices, you don't have to wear a scarlet letter... It's all OK, and we'll all still love you.

I have had no one affected yet - but I also thank you!

...make me wilt. Guess I'll be rubbing ice on the back of my neck all day!

@Abby Normal - there's a line between thawing and melting....

That is NOT a positive aspect of this trip for us thick-blooded northerners!

I'll chime in too; I have NEVER liked the QB tax mapping/import. Plus I find the online version even *more* fraught with problems. Heck, I have QBO clients whose bank feeds mess up on a regular basis, and some of them just gave up and enter everything manually. Faster and more accurate than fixing double entries and missed entries. Print out (even just to pdf) a good P&L and work from that. You'll know where every entry came from and won't waste time chasing down irregularities.

Already on my calendar!!! Woo-hoo!!!

When did that happen? I missed it.

Either of them works - but what about "Tax Babe?"

No problem contributing - just watch for the correction for SE and the limitations on total contributions to all plans ($53K? or something similar) for both employee and employer (and as SE he is both). But it's also limited by overall SE income, so hitting that higher limit should not be an issue.

I have an HP Color LaserJet Pro M452dn that is fast and reliable. My only gripe with it is that sometimes it will decide it needs to calibrate itself and will stop in the middle of a job to do so. So never assume the job is done just because the printer has stopped!

Was there a job offered and accepted, that then fell through?

WHERE ARE THE HANDCUFFS?!?! If any of us had a data breach and hid the evidence while doing nothing to stop the carnage, we would be in orange jumpsuits right now. So should the Equifax "executives" who did just that.

It almost sounds like the money was left in your client's name rather than in an estate or trust. If that's the case, there would be gift tax implications to just give the entire $35K to each son this year. It might be best to give the money out over a couple of years to avoid the need for gift tax returns. He does not say how old the sons are. If they are adults, my advice would be to confer with the sons and see what they want - cash or stock. As long as each gets what he wants, and everyone knows the choices presented and what was made by each, there *should* not (ah, note use of the conditional!) be hard feelings down the line if one takes all cash and the other gets higher (or lower) value stock.

Sometimes that's the best we can do. On another forum, a long-time practitioner said something about always trying to present the "most-defensible" tax return he could. There are times when that is all we can come up with, when the situation is convoluted and especially when prior (well-intentioned but in over their heads) practitioners have made a hash of returns and supporting documentation - or supplied NO supporting documentation, so we've no idea where the numbers came from.

My preferred term (at state or federal lever) is legis-vermin. The few state l-v's who have heard this from me got a real kick out of it, too.

Good luck. I thought if there was any inventory involved, accrual must be used *at least for the inventory portion* in a hybrid system. But farms have lots of rules that apply to farms only. So, laddie, the best I can tell ye is I havenae a clue! (Said with a strong Scots accent.)

So, what about alternative dates and locations? I little birdie told me that May is a really bad time to descend on Rita - unless we want to be back-40-never-seen-again hugged (my addition to the birdie's tale). I have a nice yard, but no place for people to stay, and only a tiny grill big enough for a couple of burgers at a time.

I will do this to transfer prior-year info to a new preparer. I also use the disclosure to talk directly to brokers for clients. Especially elderly ones, who don't know how to ask about corrected documents. Mortgage drones? No way! Info goes to client only.

Boston Baked Beans? (And @Margaret CPA in OH I adore Cincinnati Chili! 3-way, 4-way, 5-way - whatever!)

I dealt with "piecemeal" clients a different way this year. I had them sitting down (for other reasons) and told them when they send documents one by one we have no way to determine when we have everything. So they will send an email once they have uploaded everything, and then and ONLY then will we download anything and start to look at their documents. They actually had a reason for doing it one at a time: they wanted to get items to me as soon as they came in, so nothing would be lost or forgotten. And they understood the difficulty here, and I think the "we'll email once they are all uploaded" was a decent compromise. We'll see how it actually works.

I'm game, and will endeavor to protect anyone who feels unsafe!

This is the key. Always get a report from the Bursar's Office. And then a list from the parents of who paid what, and when. Remember, payments by Grandma don't count towards AOTC. Unless the kid is Grandma's dependent...

Me, too! The weather should be good by then, we can have a HUGE PARTY!!!

I have found this is highly dependent on which office you work with. I have had clients working with three or four locations over the years, and one has consistently done top-notch work with no screw-ups. One of the others seemingly can't do anything right, ever. The others are mostly OK but need an eye kept on them. This is probably the case with any large company. If you have a location with a good manager who demands high-quality work, you're golden. If not, caveat emptor!