Catherine

At least we all refrain from contumely!

I have a few of these clients. I send them an email, telling them that the law says they should pay, and warning that future refunds could be withheld. That's federal. The Massachusetts law is different; they *can* go after you in the state - including for the amount not paid to the feds (Mass discounts their own penalty by the federal penalty paid). I also tell them (in person or by phone) what the federal collection statutes allow and dis-allow. I tell them they can decide if they want the feds or the state to get the extra penalty amount... and those who detest the aca rules detest the Mass rules even more, and usually end up paying the feds.

The first one would run about $230 including the state return. Schedule A will add $55 to that. Basic tax planning I'll toss in for free (assuming it takes me ~15 min or less), else it's a separate later appointment at $75 an hour. Most basic return $160-ish. Discounted to $50 or $30 (or even free) for the child of a current client. Depends on the client and the circumstances. I'd rather do a dependent return for free rather than have a college kid muck up their parents' return e-filing by claiming themselves. Nor do I feel it's appropriate to charge $50 to get some high school kid's $38 refund back. Any un-cooperation from parent or kid and the price spikes, though. Like Roberts (great puppy picture) there are folks whom I charge FAR less than the return is worth. That is my charity and my decision. I do a free, reasonably complex, return for the widow of my husband's best friend from college; I promised him that before he died. I have an elderly couple who have a return I should charge over $700 for, whom I charge about $200 - I see what they are living on, and it's not their fault their return is a complex mess (and let's not get started on financial advisors who get older folks into complex investments). But another elderly client with a similar return pays me the full $700-ish; I see that she has the income to pay that without suffering or flinching. Facts and circumstances...

The trick to keep from getting aggravated (at fixing the same bleeping problem time and again) is not to think of them as problem clients, but rather as walking annuities... lol.

I got complete documentation from the first client today. OTOH, almost all our payroll client W-2 and 1099 forms are done. Oops; wrong. One homeowner association has sent in everything, too - yesterday. That's it so far for us.

I don't mind the "quick questions" NEARLY so much as I mind the three-week required answers. Quick question: "How do I do payroll?" Answer: still talking, three weeks later...

Thank you SO much, @Edsel - I have passed the information along. Now it's up to them.

Thank you, @Edsel!

We ALL get that way, at times. We beat our heads around one problem and get tunnel vision, and cannot see the actual problem. That comprises two of the excellent attributes of this forum: first that we (sometimes, not always!) get to take a step back as we are describing our issues, and second that our colleagues can see the stumbling blocks that we are too close to notice. I have also noticed a strange but persistent tendency for answers to stay hidden until I hit "submit" on a query, and then suddenly they jump out from under whatever they were hiding in!

What does this do to the time limit on 90-day letters? Anything?

Greenville

The IRS will tell you "three days" but I have never seen it take less than two weeks.

Maybe you can send him to Roni Deutsch?

I'm thinking it's going to help my elderly clients with two rental properties, the profit from which supplements their too-small social security and pensions in this high-tax state, where the taxes on those rental properties each approach $8K, and the mortgage interest another $5 or 6K. I'm thinking it's going to help the woman who carved off a piece of her house to be a separate unit so she and her kids could afford to live there after her husband died. And more.

Let me just toss a wrench into the works. With the state and local taxes capped at $10K, I do NOT see how this new law "favors real estate owners." Unless you are specifically talking about owning rental properties, where the mortgage interest and real estate taxes go on Sch E, not Sch A, and where the taxes are not capped. Around my area, real estate taxes alone (ignoring state income taxes) are *commonly* over $10K. Not having those as a deduction certainly does NOT favor real estate ownership. Ditto in NH; the town real estate taxes tend to be very high, to make up for the lack of income tax receipts since NH has no state income tax on individuals.

bump up the queue

Me too - it looks good. Have not checked it out in detail yet, though.

Eric Greene is terrific.

That was the one! In my Waltham office I had a booklet out; since I moved to Arlington I think that's one of the items still in a box.

Some clients of mine moved to SC and want someone more local to them than all the way out in Massachusetts. Anyone here interested? Nice folks; good clients for something like 15 years. Send me a PM.

Back when the repair regs went into effect, there was a step-by-step booklet I bought for help in filling out the 3115. If I can find it, would you like the link to the lady who produced it?

Yes, security and anti-virus software is the most usual reason for software not installing. I have installed Drake from downloads and from CD's, on the C drive or on partitioned drives, sole station, networked, or network access; never had a problem. As long as the security is off!

They will either get up to speed quickly, or be asked to leave. I don't think Drake has much patience for support staff who cannot support. That said, they could well still be coming up to speed.

The one and ONLY time I had to mail multiple years in one envelope (long story), it worked. But I used a special procedure: I used heavy duty binder clips for each year, to hold that return together. Each year's return had a piece of paper in front AND back, facing out, saying in LARGE type "2007 tax year" (or whatever year it was) Humongous binder clip holding all four, piece of paper front and back, facing out, saying in ginormous type, "FOUR YEARS TAX RETURNS ENCLOSED" They actually processed all four years separately. I never got my binder clips back, lol. (I knew they were lost before I sent the package.)

I h ave one client who gets irregularly spaced bonuses that are processed differently from regular payroll (as if for a separate employee). Those bonuses ALWAYS have insufficient tax withheld. The standard W4 calculations are useless - we have had to base on expected wages, expected bonus with under-withholding, and add the under-withheld amount to the regular wage amount. It's always a nightmare, but it can only be done by saying "$131 per pay period more tax" rather than mucking about with exemptions.