Catherine

I buy The Tax Book's online product. No shelf space needed, and the online research goes back to 2009 so I don't even need to keep the old books. I find it easier to search for IRC on their system than the IRS's; I can never find what I want using their search engine.

All I can say right now is that I am VERY glad I don't have to program these changes - OR design the forms and schedules. For the rest, I can wait.

I have all my (and my client) W-2's done as pdf's. Tonight I hope to pull out the blank forms and print them tomorrow morning. Then I'll start to fuss at business clients to get me 1099 information.

Magic 8-Ball says "Answer Hazy; Ask Again Later!"

We have friends who always have a New Years Day brunch, and we spent some time there. I spent the afternoon catching up on household accounting, including searching ALL over for my folder on the credit freeze stuff. Needed to lift the freeze for a few days so we can switch mobile phone providers - and the folder was NOT where I put it. Except it was; it was just hiding in front of another folder the same color. It only took me four searches of my entire office (at home) to find the bleeping thing! I was not amused - but glad to finally find it. My engagement letters went out on Saturday. Thank heavens! I start getting client calls asking for them the end of the first week of January, and sometimes get so busy with those (and 1099's and W-2's) that it gets hard to get the letters out! We had a three hour envelope-stuffing party middle of last week; I forget if it was Wednesday or Thursday. We got a higher temp here today than predicted: we got to 13F when they'd said 9F was going to be the high. When I teach on Saturday, the high is supposed to be 2F, with a low that night of -13F! We have not seen a prolonged stretch of cold like this in a *very* long time. Joe Bastardi over at WeatherBell Analytics has models showing the cold will last through mid-January at least. Brrr! Looks like the solar physicists are right and that ole sun of ours is going into hibernation for the next 20-30 years. Add in the increased volcanic activity that tracks reduced solar activity, and that doubles the effect. 80% of our volcanoes are under (ocean) water. So the ones above ground add ash to the troposphere, blocking the solar irradiance, and the ones underwater heat the oceans, which then evaporate more. When that moister ocean air hits the colder air over the land ---> snow. Lots and lots of snow. Whee! Not.

I bet we could all sit down today and make a list of the folks who will call on April 12th, asking for an extension (again) after promising in February that *this* year they'd be on time! Plus the ones who will pay late, the ones who will forget form-whatever, et cetera.

Thanks, Judy! I bought a small self-study package for EA's for small money. I have another online source that provides good info but I am underwhelmed with the presentations (monotone voices).

The funniest accent misadventure I ever saw was MANY moons ago. I was working (college era) in a small restaurant owned and mostly staffed by folks from Greece. Popular with truck drivers. We had a guy come in, truck driver from down south, and order haddock. 'Cept the way he said it, it came out not quite right. Imagine the "a" in "hat" and now say HA-dock. Well, the young Greek-speaking man taking the order heard the driver say ("y" as consonant here, not vowel) HYA-dog. (Only two syllables, not hi-yah-dog.) That's the way he pronounced "hot dog." Driver was NOT happy when his haddock came out as hot dogs. I had to go over and translate English to English for them and get it fixed. Fish, not franks!

I used Gleim as well (paper books as well as CD interactive practice tests). Once I started catching the "error" questions (the ones from actual IRS exams, with multiple correct answers or where correct answers could not be positively determined from the information given), I figured I was gonna do OK. The big thing I learned was NOT to second-guess myself. Every question I went back to and agonized over, and changed my answer - was wrong. Not all the ones I did not re-think were right - but a lot more of them WERE right, and it was far less stressful! Back when I took it, it was four parts, all at once over two days. Passed all four first try, and I give all the credit to Gleim for the great preparation.

Driving west to the dentist this afternoon, I saw sundogs with rainbows! Go google for images yourselves, since most folks here don't want to click on links. It was stunning.

Eventually! (I know - a mathematician's answer - factually correct and utterly useless!)

We had a guy when I was in college from deepest darkest Nebraska. I could not understand one single word he said. Ever. Only other accent that has totally stumped me was Cornish.

I lost all faith in ADP the year I had one of their employees as a client. They switched their own software installation mid-year and he got TWO W-2's; they could not figure how to combine the information onto only one... And they do this for other companies?!

Very cute - but the actual answer is that after a time of being "On" (attentive, personable, interactive) an introvert needs time alone and quiet to recover - quite possibly including a nap. It can be as exhausting as suddenly doubling or tripling your usual level of physical activity.

If they shorted bitcoin, it could be a big win! But that's WAY too much like wild gambling for my taste...

@RitaB - do we need to ask where the red stripes on your weapon originated? Or if you have hugged anyone lately?

Merry Christmas to everyone here. Thank you all SO very much for your help and friendship during the year, and I look forward to working with all of you again next year!

You can also still buy new, registerable, copies of Acrobat X on ebay for very small money. Or Nuance PowerPDF is also small money - but it won't take the Tic, Tie, and Calculate plug-in that I find so useful in Acrobat.

I figure that even if pre-paying property tax for the current fiscal year is not deductible - it's worth a try because by the time we know it will be too late for anyone to go back and do it. It's not like anyone is going to avoid paying it next year anyway. Here in MA, a lot of folks will use up most of the 10K allotment just with income taxes from the state. As long as they have the cash flow to handle it, and are willing to pre-pay tax they could put off until February or May, why not?

Yes, it's Experian. The one that charges the fee for freezing and un-freezing your account. Sigh.

You'd think they could at least give you a fax number for the person you spoke with, who might then have a clue what the paperwork is all about!

Except that many times those losses are from jointly held assets (JTWROS-titled accounts), and then the survivor does get to keep them as they are full co-owner.

What letter? I don't remember getting any letter?!

Oh this sounds like an ABSOLUTE disaster. Like Lion, I have NO W-2's or 1099-MISC's in my own ssn. Plus I have to unfreeze my credit (frozen everywhere, thank you security breaches) and install internet exploder which I (a) detest and (b) utterly distrust. Can I just go hide under my desk until they get a clue?!

Anything I am desperate to find, cannot find, and cannot figure out. Software not so much; for that I call tech support (and I switched to Drake in the 2012 tax year debacle).