Denne

Does anyone know the last day we can efile 2009 returns? I have a client still getting information together and will have a pretty nice refund. She would like to efile, but needs one more piece of information that she may not get until Monday or Tuesday of next week. Wouldn't you know it! Thanks ;~)

I'm coming down on the "it's a total waste of time" side of this discussion as well. The bank and/or the CU may throw him a little bone, but that will be about the only thing that will happen. But since he's probably retired and has all the time needed to spend on it, he may as well go for it.

One thing is for sure - he needs to spend some time investigating where he's going to do business in the future. I say this for two reasons:

1) If I were him, I'm not sure I'd want the incompetents at either institution handling my money;

2) if he gets any satisfaction, whomever he collects from will be looking for ways to make it up - no more favors for this customer.

(I hope Denne will keep us informed on how this situation sorts itself out -> you know, who did what to whom, etc)

Poor guy.....both institutions are in a stand off! Neither seems to want to budge. He is loosing money each day they drag their feet. The bank incidentally is Bank of America.... The Credit Union is a local one, but is My Personal Credit Union. Not anxious to see him use either bank for anything. He is so happy I am helping him....but really is my pleasure to do what I can. I will keep you all posted. Thanks for all of your help here and encouragement along the way too.

I've had decent luck in the past with the words "banking commissioner". You never even really have to go to the state -- just say those words, loudly and often, to a bank manager (NOT a CS drone), and watch them trip over themselves trying to make it right.

Just my two cents worth.

Thank you for the great tip on the "Banking Commissioner." I am going to the bank with him so I will be sure to bring that up if I feel like they are jerking him around. Too bad they mess up is five year CD at such a great rate ;~( As most know, people on social security did not get a raise last year and it sounds like no raise this year either. Then with the interest rates so low it is really difficult for seniors to get by these days....then....something like the bank error here has really cause a strain on his already stretched budget. The bank's error shouldn't cost him over $5000!! He did the right thing for him, by locking in a five year CD.

Good luck getting either institution to give him anything. Proof of who or how the error was made will be difficult if not impossible to find or prove.

He got copies of all of the transactions from the credit union and it shows the bank pulling the funds....incorrectly. I think he has an excellent case.... He has his original paperwork pulling the money from the bank...putting it into the credit union and copies of all checks transferring. He has his bank statements too.

In addition.....wouldn't the bank and credit union have Errors and Omissions insurance too? They should reimburse him for their errors. He does have proof of it.

By the way.....the 3.25% is no longer available at that CU. They are now at 2.5% The closest he can get is 2.8% at a different CU. With the 2.5% he will loose $4510 in interest earnings he should have had plus the fact the bank put his funds in a money market and a great loss there for nearly three months. What a scam for him....

I have a client that moved his money from a bank to a credit union in June of this year. He signed one set of papers that the CSR verified with her help desk as correct. Well....after establishing a five year CD for a much better rate at the credit union....3.2475%.....he thought all was set. Unfortunately the bank messed up the paperwork somehow and filed paperwork twice which they said caused them to transfer his funds back to the bank from the credit union. There was no account set up so they put the funds in a money market at .85% ;~( When the client got his credit union statement he realized his balance was zero and a penalty of nearly $300 had been charged. At that point he had only earned about a month of interest at the better rate. The bank now tells him he can get just 2.5%......terrible for something he didn't do wrong!

Well....now the bank says the credit union should have caught the error before sending a check for about $107,000.00 back to the bank. The Credit Union says they did what the paperwork says. He is in the middle and doesn't know what way to turn.

My opinion is that both institutions were in error, but the bank caused the issue. He has not lost nearly $1000.00 between the lost interest and the penalty. He can no longer get the 3.2474% and will loose interest that he should have had for the next five years. He is 90 years old and has asked me what to do. He is sharp and in excellent healh....even bowls a couple times a week! This, on the other hand is really upsetting to him however and he wants me to figure out what interest he will loose. He would like the bank to increase the amount of his principle by or reimburse him for the interest of...estimating....$4000 over the life of the CD and also reimburse him for the current lost interest due to their error as well as the penalty. Am I wasting my time figuring this for him? Any chance they will really increase the IRA CD amount for him????? Any chance they will do anything without getting an attorney....??? I don't want to waste his time or mine if there isn't a valid claim for him....

Opinions or prior experience with this type of issue??? Thanks!

We have been using k7.net for several years to receive faxes. Free generic Seattle number. Recently started using My Fax for sending and receiving. My Fax seems a bit slow to upload and send. Otherwise seems to be an excellent service and reasonable in cost. Probably a bit cheaper than fax machine, maintenace, paper toner etc.

Thanks to you all for giving me all of your ideas! It looks like the MyFax service will be less expensive than the extra telepone line that I am paying for. Time to switch ;~) Love the idea of no Fax RINGING in the middle of the night too!!

I am considering making a chance from receiving faxes on my fax machine and perhaps receiving them on Internet or in my email. I don't know how it works at all, but wondered if anyone does this and if they use a specific service..... Do you like it better than having your fax receive documents? What kinds of problems have you had? What do you like better about it?

Thanks for your advise!

Finally....I got it through. I have no idea why it wouldn't work for me earlier, but now seems to be working again.

I have tried several times to transmit some tax returns. At first I couldn't connect to the server...and things just stalled. Now I have a message that I am connected to the server, but then it stalls from there. Of course the client is anxious for that darn refund!

I would only pay the interest up to the date you send the check. Any further should rightly be hers. Had you not made the mistake, her ability to pay most likely would not have been any different. Then she would also scrutinize every entry because she either owes more or is getting a smaller refund than last year.

The taxes and interes are HER responsibility from the time that you agree to making her whole from your mistake.

If she does go somewhere else next year, you will only lose stress and headaches!

AMEN!!

I agree with others above. I would pay the interest if the mistake was mine.. I would also pay the interest to make this client go away! If you don't, you risk this client bad-mouthing you forever. Your client seems pretty determined to make you pay and I would guess would not hesitate to make online complaints about you on the web..

Good luck

Well, she is VERY outspoken so I really expect she has bad mouthed me already. I feel you are all right about just sending her a check for the interest. I will be happy to just be done with her and hopefully she will find another preparer that will take on her mess. I know after her strange behavior and lying to me that I won't be interested in doing her taxes ever again. Won't have to put up with her long "after hour" appointments. I always allowed her a half hour and she took ...two hours... of that time!

Thanks again....I guess I just needed to know that I wasn't being stupid to back down after I had explained to her that I would pay penalties and not interest.

I entered a 1099 Misc, but missed that it did not add to the total income. The client has approached me about paying taxes and interest. I responded to tell her that I would have paid penalties, but not taxes or interest. She has called me twice telling me she need to set up an appointment and collect the interest, at least, since she feels it is entirely my fault. She has indicated that she will not be able to pay the entire amount of taxes and that any continuing interest should also be my expense.

I thoughts are that she had control of the funds....not me.... If she had given the money to me I would have earned all but $10 of the interest charged if I only had a return of 3%! The offices where I worked before going into business for myself never paid interest...only penalties. There are no penalties charged at this point. This woman is calling me way after hours and has said she also needs to see me....of course two hours after my office has closed for the day. She just called a little over an hour ago and left a message since I was not home. She said she has left four or five messages....she has not...she left one message and one email right after that and I responded to the email so I could clearly explain my policy. She just will not stop harrassing me about the darn interest....currently $60 from the notice she gave me..which was dated in March.

So.......what would you do?

Thanks ;~)

My client is not a pastor....formally anyway. He built a church for meetings and has been holding services off and on in that church. He has donated all of his time and the group paid a "rental" fee for the building (church) over the past years. My client never accepted any pay for his time and any supplies etc. The client has been claiming the rental income. The group is now no longer meeting. There were donations....just like any other church for various things the church has been doing go help others over the years. Since there were funds left, the group donated the funds back to my client for his time and efforts. The other idea behind that was for the client to keep maintaining the church he built and a reversal of his "giving" as well. Should this be considered income for services or rental in your opinion. Any other options come to mind??

Thanks..............

I'd be careful about your way of answering things, Denne. When you say "We have had no notices...." that WE sure makes it sound like you are part of this business.

Very good point......... Sure a real mess and all of the records are in storage ;~( I believe the client will not end up owing much of anything...perhaps nothing, in the end.

Any other guidance???

I've seen many title insurance officers point out problems with clear title. I've never seen them jump through the hoops to fix a lien that's in error. Maybe that differs by state.

Denne, did you sign any of his returns/941s/940s for him as anything other than the paid preparer?

Yes....I did. On those that had no tax due and when he was out of town..... Sounds like I am now in trouble perhaps for trying to be for help???

Here is the update as of today..... I gave the client a copy of the notice that I had here from a quarter last year that was for $3000.00 I feel he paid the tax for that quarter, but perhaps it got credited to a different quarter or something. He was going to get some copies of the check (front and back). The other portion of the Lien was from the 941 for the second quarter of 2000 for $9000.00! Never have received a notice about that one since it has been my address that is being used. He said he didn't have payroll back then.

Now today.....I got a big packet of stuff from the IRS....assessing him $29,500 from 941 and 940 forms. These are from 2005 thru 2007. Many of those quarters did not have any payroll at all.....I have copies of those and will have to get a transcript so see where the payments have been credited. We have had NO notices about any of these quarters.

What a mess. It does say on the notice I got yesterday that there is a Federal Tax Lien on my home. It also indicated that the paperwork has already been filed with the County.

This is getting worse as time goes by.

Wouldn't you know.....I see this is an IRS agent that gave another of my clients a bad time. She would not admit that she had made an error in that matter. Made things worse than they really were...... Sounding familiar, huh?!

My mailing address is being used by one of my clients. He works out of town and never got mail, since his now ex-wife, didn't seem to be able to keep track of the mail. We thought we had found the right solution. Well.........I just opened the mail and see that he has an old tax issue that has not been resolved. The IRS put the Lien on my home! My husband is in a real panic. I don't know how the IRS can take our home for the debt. I feel the client will take care of the taxes due.... Do I need a release of Lien of some sort....in writing?? What a headache and really don't need something else to do at the moment. Of course we were about to refinance....probably out of the question at the moment ;~(

Thanks!!!

Thanks.....will try that!

I have a disabled client on social security and just a few dollars of interest income. She will have a Homestead Property tax credit through the state. I get a message that the Federal return can not be efiled. I am not trying to efile the Federal. I tried deleting the Federal efile info....created other issued regarding the preparer. Suggestions??? Perhaps delete all Federal schedules and and override to enter the state figures??? Haven't had this happen before....something different this year??

Thanks......

Thank you ;~)

I have a client that loaned his son the money to purchase a home. The son lives in another state while going to school and will reside in that sstate. Rather than the son paying rent, the father felt it more reasonable for the son to own the home. The son did not have any income however and the father just asked if he had to claim himself to get the credit. The father was intending to claim his son and the tuition of course this year. Strange situation, huh? Does the son have to claim himself>>>>> I can't find anything in the research I have done so far to say he has to.....

Thanks~~

I have an employee that paid for office supplies, loaned the employer money and now it is evident that the employer will not be paying this employee back. He has gone out of business..... Sad story, but wondering if the more than $10,000 can be written off. There were also payroll checks involved htat could never be cashed. I feel that the past employer was a real thief. This was really a business investment of sorts. Please advise me how you would handle this matter.

Thanks....

I guess that is an indication of how bad things are in Michigan.... The corporation has so little income that the officer's can't draw a salary. They want to stay in business to see if things get better, but need oncome in the mean time. I will call Wage and Hour to see if I can get more information... Thanks!

I have been wireless with my printing for three years.....I love it! No problems with using ATX with my printer. I especially love it for laptops ;~) Who knows were I will be working and can just keep printing...well until I run out of paper anyway!

Good luck.......

The topic came up with a client today. He is wondering if he shuts down his business....A Corporation....if he can draw unemployment in Michigan. I have been looking online for some information on it and can't find what I am looking for. If he can draw is he limited in anyway? Thanks for your assistance!