BulldogTom

The rate for SBBT before they went belly up was a little over 1% for all loans from $300 - $7000. The max fee was $87. The additional fees are: $32 account set up fee to SBBT, $10 CCH Transmission fee, $11 CCH technology fee, and the preparer's add on fee for the application (I charge $19). So in my office, for a $7000 refund, the fee is $159. Tom Lodi, CA

John, Thanks for interpreting "Jainen speak" for me. I did not think of it that way. I thought he was being a little anal about the expenses, especially after reading all his posts about the loan from a shareholder. I have to remember that Jainen always has a point, but he disguises it well. Tom Lodi, CA

Denne, Is there anyone at the house with you? If not, lock the door. Take care of your own safety first. I would tread very carefully with this guy. No more work, period. However, I would give him copies of anything recent that has been paid for, free of charge. I would send him a fax this morning that includes the letter you sent in the mail and the invoice for services not paid. Let him know that anything unpaid for will not be provided. Tell him you will meet with him at a certain time, and have someone at the meeting with you as a witness. If he shows up unannounced, tell him you will call the police if he does not leave. If he doesn't leave, call the police. If he agrees to a meeting time (a time of your choosing)have everything ready to give to him. Hand over what has been paid for and any source documents he has provided. Tell him what work you have already completed that you will provide when payment is made. Don't negotiate, tell him. Remember to have a person in the meeting with you. You should not meet with this guy alone. Good Luck. Stay safe. The payment is not worth what this could turn into. Tom Lodi, CA

I am going to ignore Jainen on this one. That is a far stretch. And neither of the shareholders are looking to get the money back or take a deduction for the amounts paid out of pocket. That is not the issue and the amounts are so small they don't amount to enough to bother with. The real issue is the company never engaged in business. But, they are a company and there is the minimum tax for CA. That is not an issue either. They will pay it. Interest on the late tax is not an issue either, they should have paid it and it is late. Not and item they are worried about. The real question is the penalties. They are pretty steep for a company with no taxable (or non-taxable) income. I don't have real hope that the state will have a gracious heart right now. I am more optimistic that the IRS will be forgiving given the circumstances. Thanks for your reply OldJack. Tom Lodi, CA

I looked up Denne's profile and she is in Michigan. I believe that is still ground zero for the recession. That may be why the fees are so low. But I was shocked when I saw that number as well. $90 per month to do all the bookkeeping and sales tax AND payroll tax? That is a head scratcher. And then to only charge $45/hr for a PITA client you just fired? You are way too kind Denne! Tom Lodi, CA

<<Does anyone know the exact cutoff date to sign up for FeeCollect?>> I got a second e-mail (Candice in Customer Support is ON tonight) after I asked that same question. No cut off date. You can sign up any time you want. My employee/spouse just called the local Jackson Hewitt office and asked if they were going to have Ral's this year. They said they did not know. Their response was "with all the bailouts and bank troubles, we don't know for sure if loans will be offered this year." Tom Lodi, CA

Wow, that was fast. This is the e-mail I recieved from Customer Support. Looks like this is a viable option if there is no bank willing to take on the rejects from SBBT. Good Evening Thomas, This is Candice, contacting you in response to the e-mail you sent in. You can switch to Fee Collect by going to the Support Site and going to Fee Collect on the left hand side of the Home Page. I am also including the Fee Collect FAQs for your convenience. Tom Lodi, CA

This just keeps getting funnier. Thanks for the comic relief. BTW, my youngest son (age 13) has aspirations on that little po-dunk college in Cambridge. I keep telling him he better be real smart and get a scholarship because daddy has a Community Collge budget. Tom Lodi, CA

I don't do a lot of Ral's. But I put it in my advertising this year. Can't change it, the inserts are already run. I wonder what is going to happen with Jackson Hewitt? This is their bank as well. They are going to lose a lot of customers to the green box if they can't deliver the loans. I wonder if MetaBank will be processing loans for JH, just not us? You would think some bank would extend their deadline for SBBT customers. I just sent and e-mail to ATX/CCH customer support to see how I go about dropping SB and to see if I can still get enrolled in Fee Collect. RT's make no sense at all with a $32 set up fee and a $10 transmitter fee to ATX and an $11 technology fee to ATX. That is a $53 fee to give the client the same thing you could give them for $15 with Fee Collect. I will do no bank products at all this year if I can't get to another bank. And if ATX will not allow me into Fee Collect, I will just do post dated checks. Tom Lodi, CA

Thanks Catherine. That is what we have been doing, but it would be nice if the program did it automatically. I think I will modify the master invoice and add a line for the Schedule D with the form charge, and leave the default setting to charge per item. Then I will just have to click on that charge and it should add to the the invoice. Tom Lodi, CA

Thanks KC. I know this. But it is an expensive education for the client. Wait till I tell them about not paying the State of CA for the $800 annual tax and penalties and interest. That will be fun as well. Tom Lodi, CA

Just got the e-mail from SBBT. They will not offer RAL's this year. Only RT's. Not able to get another bank. Advertising is already printed and going out in this week's paper. No way to change that either. What a crappy day. I wish there were no RALs. I wish taxpayers did not want them. I wish I could win the lottery tonight and say screw it all. Tom Lodi, CA

Any help/advice is appreciated. Two individuals who are shareholders in another corporation - a C corp - were exploring the possibility of doing some work for another customer in the same industry. To avoid having the main customer of the C corp finding out about the other customer, they formed a Corp and filed an S election which was accepted by the IRS in 2007. The new deal fell through and the S corp has just been sitting there. The bookkeeper has been filing the Payroll and Sales tax returns, but no one thought to file the 1120S. Now another opportunity has come up for the shareholders, and they are looking at using the S Corp. How would you handle this? There is absolutely no activity except the cost of the contractors license, contractors bond, and the annual statement of information fee paid to the state every year. The expenses were paid by individuals and not recorded in the books (there really are no books, just a bank statement with the same amount of cash every month for 2 1/2 years). The S Corp has no sales or other expenses. Would you file all 3 years and ask for the penalties to be abated? What would be the reasonable cause? Would you file one year and have the IRS request the other years? The penalties are pretty severe at $89 per month for every month late. Thanks in Advance. Tom Lodi, CA

Now that is funny. I bet she isn't getting paid for looking either. Tom Lodi, CA

It has been a few years since I did one of these. It is still a 1040. You just fill in the date of death on the filer info tab. Is there any income generating activities that will need to be settled? Like a rental home, interest on bonds that mature after death, a business or trust that she was entitled to income from? If nothing like that, it will generally be a final return for the decedent with the executor of the will signing the return. I forget exactly what needs to go with the signature. Maybe someone else can chime in. Tom Lodi, cA

Why in the world would anyone want to work with an engineer? They think they are smarter than everybody and they whine about the fee on everything. Oh - maybe that is just my brother in law, the engineer. I don't do his taxes because he thinks he is smarter with turbotax than I am. Ha - he could have gotten it done for free from me and not had to pay intuit - but he is the engineer and he is so smart. Tom Lodi, CA PS - sorry Catherine - I know your post is serious and I shouldn't be joking on it. But I couldn't resist.

In the strictest sense, Jainen is correct. Bad recordkeeping in the past has led to this result. On the other hand, if I looked back on the trial balance and every single year there was an amount coded as a liablity to the owner, and the account title said loan due to the owner, I might be persuaded that this was a loan, that the owner intended it to be paid back with interest, and treat it as such But the earlier thread says "the owner never really determined that the money was to be paid back or not". That pretty much seals it as a contribution of capital in my book. Withdrawal is a dividend. JMHO Tom Lodi, CA

I noticed this year I can choose to have my sch. D calculate by the number of items entered. I have been playing around with it, and it seems like this is an either or proposition. Either by item count or by the form, not both. I would really like to have it both, a fee for the form and additional amounts per line item. Anyone have a suggestion on how to make it happen. I tried customizing the master form and did not have any luck. Thanks in advance. Tom Lodi, CA

Never Mind, I finally found my last application. Tom Lodi, CA

OK, I only fill this out every 3 years, so please excuse me for this one. Which address do I put on the application? My home or my office? How can I check which one they have on file now? Tom Lodi, CA

This capitalist pig is all in favor of preparer registration. I am exempt as an EA, but my wife who works for me is not. She is CTEC licensed. I have no issue with the taxing authorities ensuring that the practitioners who assist the public for a fee are competent to do so. I cheer every time the IRS busts a refund mill that is cheating the government and assisting taxpayers to do the same. On the other hand, I am not in favor of some of the CA tactics to get preparers to audit their clients tax returns. This is very troubling to me. The IRS is sometimes pushing in that direction also. I will quit preparing taxes before I will audit my clients and rat them out to the IRS or CA. My job is to find every loophole, deduction, exclusion and credit to minimize the tax burden of my client. If the IRS wants me to advocate for them, they should pay me to do so. I will not be drafted into their service by virtue of my occupation. Stepping off my soap box now. Tom Lodi, CA

I was at Spidell yesterday. CA is calling the Cash For Clunkers a sale of a personal asset for the amount of the voucher (I agree - no issues there for me). Fed law clearly says it is non-taxable income. CA says it is a disposition of a personal asset. How are you going to enter on the return? I think I am going to omit from 1040 and add a CA Sch. D to CA return. Any comments or suggestions? Tom Lodi, CA

Did anyone else have this happen. I updated (like I do every day) the software and when I went in the next time it automatically started downloading updates. I know my preferences and I know I did not set them to auto update. Now I am sitting here for 10 minutes waiting for the software to update and it is stuck at 92%. This is not good. I don't like when ATX changes my preferences. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! Tom Lodi, cA

Sorry John, I think you are off base on the e-file thing. (although I agree with the stealth auditor comment) I did not like it when the state of CA went to e-file. I offered every one of my clients the chance to opt-out. Very few did, even though I was charging for e-filing the return. Then I figured out how easy it was, and the next year started charging for the opt-out form. I don't charge for it anymore. Every once in a while a client will want to paper file. But the majority of my clients (like 99.9%) don't care how the return gets filed. Tom Lodi, CA

OK, this may sound stupid, but aside from the tax implications, why is this guy short selling if he has wealth? Can he afford the payments? Just wondering. Tom Lodi, CA