Roberts

How do you get your signature in there? Do you use just a generic script font or do a cut/paste of your actual signature? I use Foxit but not Phantom. Even with the free version you can highlight, type stuff into a pdf. It's freakin awesome for FREE.

This came to my attention because an IRS email questioned whether office files were secure. I could fit everything within 2 drawers of a filing cabinet easily but I'm wondering the best solution for acquiring those two drawers SECURELY. I watched a Youtube video and they hacked into a locked cheapo filing cabinet in seconds. The guy in my building who uses a gun safe has everything in physical copy.

This is my point. Whether it's document you have overnight, a return completed / printed waiting to be picked up or complete paper files, they are all vulnerable. I scan everything and they are kept in an encrypt travel drive. They can also be on my computer which is encrypted and turned off every night. Actually the computer hard drive is 100% encrypted AND the files are encrypted within it. I'm not worried about my electronic scans, it's the physical return info I have in the office currently processed.

So you hold client papers in your office and are required to secure them. How do you store / secure them?

So when the client delivers their documents for this years taxes, you immediately scan all of them and immediately return them to the client and never keep them in your office over night?

My point was basically working papers. I have 1 client with a stack of old documents and everything else is current working papers on this year's tax returns. I have a few files with client info but no SSNs in them. Basically things like self financed mortgage, rental property info - that sort of thing. If stolen they are meaningless for a criminal as they contain no usable data (SSN, DOB)

I should note, I've seen all different types of systems the last few months. Guy upstairs uses a gun safe (would take <10 minutes with a crowbar but looks safe). Guy next door has a lockable filing cabinet from Wal-Mart (would take <10 minutes). Attorney I deal with has a full safe he stores them all in (weights 3000 lbs).

How do you file / store your clients paper files / working papers? Normal cabinet, box that is not secure? Lockable filing cabinet providing very little real security? A hardy lockable filing cabinet with a real lock? A safe?

yeah I'd make an adjustment also on 21 and include form 8275 explaining why it was discharged. If you have a number from the police report - include it.

70 1/2 is the RMD age. Anyone can take distributions at 65 without penalty. Has nothing to do with early distributions and avoiding penalties.

I wonder what the thought process is that QCDs should be linked to the 70 1/2 age rule. Why can't a 65 year old make a direct distribution?

Holy cow, the cost to take the exam just went up to $181 for each of the three sections? That's a major difference from when I took it 13-14 years ago (or at least it seems). The EA license was easily the cheapest license I'd ever seen a person could acquire back then.

That actually works also and gets tax deferred (or free) growth. The problem is the kid has to own it since it's their money to begin with so it doesn't eliminate the risk that the child would blow it all when they are 16. With a minor trust, the trustee would have to agree to any withdrawals until turning a set age. This kid could easily have $200k in their fund when they turn 16, not a lot of teenagers could avoid the temptation.

I'm assuming this is the Survivor Benefit Plan? If so the kid gets the benefit until turning 22 unless she gets married or quits school and then it stops. For the savings account, I hope they get the funds into a minor trust account.

I have a client who is over 80 and has 100% private health insurance - refuses to sign up for Medicare. His son in law is a surgeon who told him at one point that he refuses to accept Medicare or Medicaid patients so he thinks all doctors do that. He had a knee replaced and the insurance company is who covered it all.

The problem isn't the regulation, it's the interpretation of it by the regulator in your office and mission creep. Look at how much documentation goes into the EIC and apply that to pretty much every form (consider a Schedule C or 1120S for a minute). When I started in the securities industry a new account form was a single page. 27 years later it is an 18 page document with 13 pages of legal wording and we are required to update it every 3 years with new signatures. If I sell a client an individual muni bond the regulatory and documentation burden on that is 5x that if I sold them a mutual fund that invested in the same thing.

New tax client this year and I'm looking at last years return: she owns a house in New York State but doesn't live there visits for vacation. She works 7 months of the year and rents an apartment in Missouri. She works 5 months of the year in New Jersey. Here's the problem, they filed 3 state tax returns all as non-residents. The W2s show her having income in the state of New York. One W2 says she made $60k total and attributes it $60k in Missouri and $60k in New York. She has another W2 from her time in New Jersey that does the same thing but the preparer did a manual override of THAT New York attribution of income. The software prints off a W2 so I know they entered it into the software. Very weird.

Thankfully, a lot of the programs stopped doing the 90 day requirement. I use two different tax programs and have the passwords written on a piece of paper taped to my monitor.

Do you log into your tax software? Last years tax software to check something? My software logs me off after 20 minutes so I basically have to log back in about 20x per day.

As long as it's for business and you've documented that - I think the interest is 100% deductible for the business. I lot of people use home equity loans to finance rental property just for the ease of getting a loan. When I did a cash out refinance to buy a rental, the mortgage lender said he would need a letter from me explaining for what I was using it. I told him I was buying a rental property and he freaked out explaining I shouldn't say that - write that I'm giving it to my nephew to pay for his college education and I'll get the money immediately. If I say it's for a business (rental property) I'll spend the next month justifying a business plan.

I did fire a client 2 years ago for too many questions. I did his personal return and he gave me 10 questions which I answered. Then 10 more which I answered about 5 and then 10 more and said he needed answers to the other 5 also. Told him to leave and never come back. Seriously, I really shouldn't have to explain every freakin year how I determined the life expectancy of each item within your rental property. Why isn't his cable bill at home a tax deduction since he uses it for education (he watched those flip it shows on real estate)?

I'm with John. If a client can text or email - they are my preferred client. I HATE sitting on the phone for 20 minutes hearing about their last surgery. Have a client who is in the process of dying right now but for the last 10 years if he called and I asked "how's it going" his immediate response was "do you have an hour?" He was somewhat joking but if you let him he'd talk for an hour about his problems. Always had to keep him on track or he'd go off about politics or his hip or how horrible his kids are.....

I've had multiple text and email message with a client. We were waiting on her mortgage statement as we discussed that her refund was cut by 75%. Told her yesterday afternoon that I'd have the return completed last night. This morning she informs me she made charitable contributions of $150 and needs it on the return. You couldn't tell me that at any time over the last week?

If you have Windows 10, Defender is perfectly fine. Just do an occasional sweep with others (I do them every other week). As was said by cbslee, since I moved my email address to being handled via Google and everything goes through their system - I get next to nothing in spam. My corporate email address was transferred to google last summer and their spam blocking system does a solid job. I use Thunderbird as my email client software for accessing the account.

My general quote would be a disclosure riddled $175 that is adjusted up and down according to factors some of you might not agree with. Ability to pay, where they live, how they came to me, what they paid the previous person and how nice they are all factor into the fee. The same return can be charged anywhere from $75-$250. I have some ghetto living clients who are awesome and I charge $75. Disabled vet client gets his rather complex return for $125 plus a free house call. On the same switch I have very wealthy 30ish year old clients living in nice homes their grand parents gave them and I charge $450. All they have are a single investment account 1099 and a K-1 from a trust with 3 numbers (div, int and capital gain).