Roberts

The boot time of 15 seconds was before I set up Bitlocker for encryption and a Windows password. So yeah, those add to it. I have a computer running at home which I purchased refurbished with a SSD - it's an old Dell. All I run on it is Plex and Resilio Sync (used to be Bittorrent Sync). If you know Plex you know I'm running a few other things. This thing flies. I don't load anything that isn't absolutely necessary.

oohhh, I'm currently in a Google Adwords class action lawsuit. I'm retiring when I get the check!

This is the correct answer.

I could be wrong but I believe the purpose of the exclusion is to avoid double taxation. You are required to pay in the US but if you meet the requirements (which are also the requirements for owing taxes in the foreign country), you'll get a partial waiver / exclusion. Back in the tech bubble I didn't do taxes yet but had several investment clients who moved overseas to work at foreign tech firms. They didn't receive W2s but letters showing their income. They avoided a major portion of the US taxes - they paid VERY handsomely in Ireland, UK and Australia. The IRS rule says you must meet the residency test and move your tax home to the foreign country. That means you are now subject to taxation in the foreign country. Again I could be wrong but I think that's all on purpose. Also for the SS payment - they didn't pay it. The couple who moved to Australia was forced to pay into an annuity program they have and they still have money sitting in that account and can get it when they hit Australian retirement age.

Are not the citizens of the Marshall Islands enrolled in the Social Security Administration's plan? I've never had a client with foreign earned income get a W2 because SS and Meda are only applied IF they don't pay taxes into the foreign system. You only get the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion credit if you've paid income taxes in that foreign country. Why would a W2 be required to show income tax withheld in a foreign country? US Government employees would still get one as I understand it but they don't pay foreign taxes a lot of times.

The only class action suit that ever got me any money was for Liberty Tax I think. They called my cell phone and my wife's wanting to talk about me working there and they were sued. I got two checks for $50 each. My small claims lawsuit against TRX Tax software earned me a refund of what I paid them.

IMO, when there is silence it means it was a robocall and they don't have any available salespeople to take your call so it's silence. You may eventually get a salesperson on the line. The computers are constantly dialing even if nobody is currently ready, in anticipation that when you pick up someone will actually be available.

Maybe I'm wrong on this one but would the foreign worker get a W2? The very few of them that I've done, they got a letter stating their foreign wages, not a full W2. Seems if you have been given a W2 and are making this claim, the IRS will give it a closer look eventually. But maybe I'm completely wrong.

I'm confused by this, are you saying you'll just continue doing the work for those 20 clients only and sell the rest? My "retirement" plan is to drop down to about 20 clients at the age of 60 and just handle those and only them. As they die or move - I don't replace them. Those 20 would pay for the healthcare costs for my wife and I until we hit Medicare. My top 3 clients would pay for our health insurance.

Passing the USTCP is impressive.

In pretty much every profession - the highly successful people are salesmen / women. If you want to be successful, learn how to sell your product and do it. Most accountants abhor the idea of selling themselves - they need to get over it. Just realize, mailings and seminars are essentially supporting activities - you are in for a long (expensive) battle if those are your primary focus.

I would make one adjustment - don't just mail out a mass mailer to everyone, mail it out to new homeowners near your office. Pretty good chance they moved far enough that they are in the market for someone closer to home. Sales opportunities occur by hitting people up during life changing events. New kids, new home, new spouse or new ex-spouse, death of a family member etc. During those events, people are open to new ideas or have new needs. I think it was Michael Dell who used this to make over $18k per year in high school selling newspaper subscriptions by solely targeting new homeowners versus every mailing address.

Hmmmm, I need to check with them about Pay per return next year. I really only do about 10 of them but they are HIGH priced so I don't mind paying it. $1095 is a solid price for their software.

That's my primary problem with Drake. Finding where something goes when you haven't used it in a while is a PITA. They say they have forms entry - it's not forms entry. How much does Drake cost for a single user license? Is it $1,095? I basically use Drake to do that taxes for a law office and everything is submitted with the lawyers information. In previous years I'd enter my EIN information and do 2-3 returns with me as the preparer - not allowed this past season with the EIN matching.

Agree 100%.

That's always a bizarre issue. In training I was told to call and check on it after a week. Every time I call the IRS acts like they are shocked I'd call so soon - every time it's in the system. It's a very weird system - no clue how it works.

Student loan debt is not forgivable from disability but the IRS will often times negotiate a settlement. This person would have a $100k tax bill and for most disabled people, that's going to generate insolvency so the IRS has an incentive to negotiate a far lower rate. I'd bet they'd work that through an offer in compromise formula.

Many financial advisors sign off on a fiduciary agreement with the client. The lack of knowledge on the issue is silly. Comparing a professional advisor to a salesperson at Northwestern or Ameriprise is like comparing a professional tax planner to the person at Liberty Tax who took a 3 week class.

There is a group of people out there who's job is to help their clients with their finances and making sure everything is in order and working for them properly. On this site many like to bash them as being irrelevant.

My vacation is next month so I've started my CE as of yesterday! Will have my 24 hour certificate BEFORE I get on that plane.

Let's be honest and realize that when you inform them that 2014 is a requirement, they WILL pack up and go to the next preparer and fail to mention 2014. I would inform the potential client that when a refund request for 2015 shows up, the IRS will run a tax return without any deductions for 2014 and assess them a tax owed far higher than your return will generate. Inform them that at that time, fixing their error will cost significantly more than doing an original return.

If you don't have anything nice to say........ Certain things just aren't my responsibility. If the new preparer asked nicely, maybe.

Just as an example: Deliver before March 15th and you get a 20% discount. Deliver before April 1st is normal price. Deliver after April 1st is a 30% additional fee.

I'm officially done. Running malware scans, virus scans and backing up everything on my computer. Have about a dozen people to pick up / efile. They'll slowly stagger in.

And if they never learned on the ultra easy returns - they'll likely never learn as it gets more difficult.