Roberts

Holy cow their system is horrific.

With tax software the way it is, why do you require 100% of the information before starting a return? It would take me longer to try and determine if I had everything prior to starting than if I just worked through what's available.

Didn't work for my software.

I've never been able to utilized E-Services. Went through the process in November to activate AGAIN. In December I entered my authorization number they mailed me and I had access to the service. Need it today - bam - doesn't recognize me at all and says I'm again not enrolled. I'll never understand that thing.

My fee varies depending upon the complexity, the client's ability to pay and their personality. Some people get charged $150 for all that. Someone else might get charged $450. It all depends. I hate to charge someone $200 if I know they are living on social security. If someone is a jerk and a pain to deal with, I'll put up with them for 20 minutes if they are paying me the $350. 95% of new clients are of the belief their return is really simple, they get along great with their ex-spouse and life is grand - until you meet them.

Client of mine got married. Her new spouse sent me a 1000+ word text (I've never met him previous to this) about doing their tax return with 6 questions that culminated in wanting to argue about the tax code of MFS. I informed him I don't do MFS returns - you need to go elsewhere. He replied with accusations and wanting to argue about it. I'm exhausted already with this man - buh bye.

That's where I got the 90 days thing. Holy cow, so in October or whenever I could be updating the password again even though I might go 2-3 month without logging into it. Last years tax software still doesn't require it - guessing FUTURE years will link the passwords between yearly versions?

Very interesting. Going to be hard to over rule the software assessing a penalty - reality is I don't have any clients who don't have insurance. My office has significant new regulation coming down the pike for later this year- our clearing firm has quietly stopped working on it with the assumption it's dead. They had hired 12 attorneys to work on this and have been having weekly meetings with the DOL to interpret the rules.

I called Drake Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Monday late - no waits on any of them for that lost password. OLTPro has never been an issue calling them at even peak times.

It was Drake tax software - not ATX so 5x wasn't helping. Guy who pays for Drake had to call them and vouch I could talk for him - Drake emailed us a temp password but it took a while. The Drake website says my password will only work for 90 days. Do they mean every 90 days FOREVER?

Yep, I've already lost one - threw away the paper that I'd written it on. The security questions - the answers don't work. Going to have to come in tomorrow and work with the company to get it reset.

I'd do a spreadsheet based upon previous loans - plug in the total and it spits out interest and taxes for each. That way you can also show how you came up with the numbers (not that it is going to really matter). If there are changes later, you can show how you adapted.

I have a laptop at home as my backup. With Bittorrent Sync - it automatically backs up the folders I want backed up and all transmissions are encrypted. And it's 100% free. I also backup everything weekly onto a flash drive. When I go to lunch - just move the folders onto the drive and when I return it's all done. Also encrypted - for free. I don't backup actual programs - just the data / backup files.

Encrypted email can be done for free with Enigmail and Mozilla Thunderbird email software. The problem is that your email and the client's email needs to be keyed together with encryption codes. Very few people are willing to take the steps. I encrypt all PDF files I send them. I then text them the password. All for free.

I haven't had any client who were divorcing and insisted on filing MFS. It rarely is beneficial to go that route. I doubt I'd do either return in that scenario and just let them walk. It's always amazing to me how often one will declare that they are working through the divorce amicably or post divorce they'll say they get along great. And then they take a deduction maybe they shouldn't have and you'd swear the shouting on the phone wasn't amicable.

Gail nailed that answer.

PrimoPDF is free and if you choose to - it'll encrypt any pdf.

Well isn't this ironic timing. One of the 3 I've fired just had his brother / attorney call to threaten legal action against me for improperly preparing his return in 2015. He demanded 2 years ago that i depreciate his rental property BEFORE he placed it into service. I refused and declared he was rehabbing it and you can't depreciate an investment (he had no occupancy permit or working utilities so how could he rent it?). Last year (one of the reasons his questions were so stupid) he demanded I section 179 his residential rental property so that he could get a massive refund and buy another property. Supposedly a real estate seminar he went to said this was okay. It took about 15 minutes for his brother to recognize how uninformed his client is on the subject.

Client had wash sale losses disallowed last year - very clearly on his 1099. Somehow, it became my fault that Fidelity caught that his wife screwed up. Somehow it shocked him that I would believe the 1099 for wash sales but he had no problem with me believing them on dividends and interest. Same client declares every year that it is MY responsibility to do tax returns for his IRA accounts that hold MLPs. I keep explaining it's Fidelity's responsibility but he either can't remember or refuses to remember we've gone through this for 5 years. Wash Sale is a 61 day blackout window. Trade day is that "1" and then it's 30 days on either side. I'd buy on the 31st day which is January 23rd.

I agree with not responding to communications. I wouldn't block the person but would save all communications given to you. Fired a client about 3 weeks ago. She received a $25 bill from the state for not making estimated tax payments. Said it very plainly on the letter but she declared that's NOT what it said and that I needed to pay the $25 because that's what H&R Block would do. After admitting she never made state estimated payments and recognizing I'd warned her about it for years - I told her to go to H&R Block and never return. These people just aren't worth it. I've fired 3 clients in the last year and have never felt better about my life! I only have one more jerk on my list and I doubt he comes back. He blamed me for an "error" in his return yet recognized in our email communications that I had 2x asked a question to clarify, 2x he gave me an answer which justified my actions yet in his opinion I should have ignored what he wrote and followed through on what he should have said. He had ME explain to his ex-wife why we took the deduction "by accident" because he was such a freakin wimp.

Couple of months ago I shifted my corporate email to Google and it runs through the Gmail servers with my corporate name. I've always had Gmail for personal emails - holy cow it's nice having their spam filters on my corporate account also. It catches the vast majority of that junk so I really only get about 15 emails per day - I can actually read and critique 15 emails. I get a bill from the New York Stock Exchange every month in my email. It looks so fake I rarely pay with it and wait for the bill to show up in the mail.

Yep. Postcard tax returns, flat tax, fair tax - our job security has never been stronger.

I met this requirement for my tax software. I had to renew my e-services account (which I'd been trying to do for weeks for something else) and all told, took me about 10 minutes to accomplish. Not really sure how people consider this burdensome, frustrating or painful.

Deb IMO your computer is fine but it's likely either: a) bogged down with a bunch of junk (MSCONFIG - start up). Things like Quickbooks, your tax software, spreadsheet programs, Adobe programs - you've probably got 30+ programs starting and bad registries and other junk - it accumulates. b - your hard drive is dying - I'd do a full backup of everything you need ASAP. or c) you have a bunch of malware or a few virsus' on your computer. If you decide to go with a new computer - skip a regular hard drive and go with an SSD (Solid State Drive). They last a REALLY long time (no moving parts) and you'll be shocked how quickly software boots. My computer boots in <15 seconds and Quickbooks is up and running in <5 seconds. If you have 8 GB of ram and an i5 processor - you have enough of a computer to run what you need.

You should ignore this thread entirely and if your software company demands verification you should refuse to provide. I'm sure nothing will happen and everything will be perfectly fine.