Lion EA

Good point. And, if per her state law, that the trust does not have to be revised following her marriage. (In CT, a will would need to be revised or reconfirmed or whatever the appropriate legal term is following a marriage or divorce.)

Handyman may have sold your client on marriage as getting SS when she's gone and not an issue to her or her family. But, now he's her husband, and without a solid pre-nup or a will revised after the marriage date, he will get her house and bank/broker accounts and jewelry and.... Then, that son will have big legal bills to try to salvage things for her own children and grandchildren. Yes, keep us posted on the next episode. Same bat-time, same bat-station.

Husband can draw on wife's account and continue to draw after her death, but all things being equal (they are not equal if he's not FRA) he gets about half of what she gets. As you say, no big whoop. We can NOT tell family members that mommy got married or any other information we collect to prepare her tax returns. Circular 230. Hopefully, his lawyer will tell him that and charge him for an hour of his time, too.

CCH requires the EIN if using the 1099 also and efiling. That's why I use the data entry screen instead of the facsimile 1099 form. No. I do not enter it literally on line 10 of the government form itself, but on the line 10 worksheet so the software can calculate the taxable amount (AMT reduces that for many of my clients) and handles it correctly on all the state returns. Why do you pick on me for saving a few keystrokes? I'm trying to save other preparers time in these last hectic days. I also have the Americans in Singapore for a few years with frequent trips to the states and NY rental income so pouring over their calendar. The couple with two 1099-Cs from their FL rental that fell into a sink hole. The gal that moved to OH but back again while her mother was ill and then back to OH when the estate closed and now back to CT; always just over a year for each stay; 2016 had her moving to OH in May but no earned income in CT but some tiny investment income waiting on dates to see which state... And the gal who moved to CA but thinks her W-2 is wrong so spent four days to come up with $5,000 that she wants me to use on the CA return as taxes paid to CT when she returned from CA after becoming a resident to close out the fiscal quarter for her company. And, the couple both self-employed, one in both NY and CT; wife's new business is skin care -- with inventory. And the 90-year-old whose prior preparer is in jail for stealing from his clients; she keeps everything but daughter can't find her prior year return in the stacks. The continuing client who comes in every two years with two sets of returns to prepare. The woman leaving for Uganda to care for her grandchildren for a few months so I have to finish this weekend. And our own!

For CT and NY, client/you have to get it online. Maybe RI does this now, too. I just enter on Line 10 and am done.

I use this BB and others on half of a horizontal monitor (other half is my email, while tax return entry is on a vertical monitor and government forms on a third monitor, also vertical) so the pinned posts do cut down on what I can see on this square half of this monitor. I like the idea of getting to the posts via a link, but saving most of the prime space for new posts to show before having to scroll down too far. Thank you for taking good care of us.

Fujitsu, definitely. Gave my long-time ScanSnap to my kids who run a business; it was too good to upgrade unless I found a home for the ScanSnap. I bought a newer Fujitsu 6130Z with a very small footprint to use with CCH products. Fujitsus are the workhorses of the scanner world, like HP is to printers.

I just found out from SSA that I cannot open a MySocialSecurity online account without either unfreezing my credit (they use Equifax!!) or taking ID in person to a SSA office, none of which are very close. When I tried to set up online, I received a message that I cannot open a SS account with my SSN -- that scared me since I'm due to get my first SS direct deposit in October. So, I immediately called and was told they can't approve me because my credit is frozen. Another project for November. Guess I'll look into E-Services, also.

IRS Direct Pay has worked for a couple of my clients. Haven't used it myself.

Sometimes it is just a joint venture between two Schedule Cs. And, sometimes if potential clients don't know what business entity they are and don't know where there finances stand and have no plan at all, it might be a hobby! With realtors, it's location, location, location. With tax preparers, it's question, question, question. Keep asking questions.

Equifax has made it clear in print on their site that you do NOT waive your right to sue. I still think the're sleazeballs, but the public outcry or states attorneys general or both made them remove the waiver and state their new offer.

I usually work with clients when they bring in all their tax information EXCEPT those pesky K-1s that might not arrive until after 15 September. It was good to get a handle on the entity they worked for sooner rather than later, especially that time since it turned out they work for a C-corporation. That way I knew to ask for W-2s, told them what they would receive/not receive from that company, let them know the low value of unreimbursed employee expenses ($0 in their case of high AGIs), and talk to them about fringe benefits. By the way, they still call themselves partners; some things you can't change.

Ask all your clients who receive K-1s from a partnership to give you a copy of their partnership agreement. You can learn some interesting things! (I had some guys who called themselves partners, but it was a C-corp!)

Read the partnership agreement.

I've had to unfreeze to add one of our kids to our cell's family plan, to get some dental work done, etc., I ask who they use. Sometimes they have to call corporate, but I've always gotten it. I do a temporary unfreeze online for that agency only, you have a few options, at no cost and account is automatically refrozen at no cost. Freezes are often free for senior citizens and anyone who was a victim of identity theft. A few states allow charges of $10; CT does and I think PA. A few states do not allow charges at all. And, the rest allow charges from about $3 to about $6. Consumer radio talk show host Clark Howard's web pages: http://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide/ http://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/equifax-free-credit-monitoring-data-breach-dont-sign-up/ For those who don't click on links, Clark Howard has changed the name of his website to Clark.com, so start on his homepage and search for the topics that interest you.

And, a counter won't stop cats!

It could be very helpful for those not able to itemize charitable contributions. It gets the full wage amount to charities without an employee getting a lesser amount after taxes and then donating that lesser amount. The employee chooses this if he wants to give (lose something, in your words) as a way to give more than his after-tax wages.

Step up or step DOWN for the percentage owned by the spouse that passed away.

Jack, the freeze on Equifax did us no good, because someone who isn't us was able to access our information anyway.

We froze our info on all three agencies a few years ago when Anthem was hacked. Now that Equifax was hacked, that freeze is useless! Like you say, nothing we can do short of leaving the grid entirely. Hubby received an email to click on a link to see if our Equifax info was leaked. Hubby does NOT click on links.

I have received calls from ME, from my home landline to my home landline and to my office landline! So many others must be receiving calls from "me."

I saw Cirque du Soleil Zarkana (some zombie-like characters but very musical with a great pianist and singers as well as the acrobats) at the Aria where you can carry in food/drink. There's a large buffet on the same floor with a coupon on your show ticket. But, I didn't want that much to eat. There was also a pub-looking restaurant that said they'd do take-out when I asked, so I bought a vodka & tonic and truffle fries to take to the show. I stayed at the Cosmo which had lots of great restaurants, bars, and grab & go areas. A couple blocks away was an ice cream shop which had burgers and sandwiches. One event took place at Brooklyn Bowl or similar name with food. A friend moved over to The Linc to save money, and there were a lot of restaurants around that. Ask the locals where they like to eat; ask the bellboys, chambermaids, retail salespeople, etc., that aren't beholden to anyone. If you're using Uber or Lyft, ask your driver and fellow passengers.

If you're POA, you'll get duplicate IRS letters, right?

If you use QB for your own accounting, you can email an invoice with a link your client can click to pay you. One of my clients has been using it. $0.50 per use, at least it was the last time he mentioned it to me.

I have some OH college student clients and know the strange tax things in that state (and get help from Jack). But, have you checked with OH to see if there's an alternate ID if no current DL? It's still cheaper for OH to do direct deposit than to generate and mail a paper check. You are e-filing the current and two prior years, right? Even fussy NY allows for any DL (most of my clients have CT DLs) and even no DL and still does DD.