Lion EA

Make sure you have some reason to use 10% for land. Around here, land can be as much as 100% as the building is often torn down to build a McMansion. A couple of recent tax bills had about a 50% value for the land in a neighboring town for residential property. Just CYA with documentation.

E-Help Desk. And your software e-file support.

They email me CONSTANTLY so I just delete them. I have enough options to NOT buy from annoying vendors.

But, then again you also WIN that same argument with yourself !!

Hubby lost his internet every time he was on the phone and blamed our router and me for moving my office within our house. Finally a techie he was complaining to asked him if it was a wireless phone! He now uses a hardwired phone and has wifi and internet all over our small house. I, however, am running out of desk space and have items closer together than they should be and get some feedback and static type issues. House phone, office phone, router, CPU, a rheostat type of switch to a floor lamp, a printer, but everything else on separate stands.

Whatever NAEA offers as a group plan, think it's by Calsurance. It was better rates than my former company. But, I haven't had to file a claim so can't comment from that direction.

Groan!

Ultra Tax is giving a sweet pricing deal to TaxWorks clients. Maybe you can get the same as a returning UT client. ProSystem fx has great pricing, especially with pay per return.

No, it took us a couple of hurricanes to finally reach a decision, so I'm anxious to get this generator installed. But, it's probably good news for the electrician who must be very busy!

And the electrician to install my generator hasn't called us back!

Hot, humid, overcast, and rainy. Made me feel better about working on trusts, estates, and partnerships with 15 September deadlines!

Amen, sister!

I want to take the standard deduction for donations.

National Association of Enrolled Agents IRS just--like 5 minutes ago--released final regs (covering some 75 pages) on the requirement to maintain minimum essential coverage required by the Affordable Care Act (and other laws). The final regs provide guidance to individual taxpayers on the Section 5000A shared responsibility payment (required for those who do not maintain minimum essential coverage). http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2013-21157_PI.pdf www.ofr.gov

I didn't give you my 1099 for my IRA because they already withheld taxes from it (10%) so I don't have to report it. So why am I getting an IRS letter about that money?

I don't have to report income under $600, right? And the variations, such as $600 per client or $600 per check or....

I've worked with only one auditor who actually made sense to me, although many did make some sense of the law. (But, then the laws don't necessarily make sense to me; they're just the law!) I've worked with auditors who'd made up their mind before we met. I've worked with auditors who didn't understand the law and missed things, but in my clients' favor. I've worked with auditors that I had to explain the law to them, read the code to them, etc. I was not involved with that picky auditor, but there may be more out there, or more that can be that picky when they're having a bad day. I don't know if I would've urged a client to fight it, if that friend had been my client then or if I hadn't heard her story long after the fact. As for my friend, she returned to the screensavers as bundled with Windows and no longer personalized her screensaver.

A home office can be decorated, have decor. Even that very picky auditor did not object to pictures on the walls (just the photo of the grandchild as computer wallpaper). Plants would be office decor, even manufacturing oxygen for your clients and yourself as you work. And, the toy box for clients who bring small children along is exclusively for business use if you yourself do not have small children using it, your own children or children of personal guests. That picky auditor -- and it was enough years ago that I hope she's retired! -- did not object to anything used exclusively in business, just personal items that had personal use while in the supposed OIH, such as personal family pictures scrolling across the computer. Now, I took lots of clients into my living room a couple of years ago when my son married to show them the wedding pictures on my piano. But, I don't have a piano in my office. And, do note Jainen's explanation of two businesses sharing an office as something that can disqualify the exclusive use test.

You would have to ask the auditor to place your finger!

Wow! You could stay in my guest room and landscape my yard and prepare tax returns. Name your price. PS I do have deer and turkeys and chipmunks and racoons and....

May as well been working for the government as he was working for a large firm in a division that relied on government contracts.

I haven't used ATX in years. Used to be, I'd install program on my new computer. Then I'd open the program on my old computer, choose Export returns, and put on a flash drive; and then open the program on my new computer, choose Import returns, and done. Returns now on both computers. Some people used Backup and Restore.

My husband tracks dirt into my office. In fact, I shouldn't let my husband in my office! Although, I prepare our joint return for free, so is he a client? I have a bulletin board full of client pictures, such as the newly born tax deduction, and thank you notes -- but that's all business relationships. When I was being photographed for CCH's Partners quarterly magazine, the stylist had me bring in some personal pictures from elsewhere in the house because I had none in my office. I brought in the kids' graduation pictures which she placed on my desk for the photo shoot. Most audits I've heard about in recent years are letter audits and are concerned with things like mileage. My ex worked for a large company, part of the military-industrial complex. The military contracts required him to have a lock on his door due to his security clearance; however, the company allowed him only 3/4 walls due to his level within the company -- anyone could've climbed over the walls and not been stopped by a locked door. HR told him that he didn't qualify to have a plant in his office! So, they started bringing in things like silver tea services, fondue sets, empty brandy decanters/snifters, and other things that weren't specifically forbidden in the printed employees' manual. His boss was moved into a lovely paneled office but didn't have the level to merit paneling, so the paneling was removed.

Hopefully that auditor has retired by now!