Lion EA

I'm very nice to her; I charge her a lot for my time. But, I bang my head against the wall when she tries to get legal advice from me. I guess I should be shaking some sense into her instead, but she's usually on the telephone instead of in my office. I have more trouble as time goes by being sympathetic re her money troubles. (Her renovations to her new "cheap" house cost more than three times what I paid for my whole house.) But, I did suggest she engage a lawyer if she was going to try to negotiate with her ex, and she did. What will constitute due diligence on my part when she comes to me with her tax information and says she no longer has to report her alimony? This new automatic six-month extension seemed to create a tax season that never ended for me. Add a few who got behind and came in after 15 October with one or two or three years, and I still have a stack of 2005-2007 returns on my desk. Before, so many people finished by 15 August that the fall did slow down and gave me time to catch up on bookkeeping and taking courses. A client e-mailed me today about sending me his partnership QB file. I was swamped mid-February to mid-April but busy all year long now.

I'll bump this up so more people see it as they return to thoughts of taxes instead of holidays.

Jainen, I know about the three-year rule, but she's been divorced since prior to 2004. Until their house sold, she got to live in the house and received $5,000/month in support. Since the house sold, she receives $10,000/month. She wants to increase that for two or three years and be done with her ties to the ex sooner than her divorce decree states. So, we're talking about her support increasing a second time and not decreasing until at least 2011 or later. She's been spending her money on lawyers and finally found one who said he could get her money sooner and have it be tax free. Of course, her ex wants to pay substantially less than she's proposing, so the only one benefiting so far is the lawyer. And, she has two sons with the ex, so the ties are still there while her sons are around. I think I'll tell her to talk to her therapist instead of her lawyer....

Try posting in the larger forum with a heading of Peachtree W-2s or something descriptive. You need a specific type of responder. Also, try a Peachtree-sponsored message board.

Now, if I'd responded to each topic in a different reply, I'd be closer to my goal of 500 posts before I get real busy!

Well, my whiny client has made me raise my hourly rates! I thought about asking her to give me her $10,000/month so I could demonstrate how to live on that for a few years. Jainen, her divorce was final a few years back, including the property settlement and monthly support. She's trying to change the timing on her support now. So, can her lawyer actually change the character of the support to property by changing the timing? Kyle, like everything tax, it depends. For those with a RAL clientele, 19 January or whenever e-filing opens through mid-February is busy with people getting their W-2s and wanting their rapid refunds, with March slower, and then a flurry at the end. My clients are waiting on brokerage statements and K-1s and...so I get busy gradually peaking on 15 April, but with a cluster at the beginning of January needing me to recompute their ES payments due to stock sales late in the year or whatever change happened to them. I promised to hold prices the same for this second year out on my own, but that's just for clients who followed me originally. New clients and new situations for old clients and old clients who came to me after tax season pay my full rates. I'm not trying to compete on price. In fact, I hope to lose a whiny client or two to have more time for my other clients, and to sleep.

Everything Jainen and John said. And, after a long explanation with the taxpayer who typically deals with me, then an even longer telephone call with the spouse! And, then maybe a second telephone call with the taxpayer. I expect to be explaining a lot of things more than once this season. I have very intelligent, involved clients; but they're dealing with situations new to them and have had months to let their opinions (and the opinions of their friends) settle into their minds before they get around to asking me the tax consequences of their life changes. I've already been dealing with underwithholding/ES payments -- the person who left employment and has that flaky new Schedule C and expected to owe less, not more, since they made less and never noticed that they've paid less FIT and SIT also. Luckily, some of those who sold investments to get them through the year did call me re capital gains and making ES payments, so had a chance to look into their whole situation. I think this will be a time-consuming season. Those that have called claim their situations are simpler because they have less money, but they've really been more complex from a tax standpoint with sales of investments, job changes with retirement fund distributions and rollovers, self employment, etc. I've been dealing with one gal who claims her lawyer says her settlement will be nontaxable. Her settlement? She's negotiating to get her alimony sped up in exchange for accepting less in total. So, she's bumping herself up into a higher tax bracket by getting alimony in the high six figures over another couple or three years instead of the low six figures for another decade or so. (She's a few years into the divorce and can't live on only $10,000/month!) She doesn't understand why she would owe any taxes since it's a "settlement" and she'll invest it in Dreyfus tax-exempt munis. She wants me to answer her legal questions because her lawyer charges $450/hour. I want to shake her until her brain begins to work! It's going to be a long season here in Fairfield County, CT, the NYC bedroom communities where everyone worked in the financial industry. The wives started businesses selling high-end clothing from wine parties in their living rooms and Arbonne skin care and never separated their purchases for personal use from their actual inventory and HAVE to use the product to show it off and had to buy that $650 lamp for their living room to show off the clothing. Even the husbands roll their eyes when their trophy wives try to explain business concepts. Enough venting. I should resolve to think positively.

My virtual computer guy (VMS that I've raved about before) just called me this morning to schedule a time to do a PC clean up before tax season gets crazy, make sure my anti-virus and spyware's up to date, do a sweep, etc. I'm glad he reminded me. And, I'm backing up automatically to their secure server as well as to my external hard drive since using them. The peace of mind alone is worth every penny. Love their service.

Your guesses are my understanding. A warm boot restarts Windows, but a problem could be occurring outside Windows. A cold boot turns off the computer, waits a minute, and turns it back on. I'm undoubtedly giving away my age with that terminology. It's the old Ctrl-Alt-Delete vs. turning off the hardware, waiting for the hard drive to stop, and turning the computer back on. I've heard it called a hard boot. When all else fails, reboot. And then, call for help!

I like to try closing and reopening first, the browser, software, whatever seems to be the problem. Next, it's a warm boot. Then, it's a cold boot. After that, I'm on the telephone. Now I have Kyle and his colleagues on my side, well on the telephone and on my computer while I keep hands off to not make the problem worse.

Why isn't it taxable wages on his 2005 return? Doesn't the return of an excess contribution to a 401(k) make everything as if the contribution had not taken place, in other words, replace it in his 2005 wages from which it came? Been a long time since I had one, so mainly I'm posting to get up to 500 posts before tax season gets real busy!

A very :bday:

You're not in business to make zero. Or, if you are, it's not a business, it's a hobby.

W-4 loans. What a great idea! Your tax practice will make millions. Don't forget to copyright that. Can we have a contest to pick your slogan?

A very :bday:

I should be working but am reading my mail and tax boards and stuff. Guess I'll finally get in a couple hours work before our usual New Year's Eve of good Chinese food and good champagne at home with my hubby. Happy New Year, everyone! And, a prosperous Tax Season, too.

ProSystem fx has worksheet mode and interview mode. I like the interview mode a bit better since it follows the forms more closely. It's easier for me to teach my assistant the worksheet mode, however. Actually, you can also use the government forms directly for data entry as well as to view what you've done. In fact, you can jump back and forth among all the data entry options with a click. From what I hear, the ProSystem fx customer base is pretty evenly split between the interview and worksheet modes.

Notice how Jainen has disappeared since I asked him for a cookie? Thank goodness he's generous with information.

But, will you give me a cookie?

Why don't you contribute to your 401(k) plan on a final 2008 payroll? If you have very little profit, an IRA allows $5,000 without being limited to profit. If you have more profit or are limited in IRA contributions due to being an active participant in an employer's plan, then a SEP has higher limits than an IRA but IS limited by your net SE income. You can contribute to your IRA up to 15 April and to a SEP through your return due date including extensions. You don't even mention Roth contributions. You need to sit down with your tax advisor to go over your individual situation in detail.

Happy Birthday :bday:

Amen!

Happy Birthday and Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

We all have our specialties. Someone who gets up early can be the first to offer birthday greetings.