JohnH

My first thought was, IRS is going to allow you to report interest income regardless of whether you do or do not have a Fed ID number.

Office Depot has great return policies. So do companies like Home Depot and Lowes. They really focus on customer service and they deserve customer loyalty. They earn it. Worst company for return policies I know of is Best Buy. Last time I did business with them I promised myself I'd call them out in their sorry return policies at every opportunity. I never buy from them unless there is no other option. Even a better price won't get me in their store, unless it is significantly better.

Smart move. I like the way you think...

I agree totally. I think there should be a limit of some sort - maybe non-cash contributions can't exceed xx% of cash contributions. Some of these values are unbelievable, and I just don't believe someone who gives $25 to their church when they show up on Christmas and $10 to the United Way in the whole year is generous enough to give $2,000 worth of good clothing, furniture, and toys to Goodwill. They donate their junk and then want to inflate its value.

Yes, states have varied and different rules. NC, for example, imposes a flat 10% penalty on the underpayment, although they still don't invalidate the extension. But the IRS is very lenient when it comes to extensions and underpayments. That's important information when the client's back is against the wall.

They aren't required to make a payment in order for the extension to be valid, regardless of the amount owed. They will pay interest at about 5% APR plus a FTP penalty which equates to 6% APR, so the underpayment will cost them roughly 1% per month on the unpaid balance. But they will escape the 5% per month FTF penalty, which is the main reason for filing the extension. The most important thing is that the estimated balance due be as accurate as possible, regardless of whether or not it is paid - that is the only way the extension can be invalidated after the fact. Obviously it's better to pay the estimated balance due if they can, but it isn't required in order for the extension to serve its main purpose. As a matter of fact, the one I prepared today had an $800 balance due and they are not making any payment with it. But they still escape the 5% FTF penalty completely.

Just prepared my first one today. There will be many more in the coming weeks. It's always good to get that first one out of the way - it gets the ball rolling and makes the others much easier.

Thanks KC. I paid a couple of hundred dollars for a set of CD's by David many years ago, which had about 12 hours of teaching. A quick look at this 45-minute clip seems to summarize most of his key points in that series. Understanding the Matrix of Self-Management and Mind Like Water at the mid-point of the talk is really the heart of GTD.

There are several ways to preserve texts. The easiest and simplest is to just do a screenshot of the text and then email it to yourself. But most conversations via text are more along the lines of "You forgot to give me your mortgage statement, please send it", and other informational type things. We had a long conversation about texts on another thread, and I can say with absolute certainty that if a tax preparer isn't interested in texting, you will find many of your younger clients changing to someone who is (assuming they ever become your clients to begin with). This isn't important for anyone nearing retirement, but for anyone who has a professional time horizon extending out more than 3-5 years, it is critical information. If you don't believe me, just spend some time hanging out with some 14-15 year-olds and watch how they interact with one another. They are your future clients.

Thanks Mike. I didn't know that. Always good to learn something new from you, since I know it's reliable.

On a more serious note, here are the good ideas I implement constantly: 1) Extensions - start filing them around mid-March on every return as it comes in. If you finish the return before Apr 15, no harm has been done. But if you get swamped in the next 2-3 weeks, you're not wasting a lot of time & energy in early April trying to double back and persuade people to LET you file extensions. 2) US Mail - get clients to mail their info to you, rather than drop it off. 3) Email & Texting - get your clients accustomed to emailing back & forth (texting for younger clients since they rarely use email these days). Email & texting prevents them from tying you up on the phone. 4) Do everything possible to keep your clients out of your office. This will enable you to get some work done.

The book is "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. Best productivity book I've ever read. I think I'll review the main points again - thanks for the reminder Rita.

I always thank them for their business (well, almost always).

It's beyond my comprehension as to why a church treasurer would ignore this information once it is brought to his/her attention. That;s downright silly. But if that's the situation you're encountering, then there is some advice you could give the client. I'd never suggest that they dial back their giving, because a truly motivated giver has reasons to give other than the tax deduction. But he can protect himself by breaking up his contributions into amounts less than $250. If he wanted to give $450 in a single gift, there's nothing wrong with writing two or more separate checks which add up to the $450, provided neither check exceeds $250. I'd probably date them on separate days, but beyond that I don't think he has a problem, no matter how much he gives in total.

I agree with most of the points made, but a few clarification are in order. The contribution receipt does not have to be on letterhead style paper- any contribution statement layout which clearly identifies the charity is acceptable. There is no requirement that the acknowledgement be signed by anyone. The critical elements are that it must have the boilerplate wording and it must be in hand before the tax return is filed. It is also important to remember that these rules apply to any single contribution over $250. For single contributions under $250 (even if the total given to the charitable organization is well over $250) the canceled check is sufficient proof. For example, if a taxpayer gave $249 per week by check, he is entitled to a $12,948 contribution deduction even if there is no acknowledgement letter provided at all (although I wouldn't recommend that a church follow this as a routine practice). Here is a concise explanation of the potential damage from a trusted source. It won't matter to a church treasurer or administrator who is clueless about these things (as Jack has correctly pointed out), but for one who has any knowledge of the issues, the ECFA is well-respected. http://www.ecfa.org/Content/Charitable-Contribution-Denied Publication 1771 is also helpful, although it chases so many rabbits that it really should be split into two separate publications in order to address the separate matters of undesignated contributions and contributions involving some sort of quid pro quo. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1771.pdf

I did change the original post. But what I came around to is there is one Pi day every year in dd/mm format, which is 03/14. However, there are 31 Pi days in mm/yy format this year, which won't happen again until 2114.

Gregorian, but I see your point. It isn't 2 pi days - it's 1 Pi day every year and 1 Pi month every 100 years.

This was interesting. Whether or not it is illegal depends upon which state you live in. According to a source I checked, this is the list of states which make it illegal (I don't know how current this is): California Colorado Connecticut Florida Kansas Maine Massachusetts New York Oklahoma Texas Otherwise, it's just a violation of the agreement with the credit card company. Not illegal but possibly making one subject to cancellation of the agreement. This probably would never be an issue with low-volume transactions.

So how often do we have two Pi days in the same year? I say every 100 years - anyone have another suggestion?

I don't think it is illegal to charge more - it's just a violation of part of the credit card agreement with most issuers.

Speaking of tax prep ads, how about this sign I saw stuck all around a local shopping center today?

that's correct

I'll bet if you talk with the W/C Auditor you'll get a different story. They may need prior year gross receipts because the policy also covers General Liability. In most cases, they can accept a statement of the amount which will appear on the return. Or they may need a copy of a prior-year return to verify that it's an S-Corp, or to verify that the owner-officers who are claiming exclusion are really who they say they are. In these cases, they will usually accept a return from a couple of years back. Clients don't usually know or care about those distinctions, so they make requests that are unreasonable. This is one reason I always insist on speaking with the auditor myself.

Most of my macros are specific to my states and other things unique to my practice, but here are a couple of them, just to provide an idea of how they work: Alt-C: 8888>Y>>>>>>x>~ (Fills in blanks on the Fed Refund Deposit field, so the client can enter their info by hand, if they wish) Alt-W: SC>1>>>>>>x>~4>>>>>>>>>>>x~~ (Goes to the South Carolina return to check a box to request a paper check rather than a debit card for the refund, then checks a box that says they have no sales tax to report for internet sales) Alt-Z: 99G>>>>56-1611838>State of North Carolina>Department of Revenue>PO Box 25000>Raleigh> NC>27640-0001>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>2012< (Goes to the State Tax Refund screen, fills in all relevant data, then backs up to the "Amount" field to wait for input for state tax refund) Alt-X: 8948>>>x>20130nnnn>02202013>~ (Fills in the 8948 for me - I redacted my actual e-flinging exemption number with the "nnnn) All my Alt-(?) macros launch from the "General" screen. They usually return there as well, except for the ones which pause to wait for input, such as the Alt-Z. Incidentally, a nice variation of the Alt-Z can be done for reporting unemployment compensation.