JohnH

Absolutely! For some reason the Iraqi Dinar scam got entrenched among some church groups, and I had to stifle my laughter when trying to rationally explain to several people the folly of listening to that garbage. A couple of times I told people they would get a longer-lasting return by investing in "diners" (or even "dinners") rather than "dinars". Generally speaking, they didn't appreciate the humor, but (as one would guess) that didn't stop me.

A couple of years back a client called asking me about that same matter. He had been told to convert all his retirement money to gold. Not gold funds or anything of that sort, , but to actually buy gold to keep on hand. When I asked him why he would do that, he began to describe some sort of scenario whereby the dollar becomes worthless, the social order breaks down, and nothing has any value. I told him if that happens he won't need gold - the only metal which would have any value would be lead.

Wonder if maybe they got asked to assist with an emergency Federal Contract of some sort and had to detail some of their people out to handle it. (Just a thought...)

I think I'm going to write a book someday. The title will be "How to Make A Small Fortune Day Trading" Chapter 1: Start With A Large Fortune Chapter 2: Begin Day Trading Chapter 3: Stop When You Have A Small Fortune Chapters 4, 5, and 6 : Go Back to Chapter 3 !!! Chapter 7: Self-Explanatory

If she continues day trading for very long, it's likely that she won't be able to afford your fees no matter what they are.

There's always the option to donwload a fillable pfd from the IRS web site. These forms are sometimes available before software vendors get them approved.

Yes, let's not have.... Oh, never mind... Sorry, wrong forum.

A dignified woman is patiently standing at the airport gate check-in counter while the agent checks her seat assignments on her remaining flights. Suddenly a man barges ahead of her, slams his ticket on the counter, and announces to the agent: "I have a first-class ticket on this flight and I need service right now!" The woman slowly slides his ticket back to him and whispers "Sir, first class is a way of life, not a boarding pass."

I think I'm going to set my cutoff date for filing extensions as Feb 4, 2014. I've never tried to file an extension before IRS was accepting returns, so this might be a new and exciting experience.

Well, there is that general rule that says if it isn't excluded, it's taxable income.

i think you have the right attitude about EIC returns. About 3-4 years ago, I told the few that I prepared that they needed to start going to HRB, Liberty, or someone else with deeper pockets than I have. I explained the preparer penalties and told them that even though I don't doubt their veracity, I'm still not wiling to take the chance with the bureaucrats.

You're exactly right, Judy. The average sales person tries to sell features & benefits, bells & whistles, toys & playthings. The exceptional sales person figures out what the customer needs, and especially where the customer has pain. Then he/she makes sure he/she educates the customer so they realize just how bad that pain can get. Providing relief from the pain is a whole lot easier than selling features & benefits. It doesn't even require being the low bidder. Getting the order is almost an afterthought. But you must have a product that will deliver relief - guaranteed. No excuses. Right now I don't know how the ATX sales reps can overcome that hurdle.

I sell capital equipment to medical facilities, pharmaceutical companies, and research institutions. For some of it, I know a great deal about how it works and what it does. But for quite it bit of it, I don't have a clue about how to use the end result. All I know is how to get the result. When I'm talking with them about that equipment, I do the same thing the Drake rep did - I tell them the truth right up front. Most of my customers appreciate the honesty and the fact I'm not trying to BS them, although I'm sure there's an occasional doctor who asks why they don't have MD's selling this stuff. I suppose my answer would be the same as what I speculated about the tax software sales rep. Or I might try a little humor by reversing field and tell them about the sales rep who asked for $300 per hour to prepare a price quote. The doctor objected and said even he doesn't earn $300 per hour. To which the sales rep replied, "Don't feel bad - I didn't earn $300 per hour when I was a doctor either." It all depends upon the circumstances and the audience.

Maybe most tax software sales reps are not people who can actually prepare tax returns because tax preparation pays more than selling the tax prep software. I'm a sales rep in my other life, and I just don't see how the pricing struture for low-end software could ever produce commissions sufficient to make it worthwhile to sell tax software rather than prepare tax returns.

My suggestion. If you will break the obsessive dependence upon forms-based software (if you suffer from it), discard the affection for bells & whistles, and focus on software being a tool for getting work done fast in order to increase your productivity and potentially earn more profit, you'll likely change your attitude about Drake.

I agree. In this case, it sounds very much like greed. Unless the mother's dementia is such that moving her to a facility & unfamiliar surroundings would send her further off the deep end, destroying the only remaining connection to anything that brings a little joy into her life. There are sometimes things more important than physical comfort (and even safety) when it comes to mentally impaired people. I've seen that firsthand with a couple of relatives and had to accept the associated risks while the situation played itself out a little more. But given the totality of this person's worldview as Ms TK has presented it, I somewhat doubt that what's best for mom has entered the equation.

Gail's situation is a perfect example of what we are talking about. I agree completely with her expectations regarding her parents and also the arrangement with her husband's grandmother. My reason for pursing this a little is primarily because any of us might be asked to weigh on on a decision of this type with clients. I've had several conversations about this very issue with clients because some of my client base it getting older (as am I), and they bring up this sort of thing from time-to-time. If we're inclined to share an opinion, it should be reasoned and rational.

OK. Got it. Given the overall behavior of Ms TK's friend, I understand that. I was just speculating about the issue of "paying" a child for providing care and how that might affect the ultimate estate available to all the heirs. I would never suggest that caring for an aging parent should in any way DEPEND upon being paid. Especially so in the case of a parent who cannot afford to pay for their own care. However, if I'm the parent and have sufficient resources, I'm going to take a slightly different view. I would most likely devise a plan to compensate the child providing the care, knowing that this would have the effect of decreasing the remaining estate available to divide among all the children. I would also maintain transparency by telling all my potential heirs what I'm doing and why. The simple fact is that we want our children to have good, productive careers in order to provide for their own children and also to make provision for their own eventual retirement. Time spent caring for me would have the indirect effect of decreasing their potential earnings and thus having a negative effect on their ability to accomplish that goal. It deserves consideration, and it demands a fair analysis. Unfortunately, many people postpone thinking about these things until they no longer have the mental faculties to make rational decisions. The end result is that the siblings often wind up squabbling about the estate and acting greedy, when in fact no one is entitled to anything in the first place beyond what their parents decide to leave them. Or, in the case of Ms TK's friend, an incontinent parent, apparently incapable of making their own decisions, with two heirs apparently already at odds over the estate before she's even in the grave. Not a pretty sight.

I'm intrigued by the responses concerning caring for mom. Maybe I've missed something in the translation. But I've been through something like this a couple of times with my in-laws and another relative. If I had two children who were in line to inherit, with one of them caring for me and the other not, then I'd think it is fair to pay the one who is caring for me while I'm still alive, in place of a stranger doing it. I'd probably still split the inheritance equally between the two, but it would be common sense that the payments to the one caring for me while I was still living would inevitably reduce the total amount payable equally to each when it died. That's just common sense. Personally, I don't have any problem, with that outcome, unless the caregiver isn't doing their job or if the non-caregiver is willing and able to shoulder some of the burden. In that case, I'd have to split the payments between both of them in proportion to the time they were willing to spend. As I see it, paying a child to care for me would be much preferable to paying a stranger. Somebody is going to be paid and the eventual estate is going to take a hit for the cost of that care.

OK Jack. You're prohibited from making any political posts until you can verify that your return is done.

I've never filed my personal return before October (except for this year when I filed in mid-Sept just prior to leaving the country for a couple of weeks. ) That's non-revenue-producing time, so it gets done after everything else. I do also like to extend the time to keep the window open for paying into my retirement plan. Over the years I've also read anecdotal evidence that filing on extension marginally reduces the probability of an audit. I choose to believe that, although we've hashed it out on this forum and others and it's clear to me that nobody has a clue one way or the other if it's valid or not.

If we are voting, my vote is -> don't close the political forum. It's always good for a chuckle or two.

I especially agree with the last part of your last sentence. From the outset and at every stage in between, I do everything possible to keep my clients out of my office so I can get some work done.

I've never given anyone a return with P&I calculated (other than Estimated Tax Penalty). I mentally run a rough estimate, keeping it slightly on the high side. I tell them to expect a bill for about $ xxx within 4-6 weeks and to send me a copy when it arrives if they want me to verify it for them. I've never had a client complain about that, and I've never had to explain any differences between my rough estimate and the final bill. To some extent, this issue is about setting expectations. If we condition the client to expect IRS to get it right and then we will check their work, that is a good thing. If we condition the client to think we beleive we are getting it right and IRS will correct our work, then we are setting ourselves up for having to explain why we got it wrong if that happens to occur. Most of the time, when you are explaining your own actions you are backing up.

I think you are correct about Drake. They have figured out that the purpose of a tax program is to prepare an accurate tax return quickly. It doesn't need to be designed to launch a space shuttle.