JohnH

Thanks OldJack. If they ever deny my 8944 I may fall back on that and postpone retiring another year or two. Sounds like it's going to be up to either you or me to be the last one to turn out the lights on the e-flinging happy dance.

I'm not sure why it would matter to you, unless you just enjoy being under the thumb of the IRS and want everyone else to be in the same boat. Personally, I've never aspired to be their lap dog. In any event, so far IRS hasn't agreed with your assessment. My approvals have all arrived in record time, with no questions asked. I think it has something to do with the way I word the request, but one never knows...

Glad it works well for you and most others. But one size does not fit all. For me, e-flinging will never be preferable. If IRS ever refuses to approve my 8944, that's the year I'll probably retire from the tax preparation business.

No problem whatsoever. You don't "get around" the IRS mandate at all - you comply with it. You flle Form 8944 and obtain a letter with a Waiver Reference Number.

Ditto!

She will also need to be on the lookout for electrical problems in the future. Oftentimes they don't show up right after the flooding, but then contacts & connections begin to corrode and odd things begin to happen. Seat belt retractors can also rust, which would be a definite safety hazard. Mold & mildew can also form in places & panels which are inaccessible. A car that had been flooded by fresh water is less of a concern than one which had been flooded by salt water, but in either case problems can surface long after the car appears to have dried out.

--> He is attempting to make me feel guilty because I informed him that unless the bank will re-issue the 1099-C with his SS# on it, the S-Corp must claim the income and "I do NOT want to pay tax on this money!" <--- Jack: Is he trying to make you feel guilty, or is he somehow trying to make you feel liable? You know how weird things can get with some clients, especially when they're in trouble. Their imaginations run wild and their common sense even wilder.

I second all that has been said in the last few posts. Reminds me of a situation I experienced on another forum. I rarely take offense on an emotional level, even when someone gets insulting. Generally insults and personal attacks are just water off a duck's back to me. But for some reason that I still don't fully understand, a person on the TMI forum really got under my skin a couple of years back. And I was clearly pushing that person's buttons as well. After a few grenades back & forth (plus a warning from the moderator), I simply hid that person's posts for a few weeks (as Judy suggested). That removed the temptation to take pot shots at him and freed us both up to focus on what's important. - TAXES. Eventually when seeing people reply to him on legitimate tax issues, my curiosity got the best of me and I removed the "hide". Haven't crossed swords with him since then, and if we found ourselves on opposite sides of something I believe now I'd just move on. Burying the hatchet is always wise, just as long as the place we bury it isn't in the other party's head.

Ah yes, that question of randomness and order. I worked with a guy when I was in the Air Force who was a perfectionist. When we would be playing cards, I'd deal left to right, and then occasionally switch during the deal and go reverse for a couple of rounds, then back to the usual. He would drive himself nuts trying to catch the cards (still face down on the table) and push them back to the "correct" person. But he had a sharp mind. After the hand was played, he could usually tell you how things "would have" turned out if I'd dealt properly.

If speed is your main priority, I haven't seen anything that tops Drake in that category. Since time & expertise are our merchandise, speed = money. That clinched it for me.

Thanks Eric. None of what's posted from either perspective bothers me - I like the give-and-take even when it gets a little out of hand. It's easy enough to skip over when it gets silly. But if it disturbs others then I'm fine with your guidelines and will certainly abide by them. We need to keep as many as possible engaged to suit our professional purposes. I appreciate your dedication to this forum.

Funny this should come up. I had a very similar situation with an AUR notice - we just responded to it last week. The taxpayer had a couple of tiny interest and dividend statements (less than $25 total). But they also had a 1099-S for the $275,000 sale of a personal residence. Since he is single, the 1099-S needed to be accounted for. So IRS listed the $275,000 along with the 1099-Div and Int statements. The odd thing is, we had reported the $275,000 on the original return and netted it out on Schedule D properly. Apparently nobody noticed that little detail. So we just faxed them a copy of the original Schedule D & 8949 and told them to send a bill for the rest of the adjustment. I have no idea why they missed it, especially because there was also a small loss carryforward (about $1,200) on the Schedule D which transferred to the front of the 1040 and they didn't question that.

Nope, the profits are not taxed upon distribution. The profits are taxed to the shareholders as they are earned, regardless of when distributed.

Not that you need to explain your decisions to a prospective client, but if you felt the need to do so, you could always print out this thread and show it to them.

I forwarded the link to a client who used it Tuesday night. He learned via the online tool that the amended return had not been received. He called IRS and they verified that fact - advised him to submit it again. We could have already known this had he sent it via Certified Mail with RR or Express Mail per my instructions, but since he didn't follow directions it was nice to have an alternate way to verify things. I expect he will be using the online tool again in the coming weeks. (I don't necessariy expect him to learn from experience to follow instructions with respect to mailing - "It costs too much".

cute, but the analogy fails; miserably; on several levels. In any case, I'm thinking his resignation will be "reluctantly accepted" by the President abut 6:15 pm on Friday.

Since we're all rambling here, did anybody notice that "thump" today. That's the sound of the bus rolling over Eric Holder.

I have an idea. Give their stuff back to them and let the hairstylist they are presently getting their advice from continue to handle this high-level tax planning. If you take this project on, you'll wish you had never seen them when the IRS correspondence begins. And anything that doesn't meet their wierd expectations will be your fault.

Where are you getting this "judge, jury, and executioner" hysteria? Certainly not from anything that has been posted thus far.

In this month's Atlantic, it is reported that a Pennsylvania newspaper writer described the Gettysburg Address as "silly remarks" , and a London Times article referred to it as "dull and commonplace". I suppose my thoughts would be, does anyone remember anything either of those two correspondents ever wrote or said?

My goodnes! You're looking at their RTRP 12.13, which is in revision status. You need to wait - don't do anything until at least their RTRP 12.18 or later.

A big THANK YOU to all those who have served in the past and continue to serve in the present. This country owes a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid.

I think your two posts are like washing one's hands. Both work together inseperably for the end result. Having a great product with a long history of reliability will certainly keep your current customers on board and will PROBABLY produce steady growth. Then, when a major competitor stumbles, you're in a position to reap a windfall. Drake's unique combination of efficiency, customer service, and corporate integrity creates another major problem for their competitors. I don't have any statistics to back this up, but I'm guessing Drake has a very low attrition rate. Once they get someone on board, the customer is very unlikely to leave. So any company losing business to Drake should probably adapt to the reality that this is business which for the most part is never coming back.

One of the earliest things Iearned about Drake was the usefulness of their tutorials. I began watching them in earnest the weekend before I made the decision to abandon ATX and buy Drake. Then when I began using Drake the next week, I realized that much of what I was doing as I set up new clients was mirrored in the tutorials. So I began running the applicable tutorial on one monitor while doing my data entry on the other monitor. In many ways it was like having someone from Drake sitting there beside me as I did my data entry. I'm so pleased with Drake that this year I'm going to take advantge of the early purchase discount. Frankly I never trusted any other software vendor enough to do that. But based on what I already knew about them in years past, along with my personal experience this tax season, I can say without hesitation that this company is different. They have high integrity (something tht is lacking with many of thier competitors) and their software is especially fast. Drake discounts $400 through May 31, then the price rises $100 per month until it hits the regular price.