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2021 Tax Organizers - Adding Additional Questions?


ETax847

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Yes, I am.  I am asking for a current driver's license and if EIP3 or CTC payments were received.  As I use the organizer questions in ATX that allow for adding more, it's fairly easy.  I will expand for SIMPLE or other Qualified SE retirement plan contributions, and to include any 1098-E forms.  There may be a couple more, not sure yet.

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We send a client questionnaire to everyone and an organizer to those who use them. (We got so many blank ones back we stopped trying with everyone.)  This year's questionnaire will start with a warning that "Your return will not be started until this questionnaire is completely filled out and returned."  First questions will be the 2021 stimulus amount and the advance child tax credit received.  We already have virtual currency questions as well as foreign accounts, changes in banking info or address, etc.  Last year we added a question about cash charitable contributions and a blank to fill in the FMV of noncash contribs, with an explanation that FMV is the amount you paid for new items like toy or food donations or what the charity will sell them for if used.  It saved a lot, but not all, phone calls when clients claim $4k in used clothes.

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I always have signed engagement letters - every year, every client.  And my questions are on the questionnaire, not the organizer as full blown.  Similar to Sara, I send select organizer parts to those who are self-employed or have rental property so they can see the prior year categories and amounts.  While those pages are seldom completed, they serve as reminders.  Often I use them to fill in the totals from original documents provided and, of course, the multiple emails with answers that have to be consolidated in one line.  I think I am the only preparer that has clients like that, right? /s

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This seems like a good plan but how will you implement?  Require clients to obtain their own IRS account or give you POA or 4506 or something else?  If you have to be involved, will that be a separate charge or rolled into your prep fee?  Do you think you will lose clients?  If so, probably not sorry, right?  Sometimes getting all the data can be just so draining!

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You're kidding, right Kev?  Transcripts for 2021 aren't available at the start of tax season, so that may crimp your plans.To open an IRS account, you not only have to get through all the security questions but upload a photo ID and send them a selfie taken with a cell phone.  Can/will all your clients do that?  I can do it, but it would require unfreezing my credit reports, take a lot of time, and I don't want to.  Might be better to just say you will assume each client got the $1400 stimulus unless they prove a different amount.  As for the CTC, IRS is supposed to send a letter in Jan so require that. 

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"In early 2022, the IRS will send Letter 6475 that contains the total amount of the third Economic Impact Payment and any Plus-Up Payments received. People should keep this and any other IRS letters about their stimulus payments with other tax records. Individuals can also log in to their IRS.gov Online Account to securely access their Economic Impact Payment amount."

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Will that be like the IRS Letter 1444-A and 1444-B that supposedly went out this past year? I saw exactly ONE letter  in the 1444-series, and even that client did NOT receive two letters but did receive two EIPs.

Next year, we'll have Letter 6475 (why did the IRS change the number?) and whatever is sent or not sent to report the up to six advanced child tax credit payments. Were the ACTC payments all direct deposits? Checks? Debit Cards. Should all six be via the same method?

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IRS Newswire today states it will send both Letter 6475 (EIP) and Letter 6419 (Advance CTC) in Jan 2022.  Yes!  I imagine the agency didn't like correcting the recovery amounts any more than we did trying to pin them down. Because these letters will arrive in Jan when tax docs start arriving, hopefully most clients will know enough to put them aside with their other tax stuff.

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On 12/3/2021 at 8:29 PM, Sara EA said:

You're kidding, right Kev?  Transcripts for 2021 aren't available at the start of tax season, so that may crimp your plans.To open an IRS account, you not only have to get through all the security questions but upload a photo ID and send them a selfie taken with a cell phone.  Can/will all your clients do that?  I can do it, but it would require unfreezing my credit reports, take a lot of time, and I don't want to.  Might be better to just say you will assume each client got the $1400 stimulus unless they prove a different amount.  As for the CTC, IRS is supposed to send a letter in Jan so require that. 

If you mean Ken (not Kev), no I am not kidding. The EIP3 information is already on the 2021 transcript (just as EIP1 and EIP2 were on the 2020 transcript as the start of last tax season), and I believe the ACTC is as well. It's easy peasy to obtain and will eliminate all the math errors and delays. I honestly can't understand why any taxpreparer won't require this. Sadly, the taxpreparer industry contributed greatly to the delays the taxpreparer industry suffered due to IRS manual processing caused by invalid amounts claimed for the RRC. We can do better and be better citizens to ourselves.

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On 12/3/2021 at 5:20 PM, Margaret CPA in OH said:

This seems like a good plan but how will you implement?  Require clients to obtain their own IRS account or give you POA or 4506 or something else?  If you have to be involved, will that be a separate charge or rolled into your prep fee?  Do you think you will lose clients?  If so, probably not sorry, right?  Sometimes getting all the data can be just so draining!

No account needed! Go to https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript and if the client can't get it online, it can be mailed and received within 5 to 10 calendar days. We utilized this approach during this current tax season for anyone who couldn't absolutely prove their amounts via other means (not merely relying on their memory) and as a result had ZERO math error notices once we adopted it.

You can also request a transcript by mail by calling the automated phone transcript service at 800-908-9946.

We also offer a transcript monitoring service as an add-on. For clients on this service we were easily able to get their information.

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On 12/3/2021 at 8:29 PM, Sara EA said:

You're kidding, right Kev?  Transcripts for 2021 aren't available at the start of tax season, so that may crimp your plans.To open an IRS account, you not only have to get through all the security questions but upload a photo ID and send them a selfie taken with a cell phone.  Can/will all your clients do that?  I can do it, but it would require unfreezing my credit reports, take a lot of time, and I don't want to.  Might be better to just say you will assume each client got the $1400 stimulus unless they prove a different amount.  As for the CTC, IRS is supposed to send a letter in Jan so require that. 

No IRS account required. Simply go to https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript. Can receive it in the mail within 5 to 10 calendar days by filing in 4 fields.

Noname.jpg

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On 12/3/2021 at 8:29 PM, Sara EA said:

You're kidding, right Kev?  Transcripts for 2021 aren't available at the start of tax season, so that may crimp your plans.To open an IRS account, you not only have to get through all the security questions but upload a photo ID and send them a selfie taken with a cell phone.  Can/will all your clients do that?  I can do it, but it would require unfreezing my credit reports, take a lot of time, and I don't want to.  Might be better to just say you will assume each client got the $1400 stimulus unless they prove a different amount.  As for the CTC, IRS is supposed to send a letter in Jan so require that. 

Account transcripts are available anytime and are very useful for estimates, amounts applied forward, stimulus checks and (I assume) child tax credit payments.

But, yes, wage transcripts aren't useful before summer, or even fall. They used to be partially useful around late March but recently I've seen them blank into summer months.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here's what I send out.  I don't use an organizer, per se, because a) they cost so much to send out, b) no one fills them out properly, and c) I want to see the original documents (and scan them for my records!) anyway.  Don't waste the clients' time transferring (and messing up) numbers, and I get it all and can compare with prior year lists for anything missing.  

Anyone who keeps scanned originals, I highly recommend Gruntworx ( https://www.gruntworx.com/ ) to make an indexed pdf.  That way when the CP2000 comes in a year and a half from filing, you can go instantly to the item the letter questions and see the original without slogging through a half-dozen or more pdf files littered with upside-down, back, and blank pages.

2021 Checklist - short organizer GF.pdf

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Here's what I send out.  I don't use an organizer, per se, because a) they cost so much to send out, b) no one fills them out properly, and c) I want to see the original documents (and scan them for my records!) anyway.  Don't waste the clients' time transferring (and messing up) numbers, and I get it all and can compare with prior year lists for anything missing.  

Anyone who keeps scanned originals, I highly recommend Gruntworx ( https://www.gruntworx.com/ ) to make an indexed pdf.  That way when the CP2000 comes in a year and a half from filing, you can go instantly to the item the letter questions and see the original without slogging through a half-dozen or more pdf files littered with upside-down, back, and blank pages.

2021 Checklist - short organizer GF.pdf

Also - anyone who finds it useful can use my organizer - if you drop me a note I'll send the Word document and you can put your own firm info on it, and make any state-specific changes.

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Thanks, Catherine, for sharing this!  I do use the questionnaire in ATX (all three pages) but in my cover letter indicate that it is at least as much to remind folks of the documents needed.  And the Y N checkboxes are pretty quick to fill out.  Many actually have only to draw a line straight down but that works for me. 

I do get all the original documents or pdf's in Verifyle.  I almost never simply use client figures.  For the few that have small Sch. C's or a rental, I do take their figures as I don't audit their bank accounts or CC's.  Well, for one client I do at her request.  And for those, I include the few pages which show the numbers for the prior year.  I use those to compile from original documents ( and emails, etc.) totals to enter into the software.

As I insist on a signed engagement letter sent out on my stationary, these other pages are not much to add.  My Aussie clients do e-sign and some sign and upload.  But I think it would take more time for me to upload to each Verifyle account than to mail out. 

I so like your checklist format and, if still unretired next year, may try it out.  So, if willing, please do forward in Word.  I'm sure there is a way to edit in Adobe, but my skill set is limited!  Thanks again and Happy New Year!

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