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How hard is it to move?


Margaret CPA in OH

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I really want to move to a single level house in 2022 and downsize.  I also probably want to keep my practice a couple of years longer but am seriously contemplating retirement.  How hard is it to change all those things with IRS - address, phone, PTIN, gosh knows what else?  I'm also not keen on paying for more stationary but would have to do so, I think. 

And I was going to give up my land lines when we move but am not excited about client calls (along with all the spam calls) on a cell.  I would also have do something about getting a new fax line as I currently have a second land line dedicated to that (which I list when I don't want to list my regular number - good for screening spam calls, I think).

How have any of you dealt with this or should I just, at 75, call it? My license expires Dec. 2022.  Any and all advice welcome!  And if I should retire, how and when is it best to let clients know?  My practice is too small to sell and, of course, no one else will treat them as kindly as I have :) .

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You can change your IRS and professional contacts online.  Filling out that change of address form at the post office notifies most financial institutions. When we moved, I hadn't yet gotten around to notifying Vanguard, bank, etc, but their mail started arriving at our new address.  Landline may come as a package deal with your internet provider so you may  just port your number.  I am not comfortable doing financial anything on my cell so keep the landline for that purpose plus the fax. Also, see how cell service is at your new location before you bail on the landline.

You are not addressing the really big hassles about moving (trying not to think about them?)  We moved two years ago and we will NEVER do it again.  It is work going through every single thing you own and deciding what the heck to do with each and every one (keep, sell, donate, recycle, junk). Then you have to do those things (pack, sell, donate, recycle, junk).  You have to get the old home ready to sell (fix that drip, paint the bathroom, replace that screen, etc.) In your new place, you have to decide where to put everything and unpack it all, realize what's missing and go buy it (shower curtain hooks, door mat, electrician to install extra outlets, whatever). Take as many CPEs in January as you can because you won't have any more time.

That said, it can be so worth it!  We love our new home and community. As for retirement, weigh how much you love what you do against how much you love to do the things you have planned in retirement. (Definitely have plans.)  It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Keep a few select clients, or work at a CPA firm just during tax season, or ditch it all and have fun doing the things you haven't had time to do.  They're all good choices so you can't go wrong.

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We lost our house in a northern California wild fire in 2018.  As far as my practice went, I had no problems even though all paper records were destroyed. We got our computers out.  I had already begun to downsize and THIS made it easy.  As far as the IRS and California franchise tax no problems what so ever.  Address, phone numbers changes went well, even though we were out of a permanent residence for four or five months.

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I dropped my fax line a year ago with no regrets. 

I plan on dropping my landline after this tax season.

Right now I think that 70% of my communication is by email, 20 % by text and 10 % by phone.

Actually the biggest issue is that younger clients don't check their emails.

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We plan on moving to Colorado in a few years to be close to our son and I swear that I will be done with my business by then. I don't plan to retire, just find a part-time job that is not tax related and somewhat enjoyable.  I have moved my office location three times and have worked out of my house for 10 years. I had lovely clients that moved me twice and set up my office. It was a huge pain to move and I won't move my office again. Changing my information was easy. Unpacking was a huge pain. I receive my faxes over the Internet, but still have a landline. My cell service is not the best in our neighborhood and I want a real landline to stay on hold with the IRS. 🤪

I was not planning to retire for 6 years, but I'm thinking about three if that will work for us. My husband's health has gone downhill so much the past two years and I am spending so much time taking him to medical appontments and taking over the housework that he has done for the last ten years. Since we lost my mom this year and had to clean out and sell her house, our kids have been helping us (forcing us) to get rid of things that we don't really need. If has really been cathartic (and sad sometimes) to see that it has made a difference. It has taken a lot of time and many, many trips to donate and recycle stuff. It is a good thing, because if something happens to my husband, I won't stick around here long and will have to downsize alot to live in Littleton. 

If you still love your business, downsize it until you are comfortable and keep working. I wish that I still loved this job, but after 45 years of tax seaon running my life and the constant tax changes, I am ready to take it easier. I will miss my clients, but I have lost a lot of them the past few years due to age and illness.  I lost three (two from the same family) in 7 days this month. I need to buy sympathy cards by the box. 

Just do what you think is best for you. 

Bonnie

 

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I hate texting, typing on the tiny keyboard on my phone. But, as cbslee says, the younger clients don't check their emails often. The older ones either, if they're no longer in business and communicate mostly with their own younger family members. So, I type out my replies via email and then text them to Check Your Email. Have to do that with our own grown daughters, too.

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1 hour ago, Lion EA said:

hate texting, typing on the tiny keyboard on my phone

Get a free Google Voice number and give that out as your firm's cell #. Then you can type texts on your computer and receive texts, too. All of your texts will now be in one place that you can access from anywhere, and not just stored on your cellphone.

You can decide what happens when someone calls that number. We have ours set to just take a message.

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Margaret, I also recently turned 75😄  Although I intend to continue working part time as long as my health will let me.

However I spend the majority of my time doing monthly Writeup/Payroll work, not preparing tax returns.

I just counted, I will prepare less than 40 tax returns this coming tax season, 13 of which will be Business Entity Returns.

If I had to prepare anywhere approaching 100 Form 1040s, I would already be retired. It's just too big of a grind!

At some point my wife and will have to downsize, that will be really hard, we have accumulated way too much stuff!☹️

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Wow, what wonderful, thoughtful responses you all have provided!  There is much to think about certainly but the IRS change of address doesn't seem to be as big an issue as I thought it would be (for efiling purposes). 

For moving, we will be a position to move before selling the existing house, thankfully (husband's retirement kicks in fully in 2022).  Friends of our chose their new home, moved in over several weeks carefully deciding what to keep and where, then did the big clean up for sale.  I thought that was a great idea but didn't think we could do that; now we can. 

Regarding phones, around here one cannot get a true land line any longer - it has to be on the fiber optic network.  I tried that several years ago in January and 2 weeks later the power went out for several days.  We were saved only because I had kept my fax land line.    With much begging and pleading and a few tears, the phone folks let me go back.  I vowed never to have that again until retirement.  I don't know about Google Voice numbers, will have to research that.

Currently I have only about 50 clients, all tax, and my 'work' is pretty much January-April and obviously not full time.  I take CPE online year round to keep up.  And I haven't missed, until COVID, any of my fun things - family reunions and major dive trips to far flung parts of the world.  I work to dive, you know!  I no longer run; 10th and last marathon was 2018 but do half marathons, walking.  The most recent was Oct. 30.

So thanks again for so much valuable input.  I think the retirement decision should maybe come first as it would impact the housing arrangement.  I've had a home office for 25+ years; not sure I could go back to work for someone else.  I'm not even sure I would be comfortable working for VITA.  Once you've been your own boss....

I'll chat with family over the holidays.  I guess I don't really need to alert clients until after tax season if retiring.  And as 95%+ of my business is online, the location is not too critical.  Maybe this discussion will provide food for thought to others, too.  Meanwhile, I do wish each of you the very best of any and all holidays you celebrate.  I'm so looking forward to in person candle light service Friday night after our Zoom family holiday greeting in the afternoon.  We expect rain here but may your days be Merry and Bright!

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I'd want to know a lot more about Google Voice before committing.  Privacy and security are not nouns not usually associated with Google.  Do they record your calls to teach the artificial intelligence? Do they scan calls and texts for keywords to target ads on anything else Google or sell that personal info to advertisers? I'm just wary about giving more personal info to companies that make their money off of personal info.

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Randall, good for you for braving the T-Day race!  As I recall it wasn't the nicest weather.  I ran it for many years until my group, Queen City Running, began recreating the original one-way route from KY.  I didn't do it this year due to a stress fracture in my ankle incurred one week after the Queen Bee Half. Side plank with stacked feet, if you know what that it.  Won't do that any longer!  Walking is my mode now with a knee replacement probably in 2023 but I so miss running.  I have resumed lots of swimming since the gym reopened so, as we age, we do what we can (or break bones trying 😒).

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1 minute ago, Margaret CPA in OH said:

Randall, good for you for braving the T-Day race!  As I recall it wasn't the nicest weather.  I ran it for many years until my group, Queen City Running, began recreating the original one-way route from KY.  I didn't do it this year due to a stress fracture in my ankle incurred one week after the Queen Bee Half. Side plank with stacked feet, if you know what that it.  Won't do that any longer!  Walking is my mode now with a knee replacement probably in 2023 but I so miss running.  I have resumed lots of swimming since the gym reopened so, as we age, we do what we can (or break bones trying 😒).

Thanks for the comment.  I'm 72 now.  Finished 6th out of 46 in my age group (yes, it was rainy).  So far, no injuries.  But you never know as we get older.  Sorry to hear about your injury.  I do some backpacking and I recently got a bicycle, just east stuff.  

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I moved 5 years ago and also had a couple of months to move & clear out the old house. I ended up having a friend do the final cleaning & getting rid of the last stuff. Like Sara’s experience, changing my address was the easiest; most found my new address before I contacted them.  I ended up losing about half my clients over the next couple of years, got a few new ones, but since I don’t have a mortgage anymore it doesn’t matter. I’m not taking on any new business clients. I’m only (!) 61, but may consider retirement once I can get Medicare. 

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Moving; well it's...hmm...terrible.  The easiest part is moving your stuff, but changing the address everywhere was a big pain for me at least; I know others said they had no problems.  All the vendor/utility/net/cable reps were mostly from the Philippines speaking Urdu while their voice-recognition apps prefer Greek to perfectly-enunciated English.  Also, where is everything in this place?

That aside, the reason for doing it (money) did offset the pain somewhat.  I've gotta do it again sometime in the not-too-distant future pending certain events - not looking forward to it.

As to what to do/ when to quit/ whether to keep a token batch of customers and carry on; nobody can say except you.  While rasslin' with that I made up a short, good client contact list and renewed ATX, so that's that for now, but next time - who knows?

Running? Mainly to the refrigerator.

 

P.S. In case you leave, I've enjoyed your posts quite a bit - you're a good egg.  Best regards, BB. :D

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/22/2021 at 11:08 AM, KATHERINE said:

Joan surprised me, I thought she was 31 and always take her as a little sister here.   Find a lot kindness here, wish a good holiday for all.  :)

Aren't we all amazing?  I am pushing 80 (pushing really hard). Margaret, a few years ago, I added a home office extension to my home.  I won't be moving because my husband's business is next door.  And, I won't be quitting until he no longer needs me to do his accounting and tax prep.  Maybe, not even then.  I would never give up my two landlines; one for fax; although fewer and fewer people are using faxes any more.  Obviously, I am OLD school.  I took on a young assistant as we have a client base of over 200 and growing.  I have no advice for you about moving.  However, I encourage you to not give up your practice.  There are so many people out there who really, REALLY need us and I'm not giving up as long as my brain holds out.  At my age, it's not always about money and really never has been.  I enjoy my clients and most of them are friends.  Once in a while I have to send one down the road just because we conflict.  You have my best wishes for whatever you decide to do.  Nothing much is impossible if you really want to do it.  I would certainly miss you here.

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As Joan said best, it's always a surprise when ages come up.  I think of everyone as still being the ages from years ago when the forum was started.  I'm 61 and I think of everyone here as my age or younger, and yes, I do know who some of the younger ones on here are.  

The posts about no one remembering the old TV shows always makes me laugh too. I was a very young girl but do remember watching reruns of shows like The Honeymooners and variety shows such as Steve Allen, etc.

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