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IDENTITY PROTECTION PIN


Marie

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How do people lose these things?  The identity protection PINs are sent out in Dec, so it's not like they got it months ago and never thought to put it with their tax stuff.  It's scary that people can be so cavalier with the very document that is supposed to protect them from tax ID theft, letting some crook who gets a hold of it do the very thing they were trying to prevent.  The same goes for people who can't seem to find their prior year tax returns.  What did they do with them?  This year we finally instituted a fee for copies of returns that we've already provided to the client, as well as fees for tax docs like W2s from prior years (mortgage companies often want them).  $25 per return and $10 per tax doc.  Almost every single client we told what their fee would be was able to "find" their prior year tax folder(s) with their docs in it.    Better that it was under the car seat than tossed out with the trash I guess.

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Tell your clients to get FREE Scannable on their smart phones. It takes great pictures -- straightens, gets rid of creases and gray, etc. The free version stores documents for 30 days on your phone, so you do have to move docs to a folder on your phone, or backup to the cloud or your computer or where ever you backup, or to a folder on your computer, or send it straight to your tax preparer before you lose it.

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1 hour ago, Lion EA said:

Tell your clients to get FREE Scannable on their smart phones. It takes great pictures -- straightens, gets rid of creases and gray, etc. The free version stores documents for 30 days on your phone, so you do have to move docs to a folder on your phone, or backup to the cloud or your computer or where ever you backup, or to a folder on your computer, or send it straight to your tax preparer before you lose it.

I wouldn't do that, smart phones are very easy to hack. There is nothing on my smart phone that is identity related or financial related.

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Oh, I move scans to my computer immediately.

But, I know clients that've taken pictures on their phones to send to me (or their mortgage company or their broker or...) and never delete them. So, I use the limited-time storage to remind them to get the pictures off their phones after they've sent them where they need to be. They're the same people who don't delete emails from their phone, don't delete texts, etc.

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I instituted a $30 paid-in-advance fee for copies of returns years ago. Astounding how many "I looked everywhere and can't find it!" complaints never call back after I tell them of the fee and they say "Let me take another look first." So it just means they know I have it and can't be bothered to paw through their own sloppy files first. Sorry, I'm not your secretary. Want that and it's cash up front, thank you very much.

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9 hours ago, Lion EA said:

send it straight to your tax preparer before you lose it.

Lion, you have way more patience than I do.  One thing that is causing me angst right now is these piecemealed bits of returns.  I can't remember 33 emails ago what you sent me.  I have gotten so paranoid about missing things that now when I start I return, I sort my emails by sender just to be sure I have what they sent or told me.  Please wait and send it all at once!!!  And when you do send it, please mark the box to combine the files.  I got one this week with 25 separate pages.  I refused to open them and asked for a combined file or drop your stuff off.  For those of you who use client portals, would that help?

And Lion accepts phone pics.  I do not.  They are rarely readable and often impossible to print to paper or electronic file cabinet.  Scan it, don't take a pic please.  Maybe I'm just getting testy right now when I'm so buried with work that I don't want to deal with anything that unnecessarily makes my job harder.  Lion is still being pleasant and putting up with annoyances.  She has lucky clients, or maybe they're just spoiled.

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I have NO patience. I won't start a return until I have everything from the client (or I stop when I discover docs missing and put that client on the bottom of my stack). I've had the same thing to my portal, 27 files uploaded. At least they're all in a row, so I Click on them all to download one zip to put in that client's folder on my computer. I do want to encourage portal usage, because it saves me time delivering to them as well as receiving. I do NOT accept blurry phone picks, which is why I require them to use Scannable or something similar to send a nice, flat, readable doc with a white background and all its edges in frame that I can send to their folder. I also don't accept emailed docs with only 1/4 of the doc showing and no easy way to print the full doc to their folder. (Although, another thing I like about Scannable is that IF the doc will show correctly on my screen, I can scan it with Scannable and then save or print or whatever I need; but I don't tell my clients that.) Almost none of my clients have scanners. I've scared enough of them that they drive to Staples and pay to fax me copies of their docs or snail mail or more often FedEx overnight or 2-day; the locals drop off through the mail slot in my front door.

By the way, my old iPhone 6 died in January, battery won't hold a charge, and no time to get a new one. But I never texted my clients, so I don't miss it. I doubt I have more than three clients that even knew that number. (I used my cell for a few days back in 2007 or so before I got a land line into my home office.) I'm not very pleasant during tax season and don't put up with annoyances, and never put up with texts from clients except in their car telling me they're on their way to drop off !! But if you have clients that text you pictures, require them to use Scannable or a similar app.

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I'm old and have had other careers. Now that I have my clients trained to drop off in ways I approve (portal: yes. text: no) I keep the clients that are nice to me and raise prices for those that are not. I'm still virtual, so don't have to be nice if client's not in front of me electronically. And, I'm not nice when I have to ask more than once for missing documents.

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8 minutes ago, Abby Normal said:

We use a Google Voice number for sending and receiving texts from clients. All texts are in one central location regardless of whose client it is, and there's no extra steps involving in saving attachments to our server, like there is if it went to an actual cell phone.

Abby, I know that you have posted about this before. Do you use this number for other things too?

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