(NT) It's been a year this year!

[schirallicpa]

Early in tax season I took off for a weekend as my youngest daughter turned 21 and we went out of town for the night. 

Then my oldest daughter had some medical issues and I took off 4 days in early March. 

Then we had to go to a wedding out of town.  2 more days.

Now my aunt has passed.  I feel another day and 1/2 coming on.

Then it's Easter.  As much work as I have I cannot and will not work on Easter weekend.  I never have.

So what's that leave us........

More extensions than ever.  Ugh.

How's the rest of the gang doing out there?

 

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

I am sorry for you. I am afraid that I will have to file more extensions than last year. My clients seem to have more tax strange issues than normal and are missing more information than normal. I'm not doing great. I have had two cousins die, 4 clients pass this year already, my husband is really failing physically and mentally. I know that I am depressed, but don't have time to deal with it. Thank God I'm retiring from this 12/31/24! I need to try to get caught around the house so that we can move in a couple of years
 

[Lee B]

28 minutes ago, NECPA in NEBRASKA said:

I am sorry for you. I am afraid that I will have to file more extensions than last year. My clients seem to have more tax strange issues than normal and are missing more information than normal. I'm not doing great. I have had two cousins die, 4 clients pass this year already, my husband is really failing physically and mentally. I know that I am depressed, but don't have time to deal with it. Thank God I'm retiring from this 12/31/24! I need to try to get caught around the house so that we can move in a couple of years
 

NECPA, that's a very heavy load that you are carrying.  When you can take deep breath, exhale slowly and give yourself a few minutes of piece and quiet.

[Lion EA]

Similar. Memorial service last weekend, and the family asked me to be the liturgical assistant, so I had readings and prayers to prep. "Kids" coming for Easter weekend. Clients have passed away, and their families need lots of information and help. Son going through a divorce, and that affects their partnership returns as well as their personal and makes visiting the granddaughters much more complex. Clients inheriting multiple partnerships with multiple real estate and step-up elections. Clients opening businesses and closing businesses and receiving corrected Forms K-1 and corrected Consolidated 1099s. I entered this season still behind on 2021 returns. It will be more extensions than ever. I'm trying to calculate all the extension payments I need clients to make tonight. I have one who didn't make her ES payments and now wants me to "do the ethical thing" per the CPA that lives next door to her re her balance due with P&I because she brought me her 2021 documents in November 2022; not only is she not paying me, but she wants me to pay her. I thought this would be an easier year with Congress doing a bit less about tax, but too many of my clients upped their complexity an order of magnitude. Hubby scheduled our exterminator tomorrow for a time when he's down at church with the organ tuner, so Tuesday will be a stop & start day. I need an uninterrupted block of time to prepare an S-corp on extension to get the K-1 to the personal return preparer. I've simply stopped caring as much.

[Lee B]

I almost hate to post. Easing my way further into semi retirement is going smoothly.

I just finished my last tax return except for 3 extensions that I will prepare in May after we return from vacation.

Now to finish all of the first quarter payroll reports and March Financial Statements.

[mcb39]

A few extensions every day; a few new clients every day.   we, too, are finding that we care less.  We cannot let this business get the best of us.  We will continue as we started; doing concise and thorough work.  So many interruptions.  Unexpected surgery for hubby; he is still on the recovery list though getting better every day.  He makes our lunch.  Too many people walking in without appointments.  All that and we continue to smile and try not to rush anyone.  Now ATX is pushing for early renewals and I am afraid to ask what the price will be this year.

3 minutes ago, cbslee said:

I almost hate to post. Easing my way further into semi retirement is going smoothly.

I just finished my last tax return except for 3 extensions that I will prepare in May after we return from vacation.

Now to finish all of the first quarter payroll reports and March Financial Statements.

Good  for you!

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

30 minutes ago, Lion EA said:

Similar. Memorial service last weekend, and the family asked me to be the liturgical assistant, so I had readings and prayers to prep. "Kids" coming for Easter weekend. Clients have passed away, and their families need lots of information and help. Son going through a divorce, and that affects their partnership returns as well as their personal and makes visiting the granddaughters much more complex. Clients inheriting multiple partnerships with multiple real estate and step-up elections. Clients opening businesses and closing businesses and receiving corrected Forms K-1 and corrected Consolidated 1099s. I entered this season still behind on 2021 returns. It will be more extensions than ever. I'm trying to calculate all the extension payments I need clients to make tonight. I have one who didn't make her ES payments and now wants me to "do the ethical thing" per the CPA that lives next door to her re her balance due with P&I because she brought me her 2021 documents in November 2022; not only is she not paying me, but she wants me to pay her. I thought this would be an easier year with Congress doing a bit less about tax, but too many of my clients upped their complexity an order of magnitude. Hubby scheduled our exterminator tomorrow for a time when he's down at church with the organ tuner, so Tuesday will be a stop & start day. I need an uninterrupted block of time to prepare an S-corp on extension to get the K-1 to the personal return preparer. I've simply stopped caring as much.

I am so sorry for your load.You are going through some very hard personal and work trials. I doubt that the client that wants you to pay P & I didn't tell the other CPA the entire truth. Please take care of yourself and your family.

I totally understand not caring as much. After 44 years of making myself sick by not sleeping and working ridiculous hours, I had to slow down and just say "whatever". I'm telling everyone that next year is it and I've been lucky enough to have a few doozies help me out and leave early. Some of them said that I'm only 65 and should not leave yet but I just don't have it in me. I am praying that I can work part time outside of the house doing something else, but who knows if I will be able to leave the house without hiring a caregiver? 

[Lion EA]

I get to play with my 3 year-old grandson this weekend, so that's fun!

[Randall]

I hate to post too, not bad things for me.  But I've been doing a group hiking thing the past few years, one weekend a month.  I started out skipping the first 3 months of the year.  Their final group in April is usually after the tax due date.  Then I started going for the January weekend, I was not too busy.  Then added February.  Then the past few years, going in March.  It was tough to take a weekend off in March.  This year they threw me a curve and no hikes after the tax due date but I went anyway in April, this past weekend April 1-2.  I was working even longer the past few weeks to get ahead of the game.   It felt refreshing to take the weekend off this late in the tax season.  I've been trying to cut back the past few years but it seems I've been busier than normal.  I have been cutting back the past few years after the due date.  Fridays off, shorter hours the other four days.  

[mcbreck]

12 hours ago, cbslee said:

I almost hate to post. Easing my way further into semi retirement is going smoothly.

I just finished my last tax return except for 3 extensions that I will prepare in May after we return from vacation.

Now to finish all of the first quarter payroll reports and March Financial Statements.

Where are you going on vacation? Having a vacation scheduled right after tax season is both a nice thing to look forward to and shocking how little planning we've accomplished.

[Catherine]

Not too bad here. I am vacillating between feeling like "I've got this under control" and "Oh dear Lord how am I even going to get extensions filed in time!" This is my crunch week to finish up. As of next Monday, I do nothing else until everyone outstanding is on extension. Then I get back to work with all the pressure off. I am finally learning, as I try to ease into retirement, that I cannot allow myself to care more about people's taxes than they care. I still do my best, but don't let myself get turned into a pretzel for people who can't be bothered.

And I go see my granddaughter (and daughter and son in law) every week for a couple of hours.

[Lee B]

2 hours ago, mcbreck said:

Where are you going on vacation? Having a vacation scheduled right after tax season is both a nice thing to look forward to and shocking how little planning we've accomplished.

Leaving for Kauai on April 17th for 2 weeks

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

Have a great time! That sounds so relaxing. 

Our son just upgraded to flying 757s and 767s last month, so he is trying to get a trip to Kauai soon after 4/18 so that we can fly with him while my husband still can. His doctors approved it, if I go. Mark has always wanted to see Hawaii so we will fly to their place  in Denver and leave from there. He has a 27 hour layover, so it will be a very fast trip. I told him I don't do helicopters, so we can see it from the ground. I rarely sleep on planes, so it will take me awhile to recover. I would have preferred Europe, but getting Mark through customs with all of his drugs and medical equipment sounds like a pain. I am really looking forward to going back to their place this summer and reading a book in the backyard.

 

[joanmcq]

The “I don’t really care” is strong with this one. 2/3 of my clients are CA and get automatic extensions. 3 more live abroad. The rest? I guess I’ve got to get to work finishing…

[Randall]

On 4/4/2023 at 10:51 AM, cbslee said:

Leaving for Kauai on April 17th for 2 weeks

I take a day off but I don't like to plan a regular vacation immediately after the tax season.  A few weeks later or a month or two later for me.

 

[jklcpa]

Horrible year personally but the work was OK. Everything is worked on and out.  I try to aim for around the 10th or 12th to get most done and give myself a cushion of time. I have one client meeting today for pickup, and then I'm waiting on signature forms for the rest. I will have only 3 extensions, all for one client for his personal and 2 little partnerships.  I took yesterday off!

I've been taking care of mom full-time for the last 5 years with increasing demands the last year or so.  Now at 96+ yrs old, early dementia and was still living at home until a fall in late March. She was unhurt, but it landed her in rehab.  Three days in she, I, and my husband all got a nasty GI virus circulating in that facility. I was completely down for a few days and feeling sick most of a week. Then a second hospital trip with her last weekend and another night with no sleep because rehab made a bad call on when in actuality she had lower rib and hip pain radiating. After all night in the ER told me to give her some extra strength Tylenol and that transport would be another 6-7 wait.  No way! I drove home for her van and took her back to rehab myself at 4-something in the morning!  In the next few weeks I have to find permanent placement for her somewhere and begin to clean out the family home that she has lived in for more than 70 years.

Because of mom's needs, I haven't taken any new clients in these last 5 years and most of my business clients got old, retired, and/or sold their businesses. My workload is much lighter than it should be now when I should have been building my practice and couldn't.  That is some of the reason I've had some extra time in the past few years to answer lots of questions here, away from the office and the internet to fill up time.

Husband is doing well with fighting the bladder cancer, the prostate cancer is treated and gone, and other issues were fixed in '21 that were heart ablation and AAA repair.

When a SIL passed suddenly last June, I started walking with my brother in the very early morning and have gotten more fit again.  I'd walk anywhere from 3-5 miles every morning until the time changed and everything fell apart with mom.  I wanted to walk last week but in the turmoil I ended up with a twisted or sprained ankle that I'm babying at the moment. I don't know how that happened but it's getting better.

Also thanks to two brothers, my husband and I have taken up shooting sporting clays, or some may still call them clay pigeons. They are all excellent marksmen, so I have lots to learn and catch up on. I love the outdoors and all kinds of activities, and this is the latest and one I never dreamed of trying. I bought a shotgun of my own.  We took advantage of yesterday's beautiful weather, went shooting, and got away from all the pressure for the afternoon. I'm slowly improving and was pleased with my progress on a more difficult and new-to-us course.

If you made it through all of that, thanks for reading!

 

[BTS]

Target practice is great fun.  Teaching my Gkids to shoot bb guns to start with.  We set up two armies with the old green army men.  Then we take turns picking each ones guys off.  Last man standing wins.  I still call them clay pigeons !!  

Been a trying year here too.  We will probably have 30 extensions by next Tuesday.  But last year we had over 50, so thats progress.  We did away with sit down appointments when covid hit and never looked back.  We have our lobby open for clients to drop off and pick up, but zero sit downs.  That alone has made things more efficient.  A 20 minute tax return would take 1 1/2 hours because clients would want to visit and talk about everything under the sun.  And by going to no appointments we only lost 2 clients.  One was a really pain in the arse client, the other older and set in their ways.  But its works for us. 

[Randall]

2 hours ago, jklcpa said:

Horrible year personally but the work was OK. Everything is worked on and out.  I try to aim for around the 10th or 12th to get most done and give myself a cushion of time. I have one client meeting today for pickup, and then I'm waiting on signature forms for the rest. I will have only 3 extensions, all for one client for his personal and 2 little partnerships.  I took yesterday off!

I've been taking care of mom full-time for the last 5 years with increasing demands the last year or so.  Now at 96+ yrs old, early dementia and was still living at home until a fall in late March. She was unhurt, but it landed her in rehab.  Three days in she, I, and my husband all got a nasty GI virus circulating in that facility. I was completely down for a few days and feeling sick most of a week. Then a second hospital trip with her last weekend and another night with no sleep because rehab made a bad call on when in actuality she had lower rib and hip pain radiating. After all night in the ER told me to give her some extra strength Tylenol and that transport would be another 6-7 wait.  No way! I drove home for her van and took her back to rehab myself at 4-something in the morning!  In the next few weeks I have to find permanent placement for her somewhere and begin to clean out the family home that she has lived in for more than 70 years.

Because of mom's needs, I haven't taken any new clients in these last 5 years and most of my business clients got old, retired, and/or sold their businesses. My workload is much lighter than it should be now when I should have been building my practice and couldn't.  That is some of the reason I've had some extra time in the past few years to answer lots of questions here, away from the office and the internet to fill up time.

Husband is doing well with fighting the bladder cancer, the prostate cancer is treated and gone, and other issues were fixed in '21 that were heart ablation and AAA repair.

When a SIL passed suddenly last June, I started walking with my brother in the very early morning and have gotten more fit again.  I'd walk anywhere from 3-5 miles every morning until the time changed and everything fell apart with mom.  I wanted to walk last week but in the turmoil I ended up with a twisted or sprained ankle that I'm babying at the moment. I don't know how that happened but it's getting better.

Also thanks to two brothers, my husband and I have taken up shooting sporting clays, or some may still call them clay pigeons. They are all excellent marksmen, so I have lots to learn and catch up on. I love the outdoors and all kinds of activities, and this is the latest and one I never dreamed of trying. I bought a shotgun of my own.  We took advantage of yesterday's beautiful weather, went shooting, and got away from all the pressure for the afternoon. I'm slowly improving and was pleased with my progress on a more difficult and new-to-us course.

If you made it through all of that, thanks for reading!

 

Sorry to hear your news.  I went thru that with my Mom.  She's been gone nine years now.  Her situation wasn't nearly as bad as yours though.

[Catherine]

4 hours ago, jklcpa said:

We took advantage of yesterday's beautiful weather, went shooting, and got away from all the pressure for the afternoon.

Just what I do! Target shooting, either pistol or rifle. Very calming.