Jack from Ohio

"Do it yourself" tax software does not have the knowledge to properly prepare your tax return. Seek out a professional. You are in over your head.

Notices from the IRS are printed 14 days before the date on the notice. Then they travel through the miles of the IRS maze and if all is good, they get mailed on the printed date. I have seen notices dated as much as 5 days after the client receives them. This brings up the question... With all that can happen in a two week period, how can my clients know if a notice is valid or not? I posed this question to an IRS assistant on the preparer priority line, and his answer was... "You have to call." Gotta love our job security!!

Once you expose the disk to air, it will never be read again unless you use a laser reading device that costs thousands of dollars per hour to use. The drive is sealed to prevent even microscopic dust in. With the gap being only 3 nanometers (less than 1/4 the diameter of a smoke particle), any dust, fingerprints or anything, makes the disk unreadable.

The best advice you will get here is to find a tax professional that is experienced in your situation and let them assist you. You are in way over your head.

Try your hammer on the disk and see just how tough it is!! We hang them on the fence around our garden for scaring away birds! You will see what I mean once you get it taken apart. My wife made me clear out my morgue. Had to get rid of 47 computer carcasses. I removed all the hard drives to protect information. Have had a ton of fun with the magnets & disks.

1. Drill with 3/8 inch metal bit. Drill 1 inch from the center. Drill all the way through. 2. Disassemble. You will need a #9 torx bit. Once broken into, the data cannot be retreived. The platens (disk) inside are made from very hight quality steel and are mirror polished. Great converstaion pieces. There are some very nice strong magnets inside as well. 3. Target for your handgun practice.

I have several "retread" clients that leave for one year, and are back the next year with hat in hand and a new appreciation for what I do.

Ditto for me Joan!! PM me

I have a very trustworthy executive assistant! She handles scheduling, all the banking, making calls for information for me (I'm grooming her to become a preparer or at least a data input person), calls clients when returns are finished and does all the filing. To average 5 returns in a normal 8 hour workday should not be a problem. I have a large number that require an hour or less, and only about 20 or so that take about 2 hours. The problem is the transition from a day job and private practice to only a private practice. Time will be a commodity when my client list gets above 225. This year, about 40% of my clients took their copies digitally on a flash drive. Saves time like you wouldn't believe. I found 2GB Flash Drives for $6 each and told them that if they do not bring it back next year, the cost for the next one will be $10. Each drive can hold about 125 or more returns, so I don't think space will be a problem. My executive assistant is very economical too! I doubled her pay for 2012, and it did not change my bottom line $.01!! (She does get special executive perks!!)

If you hadn't told us, no one would ever notice!!

Expanding my office space to 2 rooms. My executive assistant will be in the second room with her own desk, computer, printer, fax etc. as well as all the file cabinets. This year I did 175 as well as an average of 45 hrs a week at the firm. Majority of my clients have become drop off clients. I am ready for the drive to work to be 60 feet instead of 26 miles one way. By the way... (This is a very closely kept secret....) I have been sleeping with my executive assistant since I started my tax business. I am also doubling her salary too :wub:

I work at a tax firm as well as have my personal practice. The firm job gives me year round income, even when it goes to 25 hours in June. Once I get my personal client list to 400, I lose the day job. I make a whole lot more per hour at my personal practice! Hence the push to get to 400!!

.125 returns left to do at home. At the firm where I work, we filed 300+ extensions.

I stand on my original statement, based on experience.

It is a Windows thing. Your desktop organizer may be in automatic mode. Right Click on the desktop and realign the icons and the old ones may reappear.

I have .675 returns left to do. Waiting on an explanation for a 1099MISC, and in 20 minutes tomorrow CAUGHT UP!! Anyone else that calls get a special "last minute" pricing schedule! Just sent my own return yesterday... First time since 1984 I had to pay Fed, State, School. My last tax deduction graduated college in 2010! Changes in estimates are ahead!

Here's hoping you inherited the long life gene!!

Seriously?? All this over $1.00?

And we are all very painfully aware of how closely the IRS checks, cross-checks and scrutinizes interest income on tax returns. Be AFRAID!! Be VERY AFRAID!!!

I think you are beginning to see the light!!

This indicates a server error on the CCH server. Nothing you did wrong. Nothing you can do to fix it. The server gods at CCH already know because the system will have sent messages to a dozen people when it happens. Traffic and not enough server capacity at CCH. We had the same thing last year.

"She paid a lower tax rate then Warren Buffet's secretary!" There is your campaing slogan!! Find a couple that has only SS and a small retirement income from their 401K's and then sells stocks with gains of $50-100K and pays ZERO tax?? They can be the poster child.

20% error rate on mailed in returns due to crappy scanners. We have had the IRS convert many of our old "hold out to paper file" clients to e-file by messing up their mailed in returns. When they pay me to fix the IRS goof, e-file seems pretty sweet. And it is 2012! Not 1968

Enjoy the 0 tax rate on capital gains for the 10% filers. I will bet a steak dinner that Congress changes it before Dec. 31, 2012. Any takers?

Agree with michaelmars.