Lee B

Longtime business clients for 29 years, just finalized their divorce. They each are 40 % owners ( Son owns 20 % ) of an LLC which has a mixture of 9 commercial and residential rentals. For 29 years I have communicated and met face to face with one spouse. My communications with the other spouse and the son has been pretty minimal. Since the spouse I have been dealing with is a minority owner, how do I handle this situation going forward? Hopefully you have some good suggestions Thanks in advance, Lee

Recently there was a lengthy article detailing multiple security problems at many different IRS programs. A recipe for failure: Too many tax law changes, not enough employees, not enough funding, lurching from one tax year to the next tax year putting out one fire after another. As I have said before, 'A slow moving train wreck headed downhill." Long range planning is not a strength of our elected representatives!

"Only "Send Submissions" for 1040 (both State and Federal) will be affected by this shutdown, all other services such as "Get Acks" and all state services will be available after the shutdown."

Now that the risk of winning the "Audit Lottery" is so low, both taxpayers and professionals are being seduced with the lure of "Easy Money" which in their minds justifies all sorts of creative schemes and alternate realities. Every day in the media, we see hucksters being glorified and getting rich. It certainly makes the explanation of "how to comply with rules and regulations" seem dull and unimaginative. It's hard for the satisfaction of being competent and doing a "good job" to compete against the thrill of saving thousands of dollars.

Margaret, Just so you know, your end of post quotes are well chosen. Thanks!

"1040 MeF Production Shutdown Schedule Shutdown begins on Saturday, November 26, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time, to prepare the system for the upcoming Tax Year 2022 Filing Season."

I believe CPAs in Oregon are required to take 4 hours of Ethics every 2 years.

I think the last several years it's been about now.

I wonder if they have started outsourcing their support which was predictable after they accepted the very large overseas equity investment.

"The IRS said Thursday it will sending out the letters to millions of families who haven't claimed the Earning Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, the Recovery Rebate Credit or other benefits, and it will be leaving open its Free File program until Nov. 17 to enable families to file tax returns to claim those benefits, depending on their personal and family situation." "For this mailing, the Treasury' Department's Office of Tax Analysis identified individuals who don't typically have a tax return filing requirement because they appear to have very low incomes, based on Forms W-2, 1099s and other third-party statements available to the IRS. The letters are similar to an earlier mailing the IRS sent in September 2020 encouraging 9 million potential non-filers to submit a tax return to claim the initial economic impact payment. They're part of an ongoing effort to spur people who aren't typically required to file to look into possible benefits available to them. Every year, people can overlook filing a tax return when they may be entitled to tax credits and a refund. They can also file a tax return even if they haven't yet received their letter." Can we make this any more confusing?

This reminds of an ex client that I sent a letter at the beginning of tax season telling him I wouldn't be able to prepare his return this year. So he ends up at H & R Block freaking out when Block tells him he owes $10,000. So he calls me begging me to review their return because how could he possibly owe that much. So I reluctantly agreed since he used to be a long time business client. The Block tax return was accurate. He had paid no attention to the changes in his taxable income during 2021 . When I asked him whether he had asked the Block preparer to go over the return with him, he said , "No I just took my documents back and called you.

Don't you get 5 business days to fix efile rejections?

Is operating equipment leasei income and the related depreciation passive?

Does your client have equipment rental or equipment leasing income? If your client has leasing income, are they capital or operating leases? Where does the income on line 1 come from? r

Here is a lengthy article in The Tax Advisor about this subject: https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2018/may/casualty-losses-expenditures-sec-162-165.html

How the heck does someone build up $ 350 K in credit card debt?

This site maintained by an ex IRS employee has everything you need to know about this topic: https://www.irsmind.com/

I have used tenenz, now called TangibleValues.com for many years. Good service, below average prices, never had a single problem. On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give them a 5, which I rarely do. I always use an online service for 1099's, since I have to do 4 different kinds of 1099s

I searched, we don't really have any active members from Michigan. Slippery Pencil posts on the board from time to time.

Death in the family, family health emergency, financial emergency in the family?

Just respond, "Yes I will finish just as soon as I get to it." Take care of yourself, it's job # 1.

I suspect that what happened is a SP incorporated some years ago and they kept using the SP's EIN for payroll purposes. Based what I have seen over the years, this is probably what happened.

Then you are way undercharging for your services. I don't compete with part time bookkeepers working out of a home office. I compete against a few larger non CPA Accounting Firms. My annual fees for my 3 largest clients are in the 5 digits and up.

Yes, outages can be an issue, the online payroll program that I used to use was on Amazon Web Services and they had a significant outage every 2 or 3 years that would last 3 or 4 hours. The current online payroll program that I have my largest client on (60 employees) seems to have a significant latency issue every 2 or 3 months that lasts 30 to 45 minutes where the program is unuseable.

"Free File remains open until Nov. 17 for those who still need to file their 2021 tax returns. This includes those who qualify for the Child Tax Credit, Recovery Rebate Credit or Earned Income Tax Credit but haven’t yet filed a 2021 tax return to claim them." The IRS has sent out 9 million letters to people they think potentially qualify. Get ready for the phone calls.