Gail in Virginia

I agree. It will inconvenience some honest people, but thieves will still be thieves.

In Virginia if you sell more than 600 pounds, or make 24 trips to a scrap dealer in a year, you have to have a permit starting July 1 of this past year.

I think that I am probably just not thinking clearly, but I am filing a tax return for a widow for whom this is the first year filing as single since her husband died. There was an NOL on last year's joint return, related to the sole proprietorship that the husband used to have. Does she get to continue taking this NOL until it is used up (if it ever is)? And what about the cancellation of debt income in his name - does she report that? I feel like she should, since she probably benefited from the original debt but what is correct? Sometimes it doesn't pay to work by Friday.............

I am glad it wasn't more serious, and that you weren't carrying the baby! I guess you granddaughter is the only one doing that so far. Take care!

If we as preparers don't value our own work enough to charge a sufficient fee our clients won't value it either. I have never wanted to be the cheapest - I want to be the best.

I thought the two comments at the end of the article were interesting; apparently the only people commenting so far are ATX users. I do wish him well, though; if he doesn't do well, an entirely new group of people may be paying the price.

That was great, KC! Thanks for sharing.

It is my understanding that Virginia is not recognizing same sex marriages no matter where they occur. I am sure that will be challenged in court in the near future, if it is not already on the docket.

Quite often in a divorce situation what is good for one client is not good for the other. For example, if they separated more than six months prior to the end of the year and have a child, it might benefit the spouse who can to file as HoH, but leave the other spouse filing MFS which is usually not to his/her benefit. Even if they both file MFS, if one can itemize and the other cannot, then one benefits at the expense of the other. Even on a joint return, it might be that one spouse would be better off filing HoH (if eligible) and getting EITC, even though together they are better off MFJ. And these are just obvious conflicts of interest in the advice that you give - potentially there are lots more ways that one spouse benefits at the expense of the other. How do you determine which spouse to benefit if you are representing both? I suspect that is why the CPA preferred to refer one party to another preparer to avoid even the appearance of a conflict.

My favorite - How old do you have to be to quit paying taxes?

GARDEN SNAKES CAN BE DANGEROUS... Snakes also known as Garter Snakes (Thamnophissirtalis) can be dangerous Yes, grass snakes, not rattlesnakes. Here's why. A couple in Sweetwater, Texas, had a lot of potted plants. During a recent cold spell, the wife was bringing a lot of them indoors to protect them from a possible freeze. It turned out that a little green garden grass snake was hidden in one of the plants. When it had warmed up, it slithered out and the wife saw it go under the sofa. She let out a very loud scream. The husband (who was taking a shower) ran out into the living room naked to see what the problem was. She told him there was a snake under the sofa. He got down on the floor on his hands and knees to look for it. About that time the family dog came and cold-nosed him on the behind. He thought the snake had bitten him, so he screamed and fell over on the floor. His wife thought he had had a heart attack, so she covered him up, told him to lie still and called an ambulance. The attendants rushed in, would not listen to his protests, loaded him on the stretcher, and started carrying him out. About that time, the snake came out from under the sofa and the Emergency Medical Technician saw it and dropped his end of the stretcher. That's when the man broke his leg and why he is still in the hospital. The wife still had the problem of the snake in the house, so she called on a neighbor who volunteered to capture the snake. He armed himself with a rolled-up newspaper and began poking under the couch.. Soon he decided it was gone and told the woman, who sat down on the sofa in relief. But while relaxing, her hand dangled in between the cushions, where she felt the snake wriggling around. She screamed and fainted, the snake rushed back under the sofa. The neighbor man, seeing her lying there passed out, tried to use CPR to revive her. The neighbor's wife, who had just returned from shopping at the grocery store, saw her husband's mouth on the woman's mouth and slammed her husband in the back of the head with a bag of canned goods, knocking him out and cutting his scalp to a point where it needed stitches. The noise woke the woman from her dead faint and she saw her neighbor lying on the floor with his wife bending over him, so she assumed that the snake had bitten him. She went to the kitchen and got a small bottle of whiskey, and began pouring it down the man's throat. By now, the police had arrived. Breathe here... They saw the unconscious man, smelled the whiskey, and assumed that a drunken fight had occurred. They were about to arrest them all, when the women tried to explain how it all happened over a little garden snake! The police called an ambulance, which took away the neighbor and his sobbing wife. Now, the little snake again crawled out from under the sofa and one of the policemen drew his gun and fired at it. He missed the snake and hit the leg of the end table. The table fell over, the lamp on it shattered and, as the bulb broke, it started a fire in the drapes. The other policeman tried to beat out the flames, and fell through the window into the yard on top of the family dog who, startled, jumped out and raced into the street, where an oncoming car swerved to avoid it and smashed into the parked police car. Meanwhile, neighbors saw the burning drapes and called in the fire department. The firemen had started raising the fire ladder when they were halfway down the street. The rising ladder tore out the overhead wires, put out the power, and disconnected the telephones in a ten-square city block area (but they did get the house fire out). Time passed! Both men were discharged from the hospital, the house was repaired, the dog came home, the police acquired a new car and all was right with their world. A while later they were watching TV and the weatherman announced a cold snap for that night. The wife asked her husband if he thought they should bring in their plants for the night. And that's when he shot her.

Wow! That is absolutely beautiful. I don't have any talent for such decorative landscaping.

I think it means Windows Server, Microsoft Office, etc.

I like this kind of post much better than the name calling. Thanks Catherine and KC!

Or perhaps a non-standardized 1098 that confused the preparer as to what type of interest they were referring to? Some forms can be confusing, and when banks/brokerages/etc are allowed to print and send in any format it can be easy to misunderstand what you are looking at sometimes.

As George Takei would say, "Ohm, my!"

I love it!

Hard to believe, but there is something that Jack from Ohio and Taxed agree on!

I can't address the specific question as I have not had foreign social security benefits on a return, but it is absolutely okay to override a field if that is the only way to get the return correct. Overrides do not in and of themselves affect the ability to e-file.

I think you are allowed to hang on to your work product, but you cannot refuse to return the paperwork the client provided you to prepare his return. And that is specifically stated in Circular 230, Section 10.28.

I don't see how we can encrypt the files we work with, unless you want to begin fresh every year by re-entering all of the personal data and previous year's depreciation, etc. ATX, or any other software I have worked with, doesn't seem to have a system for encrypting the rollover files from itself. I wonder, if upon discovery of any similar situation, we should go ahead and file identity theft affidavit's with the IRS and our state revenue office. While that would be a real pain for 500 clients, or the thousands that some preparers have, would it at least flag their files and maybe prevent some of the problems with false returns being filed?

Interesting that the park rangers in Death Valley National Park have had to ask the tourists to quit trying to fry eggs on the sidewalk: http://seattletimes.com/html/travel/2021380318_deathvalleyfryingeggsxml.html Apparently it leaves a gooey mess that they have to clean up.

Unfortunately, whoever was responsible for unilaterally changing tax law by setting that policy for the IRS will never be held accountable. I wonder what things would be like in this country if the laws already on the books were enforced as written. I don't believe it is possible to completely eliminate fraud, but we should not be encouraging it through policy and regulations.

They should have sent your client a list of what they want to see to do the audit, and it is pretty comprehensive. As for what they are looking for, my impression was they are looking for any contract labor that should have been treated as employees, or any wages paid under the table as cash. Therefore, they basically want to see all the employment records, corporate books and tax returns plus supporting documentation. Your mileage may vary.

Thanks, Jack! That was a great solution.