RitaB

Happy Easter (a bunny story) A man is driving along a highway and sees a rabbit jump out across the middle of the road. He swerves to avoid hitting it, but unfortunately the rabbit jumps right in front of the car. The driver, a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulls over and gets out to see what has become of the rabbit. Much to his dismay, the rabbit is the Easter Bunny, and he is DEAD . The driver feels so awful that he begins to cry. A beautiful beauty shop owner driving down the highway sees a man crying on the side of the road and pulls over. She steps out of the car and asks the man what's wrong. "I feel terrible," ! he explains, "I accidentally hit the Easter Bunny with my car and KILLED HIM." The beauty shop owner says,"Don't worry." She runs to her car and pulls out a spray can. She walks over to the limp, dead Easter Bunny, bends down, and sprays the contents onto him. The Easter Bunny jumps up, waves its paw at the two of them and hops off down the road. Ten feet away he stops, turns around and waves again, he hops down the road another 10 feet, turns and waves, hops another ten feet, turns and waves, and repeats this again and again and again and again, until he hops out of sight. The man is astonished. He runs over to the woman and demands, "What is in that can? What did you spray on the Easter Bunny ?" The woman turns the can around so that the man can read the label. It says... "Hair Spray - Restores life to dead hair, and adds permanent wave."

You haven't done your taxes yet!?! I'll get one of his cards for you. Although he may prey on, ahem, provide consultation for, only the beauty industry. (I haven't even done my extension yet.)

They're the worst. Just did returns for one that lost money big time, but owed State of TN Franchise Tax on inventory and net worth. "But we didn't even make any money." Well, that's the cost of liability coverage when you get it from the state of TN. Congratulations, you're an LLC.

LOL. This guy may be the same one who kept telling me the other beauty shop girl contributed to a Traditional IRA, when the statement clearly said ROTH IRA. I faxed it to him with a note: "Maybe this is why I thought it was a ROTH..."

After paying herself reasonable wages, I doubt there would be a great deal of SE savings. Especially with what I would charge for the extra tax returns. Especially now. When she's getting tax advice from some, some, some - oh, you know where I'm going here. I bet the Financial Advisor tries to sell her an IRA, which she used to get every year back in the day. Not that great an investment for a lady 66 years old, with SS and retirement benefits. Hey, but that's just me. She won't even know that it's taxable when withdrawn. She's not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Good suggestion. I'm takin notes here. Net business income $30,000. All cash got deposited. (Of course it did.) Deceased hubby's retirement, her own SS benefits taxable. She has been a sole proprietor for 100 years. OK, a little less, but too long to be going through this crap on April 9. One thing I have thought of though, I will help her avoid taxes by increasing her deduction for tax preparation. You know, I'll bet he also told her that SS benefits are not taxable.

Told my beauty shop owner she should NOT be paying this much tax! OK, I guess HER BOSS should be paying it. I'm so glad he did this the second week of April so I can search for crap between phone calls to show her. It really did not register when I asked her, "Even though you're not supposed to pay yourself wages, who do you think will be paying the employer part of your tax, and your new unemployment tax if you do?" Blank look. But her hair and make-up looked good. Boy, I need my roots done...

jasdlm (wow, say that three times fast) - I know this is not your question, but have you considered passing up the bonus depreciation on the tractor? I mean, he may need the deduction more in the future. He's not getting much, if any, deduction for SE tax there (unless it's one heck of a tractor, which it could be). I'd at most take section 179 in whatever amount gets his Farm income down to $400 and quit there. Actually, I would probably just take the conservative regular depreciation. At least I think that's what I'd do. There may be other considerations and I'm missing something. I'm subject to do that in April... Hey, maybe I can run it by my hairdresser later when she picks up her return...

LOL. Actually, he had already sold the truck, and had the money sittin right there in the bank! He was pretty cool about it, wifey is just so used to whining about money, she couldn't stop herself. Have you guys read The Millionare Next Door? I think it's a great book. And it mentions this very thing, the wives are usually the ones pinching the pennies. So true.

It is so good to have the prior year return for comparison purposes when liability changes. For that reason, I really try to get a copy of it if I didn't prepare it. I'm a little suspicious about why people are switching preparers, anyway. And, I admit that I like to see if I can find mistakes on the prior return, too. Anyway, some clients get more sympathy from me than others. Here's an example of no sympathy: Monday, a couple came in who had won a $22,000 pickup, plus he was self-employed and of course had not paid any estimated tax payments. I had to chuckle when HVKen mentioned it's usually the wife yelling at the husband, that's so true. But, this wife actually sorta blamed me: "OMG, you have given me a heart attack!" My attitude changed considerably. Me: "Well, no, Mrs. Outburst, Fred's auto dealership gave you a vehicle, and Mr. OMG My Wife Is Embarrassing was compensated for work, and he's just now paying some tax on it. I suppose you could have refused the auto and the jobs, and paid less tax."

Yes, hey Sue!! Yeah, that's all I come up with, too. But, the loss would have to exceed 10% of AGI, I think. (Is that even right? I'm soooo tired...) Anyhow, I think fish are about $1 each here. Of course, we know to them they were worth a lot more...

Different Suggestion I have thought about suggesting that the client letter automatically print the same date as the return. I'll tell you why. Some of my PITA clients get to wait on their return longer than others. Yes, I really do that, and I'm ashamed. (Not really.) And sometimes, I just do an easy one to break the monotony, and I don't want them thinking I have nothing to do - "wow, she's not busy at all!) What I do is override the date on 1040, p. 2, lickety-split, it's done. But it doesn't go to the client letter, and that dadgum thing is a pain to edit... Would that suggestion be a problem for anyone? I don't want them to change something that you guys don't want changed. Wow. I as read that up there, I realize that I am telling you all how mean I really am...

Are you sure the numbers are not the same on both the 8879 and the 9325? I often hit "create" just to get the 8879, like if I'm waiting on the bank numbers. It doesn't create, but the DCN gets populated. Then when I get what I'm waiting on, usually when the client picks up, I can create the e-file for real. The DCN doesn't change, or at least I don't think it does. Oh, no, something else to check on...

Try the input screens for 1099-Int and 1099-Div, maybe K-1 input, I don't know where the income is from. You may have to hunt for a while, and be sure to enter date. Also, I remember having to pull don't "passive" on the 1116 form. Sorry, that's about all I know. Edit: Sorry, you said it was from a K-1. My bad.

I think both returns are for the same taxpayer(s) just came out not agreeing with each other, which really is weird, and I got nothing besides what others have said. cientax - let us know what happened, this is killing me.

Or, it's 2006, and that $%^& phone credit is not checked on one... Just kidding. Was that 2006? Time flies whether you're having fun or not...

You are one heck of a typist. And it takes 2.1 nanoseconds, (less than that with the new-fangled automatic staplers), to attach the broker's statement that meets IRS requirements, and not bill your client for unnecessary work.

I agree with Bob and John, if report in the correct format, attach it. I have a guy with Edward Jones report that I attach and have not had a problem in 3 years as well. (Thank you Edward!) This morning, working on a guy with Wachovia, whose format is NOT like IRS accepts, PLUS, they list all (A LOT!) the transactions by fund, but DON'T TOTAL BY FUND. I am so fed up. Is it too much to ask that you hit the SUM button?!? Their fees for the year were $2160. For $2160, I could hit the SUM button.

Jerry, ask the client if he had qualified expenses to offset the scholarships. For this purpose, qualified expenses include tuition and fees required by the school and fees, books, and equipment required for his course of study. Also, do not take for granted that the 1098T is correct. Get the info from the client. Form 1098T is one of the biggest flat tires, as far as forms go, in the history of forms, in my opinion. See Pub 970, also TheTaxBook, p.12-6

A couple of years ago, I posted my amazement that a pastor making $45,000 wages with $20,000 HA qualified for Retirement Savers Credit. I thought there must be a mistake with the software. An expert told me not to be insulted, but perhaps I should send my client to someone with more experience with clergy taxes. I do a lot of pastor returns, have for 14 years now, and I still question why a person with $65,000 income would get that credit. We can't all know everything. Keep asking, cpabsd!

I would say yes, I don't see why not. I've been wrong before, so I took a quick look at Pub 502, and it really doesn't address used equipment, does it? http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf Today has been weird for me. It has been surprisingly calm until about an hour ago, then a flurry of people dropping off stuff. They're gettin extensions. Guess their weekend will be better cause I have their stuff or something.

Client: What's this thing where they're not holding out any taxes on me?! (OK, like I did it.) Me: Blah, blah, I explain how it is supposed to work. Client: Well, I want them to take out some tax. Me: Fill out a new W-4 and put the amount on line 6 that you want withheld. Client: Well, how much should I put? Me: What's the difference between the old checks and the new? Client: I dunno. * * * * * * * * Farmer Dude (had $18,000 loss last year, and $2000 gain on farm this year): Did everybody's refund go down this year?

I am learning to take care of myself better in regard to PITA clients. I have two LLC's here where the one getting the records together sent me this spreadsheet last week with crap lumped together, like "taxes" which consisted of my fees, sales tax remitted to state of TN, penalties, interest, etc. I told her, in great detail, how to get it together by category (just like I do every year) and have been waiting for over a week. Today she e-mails me that she'll try to get it to me by Monday. I just e-filed their extension requests. Even if I get the returns done, and believe me, I won't work overtime on them, they won't get them till first of May. I expect to see a big rush of fools around April 10 (hey, that's Good Friday), they will get extensions just like always. I don't know why they even bother to bring their stuff in, somehow they feel better that it's here or something. I agree, I don't really care if I lose these clients.

Yeah, most of my clients would never, ever try to pull anything on me, like saying that I lumped their detailed expenses together, but when it does happen, I can't tell you the satisfaction I get when I pull out information, in their own handwriting, to "refresh" their memory. Also, I'd rather print copies of stock purchases than deal with brokers, or go thru the whole drill explaining to clients what I need, and hear them ask, "Can't you just look it up on your computer?"

Thanks, Pat, for asking this question. It probably would have taken me forever to think to check KB. I couldn't create 7004 e-file, either, and I came here looking for help. Long story short, I applied to e-file business returns using my SSN, I now have a FEIN, too. I just had to delete FEIN and enter SSN, and now I can create. Thank you, again!