RitaB

I'm with you. But I might hug them to get the right dimensions for the grave in the back yard. Just kidding.

I'm exactly like JohnH (how do you think I got my name) except I'd look back a lot. And cuss. And stay mad for a long time. Otherwise we are twins!

This is the beauty of this situation. The new preparer may not know or care that the forms are coded incorrectly. This taxpayer may lose a lot more by listening to the financial planner than his usual fee. The Karma bus may roll right over all of them.

I keep paper. It's true. I love getting the file out and holding last year's return in my hands. With all the notes and all the forms and calling clients and saying, "Hey, last year you had $435 interest income from Cumberland County Bank." And they say, "OMG, thank you!" And they call the bank and the interest this year was 34 cents, and I saved the day. Just kidding.

1) Agree. I hate having to cut those apart. Right up there with glue balls on the SS-1099 Forms. 2) I would be furious. Having said that, I'd just return the retainer and continue to be furious. I know I'm in the minority on that.

My elderly client just told me a story about dating his wife back in the day. He was at her house and had apparently overstayed his welcome. Her mother asked him if he thought he was spending the night with her daughter. He said, "I don't know, but I can call my mom and ask."

If I had a nickel for every time I said that...

"Cough syrup"

Welcome! So glad to have you in my world!

I agree 100%.

Taxable amount goes on Form 1040 line 7. Enter this W-2 like any other W-2. Of course, if the amount in Box 1 is not all taxable, I'd enter it all on line 7 and then subtract the nontaxable amount on Line 21. I bet it's all taxable, though. But, you never know if a form is correct or not. Unless you did it yourself. Yanno?

Well, the commercials and lack of IRS audits mean everybody with a computer is a tax professional. Shoot, your guy here is a professional with just a pencil. This is killing us. Other professionals can charge what they want because people can't do their own lawyering or doctoring or tooth pulling or insert your own example here. You can charge based on the problem you solve. If there's no problem with preparing an incorrect tax return, they don't need us.

You are way smarter than me, Terry. The way I review a return is ATX and I do the return. LOL.

There is so much pressure with these investing gurus. I mean, there is money to be made and lost all around.

So, this guy is preparing returns, I suppose they are being filed, but we're not sure. Then he is hiring you to review them. I doubt he would ever tell any taxpayer what he's doing, so I'm not sure how you'd be in trouble. If he can't do them correctly the first time, he wouldn't know how to amend one either. I bet he's not thought that far ahead. May not even know we amend returns. He may think he can just take your work, do the returns over, and everything is peachy. Having said all that, the reason I wouldn't review returns he's done for others is that I'd be training him to take business away from me.

ISTG it's true.

Well, he's gotta save some of that windfall for a rainy day.

He's bringing me half a Big Mac to celebrate. Sometime April to May. Counted it down.

Bahahahaha! I don't know, but I do know that every time a client says, "It's all there," I know for sure it's not all there. Every. Single. Time.

Client brings in Mar 21, 2016 letter saying IRS has resolved an issue with his 2013 return and will be mailing him a check for $2.77 in four to eight weeks. Whew. We didn't even know there was a problem. Dodged a bullet there.

You'd think he would at least spring for a bottle of Wite Out. I hope he gets busted, too. It's a shame he hasn't already. Makes it hard on the rest of us that do professional work and have bills to pay. Even if we were filthy rich with no bills to pay, those crooks need to be put out of business. The lack of Wite Out, though. Wow.

I am laughing my head off at my client's 3rd urgent message. "IRS picked the wrong guy to mess with, I've called my Congress Person, and she is all over it. I'm also going to drive to Knoxville or Chattanooga and speak to someone personally. Meanwhile, I am going to make sure that I OWE THEM NEXT YEAR." I called him back, I know many of you would not, and let him spew it all again. That's how I choose to run my business. He said he's not mad at me but hates those bleeping bleeping %$%#$%$#$$%^&**&* at IRS. Bleep. Bleep. It was hard not to laugh. His return was accepted 2/29. He's such a loose cannon. I told him I agree, I'd back off on the unnecessary withholding, and I know it doesn't help you right now, but there is so much fraud I understand why they might need to be cautious when issuing a refund of $14,492. I don't think he understood my point of view. At. All. But he said he felt better, and he'd let me know the minute he knew what was going on. Oh, I know you will... I'm actually crying I'm laughing so hard.

I'm just gonna leave this here.

Cadbury Mini Eggs.

You could just enter the loan interest on the 1099-Int entry. You don't have to enter a Federal ID number. That way you're not overriding, and also not saying you financed a mortgage, which did not happen. I think what you did, override line 8 on page 1, will be fine, too. I do it a lot.