RitaB

That was beautiful.

It's reasonable and necessary for me to drive from home to my office in town everyday, but I can't deduct the expense. Which is really unfortunate, but still not deductible.

I posted my question on the other forum, and you have to check the default printer in all the Print Packets, too.

Why didn't I think of that? Anybody else?

One thing this time, program does not want to recognize my printer as the default option. I've read the Help directions. Under Return Manager, Returns, Print Setup, my printer is really set as the default printer, and the program still wants to use "Send to OneNote 2013". It does default to my actual printer if I select the "Page" option. It's sorta like eating soup with a fork, not impossible but a PITA. I'm sure it's just something with me, and somebody will tell me what stupid thing I'm doing to make the program not use the default that's set.

Hahahaha! And drink lots of water, and this is us on April 16:

Yes. Yes, it does.

Hot diggity. I just realized, I had these 50 clients in 2011, and I already put the 2011 returns on the new computer. I'll rollover to 2012, then rollover to 2013. They see me rollin.

I love you.

I'm sure you can explain it to him. Honestly the 50 were very easy returns, I'd rather do what I said than pay him to come over here and lose the time on my computer. It's all good. Thanks, again. And the ratio of returns to preparer is 310:1 here at this firm. And that little gal also does year round bookkeeping like a boss.

Jack, thanks for the personal message telling me it's really complex and giving me your email address. Very kind of you to offer to help. I think I'll just create those 2013 returns from scratch. I know nothing will go wrong that way. I'm not as brave as I sound, and my IT guy could never restore the first 60 returns I lost when I downloaded an update last year.

I changed computers mid-stream last year. Most of my returns are on new computer, but I have about 50 that I'd love to import/restore/not sure which. Has anyone done this with the 2012 program? I've got 200+ already there that I don't want going up in smoke. I can see it happening. I know it SHOULD be possible. That's not what I'm asking. Has anyone done it? Imported returns without killing the ones already there?

Thanks for starting this one, Jerry. Ok, I generally enter everything on the return, laying the forms and client-provided documents in a stack. Then I start over with the stack and make sure I didn't miss anything. I also look at the prior year return; I keep hard copies of everything. Yes, every form, every piece of paper with anything on it that went on the return. Sometimes they fail to bring a 1099-Int or something. I have one lady that always gets a K-1 late, and she never remembers to wait on it. On clients with college students, I try to list the year and the Education Credit on the inside front cover so I don't take the AOC five times or something like that. I still goof up. A client brought in a letter for 2011, she had four W-2's that year, and I gave her husband credit for one of hers. I didn't even notice that there was an incorrect credit on the return for excess SS withheld. I explained what happened, apologized, double checked that 2012 was ok, gave them a check for the interest charged. She understood, and we had a nice chat. It happens. I still hate it when it does.

You don't know me. You don't know my struggles.

I'm just amazed and pretty pumped up that there is an icon for

I saw one this morning that asked something to the effect of: "Did you give that shirt you hate to a person who likes it?" Thanks a lot, now I can explain to even more people that you cannot deduct gifts to individuals. And fewer will believe me. I mean, after all, it was on TV...

It's always a good time to vent. It could have been building up since January of 2010. The life you save may be your own. I just had two clients ask me when W-2's would be ready cause their EIC loving employees need them. It's apparently not too early for them to be tacky jackasses. Yes, I told them they'd have them by January 31.

Here's another one. You say something like, "Hey, I can't get this guy's SSN, and I need to issue a 1099, what do I do?" And there's always that one, or five, people that say, "You should have gotten his SSN when you first hired him." Well, yeah, the cow is already out of the barn. We got that part. This is a fictional example, but if the shoe fits, buy three pairs. It's like that guy in gym class that thought he was in the Olympics, ya know?

Client e-mailing me questions about her boyfriend's return that he is doing himself. He makes $130,000 and needs a big refund so they can go to Hawaii. They just got back from Disney World. Two Facebook "friends" trying to pick my brain today as well. Not clients. The pickings are slim. Very slim. Anorexic actually.

I think "it depends" is a good start, and where you go from there also "depends" on whether you want or need new business. And, I'll be the first to admit, that I have been known to answer this question differently on a Tuesday than on a Monday or a Friday. If I think the caller just really doesn't know how else to begin, I tend to answer by asking THEM questions to get a feel for what they need and whether or not they are really shoppers. Let's be honest, if you are not self-employed, you sometimes don't realize how frustrating and difficult to answer some questions are. They are probably on somebody's clock getting paid to talk, and I'm not.

And half of mine who call to give me the estimated time of arrival of January fall off the earth until March 10. Well, hey, am I happy to see you! NOW. On March 10. I also love this one: Hey, I sold a lot and made $70,000. What will I owe? Me: You will owe blah, blah, blah. Guy: Do I have to report that? Me: If you want me to do the return you do. Guy: Well, I don't want to do anything wrong. Of course you don't.

I can't trill rrrrrr's either. And while I'm here, you know what makes me want to murder people? Well, many things, but right now the phone calls telling me, "Hey, I'm working on getting my stuff together. I'll be in as soon as I do." One guy even dropped in to say that this morning. Same people, 19 years and counting.

It's official. We are off topic. And it feels great. I think the "garra" reference meant Taxed was like a plecostomus, cleaning the algae off our posts cause we needed a clearer view. Or it was misspelled, and we all looked up the wrong word. Ever notice, vanilla extract smells like the tears of Jesus, but tastes awful straight from the bottle?

I was also kinda wondering. Cause I don't feel all THAT much smarter after looking it up.

I just had to look up "garra". I feel smarter just being here.