mcb39

All of the above, believe me. I even went into my ATX and looked at the efile record. Some returns were marked as accepted on the 15th and rejected on the 20th. The 15th should only have been the 4868. I am not stupid enough to check Federal and State for the efile when I know that the return is not complete. My take on this whole thing is not to file for an extension if ANY of the information has been entered into the return unless you create a copy of the finished return to efile. End of story. Maybe I am losing my mind.

I have been having issues with returns that we filed extensions for on the 15th. It appears to me that if you already had part of the return filled in, any changes made today have to be done in a copy of the original return. That is the workaround that I am using; otherwise the returns are being rejected. When finished, I, then, efile the copy. I am a wreck and it is Sunday and Easter besides. I am creating a copy of every return that we efiled extensions for on the 15th just to get them through. It is a royal pain. I have looked at some of the returns on My ATX and it shows them accepted on the 15th and rejected today; when I only selected the 4868 to efile on the 15th.

The extension itself might be fine, but you cannot make changes to the return after it is filed. My opinion would be to file an amended return.

Check out the rules for the Lifetime Learning Credit. Kind of a gray area.

Just saying! I have never liked this rule.

I certainly get the message and intend to do some changing. Hopefully my assistant will be on her own next year and take a good portion of my load with her. If I didn't really love this work and my clients, it wouldn't be so hard to let go, but I know that I have to. Thanks for all of the encouragement. I just noticed that the last return I filed today did not include a 1099-G that was not in her folder. I am fixing it and calling it a day.

Reminds me of the guy who called yesterday and asked me to file an extension. He never brought his paperwork in for the extension that I filed last year. We told him that we didn't have time for him. He said, "Doesn't she know who this is?" My assistant told him that I did know and we didn't have time for him. He hung up. Goodby!!

Yesterday was the worst day of my career. Patti said that nobody liked her; I don't even like myself. I finished last night at 10 PM with two pages of extensions filed; swollen feet, an aching back and exhaustion. I am trying to get things done this morning that have been neglected for months. Let's get some of these bills paid, etc. Turns out that most of them were already paid. Must have done it in my sleep. I prepared a deposit which will sit here until someone goes to the bank for me. My assistant showed up all grumpy after I almost had to shove her out the door last night. She will never know how close she came to being fired. You see why I don't like myself today.

to describe what yesterday was like. Today I want to hide under the desk. What is wrong with people?

I have filed several amended returns this year due to the receiving of late statements. No problems with any. We just amended one yesterday because the client had given us a 2023 W2 instead of 2024 and received a pretty good sized refund. We didn't catch it until after the fact and neither did the IRS. I amended it yesterday and it has been accepted. Young man will have to pay back a large part of his refund. This was with ATX.

I don't treat my clients kindly for what I can receive in return. I don't plan on having a funeral. I can say though that when I was very ill in July, some brought soup; some brought hot dishes. Many sent cards, etc. So, some do care about me.

Once a year, my IT man takes the tower out on the porch, removes the cover and blows all of the dust out of the inside.

I charge according to the client, the circumstances and whatever number pops into my head. I would not be embarassed to quote my prices. As I said, I do this work "for the clients". I have a Priest client who has been with me for 26 years; one of the most complicated returns that I do. He has his fingers in so many endeavors; investments, rentals, land, three churches and is a chaplain at a local hospital. I spent all day yesterday because his return is a deep dive. At the end of the afternoon I felt immense relief and satisfaction and will charge him $225. In return, I will pay his church $150 to put my and my husband's tiny ads on their bulletin. He will and does pray for me. He loves me unconditionally and pops in whenever he feels the need to ease his soul. This is the kind of operation that I run. Of course, I am not this kind to everyone; and if I deal with a client who I don't feel rapport with, I have no problem sending them down the road. I sleep well at night; my clients reward me in many ways. We have tissues on hand as many times tears are shed in this office. I offer solace, peace and comfort. I offer advice, kindness and the wisdom of my nearly 86 years of age. "My cup runneth over with love". I don't offer this advice for those of you who have to make a living from this job. However, after 66 years of marriage, if we weren't comfortable with our simple life; we never would be. I am grateful to and thankful for each and every one of you.

You and me both! And I am nowhere near these killer prices. I am in this mostly for the sake of the clients.

I still have my "DOS for Dummies" book and assorted other junk down in the basement.

He is out of my hands now. Since he is a Construction Engineer, he spends his time in several states. His home base, though, is now Texas. (No State Tax) He has always claimed his WI rental income and maintained WI residency until this past year. Now that he purchased rentals in TX, I wanted out and advised him to find someone in TX to handle it. In the past few years, he has had W2 income from La, Colorado, NM and other states. I always filed him WI and he was current on his WI taxes. I just couldn't deal with him anymore to the detriment of my other clients.

My first printer and computer in the 90s was also about 3K. My printer was a Lexmark that we had to fool into thinking that it was a HP. Could my IBM PS1 possibly have had 4G Ram? I wish I had the money that I spent updating that first machine.

I just took a good look at my old Brother Intellifax, which is laser and can also be used as a copier as well as a backup phone. I also noticed that the copier that we love is a Canon. Just stuck in the mud on older version HP printers. I just bought one at an estate sale for $40 which came with two brand new OEM X toner cartridges. The printer itself looks as though it was never used. Just have not had time to wire it up to something and try it out.

This year I had to fire a longtime client who was a Wisconsin resident who worked in several different states but maintained rentals and residency in WI. Last year, he purchased rentals in TX (no income tax) and changed residency to TX. A really nice young man and good client but always so hard to gather information from. I knew this would be too much of a challenge and time consumer so advised him to find an accountant in TX. So far I have had no requests for assistance, depreciation schedules or anything so am relieved that I made this decision for him. He still calls and texts me as a friend, but taxes are not discussed and I wonder if he is in the same situation as is discussed above. I believe and hope that I made the ethical decision.

That is a lucid, important and good post to have at our fingertips. Backups are SO important and too few preparers realize this or understand how to do it properly. Thanks Judy.

All of the above!

I guess it really doesn't matter any more as we have been without knowledgeable help for more than two years.

Also, click on the amount of the refund or owed amount in the upper right corner of the screen. It will bring up a form for tax information for the client and page 2 has all carry over amounts.

I did NOT know this. Thanks.

One of my jump drives; full of info crashed. Apparently my assistant pulled it up as she pulled it out and broke the end off. Since she has been off since Thursday, I went on her computer and downloaded all of her returns to a newer and tougher flash drive. Unfortunately, when moving her clients to my computer, I lost all of my clients in the Netherworld somewhere. IT came in yesterday; couldn't find them so we both have new jump drives; which unfortunately are identical (because that's what I had). Putting a dab of nail polish on mine for identity. Never use the stuff on my nails anyway. What a time for these things to happen and in the midst of a Wisconsin record-breaking ice storm., and another on the way. So far I have not lost power at this location but am working long hours just in case. By the way, all of my info was still correct and where it was supposed to be on my computer and ATX. A firm reminder to run a backup of the harddrive.