rfassett

This might help. http://www.currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com/blog/2015/2/13/simplified-accounting-method-change-procedures-issued-by-irs-for-small-taxpayers-to-comply-with-repairtangible-property-regulations You might need to copy and paste the link.

I have a female client that thinks perfume was made for her. Lovely person, great client, would always have my back, but uses way too much perfume. We have to air out the building after her car has left the parking lot. I pray that she would never return immediately for some reason and find all of that airing out going on. I sure would not want to hurt her feelings

Yep! Anything out of the ordinary gets an up fee. The fact of the matter, as Lion stated exceptionally, it takes more time than if it was in the current year. I charge and never apologize for what I charge.

I agree with ILLMAS. I have had this happen a couple times and both times resulted in letter writing campaigns with the IRS. You are doing nothing wrong. The IRS simply is not recognizing the entity as an S-Corp. The last one I had, after the efile rejected, I filed it via paper. That resulted in communication from the IRS which actually simplified the letter writing campaign. Good luck!

Abusive clients - I run a highly respectable and professional practice. I have had a couple situations over the years where a client was verbally abusive to either myself or one of my employees. I never ask the employee for an explanation when it happens, I simply sever the tie with the client immediately. One that sticks in my craw - the guy became verbally abusive with me and started on me with personal insults and all of that. I am bigger than trying to go toe to toe with these folks. When he was done with his rant, I told him he was not welcomed here anymore. His wife called back a few hours later and told me that her husband was sorry and they truly do appreciate me, my staff and our work. In a weaker moment, because she reached out, I said all would be forgiven as soon as the husband calls me and apologizes for the personal attack. That was some ten years or so ago - I am still waiting for that call. I guess he wasn't all that sorry after all. There are enough good clients out there who appreciate us. When this crap happens, tell them to hit the bricks and don't look back.

I just read a comment in an organizer. Client is a teacher and teachers are paid very well in these parts. Base income is great and all of the benefits that I can not afford to pay for myself make for a very good package. The comment: "Insurance is changing July 1st. We will have a $2.600 deductible (I will have to pay every dollar until $2600 and then the insurance pays everything) and I still have to pay the $140 per month premium." [To insure three people.] It took all of the compassion I could muster to give her a big "boo hoo". My costs surpass hers inside of 2 months. Cry me a river.

Oh, I could not agree more! I have oft said that most of the HRB and the other big box clientele have no idea that it costs something to have their refunds, oops, I mean tax returns prepared. The fee comes out of their refund which comes out of yours and my pockets and the client is concerned about one thing and one thing only - how much am I getting back. I would never last at HRB because I would tell those folks - NOTHING, you did not pay anything in and you can get "nothing back". You had to go there on this wintery Saturday morning, didn't you?

The high here on Sunday is forecast to be -2; the low -15 with -35 degree wind chills. Come on man!!!!! Oh well - the springs, summer and fall here make these days tolerable. I can almost hear the hum of the mower in my ears with the sun on the back of my neck. The sign at the end of my driveway when you turn on to my property reads "A gift from God". The sign over my front door (on the inside) says "Heaven is a little closer on the porch". That pretty much sums it up. I feel warmer already! Come on winter - give it your best shot!

.06 While some small business taxpayers may choose to file a Form 3115 in order to retain a clear record of a change in method of accounting or to make permissible concurrent automatic changes on the same form, other small business taxpayers may prefer the administrative convenience of being able to comply with the final tangible property regulations in their first taxable year that begins on or after January 1, 2014, solely through the filing of a federal tax return. Accordingly, for the first taxable year that begins on or after January 1, 2014, small business taxpayers that choose to prospectively apply the tangible property regulations to amounts paid or incurred, and dispositions, in taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2014, have the option of making certain tangible property changes in method of accounting on the federal tax return without including a separate Form 3115 or separate statement.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-15-20.pdf

This is bringing my 3115 filings down to three that I can think of! This almost feels like Christmas!

Well - my wife has told me for years that it pays to whine - I guess she is right! I haven't had time to study it yet, but it might be just what we will looking for. I just saw this on another discussion board. IRS Makes it Easier for Small Businesses to Apply Repair Regulations to 2014 and Future Years IR-2015-29, Feb. 13, 2015 WASHINGTON —The Internal Revenue Service today made it easier for small business owners to comply with the final tangible property regulations. Requested by many small businesses and tax professionals, the simplified procedure is available beginning with the 2014 return taxpayers are filling out this tax season. The new procedure allows small businesses to change a method of accounting under the final tangible property regulations on a prospective basis for the first taxable year beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2014. Also, the IRS is waiving the requirement to complete and file a Form 3115 for small business taxpayers that choose to use this simplified procedure for 2014. “We are pleased to be able to offer this relief to small business owners and their tax preparers in time for them to take advantage of it on their 2014 return,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “We carefully reviewed the comments we received and especially appreciate the valuable feedback provided by the professional tax community on this issue.” The new simplified procedure is generally available to small businesses, including sole proprietors, with assets totaling less than $10 million or average annual gross receipts totaling $10 million or less. Details are in Revenue Procedure 2015-20, posted today on IRS.gov. The revenue procedure also requests comment on whether the $500 safe-harbor threshold should be raised for businesses that choose to deduct, rather than capitalize, certain capital expenses.

Nice KC - I got home to a driveway packed with up to twenty inches of new and drifted snow last night. Yes - the truck is stuck - AGAIN!!!!! I was able to use the snow blower and make a path around it so we are good. I found out last night that sitting on my tractor with the snow blower with temps at about 4 degrees and wind chills in the minus teens (which means it was kinda windy) is something I do not want to do all that often. However - my wife says there is no bad weather; just bad clothing. I still need to work on that.

No restriction that I am aware of, but with a truck that big, I'd be very surprised if his actual expenses weren't higher than the mileage allowance.

Until last year, I promised and lived by a 10 day turn around. There were very few exceptions to that rule on the back side. We often delivered them a couple days ahead of time - especially in the early going. With my pacemaker implant in October of 2013, my wife's step-dad (an extremely dear friend to her and I) passing away February 6th last year, and my learning new software last year - it seemed to be a good time to stop promising. Today I worked on a couple that came in on January 27th. Tonight I will work on a couple that came in on February 3rd. I learned last year that the vast majority of my clients are just happy to get their crap out of their house. Some have asked this year when to expect my call and we are telling them a couple to three weeks and no one has balked. As the season goes on, we will be quoting three to four weeks. We are moving up our drop dead date this year a week to March 16th. If the info is here on or before March 16th, we will do our best to deliver the return on or before April 15th - but no promises.

Ha! Tech log into my system and danced around for awhile. I sit here in awe just watching how quickly they move from place to place. At one point he asked if I had deleted some returns from the 2014 program and I said I did not remember doing that. He said, "well there are 26 six more files than returns showing up in the return manager". I said, "I'll bet those are the six returns I have been trying to roll over multiple times this afternoon because, again, it looks like they are going through the motion, but they are just not showing up in the RM". Finally got everything worked out and all of those rollover attempts showed up in the RM. So I deleted the copies and I am ready to move on. Don't ask me what he did - I could not keep up.

I am now on hold with support who is on hold with tech support. Support says there is a known issue with the 14.5 update and tech will need to fix my problem. So I agree, hold off updating for awhile. Fortunately my issue has nothing to do with opening the program and I looked at FAM after the update and did not see any issues there. I will update when i know more.

I have been bumping along without software issues. Today a new program update came down and was installed and now when I do a roll over, it does not show up in the return manager. It appears to be doing the rollover, but nothing shows up. I have opened and closed 2013 and 2104 and re-booted to no avail, I am on hold with support. "Your wait time is 15 to 30 minutes", they said 30 minutes ago. BTW, the rollover was working just fine before the update. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Good advice and discussion. I always go over that with my home-based clients - well all clients for that matter. Make sure you are properly covered - the right price for the correct policy. Had one business client come in the other day and told me she saved over $4,000 by taking my advice. I told her that she needs to understand that my advice does not extend to shopping around for accounting and tax services. She said she would never even consider such a thing. Ha! On another note, the weather has been so crummy here and with lots of ice. Even though my parking lot is in a lot better shape than others I see in the area, it is still treacherous at times. I tell my clients to be careful because I do not have any insurance. My wife tells me that she does not think my client's believe me. :(

The only other thing I could think of is that Sean, through his sweat equity, has earned a vested interest in the 1120 and that paper you have is showing what they agreed his efforts were worth. That scenario would usually be run through payroll with a W-2 issued thereby establishing Sean's basis in his interest in the 1120. Running this scenario on a 1099 risks the recipient (Sean) taking deductions from the gross amount thereby tainting the basis number. I would say that if this IS the case, do not record any expenses against the 1099 income. Either way, I believe you have some more questions to run by your client. If this IS an effort to take an itemized deduction for a charitable contribution, you not only have questions for your client, it is also time to do some educating.

Not sure where you are going with this, but it is a complete non-tax event for the 1040 - unless this some sort of quasi 1099 thing. Same thing for the 1120, actually.

My tech guy told me to do that once, so I strapped on the old steel toe shoes and gave it the old college try. Not one of my more shining moments. Did not solve the computer problem (well it kinda did since I had to get a new one), but it sure made me feel better.

I ran an update today requiring a reboot. Seems to me there were 18 or 19 updates. Whole process took maybe 10 or 12 minutes. A good part of that was I always give my system 4 or 5 minutes to completely boot up. Joan - methinks your system has issues. On another note - 23 returns in today and only 4 completed. I am truly losing this battle. But on a more positive note - it is February 11th and my math indicates that 27 to 28% of the returns are already in-house. And I should not have to look for something to do for a few days.

Judy, there is a separate election in the ATX (and I know you do not use ATX, but I am just saying) that says that an election is being made under the safe harbor rules for relative to the real estate listed below (or something like that). So yes, there is a separate election - at least in ATX.

Don't know who was right and who was wrong - judge for yourself http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/texas-woman-headbutts-tax-worker-walmart-brawl-article-1.2110362