rfassett

That is a quote from one my great clients that just walked through the door. The one before him, on the way out says, "don't work too hard and stay out of trouble. Oh, and don't forget to drink some wine." And the one before that, "Please Ron, work your magic again". It is 12 degrees - up from 10 this morning - and the snow is piled so high it is beginning to obscure my building. But the sun is shining bright which will dictate the client's attitude. Speaking of snow piled high, I looked out the window a little bit ago at one of the snow mountains surrounding my parking lot and I started giggling. It reminded me of the "big" little sled riding hill in "Surviving Christmas." Made me want to run and grab my sled. I agree - Stupid Ground Hog!

Thanks for the heads up. I will keep a look out for this. I will be doing some Ohio returns probably over the weekend.

But the fact of the matter, just like with the Form 3115 issue, the rules were, and in some cases, still are developing. So just like you, I was proactive and learning as much as I could before tax season, as I am sure most all of us here did. Some of us did CPE that just was out and out wrong. Some of us took multiple CPE's that conflicted. This whole thing is still in process of being developed. If the majority of the returns are prepared correctly this year, I will count that a minor miracle.

That's the plan, my man! Good things come to those who wait, they say, and I knew this would work itself out in time.

Actually, this client pays me very well (with the exception of this special project, which obviously will be paid). And he is bringing on another business that will pay me equally as well. So between the two of them I should net about $20,000 per year in fees and they are relatively low stress. I would gladly take 20 more just like them.

There has been so much mis-information floating around about these things. I can honestly state, that for awhile, I was also under the impression, like Pacun, that the maximum penalty was $95 per person. Then I heard it was $95 per month per person. Then I heard that there was a !% issue. I believe I do now truly do have a handle on the rules. I have been through a couple of returns with varying issues and have had to walk through the worksheets next to the rules. I am starting to get it. It is for the reasons exemplified here that I rarely talk much (out loud) about these things until I have the opportunity to put a pencil to the paper. Why? At the risk of repeating myself , because there is an overabundance of mis-information out there. By the end of the next 30 days, we will ALL be experts on this - but we all need to exercise patience with our fellow practitioners until everyone gets up to speed.

I high jacked a thread last week (apologies to NECPA) with ranting about a client that was requesting financial statements when the previous one was not paid. Time does fly when we are having fun! The unpaid audited financials was for the 2012 year that did not get billed until 2014. Well the client had his meeting with the State on Monday and I received this via email today: Good Afternoon Ron, we just finished our state inspection, apparently our financials aren't good enough for them we need an audit for 2013 by june first and another one for 2014 by the end of 2015. can you please let me know what I owe you for the last one that I have an outstanding bill on and I will pay that off in the next 2 months and we can get started then on the 2013? Huh - imagine that!

Methinks you are really pushing the envelope here, Joel. I do not think the verbiage envisions somebody writing off their RV for travel expenses as much as it envisions paying the going rate for short term stay in a local hotel. I don't know. You raise an interesting question. The underlying regs and committee notes from whence these rules come might lend some guidance. I think it will come down to how much audit risk you want to put your client under. And will your logic stand up under audit. I will be interested in hearing how you ultimately decide to ride this one. Pending upon how you run with it, I might have to go buy an RV to drive to Church.

Not so fast there mi amigo Jack: From IRS.GOV You may deduct a charitable contribution made to, or for the use of, any of the following organizations that otherwise are qualified under section 170(c ) of the Internal Revenue Code: A state or United States possession (or political subdivision thereof), or the United States or the District of Columbia, if made exclusively for public purposes; A community chest, corporation, trust, fund, or foundation, organized or created in the United States or its possessions, or under the laws of the United States, any state, the District of Columbia or any possession of the United States, and organized and operated exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, scientific, or literary purposes, or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals; A church, synagogue, or other religious organization; A war veterans' organization or its post, auxiliary, trust, or foundation organized in the United States or its possessions; A nonprofit volunteer fire company; A civil defense organization created under federal, state, or local law (this includes unreimbursed expenses of civil defense volunteers that are directly connected with and solely attributable to their volunteer services); A domestic fraternal society, operating under the lodge system, but only if the contribution is to be used exclusively for charitable purposes; A nonprofit cemetery company if the funds are irrevocably dedicated to the perpetual care of the cemetery as a whole and not a particular lot or mausoleum crypt. Not saying the present case is deductible - but not not deductible because it does not involve a 501(c )(3). (PS - I love double negatives.)

My gut reaction would be that if he donated it to the charitable organization and they let him stay in it while on-site (and anyone else that needed to stay in it) and it stays with the charitable organization, you might have an argument. But if he takes it with him and it is his and his alone to do with what he wants, I might think you could use a % of it, but that, in my opinion, would still be a very big stretch. I would need to do some serious research to come up with a different answer.

Way cool Elrod! I posted previously that we closed our office yesterday due to the road conditions. One of my more astute clients calls this morning to ask when we started celebrating Ground Hogs Day as a holiday! I love my clients! That got me to thinking...........

KC - that West Virginian does not have snow. Send him a couple hundred miles north to my place (or over to Catherine place) (or up to Eric's place) and we will show him snow. I do not think his snow removal method will work in the 18 to 20 inches we got over the past 48 hours. Cool video though!

Ha! My wife and I were out this morning trying to dig out our plow truck that got stuck. I looked over at her and asked if she thought we had got the 10 inches of snow that was predicted. She was standing in snow that was nearly waste deep. (She is 5'4") I think we got a surplus. Digging to no avail, after two hours we decided to call a bigger plow and a tow truck. All is good now. I am a little poorer, but at least I can traverse our 2,000 foot driveway. A friend is coming over tonight to help me put the snow blower on my 2720 John Deere. We are rapidly running out of space for the plow to put the snow.

According to the Fifth Third Bank website www.53.com they have (as I suspected) various routing numbers based on region. This is why I tell my staff - no deposit tickets; get a copy of the check. I think you need to contact your client.

Thanks KC! We closed our office today after a special weather statement from the National Weather Service that said something like: "due to all the snow that has fallen and the plummeting temperatures (dropping from 30 to -1) it could get slippery". So I will telecommute today and see what tomorrow brings. I love it Elrod!

I have a couple like that too. One in particular did over a million dollars in business in 2014 almost by accident. But he cannot pay his four figure sales tax on time every month - matter of fact, hasn't for a couple of years. This guy is just managing the business (as opposed to owning it (mommy and step daddy own the business but are simply investors). I had a meeting with the three of them mid-fall and told the manager that his margins are entirely too tight if he cannot pay the bills with that kind of revenue. He gave me every excuse in the book why he couldn't broaden the margin. He headed me off at every suggestion. At the end of the meeting he said he needed to borrow some more money to pay the bills. I looked at the owners and simply asked - are you willing to put more at risk based upon what you have just heard? They looked at the manager and one of them said something like - make it work, we are not investing or borrowing anymore money. So far, it has been the same old, same old. Time will tell who cracks first.

Tom echoed my thoughts nearly exactly. Pats by 7.

You, or your client, should contact the executor (trix) and question the amount. If you think it is out of line, it could be an error. Either way, the person in charge of the estate should be able to get an answer for you. The beneficiary would have nothing from or via the estate to offset that income that is not on the K-1. When my firm prepare these things for estates and trusts we always attach an explanation to the K-1. Apparently the preparer of your K-1 likes being bothered with questions of explanation. I don't.

I love it! From one who once thought that the coffee bean was planted and harvested just for him, you have no idea how I can totally relate to that picture. I drank a good 14 to 16 (18 to 20 on particularly grueling days) cups per day until they planted this mechanical heart beat in my chest. Now I am down to about 5 to 7 cups per day. No one told me to cut it out, I just don't need the extra push anymore. shhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How cool is that? I wish her well! We go through three or four days like that every season. You would think it was "old home week" around here. Most of the time I quietly slip away and get back to work while the clients entertain each other. Since my office building is of the open office concept, I can still hear everything that is going on. Kinda warms your heart, doesn't it? We pre-schedule all of our drop offs and they are scheduled from January 27th to March 23rd at the rate of 10 to 12 per day. So I kinda avoid that blown away eureka moment. I just stay overwhelmed all of the time.

Hahaha!!!!

I know - right?

Rita - my tech guy hates me. I have kept every email from the beginning. So yes, I do have the original email and email exchanges after the bill was sent. Ms TabbyKats - thanks! Here is what I decided to send and his response: "Are you certain that it is Audited Financial Statements you need? This is where we had issues last year. I did supply you with the Audited Statements and billed you and you said you never requested the Audited Statements and will not need Audited Statements in the future and did not pay the bill. Just want to make sure I know what you need." Client's response: "Is it just the financial statements? And once we have our NEW business on its own I will take care of that bill. I apologize it has taken so long not your issue I know just wanted to explain." So I sent him the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss out of QuickBooks (that I know are clean since my firm cleans them up) and told him to see it those will work. His response: "OK this should work, the state wants me to do an audit every year and I told them they are to expensive to have done every year. All (the business like mine) in PA are fight this." Good luck with that fight. I guess I will have to go back to my "half the projected fee before we start" routine. Sounds like I will get paid for the one I did - eventually - and will still be able to keep the client. Another couple of weeks and I probably would not have been so nice.

So I am sitting here debating how to handle an issue. Rewind to about this time last year. Client emails me that he needs a copy of his 2013 Audited Financial Statement. I comply and realize that I had not yet billed him for the item. I bill him about 30 days later about $3,000 for the Audited financials and he emails me and says he never requested audited financials and all he needed was the financial statements out of QuickBooks. He says he only needed Audited financials once (2012) and did not need them for 2013 and will not need them in the future. So he did not pay the bill. (My other billings for this client (which are always paid timely) total about 6 grand.) Fast forward back to today. I receive an email from said client this morning "Ron, can you please send me a attachment of 2013 Audited financial statement please? thank you I have the state hear Monday." I am absolutely stymied as to how to respond to this request. And yes, I agree, we ARE having fun now!!!!!!

Are we having fun yet?