Richcpaman

Start developing a Deferred Compensation plan with his employer. Put those dollars away for the future. If equity is coming 5 years from now, ask for Restricted Stock units now, that can not be sold or transferred for 5 years, let some of the income be used to fund those. No income on W2, no taxes to pay. Have the employer reimburse the business expenses at a higher rate. Lower the salary some, more in reimbursement. Rich

Ron: Rita is right, if they are a PITA client, then they are probably terrible clients. I would quote a price, and a price on the high side, and ask for it up front. Mike Mars has a point about them sharing that with someone else, but how likely is that? Most likely, even if they went on a rant about your "high" rates with someone, they probably already know your PITA Client is crackers... They shoot horses, don't they? Rich

My buddy Joe D has a desk that moves up and down, so you can stand or sit when you are working. Along with three monitors, and they all move... I am quite jealous. It is my intention to do the same in my office after tax season. I have been banging my knees on the corners for years, and the back issues seem to appear as tax season progress's, so it is time to make a change. I did not know about the "Standing" not sitting result.... I like that. Rich

For me, the returns seem to be rolling in... Some new clients, but the production has been well ahead of last year. I expanded, by buying another two practices, but with the combined billing, we are ahead of the plan, plus, we are at a 47% completed rate compared to 21% last year. With twice as many returns in the door than last year. Sweet! Rich

If you read the IRS publications, your client loses. If you read the Tax Court Decision, your client wins. Use the Tax Court Decisions. The Tax Court said that you can apply the scholarships in what ever order you like. Rich

Lion: I believe the only thing we can do to protect our shelves in these situations is to be upfront with both parties. If one of you tell me something, then I am telling the other. There are no secrets here. Is that a Circ230 violation? Maybe. But the IRS is never gonna sue me, Opposing counsel WILL. Therefore, I would tell the Wife that Husband is pushing for an appointment. I would tell Husband that Wife is ready to go. And to REALLY protect myself, I would choose one or the other, and tell the other one to find someone new. Have that going on here right now. Husband is out of state, and has been for years. Can't ever seem to file on time. Last year? He filed in March. Guess what? Never asked his WIFE about that filing, made up numbers for her Schedule C, etc. As far as the Wife knew there was no filing. So we filed a MFS return for Wife. IRS says that HER return doesn't count..... Her attorney is LOVING this. Makes Husband look really bad in the local court. Choose, then move on. Rich

File a 1065 with zeros, and marked final. Charge them $200 or whatever to do it. They can deduct the $200 on the Sch E page 2. Rich

Why was that sloppy? You have one partner (mom) putting in dollars. Her capital. You have another partner (Wife) putting in some $$, not much, but some (via Credit Card) You have the final partner, (Client) who did the work, and got paid for some of it. (no cash, but maybe some) They built up the inventory, per JMDavis, so there is no deduction/income in 2014 but the balance sheet and partner accounts can be determined. And it is not unusual for the insurance and utility companies to put the invoices in the wrong name. Rich

I have a new client, eligible for the $5,000 exclusion for Retired Enlisted Military pensions. ON the 502SU input screen, code U, you can not put in the amount, and when you click the link, it takes you to the 1099-R input screen, and there is no where on that screen to state there is an exclusion. Setting the MD taxable pension to a lower amount does not work, either. Thoughts? Rich

Gene: That may be true, but have you ever seen a refund go out from SUTA when the employee works two places, or there is a change like ADP to Paychex and they start at zero for the same employee's? No. Rich

Why DON'T the big payroll companies do this? They are not liable for the taxes, the client is. If I hand them a year to date G/L with all the gross payroll, and the deductions taken, they SHOULD put it all together and only issue one W-2 for the year. Fighting that issue with SSA right now, Moved the payroll to Paychex, gave them the YTD info, and they DID NOT report it in the year end W-2's so we have to send a second set. IN this case, ADP was wrong. They SHOULD NOT have issued the W-2's without the approval of the client. A simple ask would have prevented all this. ADP should correct its error. It won't. It will say that the client paid them before leaving to do the W-2s... So, Paychex has to fix their W-2's... I hate the big payroll processing firms. They get paid lots of dollars for no responsibility... Rich

Can you add more detail about how your computer system is set up? Are you stand alone? Networked? Multiple preparers? Rich

Also, with the 1099-B not having to be sent out to taxpayers until Feb 15th, 28th or even March 15th, you may have many times that the W-2 is in hand for A LONG time before we get the 1099-B with the stock sale. Do not let the taxpayers desire to FILE NOW force your own hand. Wait for the documents. And I have seen W-2's with known options sales, and no code V... So that 1099-B is coming, and its a time bomb. (Here is looking at you Google...) Rich

They raised the price of TT by 20% of more. So, even after the client losses, they were ahead of game. Folks who are charging to little take note.... Also, the scam is affecting TT filers. None of my clients, thru my ATX filing, are affected. That is a bonus for me... Rich

JB: If he didn't skip out of your office... $5,400 in tax instead of $54,000 in debt at $400/month for 20 years.... Yes. He should be skipping. That is a definite WIN on his part. Who cares about $1,000 of those HRB *billions*... That is a windfall of about 75k! Rich

KC: Who cares about those number of days? The only one that matters is 51. Rich

I read this today from Forbes' TaxGirl: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2015/02/23/what-if-tax-refund-theft-isnt-really-about-refund-theft/ Basically, its about the hacks and ID theft to get so much info, that you can then attack other systems and get even more $$ Rich

Frazzled: I can see why that created so much more frazzle in your life! Are you still going to sell the practice after April 15th now? One year too much of a good thing? Rich

Why do people like this get married? He is a tax thug criminal. Probably because he would get some benefit from the system, that he did not want to pay for by filing... Have her get the marriage annulled, and file without him. Rich

I will be political about this. It shows how weak kneed Congress actually is. They will vote to expand the EITC, but not to fund welfare (AFDC) etc, because it is easier.... Its a PITA to go to the office every month, or once a quarter to prove eligibility for benefits. But, if all you have to do is file a tax return? And get a check? Sweet. And the destruction of the incentive to get lower income folks to get and retain work continues, and even expands. Crazy. Rich

The IRS has yet to really publish guidelines to what a "reasonable" salary is for a S/H in a S-Corp. There are some court cases, for example, the lawyers with $12k in salary and 200k in S Distributions lost. You state that your guy made 18k per quarter. That is $72k a year. That may be a reasonable salary in his industry. It might be $40 or $50k as well. I would not amend 2014. I would fix 2015 going forward. JMHO Rich

JK: Try this: https://www.vernstoffee.com/ The toffee is awesome, they will ship it direct, and it keeps well, and not a mess. Rich

Have you unchecked the "efiling" box on the client letter? Both Fed and State? When we default to efiling, then we don't see the addresses... Rich

Everyone complains. The folks who are making a lot of money, complain about the taxes they have to pay... And those at the lower end of the spectrum complain about not getting enough... Whatever. Its part of the job. I will judge those that appear to be cheating, lying, or otherwise being less than forthright. I am not auditing their returns, I am preparing them. If I think they are BS'ing me, I send them on their way. The Declaration of Independence says: "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". It is not mine to judge their retched pursuit of their happiness. They are living the life they want. I accept that. Rich

Dan: Tell you client that the return has been accepted by the IRS, and what happens next is up to the IRS. And bow out. Personally, if a client wanted me to check "Where's My Refund" at the IRS, I would ask them "Where's my check?" You get your refund, when it gets there. Please.... If there is a problem, then that is known in 5-6 weeks. THEN I will get involved... Rich