kcjenkins

Just got to ask.......What reason did she give you for getting married?

Not buying it, and no auditor I ever met would buy it either. Unless they got married on Skype, AND CAN PROVE IT. That exception is called the "Abandoned Spouse" rule for a reason. Odds are you'll get away with it, JB, and I hope you do, but it's just not believable.

And since he has the account, he should have a checkbook. Probably the old number did not work because he moved.

I would NOT file her HOH for the simple reason that they do NOT meet the rules for that special 'exception' which is designed for an abandoned spouse.

Interesting, isn't it, that a monument "to the forefathers" features a women in the central position? Smart men, back in those days.

For all my friends in the NE

I only root for the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys. Hope it's a good, exciting game, tho, for the fans sake.

LION, THAT IS ALSO A VALID REASON, GIVEN THAT SO MANY CLIENTS ARE TOTALLY TAX-IGNORANT, AND ACTUALLY DO VALUE THEIR RETURN ON IT'S SIZE.

January 27, 2015 By Mary Ellen Biery A common mistake among retailers is selling based on price rather than on value, a retail industry consultant wrote recently. When retailers focus on price, it results in customers “cherry-picking the best item while avoiding the profit-filled add-ons,” said The Retail Doctor founder Bob Phibbs. “It’s like they go to the bargain matinee but never visit the concession stand.” Accountants who yield to real or perceived pricing pressure would do well to remember his comparison during meetings in the coming months with their tax or audit clients. Granted, your accounting and consulting services probably aren’t overpriced the way movie popcorn is. Nevertheless, just like retailers, many accountants are frustrated by pricing pressure on compliance-driven services and the resulting hit to the bottom line. Indeed, a poll by Sageworks during a recent webinar found that many accountants don’t set fees at levels they want, primarily because they believe clients won’t pay up, or they worry that others will charge less and take the client. Like retailers, however, accounting firms have important control over whether clients select only compliance-driven services, which are typically lower margin. And they can take steps to prevent prices for those services and others from being pressured even lower. Resist Discounts Phibbs advises retailers to resist using discounts as a first resort. Discounting attracts “dirt-scratchers who will only show up for the discount,” he says. Similarly, accountants may be tempted to jump into a price-cutting discussion when clients or prospects express concern about the cost of tax or audit services. Focusing on price devalues your services and sets you up for a race to the bottom. Gaining or retaining a customer only because your price was cheaper can set the tone for future upselling efforts, and falling prices generally create the need for more volume in order to cover expenses. With less time per client to provide quality services, your business with existing clients may suffer—or at least fail to flourish. And you’ll probably have less time to go after clients who need the services your firm would like to grow, such as business valuations, industry-specific strategic planning or litigation support. Rely on Value Selling When retailers sell the value of the product rather than the price, they shift buyer fixation away from the money coming out of their wallet, Phibbs notes. In order to sell the value, sales staff need skills and knowledge—not just an intimate knowledge of individual products, but also the ability to understand and listen for buyer motivations. In the same way, accountants who embrace value selling can help clients clearly see how the services meet their unique needs and how the accountant is expertly positioned to assist them. Accountants who understand what their clients need even before the clients do and who listen for clues that clients may be ready to address the need can more easily illustrate how the firm’s services can help. If your firm is providing only compliance-driven services, consider adding a few advisory services that will meet the growing needs of your clients. Value selling, by the way, is different from value pricing, though they’re both based on the idea that the value provided to the customer is what matters most. Value pricing is an increasingly popular strategy of setting prices based on the overall perceived value to the customer instead of billing at the end of the engagement by tallying up the hours worked by partners, junior associates and administrative assistants. Value selling is a strategy for having a solid understanding of the firm’s menu of services and keeping client discussions focused on the long-term benefits of these services, as opposed to the cost of them. Make Valued Services the Star of the Show Another point to consider is whether your accounting firm’s emphasis on compliance-related services is preventing clients from recognizing and seeking the advisory services you might be trying to grow. Services such as financial planning and business valuations can deepen relationships with existing clients, provide opportunities to provide new services to them, and attract more of the clients most coveted: those who pay on time and can afford to pay more for valued services. But if all your clients and prospects hear about are your basic accounting services, those may be all they seek from you. Accountants can cross-sell more services this year by differentiating their services (such as through industry niches) and by pointedly educating tax and audit clients about additional, value-added assistance and how it meets their needs. To use Phibbs’ analogy, you can’t expect a moviegoer to visit the concession stand if they can’t smell the popcorn or see people lining up for candy and drinks. To learn more about how accountants can resist a focus on pricing, download a worksheet with tips on making the most of your year-end engagements with clients, “Tax season prep: A worksheet for client meetings.” Or listen to a webinar recording, “Upgrade Your Practice: Top ways to attract and retain higher paying clients in 2015.” Mary Ellen Biery is a research specialist for Sageworks, a financial information company that provides financial analysis and industry benchmarking solutions to accounting firms.

Which is exactly why I never print tax forms as duplex. Too easy to overlook a page.

It's sad that she lost some credits, but you should look at the total picture, she also gained other benefits, as his wife.

But have you pointed it out to them, in direct language, that they could save money by hiring you to do it for them? Don't assume that because that is obvious to you it is to them.

Watch what a couple of farmers can do with a drone, some cameras and a herd of cattle. Check out their amazing cow art!

ROTFLMAO, Jack.

That's how it looks to me, too Tom.

And it always will be on that list, because, while it's hard to con an honest person, it's easy to appeal to people's greed.

John, for this year, yes, those two groups are simple check the box, But that's not as big a subset as you make think, given the millions who lost their employee coverage. And there are going to be lots that got changed from family coverage to just the employee, and may not have had all family members covered all year. And then there is the issue of those who got subsidies. The Feds Estimate Up to 6M Households Could Face ACA Penalties. Six Million is not a small number, IMHO. http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2015/1/29/feds-estimate-up-to-6m-households-could-face-aca-penalties

Just in case anyone is worried about cbslee's post, it is from Nichols Patrick's FREE Hot Topics section. Thanks for sharing it, cb.

But don't amend until you get the ack. They are very easily confused, you know.

And, of course, Judy, the client never thinks the fee for those forms is low enough. After all, you just need to enter the amounts, the computer does all the work.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/business-love-means-having-say-youre-sorry-brad-smith

It might be a rip-off if you pushed it on your clients, but, depending on the type of clients, if you merely offer it, and they WANT it, I don't think I'd go as far as call it a rip-off. Not something I'd offer, not worth the money in most cases, but not exactly a rip-off, either. My biggest doubt would be over how good the service would be, if they actually needed to use it? I've gotten a number of new clients, over the years, from people who bought H&R's "protection" only to get blown off when an issue came up.

The 1040 is the easiest one to customize, because it's the least likely to be 'updated' of any form.