Catherine

And by training, I am an engineer. I know the breed very well indeed. There are some who get lost in the weeds and fixate on unimportant details that make no difference whatsoever (worked with some of those as an engineer, too, and they're just as insufferable there). It comes down to having to be right, whether they know what they are talking about or not, and not trusting the expertise of anyone who is not them. I don't want a client who does not respect my expertise, and any engineer, at this point, starts on on probation as 90%+ of all the disrespecting clients over 30 years have been engineers.

Yes, that is my phrase. I'm tickled pink that you recalled!

100% agree! I've heard this termed "the midwit problem" with people who are reasonably smart & competent in their own areas of expertise mistakenly thinking that makes them smart & competent in every area. When they do it with tax returns, we get huge messes to clean up, for clients who will question and nit-pick over every bleeping line on the return. Charge accordingly, with pre-payment required.

and yes, I have links to https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc611 and https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-5405

Former clients now doing their own returns sent an email about a potentially missed first time homebuyer credit from ages ago. Assuming they still have full documentation, and there were one or more payments missed, is it still Form 5405 and flowing from there into Schedule 2? Just pick up where they left off? Penalty abatement or waiver needed for this? Interesting that in all the years since (way more than 10) they received no letters at all about this. No idea how they found it, either. I told them I couldn't help them until next week. Today will be busy enough dealing with people who are paying me to help.

Ditto but it was $4 and on depreciation. Total difference on a long list of assets; he hand-calculated and I used software. Of course it made no change to tax. I later suggested he find someone closer to home and to my very great relief he did. Any engineer is a potential royal PITA client and treated (and priced) as such until such time (rare) as they prove otherwise. Engineers don't know the difference between precise and accurate. They are related but not identical. While I know the IRS truncates, I cannot stop myself from rounding "properly" - as rounding is different from truncating.

Where the Shadows lie.

From a CPE talk I gave back in 2023; (staged) me under my desk after fully reviewing the disaster I had inadvertently accepted as a new client. You may find amusement in this, @mcb39.

It can indeed be an excellent place to hide.

In the last couple of days, I have e-filed my last two 2022 returns. Ugh. Now to see if I might get the same people to finish up 2023... nah; one of them is still looking for a W-2! Perhaps the other can be finished.

The instant I think a client is not being truthful, they become an ex-client. That's a hard red line for me.

For reference, this home based business does use water, including a steamer table that uses quite a bit.

Your post did it!

you put your right foot in, you take your right foot out, you put your right foot in, and you shake it all about! good grief.

So what else is new?

I should do that, @jasdlm!

They only time they remember something they do not want to hear is if their barber's wife's brother tells them!

Additional cost of heavier-gauge pipes was a couple hundred bucks over the many thousands of dollars in cost. The huge cost was the sideways drilling under the state highway without disturbing traffic or the roadbed. Plus, that heavier gauge is now required by code. Old pipes were very old, and might even have pre-dated the paving of that road decades ago.

The home is not livable without water. Water as a utility cost is allowable on Form 8829 as a utility cost, just like oil, gas, electricity.

The difference is does the case blow, or suck? It's a computer after all so it might be either!

Thank you @Lee B and @schirallicpa - this did not extend the life, but rather restored the water supply to the house so that it was livable. I don't agree with @Margaret CPA in OH as it was not amelioration of a defect but rather repair of pipes that just plain old wore out and started leaking. They did not have to dig a new well (determined after the existing well was evaluated). Whole issue was the location of the leak (from the well to the house, under the state highway) leading to the huge expense. I didn't think, and found nothing to support, a requirement to capitalize it simply based on how much it cost, but wanted to run it by fellow experts before making a final determination. Probably confused in my mind by the initial concerns, last summer, of possibly needing a new well, too.

Well, then it's reasonably clear that VITA/TCE is assuming the historical data cannot be accessed in a reasonable manner in a reasonable time, therefore the only option is zero.

My starting price on those is roughly $900 at this point. If I have a state estate return to file (not estate income, but estate), those start at $6,000. MA starts from the federal 706 as of 2003 (1998 form) - only available as a pdf at this point in time. Once that is filled out you can move to the 6-page state form.

Last time I had something that convoluted, the bill was over $1,200 and that was years ago. Today, probably closer to $2,000 - $2,500 for 1040 series. More if 1041s (with or without K-1a) are part of the mix.

TLDR version of post above: DUMP the pita clients. Your life will be so much better.