Catherine

The key question is, did Jerry learn his lesson? Or not?

I just LOVED your sarcasm paragraph!

That's a really good question. No citation at the moment, as I'm done for the night, but I recall looking in to this at one point. What I found was that if you only do it when told, and/or after client says to schedule payment, it's considered the equivalent of printing the check and leaving it for the one with signatory authority to sign. I may well be wrong.

Yes, but considering it's family, the nice thing is to check and make sure it won't cause mom more problems than it solves adult child. Does mom live in subsidized housing where a small amount of extra income will triple her rent, for example? Sometimes it can do the overall family more good for one person to just eat the extra taxes, rather than shift it to another.

One of the *nastiest* tax seasons in recent memory, and we lived through it. Congratulations, all. Now we can start working on amended returns, non-filers, and get ready for the non-filers who outed themselves to the IRS with the EIP payment returns. Whimper.

And as long as she actually gets paid, and claims the income.

Your government at play. LOL. (NOT political! - Bureaucratic.)

I'll do it late this week, or next. Yeah, I got the email too. You probably did, Lion, and it never registered because it wasn't germane to your current workload.

Been there, done that, set the drop dead date earlier. They still come in like headless chickens on October 10th, but at least they come in knowing they may well go past the deadline. It actually makes more space for the super-lateys, when the others obeyed the earlier date. And I force myself, yet again, NOT to care more than they do.

I can think of several of them specifically, right now. And we wait. Thanks for the update.

Thanks Judy and Hahn. As it turns out, there was a listing of sales in her business that I had missed. That put her into profit and her Roth contribution is OK! Phew.

That's what I was afraid of. Thanks, Judy!

Whee! Not.

Client put $700 into her Roth IRA for 2019. No wages. Business loss. Filing status is married filing separately because her divorce was not final until early 2020. Can she still claim that contribution as a "spousal IRA" or is she hosed? The only thing I found was that MFS uses the single limits for income phase-outs for a Roth IRA. Worse comes to worse she will recharacterize to a 2020 contribution and only have to get back any growth. Annoying; her business is cyclical and every few years she goes to a slew of shows and runs up huge travel expenses. Good thing she was planning NO travel in 2020! So that should be a profitable year for her.

I sent in my 941 by mail the day before the updated form was announced... we'll see what happens. You guys must be ready to tear your hair out over this, @Medlin Software!

I've had that screen crop up, too. I just go back to the Home page. And I told Eric about it at the time, with screenshots. It's an annoyance rather than an actual problem, for me. Yes there are limits on how often you can post. Just wait a minute or so and try again.

Refurbs, and sometimes brand-new-but-last-year's-model, can be excellent buys.

The search feature on irs.gov doesn't like ANYONE. For some (like me), it's actively hostile; for others it's simply unhelpful.

They may be non-assignable, but that doesn't mean the entity is still valid. We had one where we tried to file a return but it was rejected because the EIN was rejected as not-existent. We knew the number was right, because we had old returns!

That doesn't work for the client who, during tax season, is in South America and does not have access to a printer. Or for my clients in eastern Europe. There are some situations where e-sigs are really the best way out of a pickle. What we did with the CPAperless was re-use the one email twice, and send a separate email saying you first, then it'll come back and you go second. Klugey but functional.

Check the client's pay stubs and ask about his company's history, too. We had one a couple years ago where the company changed payroll services mid-year. They were *supposed* to get one W2 for the full year from the new provider (and they did get that W2), but they *also* got a W2 from the old provider for half the year. We had to wait for the IRS letter but had the explanation and all supporting documentation ready to go. Prior to that, we had one client whose company did some restructuring, and issued two W2s for the year, under the old and the new structures, with different EINs. Plenty come in with multiples who work in, and have tax withheld for, multiple states. Those we treat as continuation pages (because essentially that's what they are).

Thanks for the leads; I'll check them out.

Anyone know where I can see if an old EIN is still valid? I can't get through to the IRS (maybe I can try Friday at 7pm, but we're not there yet). Situation: friends had a small non-profit in another state. Haven't filed tax returns in years. I tried the "validate EIN" feature in Drake and it said the EIN was good - what I am not sure of is if it's valid for the type, or if it's valid (i.e., still exists) in the IRS database. I also checked the other state's corporations database and they want significant sums of money before they'll tell me anything. I've also found EIN verification tools online, all for a hefty subscription price. Any ideas gratefully accepted!

Wow! We had a lot of wind and gusts, but nothing like what you had. As far as helping out.... you know where to find me. Anything I can do. I have four or five returns (total) left, a couple of amended returns, and ongoing work. At least three of my five will go past deadline, because I know these clients and they won't get me data in time (I'm not their mommy, can't make them, and refuse to worry about them).

I have long said "common sense isn't very" and it was and is true.