Catherine

We have been giving CDs with password-protected pdf's for some years now. What we are finding is that newer computers, for the most part, no longer come with optical drives! So we are slowly weaning clients into paper copies in person (or by US Mail) with digital copies (still pw-protected) via our file portal. I'm too cheap to buy that many thumb drives. CDs are different - by standard ones, by the 25 or 50 pack, with paper sleeves, and it's only five or six cents per client.

CPaperless has "Signature Flow" that does e-signatures. The only fee to you is per-signature, unlike many services that charge monthly. Since we only do ...maybe a dozen? e-sigs per year, a hefty monthly fee would be prohibitive for us.

I also did a streamlined filing for two clients (sisters). In their cases, they are dual citizens but had not lived in the US since they were young teens. All their adult lives were spent in Europe. We filed 6 years of FBARs and three of 1040's (all wages excluded under foreign earned income, "taxable" income of a couple bucks' worth of bank interest wiped out by std deduction). No penalties. Bank accounts and securities accounts, small balances, and an entire wage-earning history of being outside the US; where were they to have heard of requirements? And every year we do the 1040 and they do the FBAR. I think I only charge them enough so they don't feel like they are being given charity. Once I got my English-Czech "cheat sheet" so I can read their docs, it all takes me about twenty minutes each.

SendSafe from CPaperless only works with Outlook - which itself has security flaws big enough to drive a truck through, sideways.

I'm not so sure. He can't get the license as a PE without proper accreditation. What he is getting is the paperwork to support the PE, not new education or new skills. Happens all the time; a friend of mine (so far back I wasn't even doing tax work yet) had her nursing license from an accredited school but NOT a bachelor's degree. Needed the BS to get into a master's program. Ended up having to take classes being taught by people SHE had taught, that for her were SO far beneath her skill level it was pathetic. All to get the %$#@ piece of paper to get into the program she needed. It was totally stupid. Could be the same here, where the client won't learn a lick of new information or any new skills - just getting the %$#@ piece of paper that permits him to get the license.

Gorgeous necklace, totally kick-ass killer shoes, and a great story too! Thank you for sharing! I'm so glad it all went so well after your panicked search.

So Bill @FDNY, how did the jewelry presentation and card go over? Was she thrilled to bits and very happy? We won't ask about any details more prurient than that.

@RitaB's comments on "it happened so fast" - wasn't that what the snail said to the cops, after being mugged by the tortoise?

Last I heard, you can file up to ten returns for NY before you need to register with the state. That might be old, but it might be OK. I'll let folks from NY chime in.

I tell the heirs of all my elderly clients to look in ALL the pockets before they toss/give away clothes. Coat pockets (and mens' suit pockets) tend to be places older folks stash cash "to be safe". Especially when they were old enough to remember bank crises. Good to know it works for birthday gifts, too! A couple of years ago, I bought some small tools as a birthday gift for Doug, and hid them in a cabinet. I *knew* they were there, but could not find them! Turned out they had fallen off the back of the shelf and were wedged behind - out of sight and almost out of reach. I found them in time for Christmas.

auto-UNcorrect version of "definitely" was my guess.

Congratulations! Does this mean you don't need Gail's second pair of earrings?

Get a really good engagement letter, and get a BIG retainer, up-front - and make sure it CLEARS - before you do anything for this guy. And tell him right off the bat that his chances are not zero, but not good. Put that in writing in the engagement letter, have him sign and date it, and you both keep a copy.

or what the clients are willing to do.

There is a difference between encrypting EMAIL and encrypting FILES SENT by email. If you want email itself encrypted there are the suggestions above, and Symantec has a product "PGP Encryption" that will encrypt the email itself. There are other programs that require keys - one public, that you can send to anyone so they can decrypt your email, and a private one that is the other half of the protocol, that you use before you send email out.

Our anniversary is April 1st... and we always take some time that day, and celebrate more post-deadline. I know a woman whose birthday is in January, and who grew up in the upstate NY snow belt. They ignored her birthday, growing up, and instead celebrated her half-birthday, in July, since they could have a party that wasn't snowed out! You could start having September celebrations. Just sayin'...

I am - Doug & I will head out shortly to have lunch then pick up my birthday cake!

I have a new computer, sitting in a box under my dining room table, waiting for me to have TIME to set it up! Good luck, Lion!

I was able to renew, and also checked on my "returns efiled under this PTIN" while I was there.

Technically, yes, you are supposed to allocate the basis between the cash received per share and the new shares of AT&T. Practically speaking (and especially if any other pertinent supporting documentation is missing) the approach you listed can be the only realistic one. I figure that the IRS will never balk at getting more tax dollars now, and that people do all kinds of crazy things that mess around with their stock basis later. As long as you end up with basis that can be defended, for reasons that make sense (including "this was the only way to track it all cleanly"), the worst that can happen is they send a letter questioning it - to which you respond with whatever documents you have and the reasoning behind it. I've never seen a letter asking for how basis was determined. I know of one such letter, but it was sent back in the 70's and involved inherited stock. YMMV.

Oh, good, it's not just my office that still talks about "Line 21 income"!

We have a couple of signatures waiting; everyone else will file late. I refuse to care more than the clients do. There is one multi-year non-filer where I'd love to get the 2016 finished but delivering it (older client who doesn't drive) might be tough to arrange today, so if it happens, it happens. Not my fault the family waited until the middle of the spring busy season, this year, to contact me about returns un-filed since 2014. Neither is it my fault that the elderly client is a hoarder who copies every. single. paper. multiple times, and I had to slog through over a half-dozen huge boxes of papers sorting first by year and then by whether or not they were tax-related, then if they were duplicates of ones I'd already found (at one point, in one box, I counted thirty-seven copies of a blank worksheet, all annotated "do not discard" and with the year 2011 written on them - I pitched them all). Like Lion, used to be our return was first every year, but then brokerage statements started not only arriving late, but getting corrected statements even later! I try to finish ours in August (this year it slopped into September with wedding plans).

I love the comparison. It's great for clients, and also great for ME in reviewing. If I see substantial differences year to year, I go back and make sure there is nothing crucial that I have missed (or the client has forgotten to provide me).

I must say, that applies to me also. Glad you got it to file!

My personal, strong, preference is always to take the refund, even if the client then takes the funds and sends them right back in an estimated payment. I like to keep the years separate. That way, any unforeseen circumstance (the IRS sends a cp2000 letter about a form you never got, for instance) does not instantaneously mess up TWO years' worth of returns. The first by the mis-match or other problem, the second by the funds you had counted on carrying forward NOT so doing - so now the rest of the year's estimated payments are mucked up. My business partner is learning this the hard way, with an elderly client who failed to give us some papers for 2017. The IRS took the carry-forward amount to apply to the prior year, and now this elderly lady is all confused about what *he* did wrong, that the rest of her estimated payments had to go up so much.