Lion EA

I have the free license for CCH's eSign, but haven't used it yet. I think it's about $3 when you need authentication (Form 8879) and maybe $1 if you don't (engagement letter). I have it on hand just in case, because I don't pay anything until I use it. Then, a monthly invoice. See what your software offers.

I think depreciating the wrong amount for two years is an impermissible method and can use Form 3115, but I haven't had a client need that so haven't researched it. You've done a good job with IRS info. And, you're being a good person to explain your results to your client and her new tax preparer. If the new preparer is filing the returns now, you can wash your hands of it; you've done all you can do.

Form 3115

https://timbertax.org/

I noticed a big jump in paper price at Staples not long ago. Did they have advance knowledge of the new Form 1040?!

A year after NY added pages, CT simplified from 2 pages to 4. But, add pages if your have CT AMT, EIC, credits for taxes paid to other jurisdictions, ES, etc. And, CT threw in a page of instructions, which is silly if I'm e-filing their returns. And, a second page of instructions if there are ES payments. With tax "simplification" my job is secure!

Stay out of Rita's back 40 !!

Taxpayers can create an account to pay NY balances due &/or estimated taxes: https://www.tax.ny.gov/pay/ind/pay_income_tax_online.htm They can also mail in a money order to NY, if they don't have a checking account.

I set my young clients up for direct debit, just like many of my clients of all ages. And, I give them the link to Direct Pay, too. HRB is not my competition. CPA firms are my competition, but I'm less expensive than they are. I'm still pricey, but don't have their overheard with OIH. More importantly, I offer service 24/7/365. Me, not the intern in the back room doing all the work while the partner only signs. Even my millennial clients appreciate service. They have no desire to learn a skill they'll use only once/year and won't improve their resume! I sometimes have to go all maternal on them, but they thank me for it !!

Judy, I'm getting hungry, too!! Rita you're a gem. I'll have to get to TN after getting my hip replaced, herniated disk fixed, etc. It's maintenance, maintenance, maintenance! I'm also missing Appalachia Service Project this summer in KY and WV. A group photo with names would be fun, too.

HP printers are my workhorse printers since my first that hubby still uses now (HP PCL 4 or something like that). Have three HPs in my office currently, all years old: large color laser, small very fast black only laser for tax returns, and an all-in-one color inkjet for when I need a stand-alone fax or glass-plate scanner (my workhorse scanner is a Fujitsu). Never had an HP break down; every HP printer I've ever owned is still in use by my business or my family. I have had to throw out a couple of Brother printers.

Local library with volunteers?

Uber. Hey, how about Danbury, CT, for the NY/CT-ATP two day seminar every December?! Ethan Allen Hotel has nice rooms.

True the SS deposit each month is fun. I even used some of my IRA money as a QCD to my church this year and will take the rest later this year. My trainer is great at stretching, as is my rehab guy, I want the yoga gal to teach me more, and I have the stretches as a video workout on my phone. Thanks for pushing that; I do need to stretch more. My rheumatologist was holding out for spinal stenosis while all the other doctors said hip. Last visit, he'd been at a seminar and took a class from a radiologist on lower back and hips. He examined me (for what's been at least quarterly) and said he changed his mind; not back, make hip replacement appointment. So, I thought all doctors are on same page. But, I had an appointment with internist to explain all the test results, medical jargon, etc. He was the one who sent me to hip surgeon in the first place, so I thought we'd be making that appointment; but he said the weakness shouldn't be from the hip -- sent me to the spine specialist. Spine guy said symptoms suggested disk, but MRI from almost five months ago didn't show that. New MRI, and it showed the herniated disk! It's so frustrating, because I thought we were all on the same page finally. But, it's back to the drawing board. But a herniated disk AFTER December does explain why I went downhill so fast this year. And, I am almost three inches shorter than I used to me. I thought it was the dowager's hump like my mother, but when I dug out a came from 30 years ago as I got weaker, I realized it's my lower back that's compressed because the cane was 2 1/2 inches too tall now! If I'd gotten my hip replaced last year, I wouldn't be having double trouble this year. But, I was OK last year, a little slower and some trouble sleeping since I used to sleep on my side, but doing everything I always did. I'm not one to have surgery until there are no other options. I've never had much: tonsils out as a kid and tubes in my ears as an adult. A lot of people my age and older at church, so I'm seeing what can be done. Hubby had both shoulders replaced and bounced back fast. All the good ideas and wishes help a lot.

Latest MRI shows herniated disk L2/L3 pressing on a nerve that runs down my left leg. X-rays show no cartilage in my hips, arthritis in both hips and lower back, with left hip the worst. So, It'll be a hip replacement at some time, just now sure where in the list of procedures. On prednisone for a couple weeks, but can't keep it up long since I'm type 2 diabetic. I guess next is a cortisone shot in the spine. I also have a script for rehab. Taking all those supplements. Using ice at night and heating pads during the day and those disposable heat wraps all the time (Steve orders them by the case from Costco). Extended release pain reliever at night. Getting more sleep. But, using a cane now for balance. And, other equipment; looking like a retirement home in here. Friends see me and loan me canes and walkers and... Chiro and massage. Have the name of a good acupuncturist and good yoga teacher for "real people." Even have a client with some magnetic machine to realign my electrons or something; she uses it on her horses and me and other people too, I think! This is getting very time-consuming. And, I turn 71 so am old. But, my grandmother lived to 103. I want to strengthen muscles before hip replacement, and hopefully lessen pain so I can rehab. My sister fell during rehab, so Medicare stopped paying because she wasn't getting better every day. She remained housebound, because she couldn't get up her steps. But, at least her hip pain was gone! Thanks for everyone's thoughts and suggestions. I keep adding them all in to the mix. Doing all the less invasive things before I think about surgery.

Me too!

Emmanuel Episcopal Church Y’all know you want to take a break from Memorial Day festivities to pray for our veterans in the cemetery (immediately following the 10 am service), sing a few hymns for our country and see if the priest uses any other “vulgarity” in her trinity sermon. https://www.facebook.com/william.doubled…/…/2207180385962277 Episcopal Church MemesLike Page · Okay, Episcopalians--to the dictionaries!

"Known or should have known."

It was easier to screen my calls long before caller ID by the way people would pronounce my name. Home or work, I and my colleagues knew who was a real call I wanted/needed to take and who was just marketing or worse. I do miss that, but I have caller ID now on all our phones.

Which ever you have as primary, if husband, then his original status. As you say, that no longer matters as you file the amendment with MFJ.

Oh yeah, the IRS claims my cell phone is not in my name. AT&T says it IS in my name. So, that avenue is closed to me. Very frustrating.

I took my first husband's name, but I also took my second's -- so my name no longer matches my first husband, but they still mix us up. I blame it on him using my address after our divorce for applying for credit, because Weston, CT, has a much better average credit rating than Syracuse where he moved. And, I blame it on the dummies at the agencies that compare the address and not the SSN. It's caused problems in other ways, but those I can explain to a real person who has authority, such as the banker when applying for a HELOC. The IRS just follows their rubrics. I get some wrong things off my credit reports from time to time, but new errors do pop up again. My credit reports are pretty accurate now, it's just some dummy pulling Teri's by her "address" instead of mine by my SSN, so I flunk answering "her" questions. My maiden name was Brown, so although I was married in the feminist 60's when my friends were keeping their names, I wanted to lose Brown. I wanted something like Anderson that people could pronounce and spell, and not Franciose (rhymes with grandiose and not the French Francois) that I took. I kept that after the divorce, because I was job hunting and because I had a young son. But, I was very happy to take Lewis with my second husband a decade later. Other than some Spanish speaking areas around here that want to spell it Louis or Luis, I have no problem -- other than the credit agencies and, therefore, the IRS -- with Lewis. (Well, there is another Rita Lewis in CT who owes a car rental company, so I get nasty calls. And, there was the time in the emergency room when they pulled the chart of a much younger Rita Lewis.) I guess Lewis is a bit too common, but not as blah as Brown and not as rare as Franciose. I used to hear Francois, Frances, Frankos, Frankosee (most common) and even Fricassee!

I haven't gotten back on e-Services yet, either. The knowledgebase questions end up being about my ex husband's second wife and not me, so I flunk. The tax return questions are things like W-2 (I'm self-employed so don't have a W-2) and 1099s (they come in my EIN and not SSN), so I flunk. I will have to go in person to an office, but it's several towns away. They need my credit reports unfrozen, but I don't want to do that until I know everything else will work; and which credit agency as I'm not going to unfreeze all of them. I went this season with no access to e-Services, but it's a problem, especially with the more complex returns I have on extension.

There's a Drake forum here, too! See what Judy said above.