When is your cutoff?

[Mr. Pencil]

Many preparers now put a cutoff date in their welcome letter, generally meaning things like

• Dropoffs only, no more appointments
• New returns processed only to estimate extension payment
• Can't promise pending returns won't go on extension

[Cyclone]

I charge a "Rush Fee" for anything that comes in after April 5th and have a big sign up at the front desk saying that anything received after that point will most likely have an extension filed and if they really need it done we will move it to the top of the pile and charge a "Rush Fee". People that owe usually save more than that fee by being able to set up a payment by the deadline. If I am having to burn the midnight oil up to the deadline I feel it is only fair I get compensated extra for it. I do it again on October 5th.

[JohnH]

I file extensions on everything coming in after mid-March. Then I loop back and get some of them finished anyhow. The extension did no harm, and the client is better trained for the next year

[GeneInAlabama]

I'm with John. I love extensions. It gives me an opportunity to spread my work out over a longer period of time.

[Lion EA]

I love extensions. I can make more money in 10.5 months than I can in 3.5 months. I've already put two returns on extension, both new clients: one is a family that moved to Singapore last fall that we don't want to file until they've been out of the US for 330 days (it's a three-year assignment from Yale to Singapore U. for a professor) and the other is a retired doctor with lots of investments that include a statement or two that always arrive late (maybe K-1s) who's coming to me because his last preparer made an error in 2011 and because his preparer lives a distance away across state lines and I live in the same town, so I want to have lots of time to go over his 2011 and 2012 returns and proofread 2013 without a deadline hanging over my head and most of my other returns staring at me from stacks on my desk! I expect to spend a fair amount of time on both of these returns; I don't do a lot of international situations but have this and another one this year involving Japan, and I know the doctor's return will be complex and I really need to understand what went wrong and cost him a lot of P&I for 2011 as it wasn't discovered until recently so doesn't sound like matching but like an interpretation of the law re one of his investments. I want to research this summer and not now.

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

My cutoff is March 17 before I put them on extension. Most of the returns that come in after that are complicated and need more time to be prepared anyway. There are a few easy ones that I will do for elderly clients after that, but most of them are just dragging their feet. They know that I can only be stretched so far and if they want a return prepared super fast, they can go to a big preparer. I don't take new clients off the street, just a few referrals and then kids and grandkids.

[Pacun]

My cut off date is April 15 at 6PM.

[MsTabbyKats]

I don't have a cutoff date. It's on a case by case basis.

[frazzled]

I don't have a "cut-off" date, BUT I do not take any appointments the last week (most of my biz is drop off anyway).

[Jack from Ohio]

March 24. Anything that comes in after that is automatically extended, a quick calculation to see if payment needs made with the extension, and they go in a separate queue. I charge for doing the extension.

April 15 has been on the calendar for 50 years and the due date for filing taxes has not changed in decades.