Anyone else have jacked up state client letters?

[joanmcq]

My state client letters for refund returns put both the 'you will be getting a refund of XXX and right after that the paragraph saying your return has a balance due, with instructions to pay by EFTPS of all things! Anyone else having this problem?

[Abby Normal]

Yes, I had the EFTPS wording on my state letters. I just replaced it with my own wording about paying online. All my letters are very customized. The standard letters in ATX are horrendous! And I almost always have to fix the formatting, spacing, etc. on letters for every client.

[Slippery Pencil]

Have had this problem since the first day of tax season, and as usual, ATX won't even reply to inquiries about it.

[jasdlm]

My Federal and State letters are "jacked up", so I'm just not using them.

[Lion EA]

My clients don't read the letters.  I use the filing instructions that are more bullet point, and I still use a highlighter on the things they actually need to do, such as mail ES payments.

[Jack from Ohio]

I/we don't use them.  Less than 1% of clients read anything we print and send to them.  Waste of time.  I print the client info page showing amounts of refunds and what is owed.  That is all the info anyone cares about.

[joanmcq]

My clients are the ones that pointed it out. Do I have the weirdest clients? Truthful on charitable, do mileage logs and read the client letters....

[jklcpa]

My clients read the letters, give me stacks of the charitable contribution letters, and have miles documented. Not weird, we've just trained them well.

[HV Ken]

We combine the state and federal letters.  Have no problems.  They come out great and I found them easy to customize.  I am happy with the client letter function this season.

[joanmcq]

I do the same thing, but the one paragraph is jacked up. I've been deleting it now in every letter. It shows up when a balance is due too, and doesn't give the CA web pay info. Grrrrr!

[FreedomTaxed]

I/we don't use them.  Less than 1% of clients read anything we print and send to them.  Waste of time.  I print the client info page showing amounts of refunds and what is owed.  That is all the info anyone cares about.

 

That's pretty much the case with us. We stopped printing client letters years ago. The best we do today is to manually print their federal and state refunds or oweds on their billing invoice. I still have to field a few hundred calls over the year to check these refund amounts anyway.

 

Clients are very hands-off with their taxes, as I'm sure you know. We make the effort to focus their attention on what their refunds are, their vouchers, and any paper filings they have to do (largely for Ohio, it's the municipal one). Everything else is just stuffed into the document envelop and marked with the tax year and their name. Too often these are just lost or filed away, and we were doing a lot of "can you give me a copy of my 2012 filing thanks so much", etc. At least I changed that so we CHARGE ($20 per tax year) for making those copies. We stay open all year and making a few hundred copies of client filings was looking like too much of a pointless cost; we'd get a few dozen print requests in the first 3 months after giving their current year copy. We were paying for client laziness.

[Margaret CPA in OH]

In my email with pdf (encrypted) returns for client review, I specifically state that no paper copies will be provided unless specifically requested. I always have a couple that do want that paper but the vast majority are fine with electronic versions. It is rare for a request for a printed copy after tax season. I offer first an electronic version which usually suffices.

[B. Jani]

I use secure drawer to send efile signature pages and final copy. No printing.

[FreedomTaxed]

In my email with pdf (encrypted) returns for client review, I specifically state that no paper copies will be provided unless specifically requested.

 

That's perfectly acceptable per Pub 1345:

 

"The ERO must provide a complete copy of the return to the taxpayer. EROs may provide this copy in any media, including electronic, that is acceptable to both the taxpayer and the ERO."

[Margaret CPA in OH]

I knew that and was quite relieved and happy a few years ago when that came out. It made my move to nearly paperless a reality and so much nicer now!