New line on 1040 this year

[Grumpy]

I know

That is what I said.

and I apologized for misreading your post. I'll try and do better in the future.

[solomon]

and I apologized for misreading your post. I'll try and do better in the future.

I just noticed. Guess it is easy to do when a topic different than the original post is introduced.

[taxea]

New line on 1040 this year

Seems to me that it is the client's responsibility to provide me with the 2007 stimulus amount received. If he/she forgot it, he/she can do the research with the IRS in order to provide me with the appropriate amount......or pay me for the research time. taxea

[S T]

Be nice on the Stimulus Info

Be nice to your clients. It only takes a few minutes to pull up online what they received on the Stimulus Rebate. I have been copying into my clients files since last July, 08.

It is a great service, and creates less headache for us as a tax professional when tax time arrives. All I have to do is pull up their paperless computer file and I already have the information. To me that is a time saver, as I don't have to wait for them to reply and I can process their 2008 tax return without having the return sitting in my office.

For some clients, I will have to wait long enough for other items that are not available to me online!

Sandy

[erchess]

In the current environment

I am afraid that getting their stimulus payment wrong could expose me to a penalty from the IRS. I am therefore going to be open to only three possibilities:

just put the max for their filing status to make sure they get nothing more;

put down some lesser amount that they prove to me with something from the IRS is what they got;

or find out for myself what they got. There will be a charge for the third option.

[S T]

Show some goodwill to Clients

I still think for the most part as long as the information is available to us online at IRS, we should show some goodwill on the client's behalf, at least I am going to. I hopeful that this exercise will actually reduce the amount of time it takes me to complete a taxpayer's return.

It takes just a few minutes, and actually during the rest of November and December, you can pull up the info without too much problem.

For me, it is just pretty much going to be part of the service, and yes I am raising my fees by a token amount in 2009 for the 2008 tax prep, but I am certainly not going to charge for those clients that don't remember what they did or didn't receive on the Stimulus Rebate and I don't want the wrong amount being entered on the 2008 tax return.

I did the same scenario when we had the last Advance Rebate, and certainly had less notices on filing discrepancies to deal with because of errors. I just want the majority of my 2008 tax returns in/out the door and filed correctly as fast as possible with the least amount of errors and the chance of the taxpayer receiving an IRS notice or the taxpayer's refund being delayed, reduced or not issued at all.

I just don't want to be receiving those taxpayer's phone calls.

Sandy

[BP.]

I like your sentiments, Sandy. This is a good opportunity to delight my clients with exceptional service. "Don't recall your stimulus payment? No worries, your tax hero's crystal ball will provide the info." Or something like that. Red cape optional.

I plan on putting the correct amount (I hope!) of the stimulus payment on 2008 returns. I don't want clients getting a different refund or paying a different tax amount than they are expecting & I don't want them to get IRS notices adjusting their refund or balance. Just means more calls to me, and questions as to why IRS is making a change on their info, i.e. - why didn't I get it right the first time?

Nevermind it would be their responsibility to get me the correct stimulus payment amount. This allows me to give a better level of service, and yes, I will be adding a small charge to look up stimulus payment amounts. It takes time, and time is what we sell. It'll be accurate, and accuracy is also what we sell.

And after all, helping our paying clients properly report their stimulus payment and figuring any rebate still due for 2008 is the only way for some of us to get in on the economic stimulus. (A little STW anyone?)

Plus, it'll be way easier to charge a few bucks up front to get it right, than dealing with the inevitavble calls and follow up if it is not right- and then trying to charge a few bucks for that.

Cheers! Barb

[JohnH]

I've had several clients call or email me during the past few months with questions about the stimulus payments - not an excessive number but still quite a few (maybe 25% of my tax clients). I'd generally click on the IRS lookup and give them an answer while they were on the phone. I'd also go ahead and print the page & put it in their folder for next year. So for those clients I already have the info in their folder for next year.

I think it's probably best to build enough into the overall basic fees for the upcoming year to cover a simple lookup on the web site when that's all that is required for a given client - no need for a separate charge IMO. But research for new clients who don't have the info, or investigation into situations where they qualified for the rebate but it was reduced due to prior liabilities, should be handled differently. In those cases, if they insist they didn't get the full rebate but they didn't bother to keep the correspondence, then it's chargeable time if they want it worked out for them.