March is always the month for difficult returns. February is the big refund crowd with lots of returns. March has fewer returns but more problems.
It happens every year. You can't complete a return because a customer doesn't have information, thus you stack his file off to the side. He is supposed to call you "tomorrow" and for all practical purposes, forgets about it.
In a few days, there are several files stacked off to the side waiting on more information from the customers. One of them doesn't know what he paid for a stock on a 1099-B. Another is contesting the amount of interest on a 1098, another one received a 1098-T with blank fields. The reasons are many, but the bottom line is that this "stack" of uncompleted returns tends to grow and grow and grow, and if we allow it, this logjam will continue until about April 13th.
Customers will then start calling and wanting to know why they don't have their return back. Some of them will have totally forgotten that THEY are the reason for the holdup, and others will want you to file an extension.
I'm looking for a "nuclear option" of dealing with this logjam and at this point I don't much care who gets blowed up. (Of course this is not really true) And it happens every year, I don't know why I'm writing this post as if I've never dealt with it before. You hate to start arbitrarily charging more money because some of this stuff is not the client's fault. Banks and insurance companies, for example, have a miserable track record of issuing replace-ment or corrected 1099s and 1098s
Any comments???
It happens every year. You can't complete a return because a customer doesn't have information, thus you stack his file off to the side. He is supposed to call you "tomorrow" and for all practical purposes, forgets about it.
In a few days, there are several files stacked off to the side waiting on more information from the customers. One of them doesn't know what he paid for a stock on a 1099-B. Another is contesting the amount of interest on a 1098, another one received a 1098-T with blank fields. The reasons are many, but the bottom line is that this "stack" of uncompleted returns tends to grow and grow and grow, and if we allow it, this logjam will continue until about April 13th.
Customers will then start calling and wanting to know why they don't have their return back. Some of them will have totally forgotten that THEY are the reason for the holdup, and others will want you to file an extension.
I'm looking for a "nuclear option" of dealing with this logjam and at this point I don't much care who gets blowed up. (Of course this is not really true) And it happens every year, I don't know why I'm writing this post as if I've never dealt with it before. You hate to start arbitrarily charging more money because some of this stuff is not the client's fault. Banks and insurance companies, for example, have a miserable track record of issuing replace-ment or corrected 1099s and 1098s
Any comments???
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