OT: Cut Off Date Return Prep

[geekgirldany]

I want to thank you all for responding. Next tax season I will just tell people when they call to make appointments and put up a sign in the office stating my deadline.

Probably about half are more complicated returns that came in towards the end this tax season. Others are W-2s and itemized deductions but often leave out information. Clients just don't understand that it is not only entering the information but also printing their copy, scanning in documents, etc. The time adds up.

I appreciate the concern about my heart problem. It runs in the family. Grandparents had heart problems. My bother had the same thing I have years ago and has to take medicine for it. My mother also had it when she was my age. So I think it is just everything hit me this year and I just was not able to recover. I usually take a month off after the tax season. I never really did this time. Nurse told me over the phone to expect a Nuclear stress test (so I guess I will be glowing ), a EKG, and one of those 24 hour monitor things they put on you. Oh boy.

Things are really slow now for me and I am now just taking it easy. I am not going to the office unless I have too. Also just watching what I do physically until I see the cardiologist in January. He is suppose to be one of the best in North Georgia. Plus the hospital is one of the highest rated in treating heart problems. If I have chest pains I will go to the ER. But I hope I can just wait to see the doctor. As long as I don't exert myself I am okay.

Thank you all again for responding. Just shows me that I need to put my foot down more on a deadline.

[S T]

Clients and more

Hi Dany,
Much the same here for me as with the other posts - Pretty much cut it off around March 20th or so and tell everyone they will be on extension - Of course I still have to have some idea and process that information for valid extension - but just not finalize. I have had that "cut-off" for years.

Sorry to hear about you not feeling so good - so as with others that posted, please go see a Doctor asap and find some resolve - if as you state in your email that there is a family history - at least you are aware.

As Linda posted on her daughter - I have some of the heart palpitations - as I go in Stress mode, which then turns into a Panic Attack. Not on medication (RX) but have found some of the vitamins and Homeopathic remedies that work, as well as walking, meditation, or something quiet as walking or light working in the garden and taking pleasure in Mother Nature with the Birds, Squirrels. Sometimes just a cup of herbal tea will help.

Try to stay calm, relieve stress as much as you can and don't over exert yourself until you can see the doctor or have Tests run, but in the meantime DO NOT hesitate to go to ER if you feel the need or urgency, most ER are equipped to handle these situations.

My thoughts and prayers are with you for feeling better! Keep us posted.

Sandy

[FEDUKE404]

My position on late filers

I gave up getting stressed over the "April rush" long ago.

Yes, I remember the days of the (Block) office staying open until midnight, no efiling, and the mad dash to the post office where the TV crews were always there with the 11 o'clock news, showing the chaos. Generally speaking there was often someone inside the post office (that's where you obtained the tax forms, correct??) madly filling out a tax return.

To answer your question: I do not draw an automatic line in the sand. (I have one client with a reasonably simple return, who never even "thinks" about me until April has arrived. That person's return can be done in far less than an hour. I nicely "fuss" at them, they promise to do better next year, but nothing ever changes.)

I strongly urge my clients to get everything to me by late March, and will generally send emails/phone established clients.

I do NOT look upon my inability to finish a return, whether I'm functioning at 100% or somewhat less during the rush, as a failure in any way, shape, or form. NO stress there!! I will tell any client there is some/much/certainty of needing an extension if the deadline looms. No favorites!!

For any new late clients, including the infamous "can you file the last four years now also?" I will generally refer them to a storefront operation. Those types of clients present to me a situation that I simply avoid, for any number of reasons.

For a well-intended client, as well as any referrals, with what is normally a basket case return (since those can show up in April), I will pull in my claws and accept the return. But by so doing, I tell them up front that there is a strong likelihood of an extension and what would be necessary to sooth the savage IRS beast by April 15th.

Good luck on your recovery!

FE

[joanmcq]

I'm with most of the board on this one. My deadline has been March 31, and it may move up this year. The last week is usually running projections for the people that are going on extension, so that they can pay with the 4868 if necessary.

The last extension I had this year, my client came to pick up the voucher (he didn't want direct debit) on April 18 and I walked out in my bathrobe & slippers. I told him I wasn't even thinking of getting dressed that day!

[erchess]

Special Challenge of a mobile service

The majority of my returns are for people within driving distance of my home and simple enough that I can do them in no more than three hours. These people I will do right up to the filing deadline. If a return is going to take me longer than three hours or the client lives farther away, then either way I work on the return in my home office as I have time and I normally put on extension anything that comes in after about the second week in March. I also normally extend my own return and those of family members who I do for free.

I think I will start putting my late arriving longer term projects on extension as soon as they come in so that I don't have a rush of extensions at the end. I have in the past done all my extensions on the deadline day.

Every year I have been on my own I have had three to ten clients that I had time to see before the deadline but that were not ready to see me and asked for extensions. Even though I knew as much as two weeks in advance that they wanted extensions I have not done them until the last day. That will change this season.

Only about half of my year's business is returns. The other half is representation and these clients come in throughout the year. I think eventually I may stop doing returns and only do representation. People gripe less about the fees because even most people who can or think they can prepare their own returns know that they cannot successfully argue with a taxing agency. I still laugh about the preparation client I lost because I would not agree to do his 1120S with after the fact payroll of 15 employees and his 1040 for $75. He seriously knew a masseuse who was single no dependents and had only W2 income and her fee was $75 and he perceived her return as equal in difficulty to his. Naturally I could not explain the differences so I let him go.