Three to go...

[veritas]

And

one with no money, two for no show.

[S T]

Managed to "rattle" all the "slowpokes" to receive completed receive signature forms for efile

Phone call arrives - referral (had my name and phone contact for over 6 weeks)- last minute DIY - just had to say NO! send me info - I will work on tomorrow, but not today 10/15!

Sorry! and Good Luck!

Sandy

[joanmcq]

I just sent a 'no' email to one of my chronically late filers that sent me an "OK Joan, I am freaking out because I can't find my W-2s" at 5:20pm.

I'm waiting for the clients that I just finished 2010 & 2011; because one was SE with auto expenses, I didn't want to roll over 2010 until I had at least that. I was supposed to get them 'first thing in the morning'-I had to call at noon to get them. AND I actually went to sleep at midnight so I'd have a decent amount of time to work on them. AND they have to paper file because they're a same-sex couple.

I got my 401k contribution into my plan while I was waiting though, so I sent my returns off....now I have just two CA8879s I'm waiting for, and the clients for pick up.

I am soooooo fried. And hungry. AND I'm out of n/a beer.

[oceanlovin'ea]

Tuesday morning

Hi everyone. I am so glad it is October 16th. I guess I was a little like JohnH. We scheduled a trip to the beach for Oct 5-12. The rates are so good at this time of the year. I told everyone that we had to be done by the end of September. So when I came back I had one client coming in to pay and sign last Friday. One I was waiting for signature form to come back.
Then I had 2 problem ones who didn't get filed by the 15th. One is waiting for a reconsideration of 2009 and IRS is slow about getting it done. He already knows what he owes for 2010 and when we find out what he owes for 2009, he will mail in 2011. He will still get a refund then so I don't think there will be a late filing penalty. He just didn't want to file and IRS keep more money than they should be getting and have to wait for them to send him a refund. I explained the options and this was what they wanted to do.
The other also has a refund coming which IRS will apply to balance due. Just have to figure out best way to file this as the owed amount is on husband's 401K withdrawal and wife doesn't want her part of the refund to used to pay it. I'm not sure if IRS will give her refund based on injured spouse. Need to talk to IRS.


I like the idea of making them get done early. Think I will schedule another trip during the first part of October.

Linda, EA

[Lion]

I don't know about a trip (except for the year my son got married 1 October and some cousins were going to be there too, so we planned a few days in that state); however, I have reassessed my usual procedure to file our return last. I had to send hubby out with a check to get my SEP in by 3 p.m. when our broker was closing for the day; if he wasn't retired now, that wouldn't have happened. And, probably missed a few deductions as I rushed to make that deadline. I wasn't done with clients to have a couple of uninterrupted days to work on our returns. I'm going to block out a time next year for ours, and not work on others during those days.

I did tell people they would not be on time after a certain date (maybe 15 September when I finished entities) even telling them to pick up their documents to take elsewhere if they were in a hurry. Unfortunately, no one took me up on that. I charge most of them a lot anyway, as they're the more complex returns coming in this late or the more unorganized clients who need more of my time pulling info out of them.

I also decided I'm raising prices significantly next year, especially for Schedule D and K-1s with multiple activities. I added prices this year on each Form 8949, but it didn't feel like enough for the extra work. The brokerages had to reprogram their reporting, and some were better than others. In the past, I could get spreadsheets to import from almost all. This year, some of the spreadsheets were dreadful, not really spreadsheets but web pages with different sized cells, no covered/not covered marked, no wash sales marked, so had to compare to the paper 1099-B to complete. And, more clients are buying -- and selling -- PTPs. I think I'm sending out a mailing (email where possible) saying my prices are increasing for reporting capital gains and losses due to the new IRS forms.

Yes, earlier drop-dead dates and price increases, or you're fired.