Clients forgetting to download tax documents

[ATSMAN]

I started to notice this issue last tax season and this tax season it has already happened three times:

Client signs up with banks and financial institutions for electronic delivery of documents. Then they receive an e-mail that it is ready and they simply forward me the e-mail with the link to download it. They forget that one has to login to the site to download. I respond with an e-mail and then instead of them logging in they will e-mail me with their user name etc. Come on, how lazy can you be. One fellow even commented when I protested, I trust you, you will not do me any harm!

Are you guys running into this issue as well?

[beck]

Hi. Maybe it is the way you respond to them? Do you try and explain what they did wrong? If so, that may prompt the whole "I'll send you the log in info"? When I run into a forwarded email, I simply tell them that I cannot download any info. I personally know what they did wrong, but I don't offer any help to rectify it beyond having them contact the financial institution.

[Lion]

Yes. Sometimes my clients have given permission to their broker or whoever that they can communicate with me. But, I don't automatically get an email or have access to their secure links. I have to remember and then email the broker a reminder. It is time-consuming. But, slightly better than missing items from a client. I hate to work on a return, even to the point of proofreading, and then discover I'm missing some large item and need to put it aside. When I finally have everything and finish, I need to proofread again, and the earlier items are now foggier in my old brain. (My process is to prepare an entire return, sleep on it/do something else, and then proofread. Then I have the whole picture and can review with client, help with planning, etc., most efficiently.)

[ATSMAN]

Hi. Maybe it is the way you respond to them? Do you try and explain what they did wrong?

I simply say that the link they provided requires login and they need to login and get me a pdf of the tax document. I think what is happening with some folks is that they don't want to search the website for tax documents that are relevant. I know one of my banks (starts with F) buries the tax documents inside the menus instead of simply posting it on the opening screen.

www. taxpackagessupport.com is another site that they forward me the e-mail and that too requires account # information.

I am with Lion. I like to get the return inputed, calculated and then proof read in that order. I don't want to reach proof read and then have to start data entry again. I do provide Organizers and check lists but some folks just ignore them as junk mail!

[kathyc2]

Even if you wanted to take the responsibility of logging on to their accounts, I doubt there are many sites where you could. Vast majority of them now have 2 step verification; if login attempted from an unknown computer, company will send code via text or email to access.

If they can't find the info on the site, have them opt out of electronic delivery.

Sending login and passwords via e-mail is just plain stupid.

[ATSMAN]

Even if you wanted to take the responsibility of logging on to their accounts

No way! Hence my frustration that it just delays me to get the information. So I have to pend that return and then come back. I like to run it like a production plant. Start a return and finish it and then go to the next one. Back in the day when majority of tax documents were paper based I would tell folks to wait till they got all their documents and then mail them or drop it off in one package. And they knew that if they did not d o that they would spend more in mailing costs or gas money if they were dropping them off. None of this forwarding links now as they receive them because it does not cost them anything!

[ttbtaxes]

I would never log into anyone else's website and, as Kathyc pointed out, it likely won't allow you in. It's the client's responsibility to get me the tax documents not for me to go get it.

I've notice in the past two years younger clients want to upload the 1099s to their "smartphone" and then ask if they can text me the picture! I politely tell them no and they'll have to print it out for me, which seems to floor them. They get frustrated I think because they deal more in the digital world than the paper world.

[ATSMAN]

They get frustrated I think because they deal more in the digital world than the paper world.

Ever since banks allowed customers to deposit checks by taking a picture, this trend has started. I don't think my son has visited a bank teller in years!

[EvenKeelTax]

A lot of my clients come in with w2s, 1099s, etc on their smartphones. I just have them email the docs to my business email account, print, scan to their file, then delete the email they sent. Works great almost all the time and clients seem to leave happy. I would NEVER use a login that a client gave to me to get the forms myself, but I have helped clients try to log in by letting them use a laptop PC that I bring with me. Don't trust the tax prep computer to log into a lot of sites due to virus concerns.

I'm a small business in a rural area, though. I could see where this might not work so well in a place where clients are constantly coming and going.

[ATSMAN]

laptop PC that I bring with me. Don't trust the tax prep computer to log into a lot of sites due to virus concerns.

If you are allowing you client to use your laptop to log in to a website, make sure the browser is set to NOT save the login info by default. Otherwise you will have their secret login info!

[Anarchrist]

There are apps that will crop documents to make the pic look as if the docs were scanned. The few pics I've received like this looked good.

I just have them email the docs to my business email account

Email isn't secure. You should never recommend to clients they efile sensitive documents.

[ATSMAN]

There are apps that will crop documents to make the pic look as if the docs were scanned. The few pics I've received like this looked good.

Email isn't secure. You should never recommend to clients they efile sensitive documents.

It depends on your definition of "secure" and the service provider. I send all my tax documents and reports encrypted through a portal and request responses via that portal also.

Gmail also allows encryption by Virtu.

Google's standard method of Gmail encryption is something called TLS, or Transport Layer Security. As long as the person with whom you're emailing is also using a mail service that also supports TLS — which most major mail providers do — all messages you send through Gmail will be encrypted in this manner.
What that basically means is that it'll be incredibly difficult for anyone to look at a message while it's en route from point A to point B. It doesn't, however, guarantee that the message will remain private or available only to the intended recipient once it reaches the destination mail server.