April 15th

[RWG1950]

With filing deadlines extended, I'm feeling an uneasy calm with April 15th almost here.
Have none of the usual sense of urgency. Sure seems odd - at this time of the year.
Gas has fallen to $ 1.25 up here in WI - but we have no place to drive to.
Varying degrees of hysteria, denial, misinformation & optimism on the coronavirus seem to be filling the airwaves.
Read an interesting op-ed piece in Saturday's Wall Street Journal by Holman Jenkins Jr in which he posits the following on the lockdowns :
"Imagine a problem that can be solved by holding your head underwater but stops being solved when you lift your head out."
Hope everyone is staying safe.

l

[dtlee]

This is a daunting exercise this year. With the numbers accelerating at a slower rate, people will begin to believe that it is safe to resume normal activities when it is the elimination of those normal activities that is flattening the curve. My clients who did not want to do the returns in March want to meet with me in May. There is every indication that the infection rate in this area will be higher in May than it was in March (right now infection rates are 3 to 5 times higher than they were in March). I have filed extensions for about half of my outstanding clients, though I am not sure why (force of habit?). I am so sick of reading and hearing misinformation about the virus that I avoid the subject as much as possible. I mentioned something about "flattening the curve" to a friend the other day and she said, "I don't believe in those conspiracy theories;" end of subject. It is like telling people what they can deduct and hearing back, "but my friend deducted...." so I am used to it.

Stay safe.

[Rapid Robert]

U.S mail seems to have stopped daily delivery without telling anyone, at least in some locations. I still subscribe to the old-fashioned disc-in-the-mail service from Netflix, and since I'm pretty close to one of their major distribution centers, it has always been a one-day turn-around from mailing in the old disc to getting the next in my queue. But suddenly last week, they said they were shipping the next on on Wednesday but it wouldn't arrive until Saturday. In over ten years, that has never happened before.

[Gretel]

Eerily quiet. I too have filed extensions, I do not want to forget later when my mind isn't much with tax returns any longer. What gets me - other than the immense suffering everywhere - is the total uncoordinated financial help from the government, now making it more desirable to get high unemployment benefits instead of being hired back f.e. by a restaurant, which is necessary for the restaurant for loan forgiveness and keep the doors open down the road. What really makes me mad is that many businesses get the PPP and either never intended to let go of employees or are in a position to have more business now than ever. Real small businesses are left out for various reasons.

[WICPA]

Eerily quiet. I too have filed extensions, I do not want to forget later when my mind isn't much with tax returns any longer. What gets me - other than the immense suffering everywhere - is the total uncoordinated financial help from the government, now making it more desirable to get high unemployment benefits instead of being hired back f.e. by a restaurant, which is necessary for the restaurant for loan forgiveness and keep the doors open down the road. What really makes me mad is that many businesses get the PPP and either never intended to let go of employees or are in a position to have more business now than ever. Real small businesses are left out for various reasons.

I agree on the conflict between the PPP loans and the high unemployment benefits. Some clients were rushed into PPP loans when they had laid employees off and now the employees do not want to return to work and some employers who have been unaffected by Covid-19 are taking the loans when they do not need the help. The help is not getting to where it is needed fast enough due to those not in need plugging up the system.

As far as tax season, it has been strange. I'm still working long hours but more on SBA issues and not tax returns. Clients have been understanding about the extended due date so far but I know if they do not have their returns by May, they will start calling. Will have to stay in the tax season mind set a little longer this year.

[RWG1950]

Gretel : Was wondering what type of extensions you are referring to ? Hasn't the 1040 filing deadline been automatically extended across the board to 7-15 without having to file a 4868 per return ?

[Twin Turbo Z]

Armageddon Baby !!! Get you guns cleaned !!! We still have a few clients waiting to come yet. Thinking our butts are going to be in here till July 15th. But they will have to wait longer than they think. If anyone drops off after April 24th, they will not get done until September. Closing April 30th for summer. That is, if we are still alive

[dtlee]

Hasn't the 1040 filing deadline been automatically extended across the board to 7-15 without having to file a 4868 per return ?

Yes....and in general, we have until 7/15 to file a 4868 extension to 10/15 if necessary (and also to pay anything we know is owed at that time.

[Lion]

Had a bunch dropped off late February, so I have plenty to work on into July. Not filing extensions until July. Taking a LOT of webinars on the daily-changing tax laws. I've seen the banks call on their big clients to work with them on the SBA loan applications. Like Gretel said, some of the big clients don't need help. Then, banks have no time for their small clients. I could probably use some of the new benefits, but no time to pull together my own 2019 financials while working with clients and taking webinars. Who thought we'd be taking classes in April?!

[dtlee]

Who thought we'd be taking classes in April?!

You said it!!

Plus who thought things would be changing so much that we take them every week or two to find out what we learned last time has changed.

[Lion]

I lost count of the number of webinars I've taken in the last three weeks or so! Probably more than a dozen plus two on-demand webinars I haven't watched yet.

I will NOT be seeing any clients face-to-face through 15 July, probably longer.

[ATSMAN]

I am finding myself doing more "grunt" work for which I can not claim payment from the lenders because they refuse to pay. I am helping most of my business clients with COVID-19 stimulus,PPP and other paperwork they have to submit. Most of my work has been on the phone or providing them tax return or payroll record copies and answering "broad" questions.

How are you guys billing for this extra work?

[EvenKeelTax]

I pretty much shut down and am off doing carpentry for a friend who owns a nearby multi-unit rental building under renovations. I get one or two calls a week from tax clients; I check my office phone once or twice a day. Thankfully I live 1/4 of a mile from my tax office so it is easy for me to check the place regularly. I expect to get a small trickle of clients for the rest of the year. The coronavirus definitely hurt the final month of my normal operation because now I don't have any "walk-in" new clients. Some of you probably don't even take walk-ins, but this is only my second year being on my own with a good street-facing location so I have the capacity and need for new business still...

[Lion]

EvenKeel: Put up a very large sign in your office window that says you check messages daily (or whatever your schedule is) and make sure your office phone (or cell or email or...) is on the sign if not already on your office door. Then return calls promptly to get those walk-in clients still. Change your outgoing message to something more appropriate for these times to welcome calls. Send out an email to your current clients to tell them you have the capacity to take new clients and ask them for referrals. (Offer them a discount on next year's preparation, if you think it will help.) The best thing I ever did was to put a large mail slot in my front door. Put in a mail slot or a lock box/locked mailbox for drop-offs, new and old. Write up a one-page re something current, such as the Paycheck Protection Act or Economic Impact Payments/Stimulus Checks or whatever your clients have been asking about, and put a bunch in a box outside with a Take One sign. Same with your biz cards. No need to stop marketing yourself. Taxpayers need us professionals more than ever this year!

[BP.]

lock box/locked mailbox for drop-offs, new and old.

Lion, you rock with all the great ideas! My lockbox, long in place, has been key to my workflow this season- as you said, old and new clients.