Covid 19 tax office issues??

[sdarave]

As I begin planning for my next season I am wondering how other offices are preparing for Covid 19 in the upcoming tax year. We're just a mom and pop office operating from rented office space, seeing 350 more or less each year..
What are your thoughts?

I really like and appreciate this forum and the responses I get!

[Twin Turbo Z]

We are at the point in life we need to start downsize and the covid issue, well, makes that decision a little easier. No longer will our office do sit down appointments, and everything will be done via "Document Portal", or drop offs in the drop box. Signatures will be done via "online portal" or clients can schedule a pick up time to come and sign (done via pickup box). Or we can do everything via "Priority Mail". Payment for our fees comes first of course. In the past we have not charged for mailing documents, but I think those days are gone.

[Kram BergGold]

I have changed my appointment routine so clients can come in, sit 6 feet away with a mask on or just drop off or sign up for a specific drop off which means they have to be at their computer and phone to receive questions from me at that time. You need to figure out what you are comfortable with doing.

[Lion]

I had NO clients come to my home office this year, and I like it. FileShare on my website or use the large mail slot in my front door or snail mail/FedEx/UPS. Review copy and signing via eSign. After e-file was accepted and when I had time, I priority mailed tax folders. I like email, because I can save it electronically to the client's file on my computer and have a trail. Sometimes telephone made sense. And, for some clients, it had to be text. I'm sticking with contactless tax preparation!

[ATSMAN]

I agree with the comments already posted. My challenge is that I have quite a few older folks that like to have that in-person interaction and don't trust uploading documents or signing electronically. It was a challenge this year and it will be even worse next tax season. I have a drop box outside my office. I will have to figure out a way to collect the documents, do a conference call if necessary and then deliver the return with the least possible human to human contact. I stopped doing walk-in traffic years back so that helps a bit. Hopefully by next tax season folks who were reluctant last tax season have realized that this is not going away soon and life will be different for everyone. We just have to set a different client contact expectation!

[Rapid Robert]

don't trust uploading documents or signing electronically.

That's interesting, how do you then efile their tax returns, since it involves uploading a document and signing electronically? (for those who forgot or never knew, signing Form 8879 is not signing your tax return, it is authorizing the ERO to send your PIN as your electronic signature). Just do like that old TV commercial where the worker in the beauty salon tells the unsuspecting client that they are actually soaking their fingers in dishwashing liquid -- tell your clients they have been uploading their tax return and signing electronically for years already.

[BOB W]

I plan on giving my clients a choice of In Office, Drop Off or Mail/E-mail their info. I purchased from "Displays2go" a plexiglass desk top "sneeze guard" setup to handle one on one interviews at my office. I will be using Clorox wipe downs after each client and liquid hand sanitizers while here. I can also take "distant" body temperature readings. All in All, I think most clients will opt to drop off, but we will see....

[sdarave]

Great responses, Thank you! Last march we closed our office to all one on one meetings. We provided a drop box and I prepared tax returns in the order received. We cancelled appointments via telephone. The drop box morphed into Zoom meetings and by seasons end we were back to doing one on one by utilizing an unused office with a monitor. We required masks and provided gloves and take- with-you pens. Signing was done by slipping signature forms through the door to facilitate copying. The completed client set was then passed back through the door to the client. Sanitizing between clients and sanitizer was available. It was cumbersome! I expect we'll be much the same this year. We can do some social distancing in our waiting room so that will "buffer" the incoming clients.
It's going to be a tough year, and with the "free" preparers now out of the picture perhaps more client load may be anticipated.
Thanks again for your responses!

[RWG1950]

I've had my professional office in the front portion of my residence over the last 25 years or so.
Since mid-March my wife has been pretty insistent that I not have face to face meetings under any circumstances - so no customer has entered my office.
Operate by porch drop off and pick-up box, fax, mail and e-mail. Send my customers a basic data questionaire that I insist they complete & sign and have found
that if you know your customers well and have good communication with them, having no face meetings frees up a lot of your time & you become more productive.
Don't know when the virus will abate, but we may be looking at a version of the future & business as we have known it may have been permanently changed.
Stay safe.

[Lion]

I am lucky to have a semi-retired husband who does some pick-ups and deliveries for me for my elderly local clients, even some not so elderly but less technologically capable. At an agreed upon time, he'd go to their house, call them from his car. Client would put their document package on their front stoop, hubby would put on mask and gloves to retrieve envelope, put it in a large bag, and bring it home. I let it sit in our entryway for three days or so. (That's also where envelopes would drop through my mail slot and sit.) Again, at an agreed upon time, hubby would take signature pages on a clipboard with a pen -- where to sign all well marked with highlighter and post-it flags -- and tax folder, drop on front porch, call from his car that it's all there, wait for their call back that they'd signed, retrieve clipboard to place in large sack to bring back to me. Hubby knows nothing about taxes, but he knows where to sign! I'd send an email to client in advance with instructions. Any specific signing instructions -- such as, signing, Trustee -- would also be on the appropriate flag. Usually hubby and the client could see each other, so no cell phone calls needed. If technology was the problem, and not elderly driving, then usually both drop-off and signing/pick-up took place through my mail slot. But I was pleasantly surprised how many clients, of all ages, were able to use eSign. No printer/scanner needed. I love eSign. And, because it provides a review copy of the return, I felt no rush to mail their tax folder.

[Twin Turbo Z]

The getting signatures is the hassle part of it all. But we found setting a specific appointment time for people to come, pickup and sign via a pickup box outside works best. We have everything marked as to where to sign, etc.. We do have a few retired "snowbirds" in southern states and those clients we still mail everything. As mentioned above, many older clients just dont know how to scan and send documents online. But we did have quite a few utilize the online "portal" we set up. We all got sick back in late January and it was someone who came in sicker than a dog. This was before Covid became an issue and we were never tested. Just for Influenza A or B and those were negative. But it may have been Covid, who knows. I was sick for 6 weeks !! And back in 2019 we had a nurse come in for a sit down appointment and she was sicker than a dog !! And of course the office all got it too. So we are done with the sit downs. Not worth the extra time suckage and health risk !!! Clients do not give a **** about us anyway, they just want their refunds !!

[ATSMAN]

I am lucky to have a semi-retired husband who does some pick-ups and deliveries for me for my elderly local clients, even some not so elderly but less technologically capable. At an agreed upon time, he'd go to their house, call them from his car.

Lion you are a very lucky lady to have such a supportive husband.

[ATSMAN]

That's interesting, how do you then efile their tax returns, since it involves uploading a document and signing electronically? (

These older folks like to sign their 8879 on paper at my office in person. A hard copy of their return is given. They don't like to sign it electronically! The e-file takes place in my back office after a signed 8879 is on file.

[Lion]

I am a lucky lady! My husband tells my clients that I prepare his taxes, so he helps me deliver taxes. He has the time to schmooze my clients, especially the retired teachers like himself. My clients love him!

I was really surprised how many clients took right to eSign. But many have used AssureSign and other similar apps for mortgages, financial accounts, and other documents. Even students that I thought wouldn't have enough of a digital footprint to pass the verification were able to use eSign; I guess their credit cards, college loans, etc., gave them a digital trail.

[Rapid Robert]

They don't like to sign it electronically!

You said they "don't trust" uploads and electronic signing. Yet they their tax return has been uploaded and electronically signed for as many years already as they have been efiling. Is there some reason why they cannot understand this? Why have they been doing something for years that they "don't trust"?