Dumb Question of the day?

[skhyatt]

This may be a dumb question, but, when you are preparing a clients return, and you put an initial, such as John J Doe, do you put a period after the J or not? I have seen it done both ways. Just curious.

[taxmandan]

No punctuation

Some software doesnt like punctuation like the Adobe forms on the IRS website for Form SS-4 So as a matter of habit Ive gotten in the habit of not using periods commas etc when completing a return

[Black Bart]

No.

I never use periods, commas, etc. on income tax returns and thought ATX didn't take it, but I went into the program and it will -- I've just never done it. But anyway, IRS doesn't like punctuation (especially on W-2s and 1099s) so I'm accommodating them.

[JG EA]

What about Post Office?

Do you PO Box, P.O. Box, or P O Box (with no period and a space)?

We try to pick a way and stick to it. For tax software - no periods at all.

Also, do you use all caps? I think this leads to less mistakes, but do you think it looks better typed in both upper and lower case letters?

[BOB W]

All...............

CAPITALS and no periods..............

[Black Bart]

I do it like this

P O Box (with no period and a space)

use all caps...less mistakes...think it looks better typed in...upper...case letters

Although I'm thinking IRS runs PO together in their correspondence, I don't like the way that looks so I space it out.

[skhyatt]

I go with PO Box. I have used Upper/lower case letters, but am thinking of switching to all caps this season. As I recall, on the state of California return, it puts it in all caps no matter how it's typed in. I'm pretty sure that's a requirement for Calif and my software (Lacerte) does it that way.

[veritas]

all in

uppercase looks unprofessional to me.

[Koss]

Address formatting

The US Postal Service has a set of guidelines that have been in effect for many years concerning the best format for names and addresses on anything that you mail.

A lot of tax software is driven by these guidelines, which in turn are driven by two other factors: (1) industry research on "readability," in other words, what is easiest for the human eye to read, with a minimum of errors, and (2) machine readability. The postal service and many other operations use machines to read addresses and other data.

The USPS guidelines are a dense government document. (Did you expect something different?) The guidelines deal with hundreds of variables, such as foreign country abbreviations, rural routes, apartment numbers, and so forth.

The short version is this:

For simple, residential addresses, the United States Postal Service recommends all capitals and no punctuation, and a set of standardized abbreviations that we are all familiar with.

Like this:

BURTON M KOSS
3132 WALDEN PL
GROVE CITY OH 43123

[veritas]

Don't use

the mail much anymore. Almost all electronic.

[Gene V]

I use all caps on the tax return except for the client letter, which I use, mixed letters

[Oxtrainer]

Dumb question of the Day

Considering the responses this dumb question was not so dumb after all. I believe
this board is for just such questionsl.
Our software uses no periods, hyphens, etc etc and only uses caps.

[sea-tax]

I enter all info on Tax Returns as Capitals and will use punctuation .

[Black Bart]

Christmas Cards

the mail much anymore. Almost all electronic.

But what do you do about these?

[thomtax]

RE: Dumb Question

My returns are all caps with no punctuation. I am not sure, but I think the software automatically makes everything all caps. I will have to check.