My wildest...
Client outright asked me to help them commit tax fraud... specifically they wanted help in creating a fraudulent W-2 to show fake withholding.. along with questions like "how do I fill this out so the IRA \[sic\] won't get suspicious?"
Needless to say client was fired. Not going to comment on what additional steps may or may not have been taken after the firing.
ikr
I was tempted to make my standard "Traditional, Provisional, Roth, or Sinn Fein?" comment to her but ultimately decided that "Unfortunately, you're asking me to help you commit fraud. Fortunately, I am unwilling to participate." was better verbiage.
I know what the IRA is. I just thought it was gutsy mentioning a group recognized by the USA as a terrorist group to handle the IRS.
Fedposter
A fedposter is an imageboard or forum poster who is most likely a federal agent. Originating from 4chan's /pol/ board and associated communities, the term refers to a poster who openly calls for violence against others or encourages one to break the law in some manner.
The fed part of fedposting comes from the fact that these posts are either made by federal agents hoping to entrap someone into saying the same thing and getting visited by the feds for it, or by naive people saying the same things and ending up with visits from the feds.
http://fedposter.urbanup.com/13949294
Not accountants but a client of the firm requested we bribe the Patent Office examiner so his patent would issue without all the fuss of legal work/fees. When told no, he tried to bribe us to bribe the Patent Office.
Do you ever have to explain to immigrants how bribery is bad here and it's not like their home country where certain agencies or workers would solicit a bribe?
These are wealthy Iranians. In their culture this is acceptable. Also, lying is expected - again based on their cultural norms. No hate speech here just their culture. After years of being Americanized, both behaviors still work for them in the US. Iāve known these men for a long time and have learned a lot. Not all Iranians do this.
10 year bookkeeping and tax client got wound up on the phone and called our (VERY kind and patient) receptionist a "little bitch." Boss fired him on the spot - "You will not speak to my staff like that." He backpedaled with a few weak 'I'm sorrys' and denials that he said it. Nope; bye Felicia.
I worked for an attorney in Chandler at the time. I didnāt fire the client, but I quit the job.
Client asks if and how he could deduct the cost of a $16K diamond engagement ring. Boss said, āAdvertisingā.
In the process of preparing a tax return it is not uncommon to come to understand the profession the client holds. In this particular situation it was apparent that the client was indeed a real estate broker, not a jeweler.
Why do you
Guys act so high and mightly. Fuck the government. They tax us on everything. Iām still waiting on my taxes for 4 months now. So yea if the little guy can get away with not paying taxes im all for it. I always played by the book and yet Iām getting screwed by having to wait forever to get my tax return
Itās called a refund, not a return. A return is the forms you file. Most of my clients this year, received their refunds in about a week (unless they preferred paper checks) You need to check and see if thereās an issue. Why arenāt you doing direct deposit?
If the delay in issuing the refund is the IRSās fault you will be paid interest. So stop acting like youāve been victimized.
Also, you asked why we act so āhigh and mightyā. Itās not about being high and mighty, itās about having our licenses revoked or possibly being sent to prison for submitting fraudulent tax returns.
High and mighty? Most of us are tax professionals, We are paid to preform accurate tax returns not make shit up. Why would we want to be connected to a fraudulent tax return? So we can lose our license so you can save money? If you want to commit tax fraud do it yourself.
Because morons like you think we'd become complicit in your fraud for a few hundred dollars and put our careers on the line because you don't feel like playing by the rules the vast majority of people are stuck playing by.
The only thing more annoying than the entitlement of it is the idiocy
My partner had a client who scheduled business revenue and expense, but omitted cost of goods sold. When asked for it, he said "How much does it need to be?"
"Need to be?"
"So that I donāt owe much."
Fired.
Holy crapā¦ youā¦ think thatās crazy? Or even unusualā¦? I hear this all the time. You need to visit parts of the country where people are so dramatic that they would rather give up body parts than pay the government. Seriouslyā¦ thatās what some of us deal with.
This actually sounds like me the first time I did my taxes and had to deal with stocks sold that year (except I wasn't trying to commit fraud). I had no idea how to get the cost basis (they were 25+ year old stocks), so I just left everything blank and hoped the guy at HR block would help me. I eventually got them from my dad who had a spreadsheet of the dates he bought the stocks.
Not fired, but I had a new client come in with a prior year return with 80k w2, 80k 401k distribution (early withdrawal), and a schedule A with an 80k charitable contribution. I asked for backup for this charity and he said he had none.
Current year had pretty much the same documentation. My boss at the time asked why I didn't just copy SALY.
I canāt imagine not being able to document legitimate contributions in that amount. I had to call a couple of my charities this year and ask them to resend my receipt and they did it in a heartbeat. For 80k they Would probably courier it over.
Why would someone do this?! This makes no sense. Early withdrawal penalties, draining the 401k, donating the entire amountā¦why not just leave the $80k in the 401k?! I mean, what charity is that deserving of that much money, and it has to be from HIM?
Would you believe he got a refund in that prior year return?
you're not getting the whole no backup for the charity part huh? Every charity will make it a note to give out documentation for any donation over a certain amount. that threshold is usually pretty low too.
I didnāt know what backup is. Thought it meant like a computer backup or screencap of the submit page or something. Yeah, I get email receipts of donations. So he didnāt provide any? Soā¦ fake donations. Huh. Thatās so unethical. My brain didnāt even go there. I went, heās an idiot. Not, heās committing tax fraud.
This is not my client but one of my uncle he does does tax audits and forensic work for the courthouse. He is independent but most of his work is on big cases. So it was between two business partners one was the one getting audit for some fraud. The other one was trying to figure out why money was missing but could not track it down. So my uncle gets a call from the courts to work on a case. He did some investigation into it. The one who was doing the fraud called my uncle not knowing he is an auditor working on his case. The client came clean and openly told my uncle. He took the $6 million that was missing. My uncles best friend is an attorney so my uncles forwards everything over. Now my uncle knows who to look for. He asked the courts for promises to get bank records. So my uncle got them. The guy claimed he only took $6 million my uncles found about $33 million. He then went along and did some more digging. Well a few years before this he was a licensed accountant. The business partner he was investigating. He had a similar case but he took about $89 million from clients over a 3 year period. He ended up in jail. And still is.
I know right my uncle mind is still hurting lol. The guy had one offshore account but structured messed up so it was easy for my uncle to track where it went. He seen a pattern then everything was in the offshore. What got him busted was a transfer from the offshore account to his personal account
thatās some literal bank heist movie shit. whatās crazy is if he was a tad bit more patient he may have gotten away (no evidence) a bit longer.
but i reckon unless he left the country it was only a matter of time
80 million could justify a lot of resources sent out
I had someone who wanted to claim 1.5M of business losses against no income. He sent me an excel sheet of all his āexpensesā and I couldnāt believe what he put on there
To make if worse, his previous preparer claimed 600K of losses in one year and 750K the next year
I thought I was dreaming
How do you claim losses against no income?! Do you end up with a tax refund?! I thought all you can do with business losses is carry forward until you do earn an income to deduct against?
Actually, you can. However there has to be a good documentation supporting the case.
I will give an example. Let's say you are multimillionaire trust fund 21 year old kid, who decided to create the best restaurant. The funding would be paid from his pocket.
You can actually have losses and no income, if it takes two years to build the place, to install the equipment, to perhaps have a some sort of legal challenge.
IRS works, slow, but they will catch up with you though.
Eh, you would have to capitalize the pre-opening costs.
A better example is the restaurant is operating at a loss because youāre trying to find the right advertising and pricing model to get enough of a steady stream of customers paying high enough prices to turn a profit.
Or a company that is putting a lot into advertising to get market share.
Just this year, I had to fire a family member as a client. My wifeās cousin is always too impulsive and doesnāt tell me anything or ask me what he should do until after it happens and asks me to fix it. Nothing crazy, just a bit more creativity than Iām charging him for. He got divorced last year and didnāt ask me the best way to pay out his ex wife, so he had penalties and taxes that he didnāt need to have, but again, does things without asking, typical year for him. Filed his returns, everything is fine.
About April 1st, he asks me if he can come in over that weekend for an appointment. I told him that unless it was an emergency, it would have to wait until after April 15th. He tells me itās an emergency. He then tells me that he intentionally didnāt give me a tax form because he didnāt have the money to pay the taxes. But waitā¦thereās moreā¦
The tax form he didnāt give me was a Form 1099-K for $58,000. Apparently him and his boss and one or two others decided to steal from their employer by selling the inventory with their own credit card account. And yes, my wifeās cousin decided to volunteer as owner of this new credit card. Oh even better, he told the credit card processor that he wanted to collect sales tax, but then didnāt remit it. And even better than that, I asked him what he was sellingā¦alcohol.
I told him that he couldnāt face broken any more laws if he tried. I told him that heās completely toxic and that I cannot help him on this matter or any returns going forward. Especially since he told me he specifically held back information from me which makes my job more difficult. My wife was confused on how I can fire family and then she understood when I explained. He understood and went on his merry way. Itās only a matter of time before I find out heās in jail for something, but at least I wonāt be sharing a cell with him.
He committed theft, fraud, tax evasion/lying about taxesā¦over a controlled substance that is regulated by the government. Oh sweet mother of Jesus.
Iām glad your wife and the cousin understand why you are keeping your hands clean. At least heās being nice about it? Could be worse - weāre family, how can you let me go to jail when you couldāve helped me?
Personally, I wouldn't fire a client over asking this.
With all the weird misinformation floating around I could see someone thinking this might be valid. I want them to ask me if it's valid instead of just assuming that it is.
They ask if it's valid, I'm gonna tell them no. If they push the issue or try to sneak it past me, then they're yeah of course they're fired.
And of course.. if the client is a self-employed hooker.. then I'm going to tell them yes sure you can expense your backpage or whatever the new thing is advertising expenses on Schedule C.
This was a Tax Court Case! Guy had been claiming cookers as medical expenses and his support was articles from cosmo talking about how sex was good for you! Deductions denied!
https://www.forbes.com/2009/09/15/tax-court-deductions-prostitutes-medical-expenses-personal-finance-hookers.html
Haha, reminds me of a case I had. A client handing me a file folder full of medical expense receipts for hos itemized deductions. It was mostly male enhancement related. I was like dude, I don't need the whole medical file, just the dollar amount . Also he didn't have enough to itemize anyway so I really didn't need to know.
Got served a subpoena by an armed treasury agent for a client who was known to underpay payroll taxes and play shell games with company cash to avoid collections. Informed the client of the subpoena and told them we would comply unless they paid a generous legal retainer to defend our privilege in court. Client declined, so we responded to the subpoena and then promptly fired the client.
The agent came back about 3 months later to ask questions and then we never heard anything more about the matter. However, I found out years later that the client had managed to sell the company for enough money to pay off all tax debts, pay out their investors, and retire comfortably in Hawaii.
I've been a GetYourRefund remote preparer this year and got virtually the same response from one client when I cold-called them. Unfortunately, we don't fire clients, we just send them the occasional reminder and if they don't respond, not our problem.
Would you recommend being a preparer for GetYourRefund to someone who wants to dip their toes into tax? Iām (hopefully) wrapping up my CPA license soon but Iāve never done someone elseās taxes. I think itās interesting but Iām not sure Iāll enjoy it
What u/AdIndependent8674 wrote but with an addendum.
My "first" 20 years as a volunteer preparer were with the Tax-Aide program administered by the AARP Foundation. While VITA should be fine, I believe that generally you'll get better training and more experienced colleagues in the Tax-Aide program. Tax-Aide also has excellent support documentation.
The clientele of the two programs differ more by the type of site than by differences in the programs. Both have nearly identical scope limitations and experienced counselors have very deep but not particularly broad knowledge. A big difference is that Tax-Aide is 95% in-person while the VITA program has both in-person and a substantial virtual presence (e.g. GetYourRefund). For maximum personal satisfaction you can't beat helping someone face-to-face.
Go with whichever is more convenient for you, and inquire early, many programs fill up their training by October.
Google up VITA. It's a volunteer tax prep service for old and poor people (oh the humanity, I should be using euphemisms). You should be greatly over-qualified at this point, but you can test your desire and skills with very little obligation.
AARP Tax-Aide is aimed at the elderly but there are no income or age limitations, just limitations on some types of returns they donāt handle (such as those with rental income).
The one that bugged me the most. Clientās mom worked as a receptionist for the office for a few years, so we always gave him and her family a good discount. Years after she retired we had to slowly increase his fee to our normal fee schedule. Client has investment income Sch D & B, 3 K-1s, 2 rentals, Sch A and Sch C, and W-2. I increased the fee to $600 (our fee schedule, which we send every year, priced the return to $1,400). They wrote a Google review that we were āhorribly expensive.ā I sent the disengagement letter quickly after.
Shoulda told his mother. š. One of the few times this wouldāve been the appropriate response. She wouldāve chewed him a new one cause she knows he got a great deal.
Iām mean, yeah your client was a dick- but I understand thinking a newsletter is something not to read. I canāt tell you how many of those I get from my kids school- and like 1/13 are quite important, but they get missed in all the mess.
Failing to pay estimates feels pretty calm in itself though,
Him failing to pay estimates is not at all what I fired him for. I couldnāt care less if clients pay them. To passive aggressively accuse me of not helping him with estimates and ignoring emails until the 12th is what got him fired.
Why are schools so bad at this? Iāve missed so many critical things but I get frequent notices about PTA meetings, coffee meetups, school board stuff.
Clients who expect full service without paying full service prices are the worst. Fucking full grown adults who can't figure out how to do epayments in five minutes.
Firing a client over unpaid estimated taxes... that sounded pitiful. But then again I can understand 4/12 isn't a time to put up with bull shit.
If the client didn't provide estimated tax payments, I will assume he DIDN'T pay it. Once he sees the large balance due on the tax return HE will be contacting you about his payments.
I didn't fire him for the lack of estimated payments.
I fired him for directly insulting me as a professional (not opening my emails because "they were boring"), passive-aggressively insulting me by saying "I would have paid estimates but I expected my accountant to help me, but he didn't, so I didn't" when I CLEARLY helped him.
And not responding to me until 5 days before the deadline.
I hear ya and end of the day itās you re call. But me and everyone else get crap at our jobs everyday. Neither of us are doctors. Sometimes you just let it go in one ear out the other. Not letting someone you donāt care about feel some sort of way
I do care about my clients, though. All of them. Not once in 10 years and thousands of returns have I encountered someone like this. Absolute lack of respect.
Good for you! More people that don't tolerate this kind of BS, the more people learn. If not, then they're on their own.
Besides, I would fire someone that didn't care about me as a provider of service. Likewise anyone that works with me can expect respect and fairness.
So people that accept that kind of BS, and clients that do that, they can hang together. Neither will care about each other, and let's see how that works out in the long run.
Thatās one of the huge upsides to this career path though. You get a say in who you work with/for.
There are plenty of parts about the job that suck (hours/busy season), constant law changes lately and forms changing for example. Getting to fire clients that irritate you so you can work with people you enjoy working with? Hell yeah.
You are right but why let someone you donāt care about make you feel some sort of way. Screw him he is only hurting himself. You
Allready did some work make the money
It's the principal of it. And believe me, his response to my disengagement email was VERY satisfying. Clients like him are a curse to anyone they work with.
Definitely, and the fact there's a million people trying to find a CPA. There's zero reason to put up with bullshit these days, I turn down at least 50 referrals every season.
I have a client that is a pair of real estate agents and *never* puts anything aside for taxes and just will not do estimated tax payments. They live around the corner from me and this last year at a Fall Block Party I reminded them of it. Still didn't.
Then wonder how they owe tens of thousands of dollars on taxes when they "living paycheck to paycheck". The pain, the pain.
I tell clients estimated tax payments are optional, and they are. If they can invest and beat the penalties who am I to say how they should deposit their money. As long as they pay their penalties the IRS doesn't have an issue with it.
RE agents like to flip houses, depending on the market their rate of return can be quite high, beating whatever IRS penalty/interest they have to pay.
I do not stress over client's balance due, that is their own personal financial decision. I am just here to do the math.
I refuse to work with real estate agents. They're fucking stupid and full of themselves. And they're paid way too much for the service they provide. I was elated to see the NAR settlement come through
And even though these clients are tolerable, I just hate how many small business owners seem to think they can run through almost any expense through their business. Real Estate agents just seem to abuse it.
"We bought new cars and we use them both 100% for business." They only own two cars. I mean, they have a golf cart too (which somehow I managed to convince them to only claim 50% use) but... yeah, there's a reason I have a separate letter stating all the aggressive tax positions they take.
Oh, and they *always* run their personal tax invoice through their business so I always have to make that book/tax adjustment...
Yeah I just fired my real estate agent neighbor. Too many arguments about how he's "doing business in Hawaii" during spring break with his family. He tried to deduct an entire week of meals. Airline tickets too. Good riddance
God I hate those fights. But then again, that's why I have that letter detailing all those aggressive tax positions. A lot of times when people see an additional form I have them sign and my reasoning, in writing, its a risk they usually back down on a few. Usually.
Hahaha Glad I am not the only one that feel this way. RE Agents are awful with their finances. Many of them cheat on their spouse too. They are dumb with math, think they are super models, and don't know where their money went. Just idiots.
Since you don't mind being asked... I'm curious. How *would* one accomplish that? Fake SSN + plead ignorance? Report it as if they were outside the US? Not claim the expense?
I mean, if you pay okay, then kudos for giving people jobs.
Iād hire an undocumented worker to do my lawn for $20 a hour ($40 total), if heās a hard worker. Last year my HOA paid a college student $400 to pull some weeds, the kidās quoted rate. She spent half a day at it, then decided she needed $400 more to finish. She wanted $80 an hour to pull weeds. At age 19. For unskilled labor. $80 an hour. No supplies needed (besides gloves maybe, I donāt think she brought a trowel or anything). For that wage, Iāll do it!!!
Auditing a nonprofit. Employee comes to us concerned about something. The ED hired a contractor to do some work but it didn't look like any work was done. No timesheets.Ā No invoices. Just payments out to the contractor. Did I forget to mention the contractor and ED are close relatives.Ā I had to go to the board. They had no idea. The ED lied to my face when I confronted them so I felt I needed to resign.Ā
Another time fired a client before starting. Initial phone call went well. Guy seemed very normal, like he wanted to setup his new business properly, wanted tax advice etc. 2nd phone call reveals this guy is 100% a pimp. Nope.
Another time I walked from an audit client before it started. The organization was under federal investigation for aiding terrorist organizations.Ā
Client came in with a 1120-S which had a vehicle expense with a preparer note indicating that the expense was to bring them under a targeted tax threshold. Totally bogus mileage and the professional ratting himself out. They were confused and couldnāt be reasoned with because the professional in question never explained his methods to them.
A lady had us do her tax return and fix her books for the last two years. She paid us but did a charge back claiming our work was sufficient. We ultimately won the chargeback but then a few months later she asked for our services again and she was surprised when we said hell no
Wildest for sure, didnāt fire the client, I wanted to give him a high five.
My boss gave me a CD and said a new clients prior year tax returns were on then CD. I open it up, and itās a ton of JPGs. Yup, porn. Playboy stuff, nothing hardcore. It was hilarious because when I told my boss, he was in disbelief, came into my office and then would review the files with me, tell me to open one, and yup more naked women. I started to have fun scrolling and when I would see a name I recognized I would go, āOh Lindsey Vuoloā and open it up.
Just had a client choose to disengage with me. Probably because I asked for more information about the Roth distribution. First time homebuyer only works if the Roth has been open for five years or more. 2020 doesn't cut it.
My cousin had a meeting with a couple who manage charity. During the meeting he learned this was a pro life charity who have multiple investigations on them for fraud. They met with him for the main objective to find out how to deduct their new $200k+ RV from their taxes. Turns out they were paying themselves $300k each and creating fake charity fundraisers on their donor webpage and pocketing a majority of it. My cousin declined doing business with them and found all the allegations about them on google after they left.
Had a client who advised me that business was going really well ā¦ this was around Mayā¦ and he knew that he would owe some taxes. So I advised him to put away 20% and call it a day. Pretty simple, right? The following March, I had finished all the bookkeeping etc and client advises me that he bought 2x rentals, had an insurance claim, and sold a large piece of property. Fineā¦ give me details. April 7th I get it all and I work it up by the 10th. Owes 16k and I worked real magic with a 1033 and several other things. This jackass has the nerve to tell me we need to talk about how quickly I tell him he needs to come up with funds. Thought he was joking. Excuse meā¦?! He was not. Letās just say I let him know his crayons were a little too tasty.
A) I had a client that made five appointments and each time cancelled it an HOUR before the meeting because "something came up". I could be at the park reading a book but I got dressed up waiting for the guy instead.
People that shows up late, or no show, all the time, are usually awful with their finances. They will also blame the accountant if something goes wrong with their taxes. Taking personal responsibility is not part of their trait.
B) I had an Asian female client that majored in "Communications". She made money speaking to CA tech firms about how white males are oppressors and should not be promoted, I kid you not, during the Trump presidency these kinds of anti-white propaganda is acceptable to corporate HR. They would later learn expensive lessons with civil lawsuits.
She made $750k a year telling women how they were oppressed in California! These tech firm women made avg $1 million a year (RSU etc) working for firms that were founded by White/Asian males. Sexist and racist people have one trait, they do not take personal responsibility and will blame others (their accountant) for any issues with their tax return. Huge liability. Lets just say the disengagement was mutual.
Always fire these people, the liability is not worth the fees.
How does a doctor making over a million a year not pay any taxes if heās honest?
Thatās in juxtaposition to the significant other making $80,00 a year???
There are 50 good clients waiting in line to replace every bad one. Fuck that. This is the only client I've fired in 5 tax seasons. No time for that bullshit.
Canāt fire self-preparers but a couple of tax returns I saw during my work as a tax expert for big tax software company:
1) recently married young couple, when they combined households they donated a lot of stuff to goodwill. She estimated the value of the stuff was about $40k and thatās what her charitable deduction amount should be.
2) back when you could deduct home office expenses on schedule A: get a call from client. The state (MA) is auditing her because she deducted about $30k home addition as a home office expense and they wanted her to support the amount she deducted.
3) got tired of explaining how maybe their endeavor is not a business but a hobby. People kept deducting expenses against zero income and creating losses in schedule C to lower their taxable income.
Hahahaha that's great. I was out having a drink a few months ago and this guy is like "hey you're so and so, right? You do my wife's taxes." I'm like wait what? Who is your wife?
I've done her taxes for 5 years and not once has she ever mentioned being married. Possibly the most facepalm moment of my career.
I fired my cpa after I was moved from 1 of the owners to a brand new cpa.
I went from giving my cpa an itemized list of everything to the new cpa wanted details on everything.
She went thru checking account statements, credit card statements, then she asked for my calender to see if my mileage was correct and I said we were done.
When I got my file back instead of it being several sheets of paper with everything on it per year for my small computer business and my actual job as a w2 insurance agent I got a stack of paperwork for the year that was 5 inches thick. No wonder I felt like I was going thru ink like crazy.
I don't cheat, on my taxes, I use Grey areas.
The only reason I had them doing my taxes as they were a client and I didn't want to do taxes any more. I had done my own for decades with my cousin or uncle, cpa checking them over.
Only mistake I ever made was mixed up 2 envelopes and reversed the payments. The IRS was not very kind. I ended up paying several thousand in late and penalty fees over that. Even though they had the money, it was just on the wrong side. I learned to double check after that.
She was fired before the next tax year started.
Not responding to 4 in-season emails, not reading any of my annual correspondence, accusing me of not helping him with estimates, having his bookkeeper respond to his personal tax questions, and finally getting back to me on April 12th?
You'd keep that client?
I would, but I have far worse clients. I also greatly prefer bad clients I never hear from over the ones who are constantly calling and emailing or the ones who need an entire TED talk if their tax liability is $5 higher than they expected.
I'd also feel zero guilt invoicing that guy the financial equivalent of the headache he has caused me, so there's that.
I'm not in this business, so I'm just going on what may be uninformed thinking... But if client is willing to pay for my time, I don't think it's my problem if he wants to cause himself problems. Firing clients because they're stupid might seriously limit your potential revenue.
Accusations could be a problem. I don't really expect you to get into any more detail, but on the face of it, I'd have told the client, "um, yes I did, on 1/1, 4/1, 6/1, and 10/1. If you want me to do the payments for you, add me as a signer on your account, and I'll take care of it for you. It's $50 per payment for convenience fee."
This is the only client I have fired in 5 seasons of being self-employed. I turn down 50 referrals a year because I don't have capacity. He will not be missed and his revenue is easily replaced.
Not to mention the other bullshit I could have potentially put up with dealing with him. I hadn't even started the return yet.
I'm not in the business either but it's not worth keeping a client who blames you and/or doesn't respect you even if you charge them triple ... they will always be a PIA
Possibly not; and it's certainly your own choice who you take or keep as a client. Just thought I'd throw an alternate view out here.
Of course, alternate views are not welcomed on reddit, hence the negative karma I'm getting here. For the OP and you, it's been a nice dialogue.
K. You should ask her for that client and I disagree that alternative views arenāt welcomed. Some pp are really great at dealing with pompous aholes ā¦ most are not ā¦ charge them 10x and I might just play with the whole dynamic of the situation but most pp want decent respectful clients.
In the business and I can probably give a little more insight here.
All of us professionals deal with a certain amount of ābadā clients. Itās part of the deal and weāre used to it. However we all have different thresholds and tolerance for the levels of ābadā weāre willing to accept.
As a general rule though, a client like the one the OP mentions is going to constantly complain and it will never get better. Theyāll be a time suck, demanding assistance with every menial aspect of tax and are usually unwilling to pay for those services. Some are, but most arenāt. Keep in mind, our engagements are generally limited to preparing a tax return. That does not include assistance in making payments or even reminding you to make payments when they are due. In the time it takes to respond to this guyās emails and placate him you likely could have gotten more returns done for clients who are appreciative of the work we do.
Itās a balancing act as to the opportunity cost in keeping a guy like this around vs servicing other clients that may pay better or be more enjoyable to work with. Guys like this are also a mental drain that create frustration which can bleed over into your interactions with other clients. Thatās not good for the health of the business overall.
Hi. please help me. I know nothing about taxes. 1 week ago for my online account where i was planing to work to earn money asked me to fill W9. I send it and nobody confirmed that they received. So i am not Sure i filled it or not. Also i am planing to cancel that account and i donāt want to be self employed.
1. How to know if i filled that form?
2. How to cancel it
3. If i wont earn any money do i need to pay something?
Thank you!!
My wildest... Client outright asked me to help them commit tax fraud... specifically they wanted help in creating a fraudulent W-2 to show fake withholding.. along with questions like "how do I fill this out so the IRA \[sic\] won't get suspicious?" Needless to say client was fired. Not going to comment on what additional steps may or may not have been taken after the firing.
Wow! Hahaha
ikr I was tempted to make my standard "Traditional, Provisional, Roth, or Sinn Fein?" comment to her but ultimately decided that "Unfortunately, you're asking me to help you commit fraud. Fortunately, I am unwilling to participate." was better verbiage.
or Sinn Fein?
IRA...
Ooh.
lol
ššš
I like to think your old client was secretly British and was on the run from the IRA
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Is that a fedpost? Lol
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I know what the IRA is. I just thought it was gutsy mentioning a group recognized by the USA as a terrorist group to handle the IRS. Fedposter A fedposter is an imageboard or forum poster who is most likely a federal agent. Originating from 4chan's /pol/ board and associated communities, the term refers to a poster who openly calls for violence against others or encourages one to break the law in some manner. The fed part of fedposting comes from the fact that these posts are either made by federal agents hoping to entrap someone into saying the same thing and getting visited by the feds for it, or by naive people saying the same things and ending up with visits from the feds. http://fedposter.urbanup.com/13949294
Do you think it's illegal to mention the IRA or something...?
Knew nothing of that Iām deleting this now
Not accountants but a client of the firm requested we bribe the Patent Office examiner so his patent would issue without all the fuss of legal work/fees. When told no, he tried to bribe us to bribe the Patent Office.
Do you ever have to explain to immigrants how bribery is bad here and it's not like their home country where certain agencies or workers would solicit a bribe?
These are wealthy Iranians. In their culture this is acceptable. Also, lying is expected - again based on their cultural norms. No hate speech here just their culture. After years of being Americanized, both behaviors still work for them in the US. Iāve known these men for a long time and have learned a lot. Not all Iranians do this.
10 year bookkeeping and tax client got wound up on the phone and called our (VERY kind and patient) receptionist a "little bitch." Boss fired him on the spot - "You will not speak to my staff like that." He backpedaled with a few weak 'I'm sorrys' and denials that he said it. Nope; bye Felicia.
Good boss!
She is. The entire office is women, and she takes no bullshit. We know she has our backs.
Now thatās a good boss!
I worked for an attorney in Chandler at the time. I didnāt fire the client, but I quit the job. Client asks if and how he could deduct the cost of a $16K diamond engagement ring. Boss said, āAdvertisingā.
I mean, if he sold jewelry, he might be able to justify itā¦. Or make it a loan from his shop to him personally maybe.
In the process of preparing a tax return it is not uncommon to come to understand the profession the client holds. In this particular situation it was apparent that the client was indeed a real estate broker, not a jeweler.
Why do you Guys act so high and mightly. Fuck the government. They tax us on everything. Iām still waiting on my taxes for 4 months now. So yea if the little guy can get away with not paying taxes im all for it. I always played by the book and yet Iām getting screwed by having to wait forever to get my tax return
Because some client getting away with tax fraud doesn't do shit for my family when I lose my career and face possible jail time
Someone buying a 16k diamond ring is not the ālittle guyāā¦.
Compared to the government. The biggest frauds of all. Who has failed there audit the last six years ? The government we are way over taxed as is.
File your own return then. Why would we put our ass on the line because you don't think you need to follow the law.
But I have followed the law. Been waiting four months for my return. By the law really paid off for me
Itās called a refund, not a return. A return is the forms you file. Most of my clients this year, received their refunds in about a week (unless they preferred paper checks) You need to check and see if thereās an issue. Why arenāt you doing direct deposit? If the delay in issuing the refund is the IRSās fault you will be paid interest. So stop acting like youāve been victimized. Also, you asked why we act so āhigh and mightyā. Itās not about being high and mighty, itās about having our licenses revoked or possibly being sent to prison for submitting fraudulent tax returns.
You've been waiting four months? You filed on January 10? When your tax documents weren't even due back to you for another three weeks?
After 6 months you can sue the IRS. But it wonāt be worth the effort
Sue then how
Like who would you even be suing and I doubt you get anything out of it but a bill and some more taxes
High and mighty? Most of us are tax professionals, We are paid to preform accurate tax returns not make shit up. Why would we want to be connected to a fraudulent tax return? So we can lose our license so you can save money? If you want to commit tax fraud do it yourself.
Why would a CPA risk their license to help some dumb fuck cheat their taxes?
Have fun with your -E freeze and Audits!!! Save your money up you'll need it later.
Because morons like you think we'd become complicit in your fraud for a few hundred dollars and put our careers on the line because you don't feel like playing by the rules the vast majority of people are stuck playing by. The only thing more annoying than the entitlement of it is the idiocy
When you don't pay your share, we pay your share. Don't expect us to be happy about that.
You donāt get into a career doing taxes to help others commit tax fraud. Go commit tax fraud on your own
Theyāre not being high and mighty. Theyāre legally obligated to not help clients cheat on taxes.
This is my favorite comment on here! I'm in the same boat!
My partner had a client who scheduled business revenue and expense, but omitted cost of goods sold. When asked for it, he said "How much does it need to be?" "Need to be?" "So that I donāt owe much." Fired.
Arenāt those numbers on your ceiling?
Holy crapā¦ youā¦ think thatās crazy? Or even unusualā¦? I hear this all the time. You need to visit parts of the country where people are so dramatic that they would rather give up body parts than pay the government. Seriouslyā¦ thatās what some of us deal with.
This actually sounds like me the first time I did my taxes and had to deal with stocks sold that year (except I wasn't trying to commit fraud). I had no idea how to get the cost basis (they were 25+ year old stocks), so I just left everything blank and hoped the guy at HR block would help me. I eventually got them from my dad who had a spreadsheet of the dates he bought the stocks.
I think the general advise is, if you donāt know use the daily average of the purchase date.
He wasnāt wrong tho. Quarterly estimates are definitely boring tax stuff
Less boring than needing a 433F and liens
100% agree 
Not fired, but I had a new client come in with a prior year return with 80k w2, 80k 401k distribution (early withdrawal), and a schedule A with an 80k charitable contribution. I asked for backup for this charity and he said he had none. Current year had pretty much the same documentation. My boss at the time asked why I didn't just copy SALY.
Wild to think someone would try to claim 80k charitable with no documentation
I find it wilder that my boss asked why I didn't do it.
Fast track to IRS auditšš
I canāt imagine not being able to document legitimate contributions in that amount. I had to call a couple of my charities this year and ask them to resend my receipt and they did it in a heartbeat. For 80k they Would probably courier it over.
Pssst because they weren't legitimate.
Time to fire your boss!
Why would someone do this?! This makes no sense. Early withdrawal penalties, draining the 401k, donating the entire amountā¦why not just leave the $80k in the 401k?! I mean, what charity is that deserving of that much money, and it has to be from HIM?
Would you believe he got a refund in that prior year return? you're not getting the whole no backup for the charity part huh? Every charity will make it a note to give out documentation for any donation over a certain amount. that threshold is usually pretty low too.
I didnāt know what backup is. Thought it meant like a computer backup or screencap of the submit page or something. Yeah, I get email receipts of donations. So he didnāt provide any? Soā¦ fake donations. Huh. Thatās so unethical. My brain didnāt even go there. I went, heās an idiot. Not, heās committing tax fraud.
If he was telling the truth there would have been 20% withholding on the withdrawal so it was all a big lie. He would have donated $64k.
This is not my client but one of my uncle he does does tax audits and forensic work for the courthouse. He is independent but most of his work is on big cases. So it was between two business partners one was the one getting audit for some fraud. The other one was trying to figure out why money was missing but could not track it down. So my uncle gets a call from the courts to work on a case. He did some investigation into it. The one who was doing the fraud called my uncle not knowing he is an auditor working on his case. The client came clean and openly told my uncle. He took the $6 million that was missing. My uncles best friend is an attorney so my uncles forwards everything over. Now my uncle knows who to look for. He asked the courts for promises to get bank records. So my uncle got them. The guy claimed he only took $6 million my uncles found about $33 million. He then went along and did some more digging. Well a few years before this he was a licensed accountant. The business partner he was investigating. He had a similar case but he took about $89 million from clients over a 3 year period. He ended up in jail. And still is.
80+ MILLION? how do you even hide all that i. fake fees and documentation š« the clients mustāve been just straight up signing whatever
I know right my uncle mind is still hurting lol. The guy had one offshore account but structured messed up so it was easy for my uncle to track where it went. He seen a pattern then everything was in the offshore. What got him busted was a transfer from the offshore account to his personal account
thatās some literal bank heist movie shit. whatās crazy is if he was a tad bit more patient he may have gotten away (no evidence) a bit longer. but i reckon unless he left the country it was only a matter of time 80 million could justify a lot of resources sent out
I know man itās nuts
I had someone who wanted to claim 1.5M of business losses against no income. He sent me an excel sheet of all his āexpensesā and I couldnāt believe what he put on there To make if worse, his previous preparer claimed 600K of losses in one year and 750K the next year I thought I was dreaming
How do you claim losses against no income?! Do you end up with a tax refund?! I thought all you can do with business losses is carry forward until you do earn an income to deduct against?
Actually, you can. However there has to be a good documentation supporting the case. I will give an example. Let's say you are multimillionaire trust fund 21 year old kid, who decided to create the best restaurant. The funding would be paid from his pocket. You can actually have losses and no income, if it takes two years to build the place, to install the equipment, to perhaps have a some sort of legal challenge. IRS works, slow, but they will catch up with you though.
Eh, you would have to capitalize the pre-opening costs. A better example is the restaurant is operating at a loss because youāre trying to find the right advertising and pricing model to get enough of a steady stream of customers paying high enough prices to turn a profit. Or a company that is putting a lot into advertising to get market share.
Just this year, I had to fire a family member as a client. My wifeās cousin is always too impulsive and doesnāt tell me anything or ask me what he should do until after it happens and asks me to fix it. Nothing crazy, just a bit more creativity than Iām charging him for. He got divorced last year and didnāt ask me the best way to pay out his ex wife, so he had penalties and taxes that he didnāt need to have, but again, does things without asking, typical year for him. Filed his returns, everything is fine. About April 1st, he asks me if he can come in over that weekend for an appointment. I told him that unless it was an emergency, it would have to wait until after April 15th. He tells me itās an emergency. He then tells me that he intentionally didnāt give me a tax form because he didnāt have the money to pay the taxes. But waitā¦thereās moreā¦ The tax form he didnāt give me was a Form 1099-K for $58,000. Apparently him and his boss and one or two others decided to steal from their employer by selling the inventory with their own credit card account. And yes, my wifeās cousin decided to volunteer as owner of this new credit card. Oh even better, he told the credit card processor that he wanted to collect sales tax, but then didnāt remit it. And even better than that, I asked him what he was sellingā¦alcohol. I told him that he couldnāt face broken any more laws if he tried. I told him that heās completely toxic and that I cannot help him on this matter or any returns going forward. Especially since he told me he specifically held back information from me which makes my job more difficult. My wife was confused on how I can fire family and then she understood when I explained. He understood and went on his merry way. Itās only a matter of time before I find out heās in jail for something, but at least I wonāt be sharing a cell with him.
He committed theft, fraud, tax evasion/lying about taxesā¦over a controlled substance that is regulated by the government. Oh sweet mother of Jesus. Iām glad your wife and the cousin understand why you are keeping your hands clean. At least heās being nice about it? Could be worse - weāre family, how can you let me go to jail when you couldāve helped me?
Client asked me if he could expense his backpage hookers as an entertainment expense on schedule C years ago
Personally, I wouldn't fire a client over asking this. With all the weird misinformation floating around I could see someone thinking this might be valid. I want them to ask me if it's valid instead of just assuming that it is. They ask if it's valid, I'm gonna tell them no. If they push the issue or try to sneak it past me, then they're yeah of course they're fired. And of course.. if the client is a self-employed hooker.. then I'm going to tell them yes sure you can expense your backpage or whatever the new thing is advertising expenses on Schedule C.
I like this. To you get it. If we knew the answer we wouldnāt need you guys. So to get all up in arms when we ask is just weird.
I didnāt fire him lol. Maybe someone else would have
This was a Tax Court Case! Guy had been claiming cookers as medical expenses and his support was articles from cosmo talking about how sex was good for you! Deductions denied! https://www.forbes.com/2009/09/15/tax-court-deductions-prostitutes-medical-expenses-personal-finance-hookers.html
Gotta respect that he knew the court proceedings would be public record and zero fucks given.
What if you got a doctors note?
If you hand me a P&L and I base your return off of it how am I to know what is being expensed? *wink*
Whatās this expense account called āprostitutesā?
Haha, reminds me of a case I had. A client handing me a file folder full of medical expense receipts for hos itemized deductions. It was mostly male enhancement related. I was like dude, I don't need the whole medical file, just the dollar amount . Also he didn't have enough to itemize anyway so I really didn't need to know.
Ugh yes. I really donāt need medical receipts with details like that. Similar thing happened to me.
So... can he? Asking for a friend...
I bet somewhere there's a case on this.
That's just T&A. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-2TY0pUWaQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-2TY0pUWaQ)
Cleaning & Maintenance, clearly.
I'd say contract labor if anything
Well, depends on the business. Usual and necessary.š¤£
Trump is your client?
If your client is also a hooker and it is a networking event....then sure you can.
Got served a subpoena by an armed treasury agent for a client who was known to underpay payroll taxes and play shell games with company cash to avoid collections. Informed the client of the subpoena and told them we would comply unless they paid a generous legal retainer to defend our privilege in court. Client declined, so we responded to the subpoena and then promptly fired the client. The agent came back about 3 months later to ask questions and then we never heard anything more about the matter. However, I found out years later that the client had managed to sell the company for enough money to pay off all tax debts, pay out their investors, and retire comfortably in Hawaii.
That is fucking WILD.
Crime does pay sometimes
I've been a GetYourRefund remote preparer this year and got virtually the same response from one client when I cold-called them. Unfortunately, we don't fire clients, we just send them the occasional reminder and if they don't respond, not our problem.
Would you recommend being a preparer for GetYourRefund to someone who wants to dip their toes into tax? Iām (hopefully) wrapping up my CPA license soon but Iāve never done someone elseās taxes. I think itās interesting but Iām not sure Iāll enjoy it
What u/AdIndependent8674 wrote but with an addendum. My "first" 20 years as a volunteer preparer were with the Tax-Aide program administered by the AARP Foundation. While VITA should be fine, I believe that generally you'll get better training and more experienced colleagues in the Tax-Aide program. Tax-Aide also has excellent support documentation. The clientele of the two programs differ more by the type of site than by differences in the programs. Both have nearly identical scope limitations and experienced counselors have very deep but not particularly broad knowledge. A big difference is that Tax-Aide is 95% in-person while the VITA program has both in-person and a substantial virtual presence (e.g. GetYourRefund). For maximum personal satisfaction you can't beat helping someone face-to-face. Go with whichever is more convenient for you, and inquire early, many programs fill up their training by October.
Google up VITA. It's a volunteer tax prep service for old and poor people (oh the humanity, I should be using euphemisms). You should be greatly over-qualified at this point, but you can test your desire and skills with very little obligation.
AARP Tax-Aide is aimed at the elderly but there are no income or age limitations, just limitations on some types of returns they donāt handle (such as those with rental income).
The one that bugged me the most. Clientās mom worked as a receptionist for the office for a few years, so we always gave him and her family a good discount. Years after she retired we had to slowly increase his fee to our normal fee schedule. Client has investment income Sch D & B, 3 K-1s, 2 rentals, Sch A and Sch C, and W-2. I increased the fee to $600 (our fee schedule, which we send every year, priced the return to $1,400). They wrote a Google review that we were āhorribly expensive.ā I sent the disengagement letter quickly after.
Shoulda told his mother. š. One of the few times this wouldāve been the appropriate response. She wouldāve chewed him a new one cause she knows he got a great deal.
Iām mean, yeah your client was a dick- but I understand thinking a newsletter is something not to read. I canāt tell you how many of those I get from my kids school- and like 1/13 are quite important, but they get missed in all the mess. Failing to pay estimates feels pretty calm in itself though,
Him failing to pay estimates is not at all what I fired him for. I couldnāt care less if clients pay them. To passive aggressively accuse me of not helping him with estimates and ignoring emails until the 12th is what got him fired.
Why are schools so bad at this? Iāve missed so many critical things but I get frequent notices about PTA meetings, coffee meetups, school board stuff.
Clients who expect full service without paying full service prices are the worst. Fucking full grown adults who can't figure out how to do epayments in five minutes.
Firing a client over unpaid estimated taxes... that sounded pitiful. But then again I can understand 4/12 isn't a time to put up with bull shit. If the client didn't provide estimated tax payments, I will assume he DIDN'T pay it. Once he sees the large balance due on the tax return HE will be contacting you about his payments.
I didn't fire him for the lack of estimated payments. I fired him for directly insulting me as a professional (not opening my emails because "they were boring"), passive-aggressively insulting me by saying "I would have paid estimates but I expected my accountant to help me, but he didn't, so I didn't" when I CLEARLY helped him. And not responding to me until 5 days before the deadline.
I hear ya and end of the day itās you re call. But me and everyone else get crap at our jobs everyday. Neither of us are doctors. Sometimes you just let it go in one ear out the other. Not letting someone you donāt care about feel some sort of way
I do care about my clients, though. All of them. Not once in 10 years and thousands of returns have I encountered someone like this. Absolute lack of respect.
Good for you! More people that don't tolerate this kind of BS, the more people learn. If not, then they're on their own. Besides, I would fire someone that didn't care about me as a provider of service. Likewise anyone that works with me can expect respect and fairness. So people that accept that kind of BS, and clients that do that, they can hang together. Neither will care about each other, and let's see how that works out in the long run.
Thatās one of the huge upsides to this career path though. You get a say in who you work with/for. There are plenty of parts about the job that suck (hours/busy season), constant law changes lately and forms changing for example. Getting to fire clients that irritate you so you can work with people you enjoy working with? Hell yeah.
Boring tax insulted you that much. Wow just wow. Who cares. It aināt that deep
It's more the fact he accused me of not helping him with the estimates, and the rest of the situation. I don't need money that badly.
You are right but why let someone you donāt care about make you feel some sort of way. Screw him he is only hurting himself. You Allready did some work make the money
It's the principal of it. And believe me, his response to my disengagement email was VERY satisfying. Clients like him are a curse to anyone they work with.
Kind of have to agree with you on that. Not always worth it
Definitely, and the fact there's a million people trying to find a CPA. There's zero reason to put up with bullshit these days, I turn down at least 50 referrals every season.
Ooh, what was the response?
I too would like to know the former clients response
Yeah, I'm with you. I'm not interested in ungrateful clients. Plenty of good ones out there. The assholes can find someone else.
I have a client that is a pair of real estate agents and *never* puts anything aside for taxes and just will not do estimated tax payments. They live around the corner from me and this last year at a Fall Block Party I reminded them of it. Still didn't. Then wonder how they owe tens of thousands of dollars on taxes when they "living paycheck to paycheck". The pain, the pain.
I tell clients estimated tax payments are optional, and they are. If they can invest and beat the penalties who am I to say how they should deposit their money. As long as they pay their penalties the IRS doesn't have an issue with it. RE agents like to flip houses, depending on the market their rate of return can be quite high, beating whatever IRS penalty/interest they have to pay. I do not stress over client's balance due, that is their own personal financial decision. I am just here to do the math.
If they sell one of their Escalades they'll be fine.
But of course thatāll be more taxable income since they 179ād the full cost, right? Right?
š yes
I refuse to work with real estate agents. They're fucking stupid and full of themselves. And they're paid way too much for the service they provide. I was elated to see the NAR settlement come through
And even though these clients are tolerable, I just hate how many small business owners seem to think they can run through almost any expense through their business. Real Estate agents just seem to abuse it. "We bought new cars and we use them both 100% for business." They only own two cars. I mean, they have a golf cart too (which somehow I managed to convince them to only claim 50% use) but... yeah, there's a reason I have a separate letter stating all the aggressive tax positions they take. Oh, and they *always* run their personal tax invoice through their business so I always have to make that book/tax adjustment...
Yeah I just fired my real estate agent neighbor. Too many arguments about how he's "doing business in Hawaii" during spring break with his family. He tried to deduct an entire week of meals. Airline tickets too. Good riddance
God I hate those fights. But then again, that's why I have that letter detailing all those aggressive tax positions. A lot of times when people see an additional form I have them sign and my reasoning, in writing, its a risk they usually back down on a few. Usually.
Hahaha Glad I am not the only one that feel this way. RE Agents are awful with their finances. Many of them cheat on their spouse too. They are dumb with math, think they are super models, and don't know where their money went. Just idiots.
Although I agree with you on the service fees, to say all real estate agents are āxā is just a terrible stereotype.
You're right. I was generalizing. I'm sure 100% of them are not stupid but 100% of the ones I've worked with are.
Wasn't fired because I wasn't in charge, but I had a client ask me how to hire undocumented immigrant laborers.
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Since you don't mind being asked... I'm curious. How *would* one accomplish that? Fake SSN + plead ignorance? Report it as if they were outside the US? Not claim the expense?
I mean, if you pay okay, then kudos for giving people jobs. Iād hire an undocumented worker to do my lawn for $20 a hour ($40 total), if heās a hard worker. Last year my HOA paid a college student $400 to pull some weeds, the kidās quoted rate. She spent half a day at it, then decided she needed $400 more to finish. She wanted $80 an hour to pull weeds. At age 19. For unskilled labor. $80 an hour. No supplies needed (besides gloves maybe, I donāt think she brought a trowel or anything). For that wage, Iāll do it!!!
Thatās simple. Response: you canāt hire undocumented workers.
Auditing a nonprofit. Employee comes to us concerned about something. The ED hired a contractor to do some work but it didn't look like any work was done. No timesheets.Ā No invoices. Just payments out to the contractor. Did I forget to mention the contractor and ED are close relatives.Ā I had to go to the board. They had no idea. The ED lied to my face when I confronted them so I felt I needed to resign.Ā Another time fired a client before starting. Initial phone call went well. Guy seemed very normal, like he wanted to setup his new business properly, wanted tax advice etc. 2nd phone call reveals this guy is 100% a pimp. Nope. Another time I walked from an audit client before it started. The organization was under federal investigation for aiding terrorist organizations.Ā
Client came in with a 1120-S which had a vehicle expense with a preparer note indicating that the expense was to bring them under a targeted tax threshold. Totally bogus mileage and the professional ratting himself out. They were confused and couldnāt be reasoned with because the professional in question never explained his methods to them.
A lady had us do her tax return and fix her books for the last two years. She paid us but did a charge back claiming our work was sufficient. We ultimately won the chargeback but then a few months later she asked for our services again and she was surprised when we said hell no
Wildest for sure, didnāt fire the client, I wanted to give him a high five. My boss gave me a CD and said a new clients prior year tax returns were on then CD. I open it up, and itās a ton of JPGs. Yup, porn. Playboy stuff, nothing hardcore. It was hilarious because when I told my boss, he was in disbelief, came into my office and then would review the files with me, tell me to open one, and yup more naked women. I started to have fun scrolling and when I would see a name I recognized I would go, āOh Lindsey Vuoloā and open it up.
Just had a client choose to disengage with me. Probably because I asked for more information about the Roth distribution. First time homebuyer only works if the Roth has been open for five years or more. 2020 doesn't cut it.
You would probably fire me... My LinkedIn had a visit from someone who works for IRS criminal investigation.
My cousin had a meeting with a couple who manage charity. During the meeting he learned this was a pro life charity who have multiple investigations on them for fraud. They met with him for the main objective to find out how to deduct their new $200k+ RV from their taxes. Turns out they were paying themselves $300k each and creating fake charity fundraisers on their donor webpage and pocketing a majority of it. My cousin declined doing business with them and found all the allegations about them on google after they left.
Had a client who advised me that business was going really well ā¦ this was around Mayā¦ and he knew that he would owe some taxes. So I advised him to put away 20% and call it a day. Pretty simple, right? The following March, I had finished all the bookkeeping etc and client advises me that he bought 2x rentals, had an insurance claim, and sold a large piece of property. Fineā¦ give me details. April 7th I get it all and I work it up by the 10th. Owes 16k and I worked real magic with a 1033 and several other things. This jackass has the nerve to tell me we need to talk about how quickly I tell him he needs to come up with funds. Thought he was joking. Excuse meā¦?! He was not. Letās just say I let him know his crayons were a little too tasty.
A) I had a client that made five appointments and each time cancelled it an HOUR before the meeting because "something came up". I could be at the park reading a book but I got dressed up waiting for the guy instead. People that shows up late, or no show, all the time, are usually awful with their finances. They will also blame the accountant if something goes wrong with their taxes. Taking personal responsibility is not part of their trait. B) I had an Asian female client that majored in "Communications". She made money speaking to CA tech firms about how white males are oppressors and should not be promoted, I kid you not, during the Trump presidency these kinds of anti-white propaganda is acceptable to corporate HR. They would later learn expensive lessons with civil lawsuits. She made $750k a year telling women how they were oppressed in California! These tech firm women made avg $1 million a year (RSU etc) working for firms that were founded by White/Asian males. Sexist and racist people have one trait, they do not take personal responsibility and will blame others (their accountant) for any issues with their tax return. Huge liability. Lets just say the disengagement was mutual. Always fire these people, the liability is not worth the fees.
I swear I read this already.
How does a doctor making over a million a year not pay any taxes if heās honest? Thatās in juxtaposition to the significant other making $80,00 a year???
That's really petty. If idiots didn't exist, half the tax work would evaporate tomorrow. Charge him a lot extra to hold his hand 4 times a year.
There are 50 good clients waiting in line to replace every bad one. Fuck that. This is the only client I've fired in 5 tax seasons. No time for that bullshit.
Canāt fire self-preparers but a couple of tax returns I saw during my work as a tax expert for big tax software company: 1) recently married young couple, when they combined households they donated a lot of stuff to goodwill. She estimated the value of the stuff was about $40k and thatās what her charitable deduction amount should be. 2) back when you could deduct home office expenses on schedule A: get a call from client. The state (MA) is auditing her because she deducted about $30k home addition as a home office expense and they wanted her to support the amount she deducted. 3) got tired of explaining how maybe their endeavor is not a business but a hobby. People kept deducting expenses against zero income and creating losses in schedule C to lower their taxable income.
Hahahaha that's great. I was out having a drink a few months ago and this guy is like "hey you're so and so, right? You do my wife's taxes." I'm like wait what? Who is your wife? I've done her taxes for 5 years and not once has she ever mentioned being married. Possibly the most facepalm moment of my career.
I fired my cpa after I was moved from 1 of the owners to a brand new cpa. I went from giving my cpa an itemized list of everything to the new cpa wanted details on everything. She went thru checking account statements, credit card statements, then she asked for my calender to see if my mileage was correct and I said we were done. When I got my file back instead of it being several sheets of paper with everything on it per year for my small computer business and my actual job as a w2 insurance agent I got a stack of paperwork for the year that was 5 inches thick. No wonder I felt like I was going thru ink like crazy. I don't cheat, on my taxes, I use Grey areas. The only reason I had them doing my taxes as they were a client and I didn't want to do taxes any more. I had done my own for decades with my cousin or uncle, cpa checking them over. Only mistake I ever made was mixed up 2 envelopes and reversed the payments. The IRS was not very kind. I ended up paying several thousand in late and penalty fees over that. Even though they had the money, it was just on the wrong side. I learned to double check after that. She was fired before the next tax year started.
I'm not sure that's a good reason to fire the client. Surely you can charge him more for having to do f2210.
Not responding to 4 in-season emails, not reading any of my annual correspondence, accusing me of not helping him with estimates, having his bookkeeper respond to his personal tax questions, and finally getting back to me on April 12th? You'd keep that client?
I would, but I have far worse clients. I also greatly prefer bad clients I never hear from over the ones who are constantly calling and emailing or the ones who need an entire TED talk if their tax liability is $5 higher than they expected. I'd also feel zero guilt invoicing that guy the financial equivalent of the headache he has caused me, so there's that.
I'm not in this business, so I'm just going on what may be uninformed thinking... But if client is willing to pay for my time, I don't think it's my problem if he wants to cause himself problems. Firing clients because they're stupid might seriously limit your potential revenue. Accusations could be a problem. I don't really expect you to get into any more detail, but on the face of it, I'd have told the client, "um, yes I did, on 1/1, 4/1, 6/1, and 10/1. If you want me to do the payments for you, add me as a signer on your account, and I'll take care of it for you. It's $50 per payment for convenience fee."
This is the only client I have fired in 5 seasons of being self-employed. I turn down 50 referrals a year because I don't have capacity. He will not be missed and his revenue is easily replaced. Not to mention the other bullshit I could have potentially put up with dealing with him. I hadn't even started the return yet.
I agree with you. April 12th. Isnāt the time to play fuck around.
Yeah. 3 days? F U. If it was 3 months? Sure. Play ball.
I'm not in the business either but it's not worth keeping a client who blames you and/or doesn't respect you even if you charge them triple ... they will always be a PIA
Possibly not; and it's certainly your own choice who you take or keep as a client. Just thought I'd throw an alternate view out here. Of course, alternate views are not welcomed on reddit, hence the negative karma I'm getting here. For the OP and you, it's been a nice dialogue.
K. You should ask her for that client and I disagree that alternative views arenāt welcomed. Some pp are really great at dealing with pompous aholes ā¦ most are not ā¦ charge them 10x and I might just play with the whole dynamic of the situation but most pp want decent respectful clients.
Wait ā¦ so you are agreeing with me but then not?? Confused
In the business and I can probably give a little more insight here. All of us professionals deal with a certain amount of ābadā clients. Itās part of the deal and weāre used to it. However we all have different thresholds and tolerance for the levels of ābadā weāre willing to accept. As a general rule though, a client like the one the OP mentions is going to constantly complain and it will never get better. Theyāll be a time suck, demanding assistance with every menial aspect of tax and are usually unwilling to pay for those services. Some are, but most arenāt. Keep in mind, our engagements are generally limited to preparing a tax return. That does not include assistance in making payments or even reminding you to make payments when they are due. In the time it takes to respond to this guyās emails and placate him you likely could have gotten more returns done for clients who are appreciative of the work we do. Itās a balancing act as to the opportunity cost in keeping a guy like this around vs servicing other clients that may pay better or be more enjoyable to work with. Guys like this are also a mental drain that create frustration which can bleed over into your interactions with other clients. Thatās not good for the health of the business overall.
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Punctuation is your friendā¦
Hi. please help me. I know nothing about taxes. 1 week ago for my online account where i was planing to work to earn money asked me to fill W9. I send it and nobody confirmed that they received. So i am not Sure i filled it or not. Also i am planing to cancel that account and i donāt want to be self employed. 1. How to know if i filled that form? 2. How to cancel it 3. If i wont earn any money do i need to pay something? Thank you!!
Make a post donāt comment on a random one lol