Sorry I am late in posting. Third time since I started posting this blog. We have had a full couple of weeks - while still seemingly getting little done.
My mom was ill a week ago Tuesday at 4 am and we had to run to the hospital with her. Since we go to bed around 4 am - the call came just as we had gotten into bed - we were terribly tired while at the hospital. My sister and her husband came and saved us and let us go home. Husband had tried to sleep out in our car - lack of sleep always hits him harder than it does me - and as result of not being able to sleep reached the point where not only was sooooo exhausted, he was also in pain from trying to sleep in the car. Basically that Tuesday was a gone day. Wednesday was still off as we were so off physical schedule - but as you know, I did manage to get my post out on time.
On that Thursday, day before Good Friday and the start of Passover, we went to my mom’s house as she was worried about her mail - most of the afternoon gone. We finished shopping for 2 holiday dinners and that evening I started cooking soup for us for Passover.
Friday we ran some errands and then I made dinner for me; husband picked up a Chinese main dish - shrimp - as it was Good Friday. I made vegetable soup for him and chicken for me - and added what I cooked on Thursday - matzoh balls to both soups. After Passover dinner, I cooked a chicken for Easter dinner - Brunswick stew and put it in the fridge to keep.
Saturday and Sunday between all the normal things we do I worked on the newsletter for my embroidery chapter which had to be out on Wednesday. (Normally I write that Wednesday afternoon and then Wednesday night I write my post.) We also went to church Easter morning and I cooked the Brunswick stew with the previously cooked chicken.
In the middle of all of this husband decided that we had to dewinterize one of our two fresh water tanks in the RV. This consists of letting the water out of the tank, refilling it and adding bleach to the new water and letting it sit. We then emptied and refilled the tank twice over the several days we worked on it.
I was looking ahead to what I had to do in the coming week - impossible!! Mostly I had 4 days - what is now yesterday (Thursday), today (Friday) and next Monday and Tuesday to: go to client in Manhattan, do her books & payroll taxes, take my mom to the doctor (on whichever day of the four doctor could see us), meet up with a member of our reenactment unit to get some government paperwork done at the agency involved, and prepare to give a talk at my embroidery meeting this coming Wednesday. On Sunday I did the payroll tax form for my client (she took no salary this past quarter) and mailed it to her for her to sign and mail out when she comes back to work after being on a vacation so that it will be out timely even if I don’t get there timely. I mailed it out to her on Monday.
Tuesday we drove to Pennsylvania. The system in our RV which lets us pump out the “used” water was not working right last time we went away (end of August) and did not work at all at the start of November when we tried to winterize. Husband made an appointment and the first date available was this past Wednesday. But we had to be there at 8 am! Two states away. This should be a two to two and a half hour drive, but we never know what the traffic will do - and we would be traveling (half asleep due to the very early hour and no or minimum sleep) during rush hour. Husband started to panic. The RV dealer said to us that we could drive down overnight and hook up electricity outside their building - which we have done in the past - but an entire night without a bathroom?! I let it roll around in my head. I came up with the idea of staying at a nearby RV park the night before - if we could find one. Husband did find one and that is why we drove down on Tuesday for a Wednesday appointment. We had to check in at 4 pm and left at 10:30 am to get there. We got stuck on the same two roads in our state that we normally get stuck on. Why do we go that way? If we go the alternative ways either we are driving north a good distance to go south or we are driving through midtown Manhattan - something we avoid with a car, let alone an RV (and which would soon be a very expensive idea do to a new toll coming to drive in Manhattan). So we have to go the way we go.
We were finally past the delays here in New York and about to get onto the New Jersey Turnpike. Easy to do - we have done it more than countless times. We got off the road at the exit to the Turnpike and when we approached the toll booths - we were directed away from them to a side road - there was an 18 wheeler truck - cab and trailer - lying on its side blocking the booths. Now we have to figure all this out. I looked and we had been directed into an industrial park - and one we have been in several times as there is a venue for conventions and we have gone to quilt, woodworking, and toy train shows there. (Heck, I won a judges prize for a doll there.) Relieved that I knew where we were - and there were lots of free parking lots with space to pull into - I suggested husband do the same. He kept driving around as he could not figure out where to pull in and his two (yes, two) GPS devices were arguing over what we should do. Now they are both trying to get us back to the entrance to the Turnpike, but husband has the idea in his head that one or the other will save us. One of them is preprogrammed by him and if we miss a point on the map he entered will keep sending us back to that point until we drive through it. Husband is going on and on about never getting “there” as we don’t know how to go to. I point out to him that we know that one way to where we want to go is to get back on the road we were on and head west - just the longer way. After about 15 minutes of him driving around I managed to get out a map - yes, a paper map - of the state and figure out how to get to the next entrance to the Turnpike on the streets. I find a parallel major road - US1 - which will take us South to where we need to be and then we take a state road - Rte 18 across to the Turnpike and get back on. Husband does not completely trust me on this. I tell him to get back on the main road in the same direction we were going. We end up getting back on it going back where we came from. Between me and the two GPS devices he manages to turn around. I get him off the road onto US1. The GPS that needs to go through specific points continues to try to get us to turn around - he finally managed to get that one shut off. The other one figures out that we are heading towards the next entrance and starts giving us directions to it. He is now happy that he knows where we are going - even though the GPS is giving him the exact same route as I told him - and he did not trust!
I should explain that we have traveled to Pennsylvania or elsewhere beyond it at least 10 trips a year - for almost 45 years. This is not driving in a totally strange area. Even as we headed down US 1 towards Rte 18 as we got close I pointed out to him - “Look, that is the Wendys where we had lunch last year when we went to that quilt show.” As we got closer - “Look this is where we used to drive to get to that nice Japanese restaurant for dinner.” (After all the quilt, etc shows in the area.) So I am comfortable with all this and know we will get to where we are headed. He is still not so sure. We find and get on the New Jersey Turnpike. Strangely I cannot find any information about what happened to the truck and why it turned over. There is nothing in the news for a turned over truck on that day - lots of others, but not even any in same month.
We continue on our trip. While the area near the RV dealer is a relatively new one for us, we have been going there since 2011 and early on in owning the RV there were a lot of problems with it and we might have made a couple of dozen stops there to have it worked on, often while going to Lancaster as this is on the way. We have also been going to a local cultural fair annually for about 20 years which I had figured out was relatively near to this one - same exit from the Pennsylvania Turnpike going opposite ways after exiting it. We find the RV park. Space is good - about 4 rows from the “bathhouse”. We then left and drove for dinner in another area of Pennsylvania. (Husband was getting the most of things he has missed from this trip.) Then back to the RV park and set up for the night as it is suppose to rain. Luckily it is not bad rain.
We are up early (for us) the next morning. I had not fully made the bed the night before as I knew I had to get it apart quickly the next morning. I took all of my bed linens and put them in one large plastic bag and ditto his. I then took apart the bed (two banquette type benches are the base of the bed). We dropped the RV off for repair and asked them to change the oil in the generator as it is about the time to do so and then to change the “dump hose” as long as it will be taken apart anyway for one we think we like better.
We spend the next several hours in their parts department shop, looking at the new Rvs, walking to a nearby shopping center - Home Depot, Staples, a dollar plus store and lunch at (yes) Wendys. While eating lunch I see the RV being driven back to the office from their shop and we head over. It was done. Twice the cost husband had anticipated, but it is working again.
We then set off to the Lancaster area for dinner - stopping at a local store as it is too early for same. After dinner we stop at a Walmart there - their Walmarts are larger than ours and carry different items. We then start home. It is basically the same time we would normally leave for home on one of our trips. Normally we would home around midnight - 12:30 am. The plan was for me to send out the prewritten newsletter for my embroidery chapter when I got home and I had planned to write and post to all of you here on my blog. Somehow it took us to 2:30 am to get home and we don’t know why - no traffic, no extra stops? We took out only the items that had to come out as we needed them in the house and the “snacks” we had brought with us.
Well, so why didn’t write and post on Thursday? Thursday we unpacked the rest of the stuff in the RV - and I cannot find my Diabetes meter, but it has to be there or her and we have a spare, so I am not going to go crazy over it. I sent out all 3 versions of the embroidery chapter newsletter. I had planned to write the post and send it out that evening. But when evening came - I forgot all about it! So here I am writing to you two days late! Forgive me.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Whether one gets diverted from the road on a physical journey or from their journey to getting better organized it happens. No need to get upset with yourself. Just pick up where you left off and continue.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Thursday, April 18, 2019
KEEP ON TOP OF CHORES AND APPOINTMENTS BY SETTING UP REMINDERS
Another week, another post. This is actually good for me. With the exception of, I think, two times since I have started this blog several years ago I have not missed posting on what is Wednesday night to me and Thursday (very) am to everyone else. (12:15 am Thursday as I start to write this, for example.)
Do you have trouble doing tasks which have to be done over and over on some sort regular basis? I did, well I still do although I am much better at it now. I use my mobile phone to help with this as I do for many other things.
At the start of the year (actually usually just as December is ending for the coming year) I will go through my Lotus Organizer and put in repeating tasks for the coming year. I have quarterly repeating tasks - such as doing payroll tax forms for clients or extra computer backups. I have monthly tasks - monthly computer backups, setting up new spreadsheets for our craft business to keep track of inventory (even though we have had no sales since December - I update the spreadsheet monthly anyway) and changing the sponges I use for cleaning. I have weekly tasks - laundry, changing towels - kitchen and bathroom, changing the bed, regular weekly data backup, and so on. I also have daily tasks - for example - check email - yes, I need a reminder for this. I do not need a reminder to wash the dishes from dinner and later at night from pre-bed snack as I do them as we finish the meal. I also have annual reminders - these I set up to repeat for 5 years (I am thinking of 10 years next time) - birthdays, anniversaries, when other tax forms are due (for clients & us), and so on.
I also will add various events as I find out about them. I know that our reenacting unit meets monthly on the a certain day of the month - I set up the meetings on my calendar (both in the Organizer and my mobile phone which keeps a separate calendar as it does not sync - the Organizer is synced with my old Palm Centro which I carry around the house as a PDA). When the events schedule is set up for the year I add those to both calendars also. My embroidery chapter has a “fiscal” year - the meeting year runs from September of one year through June of the next year and as soon as I know the meeting dates - again a specific day repeating each month - they are added to both calendars. I add appointments I make as I go along. I add trips we make reservations for to the calendar - I start the year with the one for our July 4ish trip already in the calendar as we have to book a year in advance to make sure we get the RV space we want - and we are generally not there on July 4 itself - we are not happy with the RV park and the area we visit being that busy.
What do you do to keep track of when to do things or what your plans are? When I was younger I was able to keep much of this in my head, but I no longer can. (Heck, I put down a check today and 10 minutes later could not remember where I put it down - finally remembered.) Having a reminder ring helps one stay on track. I am about to go upstairs as I am backing up my desktop computer for the month (did the quarterly back up while we had dinner) and the reminder just went off in my mobile phone to see if it if the backup is done - it was not finished when I checked half an hour ago. Be right back - feel free to talk among yourselves, get a snack, or make a bathroom run while I check........ No not done yet. I reset the reminder for another half an hour. But, the laundry will need to be shifted between washer and dryer - and another load put in the washer in 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
See how this works? Trust me if you just try to remember to do everything - it does not work. Don’t just use reminder on your mobile phone for personal stuff - use it for work also. If you work at computer at work (or home) you can put the reminders on it instead - or also. If you are low tech - and I find nothing wrong with low tech (I am the first one to scream if some company or government agency says that something has to be done by computer or with a mobile phone, not for me but for others - well sometimes for me as I prefer the privacy of not having any number of things on my cell phone for security) use a paper calender and an alarm clock to remind you - or even a timer if you have to go back to finish something. Darn laundry reminder has gone off. Be right back.......
Back again. You need to decide what you need to be reminded of. Some items all you might need to do is to put them on the date(s) or day(s) of the calendar so you will see them to do them. Others you might need to have an alarm go off to remind you to stop what you are doing and do what you are suppose to do. (My backup and laundry have sound reminders to remind me.)
Yes, sometimes life gets in the way (or you just really need as a personal matter not to do something on the day you have it scheduled) and things do not get done. I admit to not changing the bedding yesterday as I normally do on a Tuesday (gasps are heard “she did not do something on her schedule after she said to schedule things so you remember them). My elderly mom had a problem that started extremely early on Tuesday morning. Monday night to us and we had to run to help her just as we had changed and gotten into bed - at 4 am. By the time we were back home - and then only were able to do so by the grace my sister meeting us at the hospital with her husband so we could leave (and they had slept as normal people do from earlier in the evening). I had sent my husband out to the car for him to sleep but that had not worked. It was 10 am by the time we finally were able to go to bed. Husband, exhausted, fell asleep. I could not, while waiting to hear from my sister what the findings were about mom. After text messages and telephone calls I was finally able to fall asleep - for about an hour. When we got up for the day it was late in the day even for us and I just had no energy to deal with the bed and said to myself the very unladylike “F it”. (Mom was given a prescription to try for the problem and is staying with my sister at least through the holidays, which for us will run through next week and we will figure out what to do to keep her safe and well - she is 90.)
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK -
1 - Use your technology to keep you on schedule or a paper schedule and clock if you prefer to use same.
2 - Realize that things occur which will throw you off schedule - it is called life and one never knows what will happen. Just get back on schedule as soon as you can. (And schedules are not written in stone - if you never get to do something, such as write your blog post on Tuesdays, you can move it to another day - Wednesday, for example the day you actually post it.)
3 - I wish you a good holiday with those you love.
Do you have trouble doing tasks which have to be done over and over on some sort regular basis? I did, well I still do although I am much better at it now. I use my mobile phone to help with this as I do for many other things.
At the start of the year (actually usually just as December is ending for the coming year) I will go through my Lotus Organizer and put in repeating tasks for the coming year. I have quarterly repeating tasks - such as doing payroll tax forms for clients or extra computer backups. I have monthly tasks - monthly computer backups, setting up new spreadsheets for our craft business to keep track of inventory (even though we have had no sales since December - I update the spreadsheet monthly anyway) and changing the sponges I use for cleaning. I have weekly tasks - laundry, changing towels - kitchen and bathroom, changing the bed, regular weekly data backup, and so on. I also have daily tasks - for example - check email - yes, I need a reminder for this. I do not need a reminder to wash the dishes from dinner and later at night from pre-bed snack as I do them as we finish the meal. I also have annual reminders - these I set up to repeat for 5 years (I am thinking of 10 years next time) - birthdays, anniversaries, when other tax forms are due (for clients & us), and so on.
I also will add various events as I find out about them. I know that our reenacting unit meets monthly on the a certain day of the month - I set up the meetings on my calendar (both in the Organizer and my mobile phone which keeps a separate calendar as it does not sync - the Organizer is synced with my old Palm Centro which I carry around the house as a PDA). When the events schedule is set up for the year I add those to both calendars also. My embroidery chapter has a “fiscal” year - the meeting year runs from September of one year through June of the next year and as soon as I know the meeting dates - again a specific day repeating each month - they are added to both calendars. I add appointments I make as I go along. I add trips we make reservations for to the calendar - I start the year with the one for our July 4ish trip already in the calendar as we have to book a year in advance to make sure we get the RV space we want - and we are generally not there on July 4 itself - we are not happy with the RV park and the area we visit being that busy.
What do you do to keep track of when to do things or what your plans are? When I was younger I was able to keep much of this in my head, but I no longer can. (Heck, I put down a check today and 10 minutes later could not remember where I put it down - finally remembered.) Having a reminder ring helps one stay on track. I am about to go upstairs as I am backing up my desktop computer for the month (did the quarterly back up while we had dinner) and the reminder just went off in my mobile phone to see if it if the backup is done - it was not finished when I checked half an hour ago. Be right back - feel free to talk among yourselves, get a snack, or make a bathroom run while I check........ No not done yet. I reset the reminder for another half an hour. But, the laundry will need to be shifted between washer and dryer - and another load put in the washer in 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
See how this works? Trust me if you just try to remember to do everything - it does not work. Don’t just use reminder on your mobile phone for personal stuff - use it for work also. If you work at computer at work (or home) you can put the reminders on it instead - or also. If you are low tech - and I find nothing wrong with low tech (I am the first one to scream if some company or government agency says that something has to be done by computer or with a mobile phone, not for me but for others - well sometimes for me as I prefer the privacy of not having any number of things on my cell phone for security) use a paper calender and an alarm clock to remind you - or even a timer if you have to go back to finish something. Darn laundry reminder has gone off. Be right back.......
Back again. You need to decide what you need to be reminded of. Some items all you might need to do is to put them on the date(s) or day(s) of the calendar so you will see them to do them. Others you might need to have an alarm go off to remind you to stop what you are doing and do what you are suppose to do. (My backup and laundry have sound reminders to remind me.)
Yes, sometimes life gets in the way (or you just really need as a personal matter not to do something on the day you have it scheduled) and things do not get done. I admit to not changing the bedding yesterday as I normally do on a Tuesday (gasps are heard “she did not do something on her schedule after she said to schedule things so you remember them). My elderly mom had a problem that started extremely early on Tuesday morning. Monday night to us and we had to run to help her just as we had changed and gotten into bed - at 4 am. By the time we were back home - and then only were able to do so by the grace my sister meeting us at the hospital with her husband so we could leave (and they had slept as normal people do from earlier in the evening). I had sent my husband out to the car for him to sleep but that had not worked. It was 10 am by the time we finally were able to go to bed. Husband, exhausted, fell asleep. I could not, while waiting to hear from my sister what the findings were about mom. After text messages and telephone calls I was finally able to fall asleep - for about an hour. When we got up for the day it was late in the day even for us and I just had no energy to deal with the bed and said to myself the very unladylike “F it”. (Mom was given a prescription to try for the problem and is staying with my sister at least through the holidays, which for us will run through next week and we will figure out what to do to keep her safe and well - she is 90.)
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK -
1 - Use your technology to keep you on schedule or a paper schedule and clock if you prefer to use same.
2 - Realize that things occur which will throw you off schedule - it is called life and one never knows what will happen. Just get back on schedule as soon as you can. (And schedules are not written in stone - if you never get to do something, such as write your blog post on Tuesdays, you can move it to another day - Wednesday, for example the day you actually post it.)
3 - I wish you a good holiday with those you love.
Thursday, April 11, 2019
TAXES! TAXES! TAXES!
A relatively short post this week. It is the “end run” of tax season.
I managed to finish the last two returns for clients on Monday - out in the mail to then on Tuesday - whew! One of them was a 2015 return for a friend of mine. If she does not have it in the mail by Monday she will lose her refund. Just a reminder - if you have been procrastinating and haven’t filed your 2015 return yet - you will lose your refund if you don’t file it by Monday (April 10, 2019). If you owe taxes though - the various governments will keep trying to collect it - so file your return also. Filing your late 2016 or 2017 returns is a good idea too! Also it always best to file the current return - 2018 on time! If you can’t finish it in time apply for an extension of time to file - Form 4868 from IRS, state forms vary by state. This does not give you extra time to pay your taxes -so if you will owe taxes, try to estimate how much and send the payment along with the extension.
I have the two hardest returns left to do - ours and our little corporation. I more or less finished ours today. I will wait to clear to my head and check it over tomorrow and then print it out.
Now that our return is done I can do our corporation return - some items are paid from our personal accounts for the corporation - and I have to figure out the cost of the use of our van for the corporation (which is why I have to do ours first). Barring some strange occurrence -which if you read my posts regularly you will know we have had a lot of lately - I should have both returns finished, printed and ready to be signed and mailed in plenty of time.
Only one problem remains. As mentioned we pay for some items from our personal accounts - particularly since the corporation does not have a credit card or have much money (I never said it was a successful business). I have to keep track of what we paid for the corporation and sometimes what the corporation paid for us (it has an online payment account and we don’t so for rare online payments we sometimes use the corporation’s account).
The amounts paid out by us for the corporation and paid out by the corporation for us should be the same (in reverse) on both sets of “books”. They are not. I spent all of last night looking for the error(s) and could not find them. So as soon as I post this I will be back to trying to figure out what is wrong. It is more than one error as I searched the books on both ends for the amount I am out and it does not exist.
And while writing this and working on our taxes - I am also doing the laundry!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Remember get your income taxes done - now - don’t procrastinate. You will be glad you did whether you get a refund or you owe you money and won’t have to pay late fees and interest if you file on time.
I managed to finish the last two returns for clients on Monday - out in the mail to then on Tuesday - whew! One of them was a 2015 return for a friend of mine. If she does not have it in the mail by Monday she will lose her refund. Just a reminder - if you have been procrastinating and haven’t filed your 2015 return yet - you will lose your refund if you don’t file it by Monday (April 10, 2019). If you owe taxes though - the various governments will keep trying to collect it - so file your return also. Filing your late 2016 or 2017 returns is a good idea too! Also it always best to file the current return - 2018 on time! If you can’t finish it in time apply for an extension of time to file - Form 4868 from IRS, state forms vary by state. This does not give you extra time to pay your taxes -so if you will owe taxes, try to estimate how much and send the payment along with the extension.
I have the two hardest returns left to do - ours and our little corporation. I more or less finished ours today. I will wait to clear to my head and check it over tomorrow and then print it out.
Now that our return is done I can do our corporation return - some items are paid from our personal accounts for the corporation - and I have to figure out the cost of the use of our van for the corporation (which is why I have to do ours first). Barring some strange occurrence -which if you read my posts regularly you will know we have had a lot of lately - I should have both returns finished, printed and ready to be signed and mailed in plenty of time.
Only one problem remains. As mentioned we pay for some items from our personal accounts - particularly since the corporation does not have a credit card or have much money (I never said it was a successful business). I have to keep track of what we paid for the corporation and sometimes what the corporation paid for us (it has an online payment account and we don’t so for rare online payments we sometimes use the corporation’s account).
The amounts paid out by us for the corporation and paid out by the corporation for us should be the same (in reverse) on both sets of “books”. They are not. I spent all of last night looking for the error(s) and could not find them. So as soon as I post this I will be back to trying to figure out what is wrong. It is more than one error as I searched the books on both ends for the amount I am out and it does not exist.
And while writing this and working on our taxes - I am also doing the laundry!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Remember get your income taxes done - now - don’t procrastinate. You will be glad you did whether you get a refund or you owe you money and won’t have to pay late fees and interest if you file on time.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
COMING TO THE END OF TAX SEASON - HOW DO I KEEP IT ALL ORGANIZED AND GET IT ALL DONE?
Last weekend I suddenly realized - I have 2 weeks to the end of tax season - and none of the returns which are due by April 15 are done, most not even started - and only 1 was almost finished. Panic was about to set in - then I looked at my list. I have a dying accounting practice - literally, my clients were from my dad or from my boss and are older than me with a couple of exceptions.
It is an extremely small practice, but I have clients in 4 (US) states - well, I did, but that is another story - I now have in clients, that I know of, in 3 states. My dad was an accountant for an avant garde art gallery at one time and he had many clients who were “modern” artists. My boss had a couple of clients who were writers. Between the two groups I have had clients in 7 states other than my home state and clients in Paris, France and in Auckland, New Zealand. (At one time I had a client in Hawaii and the clients in Paris - one was 6 hours ahead of me and one was 6 hours behind and I would confused as to which was which. The solution? I telephone (pre-Internet days) all of them at 3:00. Which 3:00? It did not matter - it would either be 9 am or 9 pm - not too early to call and not too late to call. Just when I thought that I had the time difference dealt with - a client moved to New Zealand - 16 hours off and a different day!
I do the returns in the order I receive the information. If, though, I have returns that have to go out of state and others that are local, when it gets down to the end - as it is now - I have to get the out of state returns done first so they can be mailed to the client in time for the client to look over the returns, come up with any money they need to pay and get the return out timely on their end. Local clients I can always hand deliver the return. (My dad used to hand deliver returns - he and I (long before I was old enough to work) would go out at night and drop off returns at his clients. I loved doing that with him.)
So a return that has to go across the country was mailed out on Monday - plenty of time in advance. I spent yesterday afternoon preparing extensions for 2 clients who have requested them - I mailed the extensions out to the tax offices that they have to go today. I worked up estimated taxes (for 2019) for one client today and they will go out to him tomorrow. (Estimated taxes are paid by people who do not have taxes withholding on parts of their income due to the type of the income and I have to estimate what their income/taxes will be next year for them.) Normally one has to have 90% of their tax prepaid when the return is due, by withholding and paid estimates to avoid a penalty - or if one’s tax went up a lot in the year the estimate has to be equal to or greater than 100% of their tax for the prior year - in some cases 110% of same. I have to calculate and guess how much the clients need to pay as estimates for the coming year without them overpaying a lot, but also enough that they will not have a penalty at the end of the coming year. These will go to the client (again out of state) tomorrow in the mail.
I have another client who owes taxes for past years. Her husband had been ill and they were also moving to another state so the past several years’ taxes have been a bit late in being filed. She always gets a refund so there is no penalty for filing late, although I always file extensions for her, but she files long after same is over. Last year I went after her to give me info so I could do her return for 2014 so she could file it or she would lose her refund - I prepared the return and also her 2017 - so we started to catch up. I need to do her 2015 return this year so that she does not lose her refund from same. Big problem - the land near her home broke through a retaining wall and she cannot go home - even just to get the papers needed for her 2015 return. I filled in a form for her so that IRS will send copies of what they have for her for 2015 - but it is getting close and I have not received the papers from them. Luckily she had mailed or emailed me the forms she had from their pensions when I made the estimates for 2015 so I have that information. Her other income is Social Security and a tiny bit of bank account interest. Today I looked up what percent Social Security went up in 2015 compared to 2014 so I could estimate out what her income would have been (turned out it was the same amount for both years) and then estimated what would have been withheld on it. I also took her 2014 and her 2017 interest income to figure out what she probably received in 2015. (2016 also has to be completed so I don’t have the info for same.) If I don’t receive the information by tomorrow I will do the return with the info I have, which should be a close estimate of everything. She will have filed timely before she loses her refund. If it is wrong - well, IRS will compare it to their records and correct the numbers before sending her - her refund.
How do I keep track of all of this and make sure all the needed information is on the forms and correct? I have two things that help greatly.
First, I have a pocket file holder - nice plastic one that sits on the floor next to my desk. It has sections in it. A file folder is slightly too large (by maybe half an inch) across to fit in as one is just suppose to use each pocket as a file. I want to be able to pull out the entire file and know everything is in it. I cut one end off of some file folders - just enough for them to fit in the holder. Problem solved. I used to use removable labels when I had a lot of clients so I could reuse the cut folders during the season. Now each client has a folder with their name on it.
When a client mails tax papers to me - whether all of the papers needed or some of them - I put them in the matching folder - in the file holder. I just take out that folder when I am ready to work on their return. Our information for our personal return and for our business returns go into two of these folders also (one is for our return and one is for the business returns) - in this case the year end forms received go into the folder and I when I move last year’s personal bills into a box (in the office closet) at year end, I put the sections of the bills into the matching tax return information folder also.
Second, most of my clients have fairly ordinary returns. So I wrote up a form for myself to fill in the all of the info that might be involved in clients (or our) returns - a section with various types of income listed with lines for the info, a section for taxes paid, estimates and withholding, another section for deductible expenses, and one for adjustments to be made to everything for the state return (if there is one) for the client. Across the bottom is room to write which returns have to be filed by the client - left side Federal, right side state, so I can check that I have all the needed forms for client to file. This information form is changed as needed - when the requirement to have medical insurance under ACA came into being - I added a check box at the top to check off that client has medical insurance. The back of this form is blank so I can list things if there are several of the same item to be totaled. If there are too many to fit, I add a piece of “columnar paper” (paper with columns to list money amount) and use that. This system has worked well for well over a decade and I will keep using it to keep clients’ info organized for their taxes.
Then when I am done with the clients’ returns I have to do the hard returns. Ours and our corporation. They have to be done together - or at least I have to break out some of the figures between the two before doing the return. These at least I have until midnight, April 15 to finish and mail.
Some people find all of this overwhelming when I talk about it. I grew up in a house with both parents who were accountants - although most of the time only dad was working when I was growing up - mom was a stay at home mom until I was in college. (They did have to come up with tuition - after scholarships and loans were subtracted - to pay tuition for the 3 of us.) Husband did not understand this at first - everything was secondary to “tax season”. My parents anniversary is during tax season (when they married it was ending a month earlier than it does now). My mom’s birthday is during tax season (she just turned 90!). Even husband’s birthday falls during tax season - but his I cannot ignore.
So at this point unless something odd happens, I should be done in time - even with time off to write this post and next week’s post and do something for husband’s birthday (and having gone to a birthday party for mom given by my sister). Then - payroll taxes are due by the end of the month!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you have a repetitive task - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually - figure out how you can make it more automatic to do. This is true whether it is a task around the house such as cleaning or laundry or changing towels - I change the sponges and scrub pad in the kitchen every month at the change of the month to remind to do so. I change all the towels on Mondays (new start to the work week). I then change the bathroom towels (in both bathrooms) on Thursdays also - why Thursday? It is about the middle of the week - and we have garbage pickup on Thursdays - so the kitchen towels are changed on the same days as the garbage is picked up. I change the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and Friday - why not Thursday? Well, I like to change the kitchen towels more often as I am working with food that is raw and may have microbes in it and then touching the towels. Why Wednesday and Friday? - Well Monday, Wednesday, and Friday which are every other day.
You have to decide for yourself when to do what and figure out how to remind yourself what to do. It helps a lot to have a schedule and check off lists.
It is an extremely small practice, but I have clients in 4 (US) states - well, I did, but that is another story - I now have in clients, that I know of, in 3 states. My dad was an accountant for an avant garde art gallery at one time and he had many clients who were “modern” artists. My boss had a couple of clients who were writers. Between the two groups I have had clients in 7 states other than my home state and clients in Paris, France and in Auckland, New Zealand. (At one time I had a client in Hawaii and the clients in Paris - one was 6 hours ahead of me and one was 6 hours behind and I would confused as to which was which. The solution? I telephone (pre-Internet days) all of them at 3:00. Which 3:00? It did not matter - it would either be 9 am or 9 pm - not too early to call and not too late to call. Just when I thought that I had the time difference dealt with - a client moved to New Zealand - 16 hours off and a different day!
I do the returns in the order I receive the information. If, though, I have returns that have to go out of state and others that are local, when it gets down to the end - as it is now - I have to get the out of state returns done first so they can be mailed to the client in time for the client to look over the returns, come up with any money they need to pay and get the return out timely on their end. Local clients I can always hand deliver the return. (My dad used to hand deliver returns - he and I (long before I was old enough to work) would go out at night and drop off returns at his clients. I loved doing that with him.)
So a return that has to go across the country was mailed out on Monday - plenty of time in advance. I spent yesterday afternoon preparing extensions for 2 clients who have requested them - I mailed the extensions out to the tax offices that they have to go today. I worked up estimated taxes (for 2019) for one client today and they will go out to him tomorrow. (Estimated taxes are paid by people who do not have taxes withholding on parts of their income due to the type of the income and I have to estimate what their income/taxes will be next year for them.) Normally one has to have 90% of their tax prepaid when the return is due, by withholding and paid estimates to avoid a penalty - or if one’s tax went up a lot in the year the estimate has to be equal to or greater than 100% of their tax for the prior year - in some cases 110% of same. I have to calculate and guess how much the clients need to pay as estimates for the coming year without them overpaying a lot, but also enough that they will not have a penalty at the end of the coming year. These will go to the client (again out of state) tomorrow in the mail.
I have another client who owes taxes for past years. Her husband had been ill and they were also moving to another state so the past several years’ taxes have been a bit late in being filed. She always gets a refund so there is no penalty for filing late, although I always file extensions for her, but she files long after same is over. Last year I went after her to give me info so I could do her return for 2014 so she could file it or she would lose her refund - I prepared the return and also her 2017 - so we started to catch up. I need to do her 2015 return this year so that she does not lose her refund from same. Big problem - the land near her home broke through a retaining wall and she cannot go home - even just to get the papers needed for her 2015 return. I filled in a form for her so that IRS will send copies of what they have for her for 2015 - but it is getting close and I have not received the papers from them. Luckily she had mailed or emailed me the forms she had from their pensions when I made the estimates for 2015 so I have that information. Her other income is Social Security and a tiny bit of bank account interest. Today I looked up what percent Social Security went up in 2015 compared to 2014 so I could estimate out what her income would have been (turned out it was the same amount for both years) and then estimated what would have been withheld on it. I also took her 2014 and her 2017 interest income to figure out what she probably received in 2015. (2016 also has to be completed so I don’t have the info for same.) If I don’t receive the information by tomorrow I will do the return with the info I have, which should be a close estimate of everything. She will have filed timely before she loses her refund. If it is wrong - well, IRS will compare it to their records and correct the numbers before sending her - her refund.
How do I keep track of all of this and make sure all the needed information is on the forms and correct? I have two things that help greatly.
First, I have a pocket file holder - nice plastic one that sits on the floor next to my desk. It has sections in it. A file folder is slightly too large (by maybe half an inch) across to fit in as one is just suppose to use each pocket as a file. I want to be able to pull out the entire file and know everything is in it. I cut one end off of some file folders - just enough for them to fit in the holder. Problem solved. I used to use removable labels when I had a lot of clients so I could reuse the cut folders during the season. Now each client has a folder with their name on it.
When a client mails tax papers to me - whether all of the papers needed or some of them - I put them in the matching folder - in the file holder. I just take out that folder when I am ready to work on their return. Our information for our personal return and for our business returns go into two of these folders also (one is for our return and one is for the business returns) - in this case the year end forms received go into the folder and I when I move last year’s personal bills into a box (in the office closet) at year end, I put the sections of the bills into the matching tax return information folder also.
Second, most of my clients have fairly ordinary returns. So I wrote up a form for myself to fill in the all of the info that might be involved in clients (or our) returns - a section with various types of income listed with lines for the info, a section for taxes paid, estimates and withholding, another section for deductible expenses, and one for adjustments to be made to everything for the state return (if there is one) for the client. Across the bottom is room to write which returns have to be filed by the client - left side Federal, right side state, so I can check that I have all the needed forms for client to file. This information form is changed as needed - when the requirement to have medical insurance under ACA came into being - I added a check box at the top to check off that client has medical insurance. The back of this form is blank so I can list things if there are several of the same item to be totaled. If there are too many to fit, I add a piece of “columnar paper” (paper with columns to list money amount) and use that. This system has worked well for well over a decade and I will keep using it to keep clients’ info organized for their taxes.
Then when I am done with the clients’ returns I have to do the hard returns. Ours and our corporation. They have to be done together - or at least I have to break out some of the figures between the two before doing the return. These at least I have until midnight, April 15 to finish and mail.
Some people find all of this overwhelming when I talk about it. I grew up in a house with both parents who were accountants - although most of the time only dad was working when I was growing up - mom was a stay at home mom until I was in college. (They did have to come up with tuition - after scholarships and loans were subtracted - to pay tuition for the 3 of us.) Husband did not understand this at first - everything was secondary to “tax season”. My parents anniversary is during tax season (when they married it was ending a month earlier than it does now). My mom’s birthday is during tax season (she just turned 90!). Even husband’s birthday falls during tax season - but his I cannot ignore.
So at this point unless something odd happens, I should be done in time - even with time off to write this post and next week’s post and do something for husband’s birthday (and having gone to a birthday party for mom given by my sister). Then - payroll taxes are due by the end of the month!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you have a repetitive task - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually - figure out how you can make it more automatic to do. This is true whether it is a task around the house such as cleaning or laundry or changing towels - I change the sponges and scrub pad in the kitchen every month at the change of the month to remind to do so. I change all the towels on Mondays (new start to the work week). I then change the bathroom towels (in both bathrooms) on Thursdays also - why Thursday? It is about the middle of the week - and we have garbage pickup on Thursdays - so the kitchen towels are changed on the same days as the garbage is picked up. I change the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and Friday - why not Thursday? Well, I like to change the kitchen towels more often as I am working with food that is raw and may have microbes in it and then touching the towels. Why Wednesday and Friday? - Well Monday, Wednesday, and Friday which are every other day.
You have to decide for yourself when to do what and figure out how to remind yourself what to do. It helps a lot to have a schedule and check off lists.
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