TAXES, EYE DOCTOR, FOOD SHOPPING - SO MUCH TO GET DONE!

 Started working on income taxes, corporation taxes and sales taxes this past couple of weeks as mentioned last week.  Depending on the type of the corporation the taxes (companies which use a calendar year as their tax year) is either March 15 or April 15.  I have one corporation to do with each due date.  I also have a partnership return which is also due by March 15.  Partnership is done and out.   The corporation return due March 15 is the one which needs the extension – and still working on getting the paperwork to do same (for our state – Federal and city extensions are filed).  The corporation return due April 15 is at least started.  Sales tax return for the partnership is completed and mailed.  That leaves the other two sales tax returns – at least I have until the 20th for them.  

Then I have the regular individual returns which are due – as all of you in the US know – is due by April 15th.  Started working on one of them also.  

There seems to be plenty of time for the April 15 returns, but they need to be done and mailed to the clients for them to sign, mail and maybe write a check – for each return – Federal and state – and I know from past years (decades) that the time passes in an instant.  

Then, today, we went to our eye doctor (which took up the entire day so no work done).  He is in the next county so it is a bit of drive and worst of all, driving home we are driving into the setting sun – with drops in our eyes so the sun is all the worse to have in front of us.  At least we had good exams with no problems and very little change in vision – don't need new glasses unless we want.  

After I post this I will go back to the supermarket shopping list I started last night as we will go food shopping tomorrow – it is our once a month trip to the (Walmart) Neighborhood Market two communities away to do a full shopping trip. In between we go to one of the two Walmarts nearer to us.  Normally we go to the bigger of the two as it has a larger assortment of items, but two days ago we went to the smaller of the two as an item husband needed is carried at the smaller store, but not at the larger store.  

After I post this to you I will go back and add a few more items to the shopping list, I will then go over the list with husband when he comes down later for before bed snack in case he wants something else or doesn't want something I have on the list.  I will then print it.  The list is in an Excel spreadsheet file.  I have a list of what we normally buy and which aisles the items are in, as well as a more complete list of what is in which aisle.  By scanning down the list of what we normally buy I can make sure that I have not forgotten anything.  Hoping we will find foods we are looking for.  Store shelves/cold cases are still partially empty around here – though much better than earlier in the pandemic.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK-
 Don't put things you need to do off until the last minute.  Had I done that with the business tax returns they would not be out on time.  If I don't do that with the food we will run out of food.  

What have you put off that you really need to?

NO MATTER THAT ONE THINKS ALL IS UNDER CONTROL - SOMETHING WILL GO WRONG

 Well another week gone past – how could it be?

I put away more of the Christmas decorations during the week.  I have a couple of boxes left to go downstairs and plan to take them down tonight when I go down on trips to washer and dryer for laundry.  I also have my teddy village Christmas on the second floor (boxes are up there to store the Christmas bears in), but have held back on putting it away as there is not much I put out for Valentine's Day – which is now in the past anyway – so I figure this year I will jump right to March.

Now I am getting started doing tax returns for clients.  Some business income returns are due March 15.  I have a partnership which owned by husband and myself and the return is almost finished – but it does no business so that it is easy to do.  

I do have a problem with one client.  The business returns are due by March 15.  Client has not been well and I need all of the information from all of 2022 to prepare client's returns.  So while neither client nor I like extensions, the business returns have to go on extension.  

Federal extension – no problem – I filled in the form and it does not even need to be signed so I will mail it to IRS.  Client's business is in a large city in our state – I prepared the extension form for the business's city income tax return and included the minimum tax payment as client generally has a loss lately, wrote up instructions and it will also be on its way to client tomorrow with other tax related papers for client to write a check, sign the form and mail out.

Problem is client's corporation return.  If it was a regular corporation or a partnership or even a business which Somehow they have the wrong address for the business, sent the papers to that address, and cannot send it to another address! If it was owned as “a sole proprietor” it would also be no problem. Somehow they have the wrong address for the business, sent the papers to that address, and cannot send it to another address! The business is, as are lots of other businesses, what is a called “an S corporation”.  This is a sort of a cross between a corporation and a partnership (to keep it simple).  For some reason this type of extension and ONLY this type of extension has to be filed online.  I cannot file it for client as I am not the owner of the business.  Client cannot file it as does NOT use a computer at all.  Client has been ill and in the hospital so cannot send me the info I need to prepare the return!  I managed to get someone at the state tax office to agree that due to the circumstances of client's age and illness they would mail an extension form for us to use.  Client never received it.  Remember client is not at work due to illness and they can only mail the form to the business address!  Someone checked her business mail for her and the form is not there!

I telephoned the state again and found out that somehow they have the wrong address on file for her business – and they can ONLY send the extension form to the address they have on file!  I pointed out that they have her returns from past years and can see on same that it is the wrong address, no did not help.  

What we apparently have to do – client has to give me a power of attorney for the business.  I will then call the state tax office and get them same so they can let me do things and talk to me.  I then will change the business's mailing address to my house – they can then mail ME the extension and I can sign it for client.  After a month or so I will then again file a change of address form for the business and change it back to the correct business address!  

Why this type of business has this problem in our state and ONLY this type of business I have no idea.  This is something new as in past years if an extension was needed it was not a problem.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK  -

It is amazing how many odd things happen to make life harder no matter how organized one is.

SORRY NOT TO HAVE POSTED - IT HAS BEEN ONE OF THOSE TIMES - TOO MUCH TO DO AND MORE COMING DAILY!!

 Yes, it's been a few weeks since I posted.  My apologies.  I am sure all of you have gotten into periods of time when too much has TO be done in too short a time – that's where I have been.

I have to do extensive paperwork for us to apply for senior reduction in our real estate taxes.  Last year our submission took 126 pages - and when I dropped this office they were NOT surprised at how big the submission was and had clips large enough for it all – I submit it in 2 sections as we don't.

While my part of doing this is bad enough, I had trouble getting the correct printout from our medical insurance company – it took a letter and 4 or 5 phone calls over the period of almost 2 months to finally get the paperwork we needed – and I had sent a copy of last year's printout to show them what we needed with the first request.  I have to enclose proof of all incomes (umm, do they think I would include an income we didn't have?).  Since I am self-employed I also have to include proof of all my business expenses and the same for husband's business.  This year for the first time we also had to get a print of what income IRS has for us.  Have I mentioned copies of our Federal AND State income tax returns have to be sent also?   One thing which has become easier is that since I am not going out to clients due to Covid I am not taking car expenses so I don't have to copy all of that and include it (submission with same used to be something like 170 pages).  I finally got a chance to work on all of this this week – due by January 2 – but who wants to be dealing it with it during the fun of December.  We will walk this into the county assessor's office as one year there was confusion and even with mailing it certified mail, we were not sure if they received it in the mail.  

I also have to take a series of courses to be able to be able to prepare income tax returns next year – 20 hours of classes plus exams.  Luckily I can do at this home online – but it does take a lot of time – actual time is lot more than 20 hours.  

So last week I started working on the real estate tax exemption paperwork.  I was doing well and then – I got a notice from IRS that we never filed a partnership return for a zero income (for decades) business we have.  It was due and filed last March!!  So I had to print it all out again.  I know that our state received their form as they cashed the check.  The IRS form has no check which is why we did not know it was not received.  Being in accounting since I was 12 years old and I know how to appeal an accidental problem such as this so that there is no penalty – but the notice came with different instructions and I was not sure what was made by what part of it said.  Tried calling the special number for IRS on the form on Monday morning.  Now, I know that Monday is the worst day of the week to try calling – well, any business – as they get more calls after the weekend.  I also know that later in the day is better than earlier, but husband insisted that I call right away.  (An any business with a phone number which is open across the country until later so those on west coast can call – is much better to call later than earlier as, again, fewer people are calling later after business hours on the east coast and same across the county end. )  While I was setting up that evening to go on a Zoom meeting with our reenactment unit I tried calling again – this time I actually got into the waiting que.  I texted my husband – he was going to attend the Zoom meeting on his computer upstairs – what was going on and to explain to the other members if I suddenly disappeared.  The call was finally taken by someone from IRS and the matter of what to do to resolve it was solved.  It was mailed out certified mail on Friday – why did I wait for Friday?  I figured (correctly) that the Post Office would be empty the day after Thanksgiving as most everyone would be shopping.  

As of last night I had done most of the photocopying/scanning of the paperwork for the real estate tax exemption.  BUT – I received in the mail from an accounting client on the other side of the country an IRS notice she received on her income taxes (due last April of course and sent then – they must be way behind in processing returns).  I determined that the problem was my fault, though only an omission of a form, and I went to print out the form to send it to IRS.  It was missing.  I had used husband's computer (with data on my stick data drive) as his computer is newer than mine and the program needs same.  So I went to print out the page to send it to IRS.  The software was missing from his computer and we had to reinstall it.  Got the page printed out, wrote a cover letter and got it ready to mail to IRS by – again, certified mail.  I had planned to mail it out today, but the rain was so heavy will mail it tomorrow.  

I then went back to working on our real estate (partial) exemption paperwork.  I am missing about 10 pages I know I printed out (I have the other 2 pages, so I must have printed all of them) and will have to reprint that tomorrow.  Hopefully this will be done by the end of the week and we can bring it to the county assessor's office next week.  (I will take it in while husband waits in car – too crowded to park there and they have metered parking.)

That will leave the classes I need to take.  I have already picked out which ones I plan to take.  Some of the courses are required – a basic income tax class, a special class to meet IRS requirements for being a tax preparer (the longest of the classes),  and a class on ethics.  The other classes it is up to me which ones to take.  This year they have several 1 hour classes and I will take 3 of them.  After reading the course text book for each course I have to take (and pass) an online exam.  

While I have until the end of the year for these classes I can't put it off.  Husband is planning on our going with our reenactment unit for the Candlelight nights at the local restoration village (as volunteers) and he really needs me to be there with him as we are light on member volunteers this year.  (Whether it is a good idea to do this or not with Covid about as it is tiny space, I will not discuss with him as he REALLY needs to do the event.)  

And, of course, we have not put up any Christmas decorations outside or inside the house – yet!  Plus who knows what else will pop up?