Discussion:Can You Top This One?

Got a little screwed up in the post. Sometimes can't seem to edit what you have written without messing everything up.

Man, if that guy only knew how on edge tax accountants are at 10:30 on April 15th, he would have known what a buzz saw he might have been walking into! :D That could have turned into a 16 legged angry arse kicking machine! :D

Michael

http://www.stranko.com/beautyschool.html

I laughed into I cried. They literally kicked the pizz out of this guy.

Michael

My wife was amazed when I fielded a call last night after nine; someone making sure I had her information for the extension. Took a second but made someone happy.

The man was there; he had a problem that could not be solved but surely alternatives could be suggested such as going on line and filing an extension.

However, there are some customers that just simply take advantage and really don't do their part. I will go pretty far to help a client who is doing their part to help themselves and me. I think that if you followed me around during tax season, you would be shocked at the lengths I go to help.

Michael

I had a lady call yesterday and again today who came to me about 4 years ago to do taxes that were at least 3 years past due at that time. I got them all ready to go and never saw her again. Her stuff has been sitting in my file room all this time and I finally put it in the shred pile (not shredded yet). Now she's calling me and in her first message said "You said everything is ready to go, can you call James (the husband who is a total jerk) and talk to him about it?" I was really busy and didn't do so, but there was another message on my machine this morning. I have no recollection of what I did and need to dig it up. I really don't want to, there's so much other stuff to do right now. Eventually, I'll do something about it.

Mostly lower income bracketed people who just really look pitiful standing there in the green statue of liberty outfit with the sign. I just gotta feel bad for them.

I was in Lithonia Georgia for an appointment of mine on the 14. Lithonia is a predominantly black section of town and they had two fellah with dreadlocks standing out wearing those outfits. On the way back through, I saw them really giving their all. Now some would complain they were acting the fool (dancing in unison), goofing off, anything to attract attention. While I was talking with my client, I saw them doing pushups in unison to attract the attention. By the time I was done, they must have tired themselves out because one was sitting on the sign with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. The other was sitting on the guard rail on his liberty hat eating fries. They were a sight I tell you.

I would have probably just talked to the woman instead of firing her but I am a great big giant teddy bear guy.

Michael

I am so desperate for clients at this time and especially when I started, I just never say no. Fortunately, my clients are pretty good and don't take advantage but I will answer emails for free during the year and do things like free mid-year reviews to ensure quarterlies don't need to be adjusted if we use the worksheet to figure them.

My wife overheard my talking to my star client trying to explain how best to keep his logs going forward and she said "You have the patience of Job".

As with my star client today, I finally just had enough. I think I deserve a gold star out of petty cash for putting up with him....some of you recommended his firing and possible assassination three iterations and nine crises ago. But I have faith that if I can only rehabilitate him, he will be a good client.

Michael

Myself and others have had many situations where a desperate person comes in late. Needs to file returns for 2-3 years. You do this for them, put the returns in the drawer for pickup and payment and never see them again until a year or more later when they are even more desperate then.

Yesterday 4/15 he emails me in a panic because the IRS levied his wages. Then I find out from the IRS that he never filed a return after the ones I did for him and never made a payment on the installment agreement. Can you imagine him expecting me to stop everything on April 15th to take care of his problem? Some peoples children, honestly!

HOW DO SOME OF THESE PEOPLE SLEEP?

I could envision a situation where I might have some family tragedy or something of the kid that would prevent me from filing one year on time. Sickness, etc. But how do people not file taxes since 2002?

I don't get it.

Michael

Just now [8:15am] I fielded a call from Sally, a new client this year whose prior accountant dropped her and others because he wanted to cut down on his workload. I had another client of his who turned out to keep records and make his return a breeze, but Sally's info flat-out said "I am a lousy record keeper and you will have to use last year as a guide; the numbers are not different." Right....after much back and forth she sent me numbers for 2008. I did the return Saturday and told her I would Fedex it to her in center city Philly...a three story part rental property she owns just west of Rittenhouse Square.

Turns out she was not home and Fedex, despite my avowal that they did not leave a signature, would not leave the package outside at the street entrance in the multi-unit building. They left a note on Tuesday, taped to the door, saying she could come to their depot after 4pm but they would try again on Wednesday.....'I had a rehearsal and I guess I missed them.....I wish you would have told me you were using Fedex; they could have delivered it to the deli on the corner. The mailman drops my packages there.' Karnak I am not.

She has yet to pick it up because she does not like that part of the city where the Fedex is.

Now this is a client who if she had showed up at my door, I would have sicced the dog on her. I put a note in the package telling her to find a new person, someone who did not need records to do her return, next year.

"Discounts for non-degenerates" 8-)

Michael

They usually come in 3's, so if you're getting more than 3 degenerates at a time, then perhaps God will be nice to you, and let to go a year with only Category "A" clients.

The Catholics actually have a very interesting way of handling this. Any excess suffering you do down here is actually credited to your account for use later. Presumably to spring you from purgatory a little early. You have to hand it to them, they've had hundreds of years to perfect a way to make a man feel better....after they've made him feel so bad. lol.

I actually have a lot of good clients. Just busy running their lives and no harm meant--most have come around and have been recussitated and rehabilitated. Some even have become star clients.

I actually have talked with a bunch of people at work who are very simple taxpayers and they said that it is just so much cheaper than using an Accountant to use Turbotax or the like. I am thinking that I might just fill the holes in my schedule by doing a $25 over the cost of TurboTax. The logic is that I can fill wasted time....I could have done 50 of these small personal returns while sitting around in the week before tax day. The other logic is that when life changes happen, I can go up on their rates. Hey, doing three $55 or $60 returns beats sitting around wishing a $250 client would show up.

Michael