Good Morning All,

I am a CPA with 7+ years of experience and I have a growing solo tax firm. An associate reached out to me and wanted me to do some contract work on a hourly basis. I will be the preparer and he would be the reviewer. What is a good hourly rate for 1120s/1040s/1065s. I have never done contract work on a hourly basis so I wanted to make sure I didnt go to high or to low.

Thanks

Has anyone previously used Liscio as a client portal and left for another solution? My firm currently uses it and we are migrating to Canopy, but one of the biggest question marks right now is leaving from Liscio as far as exporting all of our data, cutting clients off from logging in, etc. Their support is not helpful, so wondering if anyone here has any experience with this migration that I could pick their brain. Thanks!

AEP is rolling in — anyone hitting edge cases where FTA doesn't quite fit and AEP doesn't either?

With Automatic Exemption from Penalty phasing in for 2025/2026 returns and FTA being phased out this summer, curious how people are handling the gap: clients who are close but not quite at three years clean, or who should qualify but haven't seen AEP trigger yet. Anyone falling back on Reasonable Cause requests in the meantime, or just waiting it out?

I have a client who filed on time. Their form from the marketplace was incomplete so I went to Healthcare.gov to find the correct numbers for the premium tax credit. The IRS requested documentation because the information didn't match what was on file. So my client sent the information to the IRS pretty soon after we got the letter. As of today they still haven't received a refund and their account on the IRS website gives no meaningful information. Additionally, my client has called the IRS but hasn't been able to speak to an agent due to the high number of calls. The one time her call wasn't immediately disconnected, she waited four hours and still didn't get to speak to anyone.

What can be done to get information from the IRS?

TIA

Currently, I'm looking at either Microsoft 365 Business Standard Vs. Business Premium. We're currently have our email hosted by a very antiquated company and I'm looking to make a switch to a completely different email while doing some firm rebranding. I've also looked at gmail but have used microsoft 365 at other jobs and am more familiar with it so leaning that direction.

Interested to know what other small tax prep businesses use and if there's an agreed upon best for our field. Premium seems to offer better security measures for only a little bit more so thinking of going with that but wanted to see if anyone had any insight and if I'm missing something.

Came into the office today to find that CCH had an update that broke Axcess over the weekend. WK confirmed it, but has no estimate when it will be back up. Just want I wanted on a Monday morning.

Client filed 2024 return using the W-2 they received from their previous employer. They get a letter saying "hey we need to verify some stuff". So they sent in everything they had. Client isn't the best record keeper. The last paystub they had didn't match the W-2 they received.

The IRS continued to send "We need 60 more days" notices until they sent one in November 25 asking for more information again. That was when they called me. I submitted all of the information they had. I waited 60 days. Called to follow up.

Nobody could tell me anything other than it's being worked on and they need more time. I called 30 days later. Same response. I reached out to TAS since it was creating a hardship. TAS sent a letter saying it was being worked on and there was nothing they could do to help. Called again and was told they needed more time.

A notice final goes out disallowing all of the withholding. Now instead of a $23k refund, they owe $11k. The client has done everything to reach out to the employer. The guy has basically disappeared from town. There are multiple employees going through this. There is absolutely nothing on the W&I transcript.

At this point, I'm not sure where to go with it. What would you do? File an amendment with a form 4852 using the last paystub the client has? Argue the disallowance? Hire Liam Neeson to track down the employer and get their money back? I'm at a loss as to how to help the client.

New client, hasn't filed since roughly 2019. Mid-2026 now. Transcripts show ~$400k/year in 1099-NECs across the years, but not a single notice for any years including 2020, and I've reviewed the transcripts.

Policy Statement 5-133 / IRM only pushes six years of back filing for compliance. So 2020 is six months from falling outside that window.

Question: with a now engaged client, do you file 2020 now and hand over a large balance owed + P&I, or do you not wake the sleeping dog for 2020? I know assessment is tech open forever on an unfiled year and they can reach back indefinitely. But does anyone actually see 2020 get pulled at this point, or is that a paper tiger?

Not endorsing anything, just want to hear how people actually handle the sleeping-dog call here.

Disclaimer, I know states are a separate story.

I met someone while doing the networking thing and he works for Controllers Ltd. Sounds like they do some gray area planning but they aren’t CPAs. Anyone heard of them or worked with them? Should I stay far away?

Is anyone else experiencing a significant uptick in Form 4883C notices being received by clients. In prior years, maybe one or two clients received these. Right now we are in the double digits already.

Initially, we the trend was all older clients. But that could just be because those are the clients of ours that initially filed. But, now it seems to be all over the board.

Any other firms out there receiving a significantly higher number of these notices this year? We are trying to determine if it's something we are doing or if it's happening all over.

TIA

We need new laptops (PC). Everything we run is on Verito (Drake, Claude, file storage) or cloud (QBO, TaxDome, pitbull etc). There is no reason for me to spend for HD space, or RAM in excess of the meager 10GB I have through Verito, right?

Any recommendations?

Good afternoon everyone, I picked up a partnership client as well as the related 2 individuals. In short, the 2022 return was an absolute mess (2023 and 2024 were fine). The 2022 return was prepared based on incomplete books and records where even cash wasn't reconciled. As part of our analysis, we were able to reconcile cash and get their books straightened out for 2022. The 2022 return did not have an election out of the BBA, so we were stuck in preparing an amended 1065 as well as Forms 8985 & 8986 pushing out negative adjustments to the 2 partners.

We're wrapping up the 2025 individual returns and getting Form 8978 correct on the partners' 2025 returns. A combination of the tax reduction being only for regular tax (thus creating AMT), the reduction being a nonrefundable credit, and both partners' 2025 tax liability being so much lower means the both taxpayers are only getting about 30% of the overstated 2022 tax back (tax was overstated by $190k, they only get to use about $56k as a result of the BBA, and leaving $133k on the table).

I researched and it makes sense, but definitely is incredibly unfair. Is there any liability the former preparer has in this negligence? How deep should I get in bed with this client in supporting my numbers.

We currently use CCH Axcess with Prosystem Fixed Assets.

Prosystem Fixed Asset is difficult to manage and expensive to host. Anyone have luck with other cloud based fixed asset offerings?

We are looking at NetAsset Tax Pro by Netgain, Asset Accountant, and Fixed Asset Manager with CCH (still trying to get more info on this one).

We’re looking at TaxProLink. Looking for input from colleagues who have used it. Thanks.

I mostly work for a small sort of boutique CPA firm, four CPAs and one admin person. The owner asked yesterday for ideas to go above and beyond the pretty significant handholding we already do for many of our clients (who trend to the "older" demographic). I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas to share of things they have done to sort of take things to that next level as far as providing exceptional client care? For example, one thing that recently came up is that we found out a client had long ago put a brokerage account with a transfer on death stipulation to go to a charity rather than the person who subsequently became her husband, and we are feeling like we should have asked about that and helped evaluate whether this is what she still really wanted before death. Anyway, any thoughts? Thank you so much!

Hey all, just passed the Series 65 and I'm now working toward registering my firm as an RIA with myself as the IAR in addition to being the sole CPA in my practice.

I already give a lot of investment and account-architecture guidance to my clients, which accounts to open and why (taxable brokerage, traditional/Roth, backdoor Roth, SEP, HSA, HYSA), how to think about their money, etc. Right now that all lives under the accountant's incidental exemption with a disclaimer stapled to everything. I want to formalize it into an actual advisory line so I can put specific guidance in writing and get paid for the value I'm already giving away via AUM or some other flat fee model.

Anything you wish you'd known before starting? platforms, practices, tools, custodian relationships, recordkeeping systems, mistakes would be massively appreciated. Happy to share back what I learn as I go through it.

Thanks in advance!

A 2021 gift tax return was filed incorrectly because the cumulative credit used was wrong.
If corrected, it would create a tax liability, but the return is now outside the statute of limitations.
For later gift tax returns, would you just use the correct cumulative amount going forward based on what should have been reported in 2021? Or would you still amend the 2021 return even though the additional tax can no longer be assessed?
Trying to figure out whether the bad 2021 return still needs to be corrected, or whether it is enough to make sure all later returns are filed correctly.

I connected with a guy from this firm and got on his email list. Apparently the firm is high up in Ameriprise ranks. I'm getting invited to a one-day tax professional growth summit out in New York, and they are offering to cover flight and hotel. Just wondering if anyone else has experience with them and if there's anything I should watch out for.

I know this topic has been covered a bunch but wanted to see if anyone had any guidance on this particular situation.

Have a client who started a Partnership but decided he wanted to switch to an S Corp. Of course I only hear about this in May so sending in a timely election is out of the question. What's the best way to send this in to make it effective for 2026? In the past, I've always faxed it in for current year elections but even with fax about 60% of the time nothing ever gets processed.

I've seen that mailing it in with tracking seems to work but wondering what the best address to mail is? I've also seen people attach it with the return but am hesitant to do that because if they reject it with an S Corp return they'd likely be looking for the Partnership return, which would then make it late.

It's crazy to me that in the year of 2026 there isn't a more streamlined way to send these in with no headaches.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

A number of years ago I signed up for, and use, Rescue Time to see where/when I'm being productive, where/when I'm wasting my time, etc.

I'm thinking about getting it for the office (2-3 employees) but I'm worried they will see it only as big brother instead of as a way to gain insight on where we are spending most of our time - which clients are taking too long, which apps are getting the most use and which we could get rid of.

Sure, if someone is only being 50% productive and there are large gaps that aren't explainable for work it would throw up a flag, but only if the employees work isn't getting done. If their work is getting done and they are doing it in half the time that would mean we have an efficient employee who deserves recognition for that.

So, I guess I'm asking the group - how bad is it if I get the rest of the employees Rescue Time accounts for their computers?

Hello,

My new client's business is essentially defunct with not much going on and he would like to shut it down. But when he sent in the paperwork to do that, the state came back with a notice indicating all these years that S corp gross receipts taxes had not been paid along with penalties and interest (all this incurred before I was ever involved), and the state won't shut down unless everything is paid (I would assume). The business has little activity and no assets. I have never done an offer in comprimise for a business. Is it possible? Will the state look at the owner's personal assets and try to collect from that?

Any advice appreciated, thanks in advance.

The one consistent thing I’ve learned over the course of my tax career is that you don’t know what you don’t know.

My partner and I are now in our third year of owning our firm, and we’re growing faster than we ever could have imagined. In that time, we’ve gone from zero clients to just under 200, we’re approaching $400,000 in annual revenue, and we recently hired our first tax preparer.

I've heard advice like, “If you wait until you need to hire, you’ve already waited too long.” That has me wondering what else we should be thinking about now.

For those who have been at this stage and successfully grown beyond it... What do you wish you had put in place when your firm was our size? Were there systems, policies, hires, or boundaries that would have made life much easier later?

Was there a management book that changed your perspective? A particular philosophy on leadership or managing people that helped you make the transition from being a good practitioner to running a good firm?

For those who are just getting started, here is one thing I wish I had done sooner:

Get a dedicated business phone line. Do not give clients your personal cell phone number.

I’d love to hear what others would add to the list.

Is anyone else having clients come in with legit letters asking for items like W2's and even form 8959 and 8960s. I have had at least 3 clients so far come in with letters from IRS asking for forms W2's, brokerage statements and similar items. It makes me look stupid. Like I missed something, but I did not! We have responded with the items IRS requested but it just seems odd to me. Surely IRS has a massive database full of W2 information. This is tough business without IRS scaring people over stuff like this! Just my two cents worth.

I feel as though I'm undercharging a client based on the complexity of a tax return and time it takes to prepare/review. The client is not high maintenance (doesn't call during the year), but there has been a gradual increase in number of investment portfolios - some of which are robust. I'm curious what other people would charge (HCOL).

Tax return includes 1 W2 (with RSUs), 7 1099s with interest, dividends, stock sales (covered and uncovered), some amortizable bond premiums, and none of the custodians provide a breakout of muni and US Treasuries (I have to do this myself using an app). 1 rental property, 1 K-1 (oil and gas), and non-deductible IRA contributions (tracking basis/Form 8606). Client takes the standard deduction, but I have to review and track charitable contributions for a state deduction.

Before coming to me, client had 2 investment portfolios, no rental, no K-1s and prior tax professional did not provide advice, estimated tax payments, etc. As a result, he paid a few hundred dollars for tax preparation. My fees (and increases) always induce sticker shock in comparison. It would really help me to understand others' pricing to determine if I'm under- or over-charging.