Happy Sunday. A day of work for me. Cousin D & Friend Al get their taxes done.
A brief update.
Yesterday and today at Mom's. Last week Thursday night at Mom's but not overnight just there until the caregiver got there. Friday a very nice dinner with my friend Nancie. Next week nothing on the agenda but work and more work.
Had an interesting experience at work last week. We have a client that had two farms this year and inherited a third. All of the farms are in another state besides Oregon. That state has an income tax. Because of the additional farm this year the income was higher than previous years. My boss, M, thought we needed to file an Illinois return not only for this year but for the three previous years. Her take was we will probably lose the client but we have to do the right thing. I started looking into and adding a second state return to his return ended up saving the dude thirteen grand. The deal is one of the farm's was in his wife's name. None of us really knew that until this year when I did my digging. These farms were profitable and subject to self-employment tax. When you separated out the farms and put one of them in his wife's name all the self-employment tax went away. The reason? Three-fold. All of the profit was in her farm. She had already paid the maximum in social security tax on her W-2 form. And she didn't do anything active to produce the farm income. She was here, the farm was in another state. You are only dinged for self-employment tax if you do anything active. So I transferred her farm to form 4835, which is a farm rental schedule. The client is extremely happy. He couldn't believe it, he kept saying you mean I save three thousand, and it took me about ten minutes to convince him he saved thirteen grand. And whatever tax they paid to the other state came back to him on the Oregon return as a credit for taxes paid to another state. Oregon has a kicker in the law that doesn't allow a taxpayer to pay tax to two states on the same income. Of course the boss is extremely happy also, told the story all over the office. Used it as an example of how we should always do the right thing. And of course I am happy. We went from probably losing a client to having a client for life. I give credit to my boss. I like her honesty. She gives me credit, which of course I like.
That's it for today. I would love to hear the update on your life. How all of you and your friends are doing health wise and life wise. Would love to hear about events attended or coming up. And I would to love to hear your stories of when you did the right thing and instead of coming back to haunt you, it turned out amazingly well.
You can also post anything you damn well please. The blog is now yours.
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4 comments:
Wow, Bill, what a coup! Saving a guy $13K will certainly get you a client for life. Heaven help you if/when you want to really retire. {g}
Nothing much new here. Lazy weekend because of rain and cold and not much incentive to do anything except vegetate. I am, however, preparing a LOT of old files for a commercial shredding service. Should be interesting. They bring a truck to your house and you can watch the process, which turns your secret information into confetti, they say.
Sounds like you had a nice weekend and I'm glad you got to spend some time with Nancie.
As to doing the right thing, kudos to your boss and to you. What a coup, to get the guy $13K back on his taxes! I don't understand all the ins and outs of how it works but, yes, I'd say you have a client for life. You know, you're working yourself into a position where no one will ever let you retire, don't you? (wry g).
A somewhat tedious week of research on publishing and promotion and discovering glitches with ms files, broken up by the pool therapy and line dance. It seems every answer on the above raises two new questions. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm somehow making this more complicated than need be - that may be my main research question next week (koff). We've had gorgeous weather the last few days - eighties and mostly sun, with some showers - and a sure sign spring is here is the advent of the wasps and bees. Darn it. I did get some raking down, so the damp leaves underneath can dry for mulching. Took Friday off, picked up Nancy, drove her out to a small mill village, where she gets her hair cut, we stopped and had hot fudge sundaes at the DQ, something neither of us had done in longer than we can remember. Serious decluttering in the office (thinking this will clear the mind for more creativity).
As to health issues, requests for prayers. Nancy is doing well, considering she so recently had major surgery. She has her first chemo infusion tomorrow and they've told her it will take all day. Prayers for her, please.
Mom's not doing well. She has congestive heart failure. She has a "sticky valve," which they did an ultrasound on Friday. I haven't talked to her this weekend, as she's been sleeping when I called, so Deb gave me updates on things Mom doesn't want to discuss. The sliding scale isn't working on the diabetes, so they've changed to a shot ten minutes before every meal and lantus at night. Her vision is to the point where Deb has to give her the injections, parcel out her medications, read menus to her in restaurants and Mom's to the point of not wanting to go out to eat (her favorite activity) because sh can't tell what food is on her plate, where, and is very self conscious about it. Obviously, I'd like heaps of prayers for her and for Deb, who is dealing with all this.
On an up note, my aunt's heart attack turned out to be "mild," with no additional damage they can see, and she's agreed to spend the next month at an assisted living facility, where she knows many of the residents, and she is doing well.
I thank God, every day, for the good health Himself and I enjoy.
I'm can't think of any instances where "a good deed didn't go unpunished," unless it's the times I've been very honest with a client about their ms and they've come back to thank me and asked me to work on their next project. (shrug)
Hi Pat
I really give the credit to M. I was just the messenger. I'm seriously thinking about this being my last year.
I heard the LA area was getting a lot of rain, unusual. But sometimes vegatating is a good idea! Getting stuff ready to shred is a full time job. I wish they had that service here!
Bill
Hi DR
In my Mom's words "you should see Nancie more often." We always have a good time together but both of us are so damn busy.
When I talked to the client on the phone, first I told him it was M's idea. And he was just so nice to me, kept saying that he quit other accountants because they never asked him questions or did anything for him. He said he really respected M & I. I really liked talking to him. And what makes it even better is he lives in Sherwood so if I run into to him I don't have to hide!
Tedious weeks sometimes can be good because they make you appreciate the non-tedious ones.
I hope the glitches with you files and be easily fixed. Glad you did some dancing and swimming.
We all have a tendency to make things harder than they are. Maybe you need to step back from it for a couple of days.
Our weather has been pitiful for this time of year. Still really cold and snow flurries almost every day. I'm jealous.
What a treat for Nancie, she is really lucky to have a friend like you. And I bet she had a great time. DQ has the best hot fudge sundies!
My prayers and good thoughts continue for both Nancie and your Mom.
It is so hard to watch parents decline and it looks like that is what you and deb are doing. It is so important to get them out so I hope your Mom will change her mind and at least try to go out.
I am putting Deb, your Mom, and you on the church prayer change. And Nancie too.
Good news about your aunt.
Honesty with clients is always the best policy.
Bill
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