For those tax practitioners that are still dealing with Hurricane Ida IRS tax extension. You must read this!
1) If you are in an area that is subject to the Hurricane Ida extension, I give you this word of warning now. DON’T LET YOUR CLIENTS CONTROL YOU! Don’t let their emergency be your emergency.
While you were afforded more time and it does take the pressure off of the 9/15 and 10/15 deadlines, it just creates a new one and just extends the tax season that much more.
When your clients find out they have more time, many of them will just drag their feet without any concern for you and your time.
Please do yourself a favor now and send an email, text and letter to your clients. Give them a hard deadline of say 12/10 to get their stuff to you. Just let them know that there will be a rush charge (I usually say $500) if it is received after that date AND that you cannot guarantee that it will get done if received after that date.
Let them know that with the holidays approaching, you will be taking some time off to spend with family as you always do right before the next tax season.
Trust me, I have been there done that. Back in 2004, the central Florida area was hit with 3 hurricanes (Charlie, Frances and Jean). The IRS extended the deadline to 12/30/2004 that year. That was the worst holiday season I have ever had. I never worked that much at that time of the year and vowed to never do that again.
So, for your sake, please take control of your practice and clients now. If you have already done something like this already, let me know what you have done.
2) For those of you that handle IRS Representation cases. Read this.
This was announced by an organization of which I am a member. You could always do 5 clients but 30 transcripts is the new part.
“Effective Nov. 15, tax practitioners will be able to order up to 30 Transcript Delivery System transcripts per client through the Practitioner Priority Service (PPS) or toll-free lines for most transcript types. This is an increase from the previous 10 transcripts per client limit. On the PPS, practitioners can order transcripts for up to five clients per call.”
