The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: Langue_doc on Today at 09:12:09 AM

Quote from: ab_grp on April 15, 2024, 04:06:11 PM

Quote from: secundem_artem on April 15, 2024, 12:36:00 PM

Quote from: ab_grp on April 15, 2024, 07:49:05 AMWe're waiting excitedly (/sarcasm) to see if our CPA filed an extension and intends to complete our taxes or if I'm going to have to do so.  They were a great little local business but got bought out last year by a national group, and we have had zero correspondence from them! For others who use a CPA (especially part of a firm), I would be interested to know if you get any kind of updates that they have received your files, they plan to prepare your tax returns, the returns are ready for review, or an extension is being filed, or...?

Same thing happened to me.  Every year, worse service at a higher cost.  Last year they put me so far down their priority list I needed an extension - that never happened with the mom & pop firm I used to use.  Now, they just mail me a large envelope with a checklist, tell me "put your crap in here" and I drop it off at their office and hope they do something with it.

I downloaded Turbo Tax this year, did it myself for 1/3 the cost and basically the same outcome as the CPA firm used to get me with respect to return being accepted and refund/tax owing calculated.

Ugh! I just deleted a whole long rant about how this whole process unfolded, but long story short she is filing an extension.  We are one of about 200 returns she still has to review.  I appreciate that she is being diligent! I do like her a lot! I wish she had not sold her practice to this group.  I guess there were some issues with how the new system imports info from the old system.  I am frustrated.  I usually do TurboTax myself in the background to check that things look reasonable and to give myself a heads up about what the outcome might be, so maybe I will just do that in the future now that our portfolio is a bit simpler.  I'm glad you were able to save money and annoyance!

ab_grp, does your CPA not inform you in a timely manner about their inability to meet the deadline? Do you then have to pay the late filing penalty? Sounds rather disorganized as it wouldn't be too difficult to hire additional help during tax season. Also sounds a bit fraudulent if the assumption is that the taxes are going to be filed on time.

Before last year, she communicated much better.  And she is always responsive if we reach out! Last year, we submitted our packet as usual (she used to send an engagement letter and organizational questionnaire to submit with our materials by mid-March; not submitting on time would remove her responsibility for getting the tax returns filed on time, which seems reasonable).  We didn't hear anything and started to get nervous, reached out, and found out that the practice had been sold to this national firm! We were supposed to have received a letter announcing the merger (sure thing), and a letter miraculously arrived a few days after we called.  I guess they had just filed extensions for everyone.  We did not incur any fees.  I think that you avoid fees as long as you file the extension and don't owe money.  That was my understanding, at least (someone here will hopefully correct me if I'm wrong!).  Luckily, we are in a position of not owing again, so I'm sure the government is fine holding onto our money for longer.  I am not sure if it helps that we also pay estimated taxes.  This year even less communication.  I feel bad for our CPA.  My husband thinks she is hoping to retire in a few years and sold her practice to facilitate the transition for her clients (her partner in the old practice may have retired and kind of helped bring this on). 

As for hiring, I know that she mentioned two years ago (?) that they had actually lost some staff right before tax season and couldn't find new folks to work there for whatever reason.  I thought about applying (well, I actually thought about volunteering!).  I don't mind doing the grunt work parts of it, entering and checking data and calculating stuff and looking up tax code, but I don't understand the tax code enough to be able to see if there are necessarily issues along more complicated lines. 

I know the IRS is also having trouble getting staff (and yet rejects plenty of applicants).  I'm not sure what the issue is, but it seems widespread enough from the responses on this thread.

Quote from: the_geneticist on April 05, 2024, 03:45:48 PMI have a new TA for my class who seems to be suffering from "main character syndrome".

He has not taught this class before.
He has never taught any classes before.
He hasn't even read the protocol for the lab for today.

But he is happily giving his opinion on how the lab could be taught differently, trying to give instructions to the other TAs, etc.

The experienced folks are all too nice to just thump him upside the head with the lab manual.

I think I'm going to be repeating "what does it say in the protocol?" over and over with him.

I think I could write a book about this new TA.  As in a "don't be this guy"guidebook.

He's confidently wrong about so many things.
And he's constantly asking me questions about trivial things related to his research.  Why? My guess is he's trying to feel good about himself if he finds something I don't know.  Joke's on him - my postdoc was in his research field.

I've been having an email conversation that is basically:

stu: Can I still get points for the assignment I missed?
me: See the syllabus for the late penalty.  You can still turn it in.
stu: But I already did it!  I just forgot to submit.
me: We can only grade you based on what you submitted. 

Two weeks to go, and I still haven't heard back from the accountant in charge of my stuff. I had a look on the site, to make sure I didn't fuck up the email, and... looks like she isn't there any more. So that's weird.

I've now contacted my regular contact (I thought it was weird that I'd been assigned to someone else, but there you have it), and I imagine it'll get sorted. I guess that's what happens when the small firm you've used for decades gets bought up by a much, much bigger firm.

Grading and T1ing today.

I worked on my book manuscript this morning. I might return to it later since I got into a groove, but it is time to meet a student for lunch.

Quote from: ab_grp on April 15, 2024, 04:06:11 PM

Quote from: secundem_artem on April 15, 2024, 12:36:00 PM

Quote from: ab_grp on April 15, 2024, 07:49:05 AMWe're waiting excitedly (/sarcasm) to see if our CPA filed an extension and intends to complete our taxes or if I'm going to have to do so.  They were a great little local business but got bought out last year by a national group, and we have had zero correspondence from them! For others who use a CPA (especially part of a firm), I would be interested to know if you get any kind of updates that they have received your files, they plan to prepare your tax returns, the returns are ready for review, or an extension is being filed, or...?

Same thing happened to me.  Every year, worse service at a higher cost.  Last year they put me so far down their priority list I needed an extension - that never happened with the mom & pop firm I used to use.  Now, they just mail me a large envelope with a checklist, tell me "put your crap in here" and I drop it off at their office and hope they do something with it.

I downloaded Turbo Tax this year, did it myself for 1/3 the cost and basically the same outcome as the CPA firm used to get me with respect to return being accepted and refund/tax owing calculated.

Ugh! I just deleted a whole long rant about how this whole process unfolded, but long story short she is filing an extension.  We are one of about 200 returns she still has to review.  I appreciate that she is being diligent! I do like her a lot! I wish she had not sold her practice to this group.  I guess there were some issues with how the new system imports info from the old system.  I am frustrated.  I usually do TurboTax myself in the background to check that things look reasonable and to give myself a heads up about what the outcome might be, so maybe I will just do that in the future now that our portfolio is a bit simpler.  I'm glad you were able to save money and annoyance!

ab_grp, does your CPA not inform you in a timely manner about their inability to meet the deadline? Do you then have to pay the late filing penalty? Sounds rather disorganized as it wouldn't be too difficult to hire additional help during tax season. Also sounds a bit fraudulent if the assumption is that the taxes are going to be filed on time.

Good morning!

QB. Missed clave and nacelle yesterday. Took me awhile to find the pangram.

chines/stromboli--found the latter first, and then played around with the remaining letters hoping to get a plural/present tense form.

cathwen, happy visit with MD.

Happy solving!

Quote from: AmLitHist on Today at 08:11:47 AMMy college made IHE today, once again*, for all the wrong reasons. This, despite constantly being told we're a "best place to work," leading the way in innovations, God's gift to academia, etc., by admin. This incident involves (arguably) hate speech by an employee to a student, and campus admin allowing (though "not condoning"**) similar threatening speech by an outsider to go on for several hours.



*The last two times were when a student's assault went unacknowledged and uninvestigated for over a week while TPTB were out of town on a retreat, and when a previously-unannounced RIF took out 1/3 of our math and English departments district-wide.

**Not quite sure where the dividing line for that lies: I get the First Amendment aspect, but when overt, targeted threats are made. . . .

I wonder how much of this stems from abandoning expectations of civility from everyone. So speech is either "free" and therefore unrestricted, or "hate" which must have explicit punishments, but otherwise no-one can be told that they need to tone it down, regardless of whether what they are saying is true and/or important.

My college made IHE today, once again*, for all the wrong reasons. This, despite constantly being told we're a "best place to work," leading the way in innovations, God's gift to academia, etc., by admin. This incident involves (arguably) hate speech by an employee to a student, and campus admin allowing (though "not condoning"**) similar threatening speech by an outsider to go on for several hours.



*The last two times were when a student's assault went unacknowledged and uninvestigated for over a week while TPTB were out of town on a retreat, and when a previously-unannounced RIF took out 1/3 of our math and English departments district-wide.

**Not quite sure where the dividing line for that lies: I get the First Amendment aspect, but when overt, targeted threats are made. . . .