Staples - So Elementary

[zeros]

I see Staples has a Swingline stapler with a capacity of 125. Never tried it though.

[Lion]

I think the biggest source of paper in the client's copy is depreciation schedules for Schedules C and Schedule E. Throw in a few worksheets for phaseouts for itemized deductions or personal exemptions or...and you have a fat return. And, those energy K-1s that have separate activities that have to be reported separately and not netted together as on the K-1 page 1. And, the passive loss worksheets. And, NY and MA and CT returns. You get the idea.

[JohnH]

Plus, the invoice for doing all that work ought to run 2 or 3 pages itself...

[Nashville]

Originally Posted by Lion

I think the biggest source of paper in the client's copy is depreciation schedules for Schedules C and Schedule E. Throw in a few worksheets for phaseouts for itemized deductions or personal exemptions or...and you have a fat return. And, those energy K-1s that have separate activities that have to be reported separately and not netted together as on the K-1 page 1. And, the passive loss worksheets. And, NY and MA and CT returns. You get the idea.

Lion, you have just confirmed my point.

How much of this abovementioned stuff has to be in the tax package? I'm thinking about 25% of it at best. Is the rest of the stuff important? Yes, but in a separate package and for shore keep it available. Depreciation deliverable at a different time. State returns stapled separately, etc.

"She never cried when Old Yeller died,
She wasn't warshed in the Blood of the Lamb
She never stood up for the Star Spangled Banner
And she wasn't a John Wayne fan." - Confederate Railroad

[FEDUKE404]

Originally Posted by Lion

I think the biggest source of paper in the client's copy is depreciation schedules for Schedules C and Schedule E. Throw in a few worksheets for phaseouts for itemized deductions or personal exemptions or...and you have a fat return. And, those energy K-1s that have separate activities that have to be reported separately and not netted together as on the K-1 page 1. And, the passive loss worksheets. And, NY and MA and CT returns. You get the idea.

I understand completely, Lion.

Sometimes you get boxed in by the complexity of the return and just have to go with the flow.

OTOH, there is nothing wrong with keeping some of the background depreciation information and/or referenced worksheets in the electronic file and having such available whenever requested or actually needed. Most clients could care less about some types of number-crunching statements....they pay YOU to understand such!

And if you prepare a lot of returns of that type, I don't know whether to congratulate you or to send you an economy size bottle of Tylenol!!

FE

[Lion]

I'll take the large bottle of Tylenol. Yes, some of my invoices run to two pages. Haven't had a three-pager, yet. Do want to make the client copy fat enough to justify the two-page invoice!

[AuditorTurnedGood]

The largest I've seen so far is 103 pages. This did include a few supplementary schedules, but only those which were required to be filed with the IRS (the client has 25+ pass throughs, so a supplementary Sch E is required, for instance) Throw on all the double work for AMT and 3 state returns and their associated AMTs, you have yourself a doosie of a return. Nobody prints this thing, it exists in PDF form only.

ATG

[S T]

Thanks everyone for participating and providing good suggestions.

Sandy