The last three days have been a zoo

[LdiJ]

We expected to be crazy busy for the first two weeks in July, but we expected to be less busy than we normally would be for the first two weeks in April. We had this idea because people had had so much extra time to file, and we were doing so many returns in May and June, that we thought it would be less hectic.

Oh my god we were SOOOO wrong. This is the busiest end of tax season we have ever seen, and yesterday we had to triage a lot of returns to see who we could file extensions for without causing them any late paying penalties. We NEVER do that. With the rare exception, we always complete and file every return given to us by the deadline. Extensions are filed when the client requests them, but not because we can't get the work done.

I logged 25 returns on Tuesday. That is the highest number of returns that I have ever logged in a single day. Wednesday was heavy too, we still had people trying to drop off documents at 6pm last night. I expect to continue to be really busy for the rest of the week doing all the mop ups.

 

[cbg]

I feel your pain. The year we thought was going to be a light Open Enrollment proved to be the busiest one we'd ever had.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I don't prepare many returns but I too was busier than usual fielding calls and e-mails from return preparers who needed advice on particularly sticky issues they had and from them I learned how busy many of them were. It made a few of them a bit short tempered. So I have an idea of what you were facing. But I like to look at the positive side of such things too. While hectic, though, there is at least that upside of all the fees that I was getting, and for your firm all the fees it was getting from all those last minute clients. A blessing at a time when many businesses are struggling with being shut down or restricted because of covid. So while I was pretty busy, I was also very thankful for it. I know my situation is better than a lot of others and I don't want to take that for granted.

Hopefully your firm will give you some well earned time off later this month to recharge.

 

[adjusterjack]

Human nature - Give people more time to do something and they'll still wait until the last minute.

 

[LdiJ]

I don't prepare many returns but I too was busier than usual fielding calls and e-mails from return preparers who needed advice on particularly sticky issues they had and from them I learned how busy many of them were. It made a few of them a bit short tempered. So I have an idea of what you were facing. But I like to look at the positive side of such things too. While hectic, though, there is at least that upside of all the fees that I was getting, and for your firm all the fees it was getting from all those last minute clients. A blessing at a time when many businesses are struggling with being shut down or restricted because of covid. So while I was pretty busy, I was also very thankful for it. I know my situation is better than a lot of others and I don't want to take that for granted.

Hopefully your firm will give you some well earned time off later this month to recharge.

I am taking next week off myself. My boss said that as long as there was at least 1 live person to answer the phone and explain that everybody was taking the week off that we were good to go.

 

[LdiJ]

I don't prepare many returns but I too was busier than usual fielding calls and e-mails from return preparers who needed advice on particularly sticky issues they had and from them I learned how busy many of them were. It made a few of them a bit short tempered. So I have an idea of what you were facing. But I like to look at the positive side of such things too. While hectic, though, there is at least that upside of all the fees that I was getting, and for your firm all the fees it was getting from all those last minute clients. A blessing at a time when many businesses are struggling with being shut down or restricted because of covid. So while I was pretty busy, I was also very thankful for it. I know my situation is better than a lot of others and I don't want to take that for granted.

Hopefully your firm will give you some well earned time off later this month to recharge.

Oh, and by the way, we had a lot of people emailing us their information. That was extremely frustrating because they would scan one document at a time so it took absolutely forever to download and print their documents. Nobody had the common sense to just scan all the documents together so that we could just download and print one file. The had enough common sense to scan a whole composite 1099R report from their broker together, but they didn't have common sense enough to scan everything else together. Those people got charged extra.

I got a chance to ask one guy to please scan everything together, and he said he would, but he put them all in a zip file so that they still had to be printed one at a time ARG!

 

[TimStudiesLaw]

Human nature - Give people more time to do something and they'll still wait until the last minute.

My grandpa used to tell me "If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done."

 

[Taxing Matters]

Nobody had the common sense to just scan all the documents together so that we could just download and print one file.

A lot of people really don't understand computers all that well, even those who use them a lot for work. And it's a given that a number of people really aren't thinking about how to make things easier for others they deal with. Not that they have any desire to make it harder; they just don't think about what the person on the other end will have to do with that they are given. I'm sure you've experienced the classic situation of a client dumping off a box of unorganized records — a pile of various receipts, canceled checks, and so forth that looks more like a waste bin than records. Those folks just don't understand how much effort that takes to deal with and don't appreciate that they'll end up paying for it.

 

[davew9128]

I had someone email me at 10:30 pm asking how to make an extension payment electronically...yeah, uh, no. Google it.

 

[davew9128]

Oh, and by the way, we had a lot of people emailing us their information. That was extremely frustrating because they would scan one document at a time so it took absolutely forever to download and print their documents. Nobody had the common sense to just scan all the documents together so that we could just download and print one file. The had enough common sense to scan a whole composite 1099R report from their broker together, but they didn't have common sense enough to scan everything else together. Those people got charged extra.

I got a chance to ask one guy to please scan everything together, and he said he would, but he put them all in a zip file so that they still had to be printed one at a time ARG!

Would these be the people who's scans came through with each page as a JPEG and a text file with a randomized name?

 

[davew9128]

I'm sure you've experienced the classic situation of a client dumping off a box of unorganized records — a pile of various receipts, canceled checks, and so forth that looks more like a waste bin than records. Those folks just don't understand how much effort that takes to deal with and don't appreciate that they'll end up paying for it.

Had a senior citizen once pay for priority mail for a box of stuff like that. I put "Refused, return to sender" on it without a second thought. Not taking that nonsense to prepare a tax return, not this far into the 21st century.

 

[quincy]

I am taking next week off myself. My boss said that as long as there was at least 1 live person to answer the phone and explain that everybody was taking the week off that we were good to go.

At least you have next week to look forward to.

I hope you have a lot of fun activities, or no activity, planned for your time off.

 

[Zigner]

Nobody had the common sense to just scan all the documents together so that we could just download and print one file.

Interesting -
When I scan financial documents, I scan each document separately (albeit, with a descriptive file name). You would have to explicitly ask me to scan everything as one...and even then I'd just use a program to combine all of them in to one (as opposed to re-scanning them).

 

[Taxing Matters]

and even then I'd just use a program to combine all of them in to one (as opposed to re-scanning them).

Well, that works too.

 

[FlyingRon]

Yep, What I should have done is prepared my taxes back in April (or earlier), because I actually have a tidy refund coming from the feds. I could have then sat on the State return until yesterday (I owed them). I did send in the 1Q/2Q Estimated Payments on Tuesday.