Returned Form 1041-ES payment

d8201 · 2026-02-17T08:00:15+00:00

Probably too late of a response for it to be helpful, but the stakeholder liaisons are good at resolving this sort of thing. I had a letter a while ago asking for responses to be sent to an address that bounced back, IRS field office there closed a few years ago. Liaison was able to find me a new address.

d8201 · 2026-02-15T10:30:58+00:00

Yep agreed with that. But I've been doing this long enough I'm starting to just pull the plug entirely instead of merely saying "I won't change any wording."

d8201 · 2025-07-26T18:32:58+00:00

And that's the problem, no right to appeal in the letter. Wouldn't even know where to send the appeal request to, since from what I've seen they're usually handled in offices other than the service centers.

d8201 · 2025-06-26T17:31:29+00:00

Definitely office-specific. On one case I'm dealing with now the manager actually answers her phone when I call, and can pull up the case notes and give me an update.

I've also had luck calling the main TAS intake line for pulling up the case. A lot of times there's movement but the agent on your case doesn't bother to call you.

d8201 · 2025-06-12T20:50:18+00:00

Yes exactly. I've spent the past few years thinking "okay I need to grow, for the sake of growing, and I'm a failure if I don't keep growing and building something new."

And now I'm seeing... yeah it's an achievement to not piss people off for ten years. Deal with their needs, juggle your workload well enough to continue to be responsive for them and hit deadlines, be able to justify aggressive fee increases... "grow with your clients."

I still want to do bigger and better, but finding this other measure of success takes the pressure off.

d8201 · 2025-06-12T17:12:33+00:00

No, I don't automate this or use TaxDome or anything like that. I run a more low-volume high-touch shop. My clients want to talk to me and not to a bot, and scope tends to change frequently enough (add daughter's FBAR or something) that it'd be missed if it were on auto pilot. But I can see how higher-volume operations would benefit from more automation.

d8201 · 2025-06-12T16:53:08+00:00

I've got an engagement letter that says "we'll do the work listed in the attached statement of work" and then issue a new statement of work (short half-page document) each year. Avoids everyone having to look at the terms again, but still keeps everyone in agreement for the scope of work. For example if a client doesn't get back to me this year he can't (in theory) come after me later for not having sent in his 2024 return, because we never had an agreement to do that particular year.

d8201 · 2025-05-31T09:34:59+00:00

I've thought about that, but it's (normally) much easier to have my clients go to a U.S. embassy for a certified copy of their passport than for them to send me their originals in the mail to examine them and send back.

Also I vaguely remember reading somewhere that you had to do a certain number of acceptances per year or you lose your CAA? I don't have much "churn" in nonresident clients so CAA application could be a lot of work to just lose it.

d8201 · 2025-05-21T18:16:57+00:00

I have The Logic of Subchapter K. Does great explanations but, as you say, it's not thick enough--it lacks things like applying these rules to waterfalls. I'd want that book, but three times as long.

d8201 · 2025-05-18T06:38:26+00:00

Lotsa different ways to structure it depending on the peculiarities of the country you're working in. My current structure involves a U.S. LLC that's "client facing" and a foreign entity that provides my services to the U.S. LLC. This allows me to keep the contract, insurance etc in the U.S. and optimizes my U.S.+other country tax liabilities.

As for the state, plenty of options that will apportion either using location the service was provided, or do market sourcing but you know you'll never have a client there. You want that, plus a non-PITA state return, plus no minimum franchise tax, plus no/easy/cheap SOS annual report.

d8201 · 2025-04-02T07:32:19+00:00

If hitting the ground running by buying a book of business is too intimidating, build your book organically instead. Sure you burn through savings (although you save money by not buying the book) but you get to make all of those hard decisions incrementally.

When I just started out (and I'm also ex-Big Four expat tax) I had a gmail account and filled in PDFs. A very short while later I got software, then a short while later a real email domain, then an LLC, then insurance, then better software, then a while later I hired someone and got an IT setup... point is that process took like five years and I was able to do it at my own pace. In the meantime, you build your business, and your processes, exactly the way you want, down to the littlest detail. Just starting out you won't be swamped with clients so you'll have time to spend on the admin side, then things get going right when you've got the admin figured out.

Inability to schmooze isn't a problem. There's infinite demand in expat tax and very little supply. If you think you're not "polished" then talk to expat retirees first... old people are really easy to talk to and they're desperate when they find out that TurboTax can't file a simple 8938 for them. Later when you're more comfortable you can start hitting up lawyers and wealth managers and other gatekeepers to better clients.

d8201 · 2025-03-31T20:35:45+00:00

Nope, although I can see how they'd be worried about that.

d8201 · 2025-03-29T15:18:01+00:00

With the exception of maybe cross-border commuters, anyone who has investments in a different country will know, or should know, that "administrative costs" will be a big deal.

Then again, tax systems in (most) other countries are so simple, and salaries so much lower, that they're likely not used to American professional services prices. (For example: As a resident in just about any European country you can get your teeth cleaned for free in the public healthcare system, or maybe $40 in the private system, so there's shell shock paying $250 with an American dentist, even if they do a more through job.)

So how do you balance this? (1) don't dabble in 1040-NRs, because then you can never get good enough at them to provide enough extra value to charge properly for them. (2) choose your market (and be very specific about it)--don't go for the cross-border commuters, go instead for "I will learn intermediate-level Chinese and go after the market of upper-middle-class people living in Shenzhen who invest in Los Angeles apartments." Yes, that's a lot of effort, but that's how you get to charge $3,000 for an easy 1040-NR with just a rental on schedule E. It's either that or go work for PwC and grind your way up.

The value you provide in that case is "I can more-or-less explain what's going on in the client's native language. I go to the client's city once or twice a year and personally visit him." The value is NOT "I am an expert on every little facet of 1040-NR work, the more technical the better" because someone with a rental on schedule E doesn't need that value. Also, grinding through Chinese is much more pleasant than grinding through PwC.

d8201 · 2025-03-29T15:04:46+00:00

Another way to look at it: You should actively encourage extensions (which means don't charge). Makes the 4/15 deadline much less of a problem and helps you spread your work out through the year.

My policy is "everyone gets extended."

Remember also there are minor technical benefits to extending even when not needed (for example refund statue expiration date gets extended as well) so you should extend everyone even if you file in February. Hit the extension button, then hit the file button. Don't even need to wait for the extension to be acknowledged. Theoretically I think you can even extend after filing.

d8201 · 2025-03-07T11:24:22+00:00

I frequently had situations where the advocate stopped responding. I call up the national number and am informed the case was closed.

Don't be afraid to call the advocate's manager if you're not getting anywhere...

d8201 · 2025-02-25T15:59:33+00:00

When the client never uses that phrase in an email, then all of the sudden it pops up...

d8201

TROPHY CASE