filing back taxes

[TracyHalvy]

I have a client who did not file in 2014.  IRS, EDD, FTB say they have no transcripts of income.  Need to remove homebuyer credit repayment due to short sale.  Do I just list the income as zero?

[sjrcpa]

Is zero income accurate? Did you ask the client? How did he live with zero income?

Not everything gets reported to the tax authorities, even if it is taxable income.

[IRonMaN]

He lives very, very, very frugally😀

[PATAX]

@IRonMaN it could be. I think everyone has heard of, or known that person that looked like a broken down bum, that ate tomato soup everyday in a can that he warmed up with the pilot light on the stove. Then it turned out he or she was a millionaire. And probably had the money in an interest-free checking account and therefore had no income from it.

[IRonMaN]

The money was buried in the backyard in coffee cans 😁

[PATAX]

That happens too. Years ago a client told me that her father worked for an old farmer many years ago, and that is what he did. She called him an old miser or something...... Turned out that old farmer was my great, great Uncle.

[IRonMaN]

Some folks believe coffee cans in the backyard are safer than banks.  The only thing is, you can always find the bank --------------------- you might not be able to find all of those coffee cans 😁

[rbynaker]

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@IRonMaN wrote:

The only thing is, you can always find the bank

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I'm not sure that's true any more.  A lot of the brick-and-mortar banks are closing around here (many due to mergers).  At least three Capital One branches have closed that I've previously used.  I tried to go to one last month and it wasn't there any more.  So I pulled up Waze to find the nearest one.  It routed me to a dumpster in the back parking lot of a hotel.  Fortunately there was a bank next door, but that may have been purely coincidental.

I may be moving to a coffee can system in the future. 🙂  I'm liking the "No penalty CD" from Ally Bank (I've rebooted twice now to get a better interest rate) but I'm pretty sure I would never be able to find the bank if I needed to.