Due to the current status of the IRS response times, when a 1040 tax return has been prepared and ready to be filed, common sense suggests waiting in many cases to e-file rather than sending it in via mail.
Of course, this is client specific.
Problems:
Once an 8879 is signed, we are supposed to file the tax return quickly, right? 3 days, is it?
These tax returns are already late, but what if an election expires in the calendar year? Then obviously waiting is a bad choice.
There could be other unforeseen circumstances as to why waiting could result in unfavorable issues for the taxpayer.
There could be unforeseen issues with paper filing and a slow IRS, too.
Obviously, we should present the facts and leave it up to a client. But can we even provide waiting as an option? (stockpile rules). Even if we don't have them sign the 8879 yet, are we behaving in some manner that goes against circ 230 or anything like that?
Does anyone have a canned response to lay all of this out to allow the client to make a choice?
What do you do?