Client is demanding a draft is marked final.

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#1
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North Shore, Oahu
For a lender of course.

I dont have his tax docs and the IRS is not ready with the new NOL worksheets.

At first he told me they would accept a draft. He saw the watermark and changed his tune.

I politely told him no, empathized with his stress over the situation, and briefly explained why.

The client is very upset with me.

Am I right about this?

If his lender can't accept the situation without documents and finalized forms, how could I?
 

#2
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21-May-2018 7:50am
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Northern MI and Coastal SC
HELL no. I have had the same request, I responded to both the client and lender, and they accepted that I could not provide a draft copy without it being watermarked as such. I then followed up with my standard language that a tax return is not a valid document for obtaining credit since the tax codes may cause the tax returns to not properly reflect actual income and cash flows.

Most banks I do work with are pretty reasonable, especially when they have worked with me in the past. If the return is extended, they just want a copy of the extension and find workarounds. Good bankers can identify workarounds, newbies or PITA bankers will stand firm with their dang checklists.
 

#3
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OH
Seems to me the client is acting unreasonably here. Your engagement should never be to benefit a third party, I know that some people even put this in their engagement letters. I never will send a final copy that the IRS hasn't accepted if we haven't tried to e-file it. Is this a draft 2021 return? If so, was this done with paystubs? There's no way I'm giving a client a return without having the documents or wage & income transcripts if they have income reported on information returns (W-2's, 1099's, etc).
 

#4
CathysTaxes  
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Suburb of Chicago
ItDepends wrote:For a lender of course.

I dont have his tax docs and the IRS is not ready with the new NOL worksheets.

At first he told me they would accept a draft. He saw the watermark and changed his tune.

I politely told him no, empathized with his stress over the situation, and briefly explained why.

The client is very upset with me.

Am I right about this?

If his lender can't accept the situation without documents and finalized forms, how could I?

Stick to your guns. Your E&O Insurance and the IRS have rules against this. Your livelihood is on the line here.
Cathy
CathysTaxes
 

#5
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6043
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22-Apr-2014 3:06pm
Location:
WA State
An unreasonable request without a doubt.

You agreed to provide a draft. If he'd demanded a "final" up front, your initial answer would have been the same as it is now.

The only thing this client would get from me at this point is a bill. I may not even finalize the return if they continue to be unreasonable.
~Captcook
 

#6
TaxCut  
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24-Feb-2017 12:05pm
Location:
California
Tell client to find a new lender.
 


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