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Am I the only one who would be scared to meet Rita on about April 10th? I really enjoy reading your posts, but man, you seem to be on the fringe of doing some real harm to the next person that ticks you off. Tom Hollister, CA

I said I was letting it go. Get off my back.

What were they doing incorrectly? It is hard to imagine a church not understanding clergy taxes (yuk, yuk), or a clergy member not being satisfied with the tax laws in place (totally serious on that one). I guess the problem is the senior pastor, and not your client in your case, though. I had a pastor come in yesterday with info to complete 2009 - 2012 returns and a note to call the church treasurer so he could explain housing allowance rules to me. Yeah, I'll get right on that. She also had an unopened, returned 2007 return, apparently the IRS PO Box was closed by the time she got around to mailing her return. It was returned in 2009, and she hadn't bothered to call or anything. I opened it, noted no check to IRS, gave her a new envelope, said, "Hey, you really ought to put a check in there for Caesar, Jesus said to do that, right?" She laughed, "Shut up, I know." I thought, "Oh, so you knoweth to doeth good, and doeth it not." But, I just let it go... I keep chanting that these days. Let it go. Let. It. Go.

It's my birthday and the sun is shining but 35 degrees in Cincinnati. I have a pile of shortbread cookies from my staff so am a happy camper.

Like I said, I am glad you are 2 time zones away. Tom Hollister, CA

Any of the above mentioned programs form based or are they all like drake? Start from worksheet? I really have a hard time working from worksheet, prefer ATX in that I can go line by line on return. Tried Drake last summer for one return and was totally lost. Been working from forms since before computers.

Oh I take pride in being weird. Face it, we're in this business aren't we?! But the comment was referring to our similar experiences with the program this year. Must be doing something right, but for the life of me, I have no idea what, aside from not running a network and having decent computers with Win7.

Ron & I still seem to be having identical experiences. Weird, but good. My print manager is populating noticeably faster, and my print previews too. Since printing is my biggest drag on my work, I'm glad I updated.

The first time I tried Drake, it was basically a DOS program, but for the last few years it is a windows program.

Have a computer custom built. I have done this for my last 5 computers and it is great. The builder puts only what he and I determine is the appropriate component set for my business - no games, no 'trial' software, nothing that is not my business. He also then knows exactly what to look for and address, usually remotely, when those odd things appear. Today, for example, my clerk's computer lost network connection with the main computer. He remoted in (is that a real term?) and discovered that somehow the box that says 'share' was not checked. He said he has seen this but on rare occasion with Win 7. Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! YMMV

Ditto, Tom. I am hoping that they will be able to iron out the kinks during the off season and come back strong next year. I really do think there are some great features lurking under the bugs. I've looked at several other packages and ATX is the best value for the type of practice I have. I just hope they are able to survive. Gina

I am with Tom on this, although I will probably try to find time to test drive some other products this summer. I am afraid to rely on ATX to be fixed in time without having at least a back up plan in place that I can live with if necessary.

I don't think I would join a suit - unless they pulled the plug on the product and left us hanging. Then I might. Otherwise, I am going to stick it out and just keep ranting about it. When it comes down to it, I would be really excited for the new version if the damn thing worked. I see lots of potential for making it better than the old product was. But it needs to work. I will probably re-up next year if they still exist. But it won't be early, I will wait for the last minute. Tom Hollister, CA

They have been working on this for two years. I was at the CCH Small Firms Conference last October and had a chance to test drive the new program and check out the changes. But they did pick a bad year to roll it out; but how is a company supposed to predict just how much of an asshat Congress is going to be in any given year? Now some of the issues are program based. But the time they would have been working on these issues, you had all of the form revamps that had to be done at the same time. My cite for this? The two software programs that revamped their platforms are really screwed this year. You think RedGear skimped on programmers, etc too? Get real.

Okay, here is what I have taken from all of this. jasdim, thank you for directing me to page 13 of Pub 946. As you stated, it is only a Pub but it has cleared the mud from the waters. Use form 3115 to request a change in accounting for the incorrectly claimed depreciation from the IRS. I will look into the automatic approval mentioned in Revenue procedure 2008-52. If this is what I think it is, the approval should be automatic based on the amount. Once approval has been received, then an adjustment under section 841 is made and the incorrect amount of depreciation claimed is listed as other income on the 1120S and in this case, the total amount can be added this year. Now, I feel more comfortable with what has to take place and this is simplier and proper way to handle this. Jainen, KC, or anyone else, if I still need some guidance here please feel free to give it. As usual, I can count on you guys to help when it is needed. THANK YOU!

Definitely. In fact, my January crowd is to recalculate ES for changes, so listening to good and bad news then too. And, don't forget marriage counseling for those couples who approach money differently (and isn't that most of them?!). And, family counseling when the child gets their first job or goes to college or elderly parents move in. I too have a psychiatrist client and a couple of social workers. It's all about relationships.