Leaderboard

This is probably as good a place as any to let you all laugh at this old lady skydiving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKxp9APHBVw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Indeed, way to go! Thanks for sharing. My neighbor has offered to go with me next year so I will take her up on it - when I return from my dive trip to Chuuk Lagoon. That has been my dream trip for about 15 years to see all the sunken battleships and planes from WWII. I've been to Palau, Indonesia and Fiji and didn't think I would get back there but it will happen in July. Hey, we have to LIVE our lives, right? Thanks for the inspiration and example of how to have a really good time! I saw the smiles all the waaaaayyyyyyy down.

I also don't like crowds and don't shop on Black Friday. And, I won't shop on Thanksgiving either. I think we all need a few holidays, including those that are nearly universal so families can get together. Well, as least as far as my family's universe extends! My son and daughter-in-law work at an Inn open 365 days, so she'll be on her feet all next week cooking dozens of turkeys. We don't go near the Inn when they're busy. We'll drive up Christmas day to eat with them when the restaurant closes for the evening and open presents under the Inn's tree when they can put their feet up. We stay a few days between the holidays while the Inn is mostly empty and leave before they prepare for New Year's Eve. My stepdaughter is in a serious relationship now so has "his" family and her mother's family and her mother's live-in boyfriend's family and her father's/my family to schedule. I told her not to let visiting us add any stress to her holidays and that we are happy to see them whenever it fits their schedules. She and her boyfriend will come to church with us on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and we'll take them out to lunch, No shopping!

Jacques Chirac, The French President, is sitting in his office when his telephone rings. "Hallo, Mr. Chirac!" a heavily accented voice said. "This is Paddy down at the Harp Pub in County Clare, Ireland. I am ringin' to inform you that we are officially declaring war on you!" "Well, Paddy," Chirac replied, "This is indeed important news! How big is your army?" Right now," says Paddy, after a moment's calculation, "there is myself, me Cousin Sean, me next door neighbor Seamus, and the entire darts team from the pub. That makes eight!" Chirac paused. "I must tell you, Paddy, that I have 100,000 men in my army waiting to move on my command." "Begoora!" says Paddy. "I'll have to ring you back." Sure enough, the next day, Paddy calls again. "Mr. Chirac, the war is still on. We have managed to get us some infantry equipment!" "And what equipment would that be, Paddy?" Chirac asks. "Well, we have two combines, a bulldozer, and Murphy's farm tractor." Chirac sighs, amused; "I must tell you, Paddy, that I have 6,000 tanks and 5,000 armored personnel carriers. Also, I have increased my army to 150,000 since we last spoke." "Saints preserve us!" says Paddy. "I'll have to get back to you." Sure enough, Paddy rings again the next day. "Mr. Chirac, the war is still on! We have managed to get ourselves airborne! We have modified Jackie McLaughlin's ultra-light with a couple of shotguns in the cockpit, and four boys from the Shamrock Bar have joined us as well!" Chirac was silent for a minute and then cleared his throat. "I must tell you, Paddy, that I have 100 bombers and 200 fighter planes. My military bases are surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we last! spoke, I have increased my army to 200,000!" "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" says Paddy, "I will have to ring you back." Sure enough, Paddy calls again the next day. "Top o' the mornin', Mr. Chirac. I am sorry to inform you that we have had to call off the war." "Really? I am sorry to hear that," says Chirac. "Why the sudden change of heart?" "Well," says Paddy, "we had a long chat over a few pints of Guinness, and decided there is no way we can feed 200,000 French prisoners."

Ok, I'm drooling over the ham and turkey. Not so much over the possum. lol I'll be thinking of you all next Thursday when you are feasting. Our turkey day is still TBD because two of the gathering work retail, one on Thanksgiving, one extra hours on other days following. At this rate, it may be combined into Christmas!

A couple goes for a meal at a Chinese restaurant to celebrate the man's birthday, and order the house specialty, Chicken Surprise. The waiter brings the meal, served in a lidded cast iron pot. Just as the wife is about to serve herself, the lid of the pot rises slightly and she briefly sees two beady little eyes looking around before the lid slams back down. "Did you see that!?" she asks her husband. He hadn't noticed anything odd, so she asks him to look in the pot. Just as he reaches for it, again the lid rises, and now he also sees two little eyes looking around before the lid again slams down. Rather perturbed, he calls the waiter over, explains what is happening, and demands an explanation. "Please sir," says the waiter, "What did you order?" The husband replies, "Chicken Surprise." "Ah! So sorry," says the waiter. "I bring you Peeking Duck."

You should really sign on and see for yourself. Personally, I like it better here with the smaller and more knowledgeable group that generally doesn't ask the very simple questions. The official forum has many times the users that this forum has, some of whom are skilled while others aren't at all. Some of those people are leaving ATX for other software in the coming year. I've found that the official forum has so many posters that sometimes a post goes unanswered, not because the question is too technical, but because it can get lost in the sheer volume of posts. Also, there are those questions that are asked over and over again because program users don't read the instruction manual and don't use the search feature to find answers to their problems, many posts are in the wrong forums, and posters ask simple questions that are answered in the 1040 instructions, all making for some frustrated reading at times. However, it has its place and had some technical workarounds that might not have been posted here. I do believe that whatever software is being used, users may find it beneficial to have access to that vendor's official forum.

https://www.facebook.com/SurfDogRicochet

Not me! I used to fly for the Navy (back seater on a carrier based jet). I never found a good reason to abandon a perfectly good airplane!! Twice I had occasion to have my hands on the ejection handle and once even had a little tension on it . . . but we were able to recover and land safely. Still, I have a ton of respect for what you did!

Wow -- fantastic!! Congratulations. Next time anyone accuses tax accountants of being "stuffy" they should get that video played for them. Have you considered playing it on continuous loop (silently or low volume) in your office during the season, for clients to enjoy?

I have never had any desire to jump out of a perfectly good airplane - I am afraid of heights, so they will have to set the plane on fire to get me to jump out. But you go Rita! I understand it is an awesome experience.

Yep, we were all smiling, before, during, and after! And, Margaret, you've dived through the depths so diving from two miles up should round out your exploration....

WAY TO GO, RITA !!!!

"As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure." Jacques Chirac, President of France. "As far as France is concerned, you're right." Rush Limbaugh

When my retired husband is sleeping in, it's really, really, hard for me to get up. Similarly, when he goes to bed before me, it's hard to keep working. When he's away, I can keep any hours with no difficulty. So, the empty bed in your picture just makes me think of changing sheets or doing laundry. But, a bed with a sleeping person or even a pet makes me want to nap!

When I was a young whipper snapper I used to work for a department store called Goldblatts, which merge with a store name Ames and Zayres and I always enjoyed watching people spend their money or putting stuff on layaway, I might of not been a productive person but I was always there to pick up my paycheck.

This has been my policy for all 7 major holidays for the past 30 years. We do not do ANY business on the Holidays for the reason mentioned in the picture. It would need to be life or death situation for us to do any business. On the other hand, I have been in line at 3:00AM on Friday after Thanksgiving to get some great electronics and technology deals.

I don't know about others, but my bed is certainly like a magnet. The hardest thing I do every day is get out of bed. Once I do that, the rest of the day is OK.

When couples are divorcing, I explain MFJ vs MFS. But, there are many reasons for filing MFS that have nothing to do with taxes, such as keeping her finances separate or filing before the soon-to-be-ex is ready or not being held jointly liable when you aren't together anymore to know/understand the other's finances. It's her decision after you inform her. Or his, is that's the client you keep. And, no, you cannot tell her or him "by how much" unless they both engage you to contrast MFJ vs. MFS for them. I prefer to keep only one of a divorcing couple if they decide not to file MFJ.

I have never worked Black Friday either, and as a rule I don't shop that day because I hate crowds. But I am thoroughly disgusted with all of the stores that are now opening late on Thanksgiving day (8:00? not really that late). Can't they give their employees a little break? I miss the days when you had to plan ahead because almost everything was closed on Sunday.

Karen If the Nigerian national is not living in the USA w/ your client, the US taxpayer, then the US taxpayer may file as Head of Household. As such, the US taxpayer doesn't have to report her Nigerian husband or his income at all. See IRC Section 2(b)2(. This section changes the US taxpayer's normal status (a little known section of the code). The Code states “a taxpayer shall be considered as not married at the close of his taxable year if at any time during the taxable year [her] spouse is a nonresident alien”.

I just finished a two-day tax seminar where one of the speakers was a 30-year IRS employee and a tax attorney. He got a similar call. Boy, did they call the wrong person. He actually did call back (after his federal friends instituted call tracing) and he's playing along. Your scammer was dumb, not including an agent number (even if made up) and stating that this was his personal line. It's time to remember that the IRS never, ever calls taxpayers and asks for personal info. They have to follow something called the Internal Revenue Code which is very specific that letters (not calls) have to go out at specified intervals. I think the only exception is when Criminal Investigation is involved. Those guys are cops, carry guns, and show up at your house in the middle of the night rather than call to make an appointment. You were obviously the target of a scammer and you did the right thing to ignore.

I was not at the roadshow, but would also like to hear some feedback. I know I'm a straggler, still on the fence. Our experience with ATX was so horrible, that we are reluctant to reward them with a renewal, no matter how good their new and improved version of the program is. I don't like to feel this way. We were so drained after April 15, that is was hard to recover the energy that it takes to stay on track and rebuild our bottom line. So here we go again, slamming into another uncertain tax season.

Anyone knows if this is the good cholesterol?

We are tired of turkey, will be trying out something different this year.

This site has been moved to a new server. It *should* have taken 15 minutes, but due to the nature of how the internets work (specifically DNS propagation) it's possible that a few users with sub-par ISPs are still looking at the old site. I shut down the site on the old server about 10 minutes after the switch began, and so it's possible that there is a missing thread or a couple missing posts. Anyone who sees this thread: You're looking at the new site. I doubt there are any still looking at the old site, but just in case, I shut down the old site and put up a note with my contact info and an explanation of why their ISP is dumb.

Hey, Eric, we appreciate this site, and you, very much. So those of us who wish to donate [i just did] will, and you just need to put up with us!!!

L o o k s l i k eeveryt hing is working fine on my s c r e e n.

Hey, we've already had one round of donations, cut it out

Herman Cain calls that the "SIN" tactics -- sidestep the issue, ignore facts, and name-call.

>>The IRS keeps making it more difficult for us to practise and at the same time withdraws assistance to those of us who comply.<< I think that's unfair (not that the IRS needs me to defend it). The government has given us fabulously useful tools, including the one in the title to this thread. It is not an all-purpose tool, but it's real good when we use it correctly. IRS has stood up to vicious criticism while raising our ethical standards and simplifying filing procedures. The IRS web site is a wonderful resource for fast research, almost unbelievable in a government agency. The problem is a particular political party, the one that wants to hobble government powers. So now things take longer than they used to, are done out of chronological order, or have other time issues. Or even quality control issues with training and other staff reductions, which is one of the principal ways we are paying for that political party's tax cuts. You don't know the reason for this delay, but that does not mean there is no reason. Maybe someone already used your client's SSN, or they are investigating a complaint of unknown validity. Or maybe there is a random audit hit. Well, it doesn't matter anyway. Re-read Jack's posts above, and get on with your life. And don't forget, it has long been an axiom of our profession that a refund suggests our own failure to properly advise the client.