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Absolutely right. People who really need financial help gain little by just a once-a-year windfall that they spend the first month and then have to look elsewhere for help. It is a big incentive to work in the underground economy and/or to file fraudulent claims.

I have gone years without calling tech support. If I had platinum software like Lion, I'd want that level of support too. But unlike a menu driven software, I find ATX input to be intuitive enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgHAnqfVdKo

Certainly one of the best, but always with the support offered on this board. IMO

And consider a one-time "set-up fee" as well as your normal bookkeeping rate, to be fair to you.

"The tax returns to be examined are selected using an effective risk-based audit selection model, resulting in a change rate of more than 90 percent." - probably less to do with their "effective risk-based audit selection model" and more "high fraud rate". Like shooting fish in a barrel. "Last year there were more than 67,000 two-year bans and 45 10-year bans in effect." - wow those are disappointingly low. 45 total 10-year bans in effect? I'd consider anyone who has repeatedly reported fake income to obtain EIC filing fraudulent returns and there's way more than 45 of those. It looks to me like the IRS is doing ... almost nothing ... with the information they have available to cut down on the EIC fraud. Instead, they want paid preparers to do the work. But this won't work because probably a significant portion of the EIC claimed on returns prepared by paid preparers are done by fraudulent preparers that file bogus returns with inflated refunds. They're not filing bad EIC claims because they didn't know better but rather because their intend is to file bad EIC claims. The IRS has to do more than send letters. Even the $500/return penalty doesn't matter when you make more than $500 a tax return. They need to put those preparers in a jail cell or deport them.

But, you still have to know if the correct numbers flowed to the correct line(s) of the correct form(s). Go back even further to the pencil and carbon paper days. I firmly believe that you have to know your forms.

Did he take a distribution of the entire amount? In that case he will owe tax on the earnings. But if he took a partial distribution, then the non-taxable contribution comes out tax free. There's no tax until he dips into earnings.

Or a bigger serving, he's clearly still really hungry!

As a mother and grandmother, that just makes me sick to my stomach. What sort of heartless, inhumane person denies a sick child even a brief visit with her mother on Mother's Day? If that governor is re-elected, that state is beyond redemption. Disgusting.

It seems to me that in every discussion we have about software, the time it takes to "get through" to Tech Support is a major consideration. I don't understand why this is at the top of the list. I didn't call Tech Support one time this past season. I don't think I even called ATX during the season from hell. I read the ATX forum daily, and this one, and it was helpful. I did call another software provider, when I tried them out briefly during the season from hell, and I remember getting through quickly, but my question had to do with removing a form from a return, and the solution the technician offered would have removed the form globally. As in, "Kiss Sch C-EZ goodbye forever, who needs it?" When I told her that her solution would result in removing a form globally, I was on hold a good while, I suppose while she consulted someone with more experience, or looked up "globally". I don't know. Is it the norm for you all to call Tech Support for your software? If so, why are you calling them? I'm not being facetious. I just really cannot get my head around why this is so important to some of you and not important to me at all.

I have no problem sending the letter but the client has to sign it too to authorize the transfer. I would also call the cpa and ask if there is any professional reason that you shouldn't accept the client. If he is owed money he will be honest and he will also let you know that he will only release the records with payment. While most records have to be released regardless of payment, its a stick they try to hold over the client. When I have a client that owes me money I tell the new cpa that they are welcome to come to my office and copy the records but I will not expend any time on the client making the copies since they have owed me money for xxxx time. hint hint hint.

Direct form entry is vastly over-rated. I think it's wasteful of time and resources. Besides, most of what we call direct form entry is really just a link to a data entry sheet anyhow. There are very few instances in which the data is ACTUALLY entered directly on the form. If you'll lose that dependence on form entry, then with the right software you'll gain incredible speed. Since time is money in our business, speed is extra money in your pocket. But if money isn't your main business concern, then...

Many times a fellow like this owes his CPA and does not want to meet and pay up? That would be the first thing I would check out before doing anything for this possible client. If that is the case you don't want this client!

Tell your soon to be client to put on his big boy pants and contact his soon to be former CPA and end it himself. He shouldn't be dumping this on you.

$360 for a partnership return? Are you trying to lose money? I don't know how many partners there are, but just producing the K-1 packages, calculating individual basis, loan differentials, etc. is worth more than that. KNOWING how to do those things is worth more than that. Even if their records are perfect, there's still a lot of work to do to complete the 1065. And how about the individual returns? I'd start at $800 if records are good and there are only 2 partners (all in the same state). This would not include individual returns. Accounting fees should be monthly and would depend on what kind of business it is--daily sales or occasional sales, weekly or more frequent deposits, employees or none, long or short bank statements. As others have suggested, don't trust that line about the former accountant not doing his/her job. Who could collect sales taxes and not notice they weren't turned over to the state for all that time (and not notice all the nasty letters)? Did the former accountant quit because of nonpayment? It's a real possibility, especially for someone who hasn't paid sales tax for so long. There are a lot of people who flit from accountant to accountant, moving on when their current person refuses to work for free any longer. Don't be that person. On the other hand, these potential clients might just want to get back in compliance and will be wonderful clients forevermore. Hopefully that is the case. But don't give your work and knowledge away. What would YOU be willing to pay for the services they need, knowing the amount of work that will be required?

Don't always believe that, you'll soon figure the truth yourself.

The old ATX company used to have great support. I would need to call them 1-2 times per year for functionality issues. Normally, it was just not knowing how the software handles an issue. Two years ago, I stopped calling tech support. It got so bad that you had to sit on hold for more than 1 hour to get someone to answer the call, then they did not know anything about the software. They were KB readers and I had already read the KB looking for my issue. There were also issues with the integration of the bank products, and then there were issues all over the place last year with the simple task of loading the software. There are a few people at ATX that know what is going on, but they don't answer the phone. You have to find a way to "get" to them. It is too much brain damage for me. I get my support here. Tom Hollister, CA

Would those "mils" include HRB, Liberty and Jackson Hewitt? Commissioned based sales staff preparing returns for a population that does not care about how much they pay, only what the "net" tax refund is. Tom Hollister, CA

I don't think the comparison to Vista is totally fair--Windows 8 boots noticeably faster than Windows 7 from an SSD. Overall system stability is no different than Windows 7. Windows 8 performs better than Windows 7 on the same hardware, using less RAM and CPU. Judging by ATX's system requirements, the less your OS uses, the better. The start screen will probably bother people who (initially?) hated the Ribbon UI in MS Office 2007+ but I don't have any issues with it. If you still hate the Ribbon, I suggest you never upgrade Windows ever again. It's all over the place in Windows 8. I have heard rumors that Microsoft will give us back an option to enable the old start menu in Windows 9, but I haven't seen anything directly from Microsoft about it, so until then it's just a rumor. Metro/Modern UI probably isn't going anywhere. With tablet/mobile device sales eating away at the PC market, it's not surprising that they'll continue to shoot for a unified OS experience across platforms. Windows 8.1 smoothed out a lot of rough edges that were left in 8, and I think Windows 9 will likely continue to refine the interface. If you're waiting for Microsoft to reverse course entirely, I think you're going to be disappointed.