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And I made 100 on the CE quiz.

Actually, it's a little more complicated than the Earth simply orbiting the Sun. The heliocentric 2-dimensional model just begins to tell the story. Not disputing your facts Eric, but elaborating on them. When we think 3-dimensonally, it is more awesome. I love this You Tube explanation.

It is fair to say that Minimum Essential Coverage does include Employer-sponsored plans, including COBRA and retiree coverage. Also, Coverage under specified government-sponsored programs; which would include Medicare. There are other exemptions as well.

Hi Michael! I just attended a seminar yesterday where the presenter proposed a 3-tier approach based on the ACA need of the particular return. His statement was that at a minimum, he expects an additional 15 minutes per return in the simplest case, and up to an hour or more on the most complex case. In the best world, if each client takes an additional 15 minutes, that is 25% less returns you can process using the same time and resources from one year ago. This additional time is a significant problem for a tax practice. Assume the average is an additional 20 minutes/return as the majority will probably be ask a couple of questions and get to just put an X in the box. If you have 400 clients, 400 clients * 20 minutes/client = 8000 additional minutes. 8000 additional minutes is roughly 135 additional hours. In a 10 week season, that's an extra 13.5 hours per week. I know I can't merely absorb that impact. That is equivalent to a new part-time employee! His proposal was to determine your "base" fee (charge for your average return), and then use a 25%, 50% and 75% factor for each of the three tiers. So, assume your base fee (your average return) to be $350. The 3 tiered ACA fees would be: Tier 1 = $87.50 Tier 2 = $175.00 Tier 3 = $262.50 and this additional fee will be clearly listed on the invoice as an ACA preparation fee so as not to confuse it with the tax preparation fee. Until I get my software and start to play with the process, I am not sure exactly how I am going to price this, but before this seminar I was already thinking about a minimum $75/return bump, also listed separately on the invoice.

I largely agree with Jack. Let's put this issue to rest. After a disastrous tax season (two, really; 2012 and 2013), among other events, we lost at least half our clients. After logging over 4000 clients in the 2009 season, we bottomed out (hopefully) at 1400 during 2013. The 2012 and 2013 redesigns could not have happened at a worst time for our company; it was the perfect storm of hardware issues, software issues, and a huge array of personnel and policy issues, combined with two tax seasons that were delayed by the IRS. Since I was tasked to pull our company out of this swan dive, I've invested in the following: SERVER: Dell PowerEdge T320 SERVER OS: Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials WORKSTATIONS: Dell XPS 8700 ... all of which were obtained and installed by October. Total hardware expense was about $15000, with a few hundred dollars of labor for technical advice. I migrated our ATX2008 through ATX2013 files onto the new server, then made them alive on each workstation. That worked well enough, although rollover detection was random. Then I loaded ATX 2014. First on the server, then on the senior preparer's machine. I did all the updates and rollover of preparers and ERO, then I let the machine sit overnight. The next day, I made a new tax return just to try it out. Seemed OK. Then I went from PC to PC, loading up ATX2014. As you know, this is a multi-step process, where you load it from the DVD, then you start it, then select the ATX server it talks to. (In this case, the server is the file server, running Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials.) On just one machine, the last one, but no different than the rest, I had problems. When I ran ATX 2014 the first time, it detected the file server, was set to that, and then it silently crashed. After I restarted ATX 2014, 3 minutes later it gave me the "retry" message... the first I've seen of it in months. This just isn't a hardware issue. There's nothing particularly wrong with my computers and server. I think there's an instability that's in the program that's poorly understood by ATX. And I say all this by stating in addition that we have no serious desire to choose another app vendor; we're with ATX to stay. If we regain our client base due to extensive investment and advertising, then we're looking to put 2000 entries into our ATX 2014 database.

Of course, we are assuming the pastor does not have an approved Form 4361. Of course, Jack realizes clergy are not subject to ss/mc, at least, in the normal W-2 sense, however, they are normally subject to SE tax. If there is an approved Form 4361 there would be no SE tax.

You need to get some training about the ACA RIGHT AWAY!! It is by no means that simple!!

I would think it would get easier in future years. To my understanding, for 2014, only insurance acquired thru the exchanges are required to send Form 1095. But for future years, all insurance companies (exchange or not) will be required to send the Form 1095. So after 2014, we should know if a client has insurance or not and what type of coverage from his 1095.

I thought the same thing.

Only half? That's amazing.   1 in 4 Americans don't understand that the Earth orbits the Sun.   The average American reads at something like the 7th grade level.   I don't think there's a statistic about what American's don't know that could possibly surprise me.  Especially something like this.  Our healthcare and tax systems are harder to grasp than differential calculus.

That makes me nervous. I like to wait awhile before applying updates. I let others be the guinea pigs.

Having said all that high and mighty stuff up there, I hope to GAWD this is a bad dream and the ACA as we [don't] know it dies a quick and efficient death. It's just ridiculous what we are gonna have to deal with here. My clients can't find their butts with both hands and a flashlight. I want to crawl in a hole and wait for the end.

I went to a tax update yesterday and according to the speakers and their texts, there is more to it than just checking the box. You need to know if the insurance met the ACA standards, how many people were covered, how many months of the year, etc. They even suggest keeping some verification of the insurance in your records for future problems, such as with the IRS or if the client gets any letters from them down the road. All in all it was another depressing day. I have to call a few more clients about the ramifications of the DOL 11/6 notification, it's not just S corps. The penalties would bankrupt most small businesses. If they don't change these technical rules, no one should provide health insurance for their employees. My policy is grandfathered in for one more year. I went to the exchange and to get a policy close to what I have, it will be about $400 more per month. I thought that it was supposed to be more affordable. I am too old to want to drop to a policy with fewer benefits.

Well, it sure ain't MY fault, either! And, I'm taking hours and hours of CE on topics like ACA and Repair vs. Cap Regs and expect to do a lot of re-reading of my texts over the next two months and have already been having conversations with select clients and will be pouring over biz returns over the next two months before clients are bringing in their 2014 info. They WILL pay for my knowledge and thoroughness. When needed, Form 3115 will cost a lot. Even my examination to determine that 3115 is NOT needed will cost something. And, all the ACA forms will have a fee, even the box to be checked that no further forms are needed. It's not the time it will take me to check the box that I'll charge for, it's my knowledge to know what to do if I check the box or don't check the box.

I am still mulling the situation over. I, of the kind heart, find it hard to penalize clients for something that is not their fault. They actually need us more than ever. I will also have a new right hand this year, but am hoping she will work out very well. She is older and wiser and eager to learn. Even paid her own way to go to two day seminar with me. I have my AFSP certificate now (for what it's worth). I have the feeling that many of my clients will be exempt from the ACA penalties; either for being retired or low income. Take your pick. (Am SO sorry to hear the reason why your assistant will be missing).

Nightmare tax season coming up. Tax extenders status, unknown. Filing season start, unknown. Repair reg, f3115 confusion. ACA debacle. My right hand executive administrative assistant has brain cancer and I will really miss her. She made the office operate smoothly and helped me keep my sanity. Price increases are necessary to compensate for this ACA mess, but they will not be popular, and I will be the bad guy.

I wonder how the big box stores handle this?

UGH!

I use a base price plus. My base will increase $25 if it is only the one question with a yes answer. If it is more than the one question, it will be a minimum of $75 or more, depending upon how much time it takes me to get the information from the client. I will bill this additional as ACA additional costs. I want every taxpayer to know the source of this extra "tax" they are paying.