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Kudos to you Eric. That was really a mess on Sunday morning. I could hardly believe my eyes and tried to PM you as well as the moderators. You probably already knew what had happened. I am sure that nobody on this board is going to hold you to blame in any way. Thanks for the quick action. You can beat up on yourself if you want to, but we are so glad and lucky to have you.

Just glad to have you on our side. Thanks!

I'm going to hide any responses given here, so answers aren't easily noted by spammers.

Great Job!!! Thank you very much. I just would like to recommend a little donation for Eric for his great effort.

To start off, I'd like to thank you guys for your patience over the past couple days. The extended downtime was 100% my fault. I always create a database backup for the whole site before performing an upgrade. I always do a manual software upgrade too, and this time I figured I'd give the automatic one-click upgrade feature a try. You know that feeling you get just as you realize that something bad has happened and it's about to cost you a lot of time, and it all could have easily been avoided? Yeah, about 1/3 the way through the software upgrade, some nasty database errors show up, and after pounding my fists on my desk like a child, I got to work. In case you missed the updates while the site was down, here they are: And now here we are. So welcome back everyone, I have learned my lesson about skipping database backups. PS - To anyone who registered over the past couple days, I apologize, your account has been deleted along with the 80+ spam accounts that were registered during the same time frame. We don't normally get more than 1 or 2 daily registrations, so rather than inspecting every single new account's IP address, I just deleted them all. You'll need to register again.

After reading it a second time, it is funny.... what I meant was that if you are behind in getting your credits, that website will be your best friend because it is inexpensive and the exams are not tricky which can be passed without studying the material. About 3 years ago I went to my country and on December 30 and Dec 31st, I passed several courses and I was happy that I could do that. BUT that one course about ACA in the real world is very informative and they pull out form 1040 and the new forms.

I think we need it now to have post quesstions and solutions. I am ready to put some questions now and I know some people have the answers. I like to give credit to whomever deserves credit. If you want to get your CPE credits without learning a lot, go to www.apluscpe.com and the credits are not expensive BUT there is one course called "Affordable Care Act in the Real World" which is EXCELLENT and you should buy it. This course is a video course and it is for Tax Preparers. They have about 3 other courses regarding ACA but this one is the best and I recommend it.

You are absolutely correct. This information has been available, as well as training to become proficient with the new laws for over 18 months. I am dismayed and a bit concerned at the lackadaisical attitude about learning this that seems to be the normal amongst the preparer community. The laws and necessary steps to incorporate them are convoluted, confusing, sometimes contradictory and very extensive. Learning will not be a "webinar or two and I will have it." I have had 4 more hours directly concerning the ACA in the past three weeks. Two different seminars. At each one I learned even more things that all my previous training had not provided. This will truly be the "Worst Tax Season in 30 Years" for those who are going in unprepared. I believe there will need to be a separate forum for ACA related questions as I predict a massive amount of them to be asked on this site. Rant Over.

Sara, your post pretty much covers it and I gave you a "like". What I didn't like was the suggestion to trust the software to "do the rest". I firmly believe that is something we should never do with any situation. It is all well and good if that is true, however we need to know WHY and where the software is going with those numbers. Otherwise, we are not professional tax preparers. I have attended two ACA seminars and I WANT to understand it; but have to admit that I don't totally. Am waiting and hoping for the pieces to fall into place when we reach the "hands on" phase. One of the hardest things we may have to face this year would be all of the false, misleading, totally untrue and partially untrue stories that are going around out there. Some of the things my clients try to tell me make me doubt myself. We have to learn this law. My greatest fear is that we may spend hours agonizing over and studying a subject that might someday go away or at least change to a great degree. For that reason, I am keeping a low profile for now.

The vortex model is still not totally accurate. The planets only go around the Sun due to physical viewpoint; the reality is that the planets, asteroids, comets, dust, gases, and the Sun itself, all vortex around a "barycenter". Often this barycenter is within the Sun, since the Sun has 98% of our system's mass. But the Sun's path through space wiggles since it also goes around this barycenter point (which is itself wiggling). All mass effects a gravitational pull on all other mass. The planets tug on our star, just like it also tugs on them. Heck, the planets raise TIDES on the surface of the sun. It's an interesting universe. Mass warps space, and the warp of space alters how mass moves. It's beautiful.

For 2014, only the people buying insurance through a marketplace will receive a 1095-A. For 2015, people purchasing their insurance through a marketplace will receive a 1095-A For 2015, anyone that has insurance from a source other than the marketplace will receive a 1095-B from their insurer. For 2015, anyone that has insurance provided by their employer through a group plan will receive a 1095-C from their employer. All issued 1095s are REQUIRED for proper completion of the tax returns in the respective years.

Most Americans today would not have a clue about what you just said. Sad, but true. Words like "space," "solar system," "Milky Way," (except the candy bar) "galaxy," and the idea that the earth is moving at all are unknown.

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.

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.

This year will certainly be difficult for all of us, but after we digest the new forms and rules and taxpayers realize their responsibilities things should go much smoother. I do some returns for residents of Massachusetts, which has had mandatory health insurance for years. The insurer gives them a statement with a very long number that shows how many months they had creditable insurance. You pop the number in and that's the end of it. It's more complicated if they didn't have insurance all year, but the software handles it well. The federal forms will be harder because of the exceptions to the penalty, advance credits, etc. It's up to the clients to gather this info, so we just have to wait for them to produce it. Those people who have affordable insurance are the ones wishing the death of the ACA. Those whose employers don't offer insurance or who have pre-existing conditions, diabetes, mental health issues, weight problems, hypertension, and a host of common problems think the act is a Godsend. My own child had surgery to realign a bone a few months before going off my Cobra. Nothing like cancer or knee replacement, just an alignment. Everything went well but insurers don't want to touch anyone who had surgery within the past couple of years. Ended up with very expensive insurance that didn't cover anything (not even a flu shot!). Thanks to the ACA he now pays half as much for decent insurance with a reasonable deductible.