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Got the site all connected up to an anti-spam service provided by the forum software vendor, and it seems to be working.  Three attempted registrations auto-banned from the site in the first few hours after the site came back online.   NO SPAM FOR YOU. ONE YEAR.

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

Thanks, Pacun. I'm sure you understand that we suffered from "penny wise, pound foolish" when it came to the computers and server. After letting ATV2014 run empty and idle on all the PCs over the weekend, I'm seeing the CCTS error message on all the PCs now. Of course, our PCs go into sleep mode, so I can easily posit that that's part of the 'problem'; I click OK on the message after waking the PC up, and it doesn't appear again... until it goes to sleep and wakes up again. I can increase the time-until-sleep in the Windows power settings so this doesn't bother me. I'd like to remind everyone here that I enjoy speaking here about ATX and that we're all friends; all brothers-in-arms against the yearly storm that crosses our desks and countertops. I keep telling our tax preparers that THEY are the skilled labor, and I'm only here to make sure the B.S. of the job is minimized so they have all the time they need to conquer the serious problems that arise in tax preparation. This forum is my B.S. shovel and I value it highly.

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.

After disabling about a dozen last night before signing off, and then seeing Eric's message this morning about more than 80 (!) new users and about all of the spam, it was wonderful to see those IP addresses trying and not being able to log on when Eric opened the site back up to us. Well done, Eric!

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.

But what about the financial impact on your time? After all, you continually spend hours working on this forum which could be spent with your family, reading, hiking, skiing, taking a nap, etc.

I went to the other forum and there was a link to the knowledge base. Totally my fault, I had not removed the 2014 DVD from the drive, which was causing 2013 to not open. I had no idea that it would make a difference.

I agree 100%. Just gladly & gratefully sent mine - highly recommend that others do the same.

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

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 really have to say that 2013 was my most productive year ever, monetarily and client wise. Wish the same for all of you in 2014. I am already being addressed by new clients who are all referrals. ATX and I must be doing something right.

It's not the first time, and likely not the last, but we will always take action when it happens.

Roj Carl Snellman vs IRS http://www.bizactions.com/showopp.cfm/spid/1005/art/2338/

http://www.aicpa.org/publications/taxadviser/2014/may/pages/clinic-story-01.aspx

customer support got back to me very quickly and it appears that there is a "guid" that need to be removed from my download file on my hard drive. i hope this works and thanks to atx for the very quick email

I have been using Pro Series for my 1040 clients since the Chipsoft days of 1988 and using ATX for my Business, Trust, etc. returns since the Saber days of 1993. With the debacle that was 2012, I jumped at the chance to get the large ProSeries discount for 5 years on the Power Tax Library and I now have been doing all of my returns on ProSeries since 2012 and loving it. I can't see myself ever going back to ATX eve though I had no problems with the 2012 program myself, just lived in fear that it would fail me during crunch time. ProSeries just feels more "pro" if you know what I mean. The only thing I don't like too much with ProSeries is their forum. It seems to be filled with some rather snarky people who seem to pride themselves on giving sarcastic answers to legitimate questions, unless you are a member of their "old boy's club." I wonder if there are enough of us ProSeries users on this forum to ask Eric to consider starting a ProSeries subforum much like what now exists for Drake and OneDesk. What do you think?

They say this will be corrected next year, but we've been promised things before.

ATX tech support told me the same thing, NECPA. An easy fix, but unexpected.

That is a sale, no matter what they called it.

I posted the whole article in the above pinned ACA topic, if interested. This is from a Western CPE eTax Alert: I though it a nice list. 18 Things Small Businesses Must Know about Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs)

Just glad to have you on our side. Thanks!

Eric, thanks for all of your hard work and your patience as well. I sent you a PM with some suggestions for security questions and answers too.

It might be wise to set it up now in anticipation of the numerous questions to come rather than to wait and move them later. If there isn't much in the way of activity, it could always be merged back in.

don't be so sensitive, we appreciate your inputs but other people also have other ideas. That's the beauty of this forum. WE APPRECIATE everybody's input.

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.

Just got an email from ATX with the following: If you don't think ACA will affect you, think again: Every 1040 taxpayer will have to make 1 of 3 choices on their return 41 million people are uninsured 7.1 million people are on the healthcare exchange ACA is complex and any incorrect reporting can delay you client's refund. New Form 8962 (15 pages of instructions) New Form 8965 (12 pages of instructions) Form 8960 (20 pages of instructions) 1095-A, 1095-B 1095-C As National Taxpayer Advocate predicts, it will be "the worst tax season in thirty years."

This is from a Western CPE eTax Alert: I though it a nice list. 18 Things Small Businesses Must Know about Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) If your small business reimburses employee health care costs in any manner, you need to be aware that the law has changed, and there may be actions necessary to take right now to avoid severe tax and legal liabilities. 1. The federal government considers your arrangement to be subject to the extensive legal requirements of a “group health plan,” even if you did not intend it so or think of it that way. The legal requirements include exposure under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 for employee welfare benefit plans. 2. To avoid taxes and legal liabilities, the HRA must be integrated with an employer-provided ACA�compliant group health insurance plan. 3. Employers should not reimburse the cost of individual health insurance under any circumstances.* 4. Where an employee is covered by his or her spouse’s plan, employers should never reimburse the cost of the spousal coverage. 5. For purposes of determining whether a violation has occurred, it does not matter whether the reimbursements were made on a pretax or after-tax basis. 6. Taxation of health benefits to the employee is a completely separate issue from the applicability of excise taxes to the employer. 7. Employers who give taxable compensation bonuses should not make reference to any aspect of employee health care costs. 8. The minimum statutory tax penalty for an unintentional violation is 10% of the amount the employer paid. The maximum amount of penalty is $100 per employee, per day of violation; plus (if applicable), wage taxes; plus (if applicable), interest and penalties. 9. Standalone HRAs are prohibited, regardless of whether they are simply informal arrangements or documented employee benefit plans. 10. An integrated HRA must meet additional requirements, including the requirement that they be in writing and be communicated to employees separately from the insurance plan in order to make the benefits tax-free to employees. 11. Employees may not contribute to an HRA on a voluntary salary-deducted basis. 12. Employees who waive health insurance or have other non-employer-provided insurance cannot participate in the HRA. 13. HRAs are not tools to reduce the cost of employee health benefits. In fact, HRAs may trigger the “Cadillac tax” provisions for rich health benefits in the future, because they increase the total health benefits for employees. 14. Improper reimbursements may trigger severe excise penalties under Section 4980D of the Internal Revenue Code. This penalty is $100 per day excise tax per applicable employee (which is $36,500 per year, per employee). Smaller penalties may apply in 2014 if the violation was not due to willful neglect. 15. If the employer is subject to the smaller 10% excise penalty for 2014 and then still does not correct the HRA plan for 2015, there would likely be a greater chance that the higher severe penalty would be assessed for the same repeat violation in the second year. 16. Employers that had a medical reimbursement plan prior to 2014 and have not updated their plan this year may unknowingly be subject to the excise tax. Apparently, there are many small firms that don’t even know about this problem. 17. Employers affected by 14 above should act as quickly as possible to terminate or amend plans and make appropriate payroll tax adjustments if necessary to avoid additional late tax penalties. 18. Excise tax penalties are self-reported on IRS Form 8928, which has not yet been updated for 2014 to include provisions for HRAs. Disclosure and clarification: The advice in this article is simplified for the purpose of clear communication regarding most small businesses. As with most aspects of tax and benefit law, there are special circumstances that may change this information. This article ignores the possibility of uninsured ACA�compliant health plans or grandfatthered health plans simply because these are not common. *Many of these points do not apply to one-person C corporations. The term “health insurance” in this discussion refers to primary ACA�compliant major medical insurance. References Department of Health & Human Services: Application of Affordable Care Act Provisions to Certain Healthcare Arrangements IRS Notice 2013-54 TD 9705: Minimum Essential Coverage and Other Rules Regarding the Shared Responsibility Payment for Individuals 29 CFR 2510.3-1(j) 26 U.S.C. 4980D: Failure to Meet Certain Group Health Plan Requirements U.S. Department of Labor: FAQs about Affordable Care Act Implementation (Part XXII)