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Pacun, I think you missed the point. 1. She has already discounted the fee. The client has insulted her by not only not paying, but disputing it "my usual charge, according to her". That's on top of paying very late. 2. The client is [as a client] a true PITA. "She consistently provides info in small pieces, constantly scrapes for every deduction, pays very late and in several amounts, and more. This year she wanted to meet twice for planning purposes and multiple times changed various amounts (mileage, office expense, etc.)." Either one might be overlooked, but combined they are simply unacceptable stressors. It is not about Margaret's costs, it's about her peace of mind, and reducing the stress of what is already going to be a stressful season. She does not owe this client anything just because the client has problems in her life.

Outstanding research, Judy! Why not be transparent, indeed! Will we ever know what is really going on here? The demise of ATX? Disgruntled former employees developing their own software to compete? (Think Quickfinder and Tax Book) Veeeerrrrryyyy interesting.....

Why not be transparent? It bothered me enough, so... (I can't wait for you all to see this! ) Thanks for providing that link, Brian! Clicking on it took me to the WY business entity detail that shows that this company is a domestic LLC called Advanced Tax Solutions, LLC whose registered agent is Business Filings International, Inc, its principle office in Henderson, NV. http://www.bizapedia.com/wy/ADVANCED-TAX-SOLUTIONS-LLC.html Searching for that co name, Business Filings International, Inc, and location lead me to 4 people all with connections at Wolters Kluwer: President, Karen Kobelski, employement history shows two positions with Wolters Kluwer - VP Sales, Marketing, Service and also VP Small Business Solutions: http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Karen-Kobelski/1315670934 Secretary, Deidra D Gold, another with a position listed at Wolters Kluwer - Executive Vice President and General Counsel for North America: http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Deidra-Gold/113287217 Treasurer, Norm Plaistowe - serves as Chief Financial Officer of Wolters Kluwer Corporate & Financial Services of Wolters Kluwer NV. Mr. Plaistowe served as Chief Financial Officer of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=12933252&ticker=WKL:NA VP is Richard J Parker - Secretary of CCH Legal information Services, Inc and holds active roles in fifteen companies and inactive roles in six additional ones. He is also listed as Secretary of CCH, Inc, Wolters Kluwer U.S., Inc., Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc, some others, and is past president of Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions, Inc. http://www.corporationwiki.com/Illinois/Riverwoods/richard-j-parker/26149700.aspx COMMENTS ANYONE?

FROM MALWAREBYTES: Looking ahead: 2015 Ah, the security predictions! Everybody loves them, don’t they? Well, we’re not going to use our crystal ball for this one, but instead we, bloggers at Malwarebytes Unpacked, shared some of our thoughts on the trends we think will be most noticeable. On the mobile side, we expect ransomware to be a major issue. We have already seen mobile malware variants that encrypt phone data and demand payment to retrieve. Pre-existing phone backup options will make this threat less severe, however many users still might be willing to pay to get their data back. With more people using mobile devices to bank, it’s becoming more popular for malware authors to exploit. Creating a fake site that looks like a mobile banking site may be a bit easier for cyber criminals since many sites are limited to keep the data processing of the site low. In the Exploit Kits world, there will be more fileless payloads. In an effort to circumvent detection a special breed of malware doesn’t leave a physical file on the system but rather only runs in memory. This will likely be a trend adopted by new and existing exploit families in 2015 and the antivirus and anti-malware communities will have to quickly adapt to contain the wave. We expect a major Internet of Things (IoT) attack in the new year against an Internet connected device that was previously not connected. Take for example a thermostat that can be controlled over the internet. Cloud security is now more important than Desktop security, this is due to the fact that users are uploading tons of personal data like images or documents to ‘cloud’ storage. This makes it easy for an attacker to gain access if they are able to compromise the account. In addition, with the trend of users making purchases, downloading games, songs, movies, etc. through cloud services, the attractiveness of these accounts has increased and we will see more of an effort against gamers and video/music streamers. Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) are a nuisance to the modern user because of their high requirements for system resources and constant bombardment of advertising. However, we have seen numerous instances this year of PUPs actually going a step further and installing near-malicious and full-malicious software on the host system. This trend may very well become more prevalent in the coming year as the war against junk software leads some developers to dabble in illegal activities to make a profit. Phishers will continue to use sophisticated and effective tactics to get users to hand over their information. It’s also highly likely that, due to the bombardment of Personal Information stealing breaches at large companies, the pool of spear phishing targets will be larger and not just limited to the selected few (like executives)

A big advantage of having a pdf file copy is working in the current year program and looking back at last year's return and docs if necessary. No need to open last year's program. Most people have at least two monitors now and there's plenty of viewing room to look at various docs and pdf copies while having only the current year program open.

1065, and don't apologize for the act that the law makes the legal protection cost a bit more in tax prep. Indeed, you will be helping them maintain that "protective wall" by filing the 1065

I fell victim to a trojan that got through, and Malwarebytes helped me to clean up my machine and get rid of some junk bloatware too. Their forum exploded in late Oct or early Nov with those kinds of posts and A LOT of posts from victims of the ransomware too. In addition to the AV and the Malwarebytes anti-malware software, I'm also running Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit and the free version of CryptoPrevent. Neither of these slow the computer down at all. They work by maintaining a list of software restriction policy path rules that won't allow malicious software to be installed. It should stop those fileless payloads that try to add or change registry keys. If anyone is interested in either of these, here are safe links to see how they work and how to download them: Malwarebytes - http://www.malwarebytes.org/downloads/ CryptoPrevent - https://www.foolishit.com/

Discovering this WK connection and the attempt to hide it, I feel less comfortable than ever .... <--- wishing I could make that bigger is this what you wanted, Judy?

You've received all the ways to safeguard last year: the completed checkbox, changing the color of input fields of the prior year, and using pdfs to refer to instead of opening last year's computer file. I kind of agree with Jack about the integrity or quality of personnel. In all the years I spent as a supervisor and training personnel, the ones that relied on looking at prior year input were those that did not know what they were doing, and a few were actually mimicking the prior year input instead of working through the current year documents and inputting whatever data it was. I hope that makes sense.

Rita, I love your snippy commentary.

on cash registers in Germany a total hoot! http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/12/19/jingle-bells-in-a-german-supermarket/

Margaret, this woman is a chiseler and manipulator. You can be sure that she does this with everyone she has dealings with. Just write her a businesslike note - "Thank you for the $150 partial payment of the $250 invoice. When can I expect the balance of $100? Wishing you and your family a Merry Xmas ( or whatever) Margaret Either she responds and you will never hear from her again. She will also avoid you at the book club.

I miss DOS on occasion. Looking for the "any" key. Explaining the CD carrier was not a cup holder. The main key was the Return key instead of Tab. Just yesterday, heard from someone who was still using one of our DOS programs.

I have a terrible cough every year from the middle of January thru about the third week of February. Then I see all the actual tax "payers", and my cough goes away but I get depressed and eat a lot of comfort foods.

I like everyone here

That's what I was saying in the other topic where this came up. I think it will still open before the end of Jan for those early filers (cough) that must have the refunds they are (cough) entitled to.

And another point, I live and work in a rural area and cannot get cable or DSL. I am dependent on satellite and when the weather is bad, I would be out of business.

With my developer hat on: Cloud removes some very nasty headaches. No support for installation, maintenance, updates, backing up data, etc. Factoring in support for just these issues is a HUGE part of software cost. Like it or not, modern computer users are insulated from having to know how computers function, and expect software vendors to train them if needed. This is not a bad thing, as it means more can use the wonderful tool, it is just different. (Imagine if GM had to teach me how to drive, give directions, make repairs, fill the gas tank, etc., all for free, because I bought a GM vehicle.) Much more easily to handle proper licensing as one can monitor exact access and cut it off as needed. Costs go up as one has to charge enough to cover customers being online 24/7 and moving large amounts of data. But, those costs get passed on, and if the customer is not all that active, I might make more money. (I would not want to have to run a meter and bill for access.) Unless I am sloppy and do something incorrectly, I have zero liability for lost data, so no new risk there. The bad is all on the customer. Outages. Intuit has suffered them, as has Amazon. If these two, expecially Amazon, cannot keep up 100% of the time, then how can anyone else? Intuit's online payroll was unavailable for more than 24 HOURS not too long ago... Amazon is the back end for MANY cloud services, so it is safe to say they are the best, and yet they cannot be perfect. If data is lost, the customer has likely trusted they did not need an online backup and are in bad shape. Slower data entry is almost a given, and a bad thing for even a lousy keyboarder. For safe data, each entry must be stored and added, slowing down entry. Well, unless you live in a Google fiber area and your cloud service is in the same loop... (For example, I am writing this using a remote connection to my main computer, and even at slow typing, I have to "wait" a few ms for the remote software to send the keystrokes to the main computer, update the display, and send the restults back to me and update my display. This is a very fair comparison to cloud or even network based software speed.) So for now, we remain softare installed on the customer's computer and do not require internet access at all. We continue to consider a cloud offering, but nothing on the horizon.

And, what happens to access to MY clients' data if I move to another service in future? NO THANK YOU! The only thing I'd want on the cloud or internet-based is tax and accounting research. Unless I want hard copy print of a book or manual, I see no need to install that type of software on my computer or deal with receiving updates via download or disk, but that is totally different than actual prep and data storage.

I choose NOT to send my client information to be stored on any server except the one in my office. I have total control. This also comes with total responsibility which is part of the game. However, if I allow my client information to be stored on a "cloud" company or service, I have no control over security but still have total responsibility for the security of said information. NO CLOUD for me.

I feel the same.