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Interesting personal development over tha past few days while I was reading and responding to this thread. I had a client who came on board about 3 years ago whom I was reluctant to take on from the start, but social circumstances & church connections simply did not permit me to say "No". (Long story - we all have them). Last week, a couple of days after I sent out my client letter, this client called to let me know they were changing preparers. I happily didn't ask the reason and just told them to let me know if the new preparer has any questions about the prior 3 years. I strongly suspect the reason was that each year I had insisted on filing extensions (because their situation isn't simple and I don't want to fool with it before Apr 15.) I had emphasized in this year's client letter a blanket statement that even more, and longer, extensions might be necessaary, especially due to continuing late/revised brokerage statements and potential ACA issues. Lessons learned: 1) Adopt a strict extension policy and let the clients know up front they cannot control your time. 2) More importantly, learn to say "NO" at the outset, regardlesss of the exterrnal pressures. I have #1 perfected, but unfortunately still working on #2 even at my age & proximity to retirement.

President Obama on December 19 signed into law the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 (HR 5771), which temporarily extends over 50 expired incentives for individuals, businesses and energy through 2014. The law also creates Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) accounts set up for the benefit of persons with disabilities.

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)

Tom, I agree with everything you said, except that when there is no stated interest, that IRS "Imputed Interest Rules & Regulations" will apply which means that prior years returns will need to be amended .

NATP's Tax Pro Monthly has a short and to the point article on the questions we need to ask re ACA to do our due diligence. The questions are each short and to the point. There is also a list of questions NOT to ask (the kind where we expect our client to interpret the law and not us). The article is only a couple of pages. If you're looking for a brief list to communicate with your clients or just wanting to know how to word questions during client interview, I do recommend this article.

Sounds like the seminar could have found a much more competent presenter. That kind of arrogance is NOT indicative of a good teacher or presenter.

I guess it depends upon what legacy you want to leave with your clients. I would NEVER dump them to the "no customer service" world of H&R. If you don't care, then it can be a profitable "exit strategy." My professional reputation is much more valuable than that. When the day comes I choose to exit, I will interview perspective purchasers and find someone who will provide the same level of customer satisfaction and professionalism as I strive to have.

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?

I agree with everything you said cbslee.....I should have caught that myself. Sometimes I should preview before I post. It would be very rare to see a note from unrelated parties to have no interest. What in the H3!! was I thinking. Tom Newark, CA

Which means that you need to keep your protection programs up to date. Update and run frequently. Also, watch all of the things you do every day just as Dennis advises; downloads, links, etc. I absolutely will NEVER click on a link from anyone. Also, the protection programs that I use are all the free versions. The other thing is; when you have a clean machine; backup, backup and backup. If you ever do get hit, you can always restore to the clean version. For complete harddrive backups, I use Ease Us to Do; a great and also free backup program. For incrementals, such as tax files, I use jump drives.

If it was such a dumb question, why didn't the presenter know the answer?

Is the loan fully documented? If so, what is the interest rate on the note? The payments A made to TP included interest, whether TP took them into interest income or not. Sounds like TP needs to amend the open years to reflect the interest. It is conceivable that there is no interest on the note, and therefore no interest to report, but the note will tell you that. The next part, the foreclosure, is pretty simple. I assume TP is cash basis tax payer, so the interest owed at time of foreclosure is irrelevant. A owed TP X number of dollars on the note. A transfered the property to TP in full satisfaction of the note. TP has "purchased" the land in the year he foreclosed, for the amount owed on the note and this is his basis. When he sold the land, he has gain or loss calculated in the normal way. There was no sale at the time of the loan being made, it was just a loan, not a transfer of property, so there is no installment sale. There is no sale until the time of the foreclosure. Tom Newark, CA

Safe Hex is still the best prevention. Know what you download and from where. Know what sites you are opening. Disable Javascript except for trusted sites. TUrn off the preloading of web pages. Don't open attachments you did not ask for - read questionable email in text format only. Etc. Personally, I will never pay for a protection program. Those who depend on my payment have a much higher incidence of "false positives". The idea being to get my payment, I have to see they are "doing" something. There are plenty of free protection programs available which are very good. What good is it to have a protection program when you have to turn it off to install and used trusted software? Only use one at a time, but have another for cross checking. Use virustotal to cross check against more than 50 protection programs "if" you get a hit in your two installed programs. The piece which is usually not mentioned is a protection program can only accurately protect you from known threats. They "guess" as to what might come down the pike, but often guess wrong. Those wrong guesses cause people to tire of the incorrect warnings, and turn off the protection. Nefarious folks (the experts, not the "script kiddies") know how to fool the guessing, it can be as easy as changing one letter in their code from upper to lower case, or vice versa... If you ponder this a bit, we have had protection programs for many years, yet there are still new (really new, not just a rehash of some old scam) which hurt, since the protection programs can only guess at new things. If a protection program really could protect you, there would be no more new scams... since they would never get past a "protection" program. If you practice good safe hex, you do not need a protection program, and you will not get "hit". On the other hand, we are all human, and a little protection can save us from a wanton keypress or click..

Tassc is a Section 105 plan. 125 plans are not allowed to reimburse employees when they purchase their own insurance. NOT ALLOWED! 125 plans can only be used in conjunction with an employer provided medical plan. This is very clear in the newly released regs. Tell the employers to stop looking for ways to reimburse employees for insurance pretax. It is simply and totally not allowed. Tell them that the ACE is responsible for these rules and the current administration and all the elected democrats are responsible for ACA. I am using this as a springboard to talk to those people that chose not to vote.... "If you did not vote against him/them, you voted for him/them. Not voting casts a vote for the winner.

Judy, you are correct. I always enter the date manually at the bottom of the 1040. It will stay unless manually changed again. Clears much confusion when looking at old returns.

for the record... i do a 1065 in this situation. however, i asked this question at a seminar a few years ago and right in the middle of the presentation, with the whole group of 200 or so CPA's, the presenter stated to me..."that is the dumbest question i have ever received in my history of giving seminars".......and then never answered my question. i swear i will never forget this as long as i live.

I remember that being a problem too. If the preparer wants the program to NOT update the return with the current date in that signature line, the date can be manually entered in that field and that will stop the ATX program from changing that date any time that tax return file is opened.

And for those looking for more classes on the ACA: The ACA On-Demand Package 4 webinars 6 CPE $121 Available at www.natptax.com/monthly/aca

December 2014 page 10 just 1 1/2 pages.

if I recall from using ATX, the complete box still will allow the current date to print so if you use a "completed return" to resend letters, or invoice or even a copy of the return, all dates will be the current date. I only send clients copies from a pdf done at the same time I print the return thus they get an exact copy of what was filed.

Perfect. Thanks!

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.

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/

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?

I don't use a phone as a computer.

Rita, I love your snippy commentary.

Lol... It does make me feel like a stalker. I have the same problem using my iPad.

I posted the materials for my class on the ACA on my website http://www.afsb.net/joancpa/newsletter.php?nid=17126 If you don't like to click links, just go to www.joancpa.com and click on Newsletters.

From pub 503: Child of divorced or separated parents or parents living apart. Even if you cannot claim your child as a dependent, he or she is treated as your qualifying person if: The child was under age 13 or was not physically or mentally able to care for himself or herself, The child received over half of his or her support during the calendar year from one or both parents who are divorced or legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance, are separated under a written separation agreement, or lived apart at all times during the last 6 months of the calendar year, The child was in the custody of one or both parents for more than half the year, and You were the child's custodial parent. The custodial parent is the parent with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights in 2013. If the child was with each parent for an equal number of nights, the custodial parent is the parent with the higher adjusted gross income. For details and an exception for a parent who works at night, see Publication 501. The noncustodial parent cannot treat the child as a qualifying person even if that parent is entitled to claim the child as a dependent under the special rules for a child of divorced or separated parents. Dependent defined. A dependent is a person, other than you or your spouse, for whom you can claim an exemption. To be your dependent, a person must be your qualifying child (or your qualifying relative). Qualifying child. To be your qualifying child, a child must live with you for more than half the year and meet other requirements