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I believe if you already have access to the biz bank account to pay the employees, I believe the "responsible party" issue is already in play. We do a bunch of payroll (no direct deposit) on the client's checking account - but the client signs the checks. We do not take signatory authority over the account, nor do we impound funds for payroll taxes. We schedule the EFTPS and other electronic payroll tax payments from the client's bank account after notifying them of the amount and day of withdrawal and getting the client's explicit approval to schedule the payment. Occasionally a client has asked us to stamp his signature on the checks and our response has always been, "no thank you".

In a sense I agree with you! On the other hand, I have made a lot of money over the years, bailing these folks out. I have lots of clients that used to think they could do it themselves. The thing that I hate most is that interim period when they do not want you to do the work (nor pay you for it) but think nothing about calling you up for free advice. Now that is what gets my blood pressure up. In fact, just thinking about it gets my blood pressure up. Look out dog, I am looking for something to kick!

What I hate about payroll is when clients get QuickBooks and think they now understand payroll taxes. (Or any taxes, or bookkeeping, or anything, for that matter.) I am working on the 990 and awaiting the 2014 payroll reports from a non-profit that apparently thought my $85 per quarter to do reports after summarizing their payroll data was too much. I wonder when it will dawn on them that the QuickBooks updates will cost more than having correctly prepared reports.

Maybe by the time it's back up I will have figured out how to offload a video from my camcorder *and* put it up on YouTube to link here, of my daughter Gwen in the. most. amazing. Viennese. waltz. ever. just last night.

Oh, yeah, nothing aggravates me like a DIYer calling me for advice. Or messaging me on FaceBook. Or chasing me down at church. Nothing.

Many beloved taxbook forum users seem to have migrated here and I miss you: RitaB and JohnH especially. Wondering if you'll accept an old (and I do mean that in a figurative sense) Drake user?

I switched to Drake three years ago, but this forum is still the home page on my browser.

We use three up blank check stock for paychecks. The software prints everything on that including the pertinent info on the stub which includes year to date numbers. One stub is left attached to the check and the other is for the client's files. The software prints the client's banking info, client's name and address, etc, on the check. It even prints a line for the signature. I just ordered in 4,000 sheets of blank check stock and that should last us the rest of the year.

I do the same as Ron -- schedule payments & let the clients know when & how much. I have NO signature authority. A couple of clients I don't even have checks; I send a "paystub" that includes net check amount and they hand-write a check for the net amount and give the stub with all the withholding info. One guy I print a check and mail it to the employee to bring to him for signature -- he's so flaky he kept *losing* the un-signed checks when I mailed them straight to him! (Then once he used an old "I found it!" check and gave that to the employee in place of the one for that week which he had lost. That caused no end of trouble with check numbers and dates etc and he got read the riot act and the checks started going to the employee.)

You can request the "red" machine-readable forms directly from IRS for free. Online ordering from this page. The on-the-fly page allows you to mark it corrected, process and reprint any of the copies. It also allows adjustment of the page for printing. I haven't had to do this with Drake, but with ATX when I had to do this, I'd print the data-only version and play with the margins until it lined up with the IRS form. It only took a try or two to get it aligned. Order some extra forms to play with and to have on hand of you need some in future. I didn't order any 2014 forms or I'd send you some, but I just checked Drake's alignment with a 2013 red form I got from the IRS and it was within 1/8" for adjustment purposes when I printed a "data only" form on plain paper and held it up to the light.

I'm going to start preparing for the upgrade tonight, and the site will most likely be down tomorrow or the next day for the actual upgrade. 

Glad you joined us. We can be active on both forums - no problem. I havn't used ATX since the 2012 filing season, (switched to Drake and haven't looked back), but this forum and Tax Book are still my favorites. This forum still has an edge, though, because it isn''t subject to the whims of any vendor. That's powerful.

Rita keeps us all sane. We love her.

Thanks! I was missing me some RitaB humor Hope every one is winding down a little. I'm caught up with the big stuff and can finally take a little breather. (gasp)

Yes, it is the same program as before. Drake has been working on a new accounting program for about a year now I think. I haven't seen anything recently about it except that they won't put out a product that the testers aren't happy with and have it be DOA when it"s rolled out. As I said, I don't use it for my write-up work, so I can't talk about its limitations, but it seems to me that there is no ability to have comparative statements created since each year is in a separate program. That would stop me from using it right there.

Of course you are welcome here! Heck, one of our mods now uses Drake. We don't mind that, as long as members don't go out of the way to knock ATX. Or Drake, for that matter. You can find honest criticism of pretty much any software, from time to time, but our major goal is to be a community that helps each other, more often with tax issues, occasionally with software and/or hardware issues, and also general friendly support and a shoulder to cry on from time to time.

Lion, Thanks for the additional info. My take is that these appear to be two different types of PINs.

This was posted elsewhere with this caption: "Sometimes you just want to take your teddy bear into the pool and drift away from all your troubles." Yes, yes I would. Warm weather and that chocolate would be nice too.

I am retiring from practice, gray hairs and all. I hope I can still drop in and chat with ya all, from time to time. Thirty seven years is long enough I think. Although I will still have to prepare mine,.. going back to pencil....NO SOFTWARE Giving away all my office furniture and equipment to charity today, hope they can use it or sell it. All in all it has been a rewarding career. I may miss it for a time, but I guess all things come to an end. My best wishes to every one of you pro's. Elrod

Thank You..Everybody.... Don't know if I should.............Or,......... But here's to all of you's.........

I posted this on another list serv yesterday where there had been a hurtful exchange of words and both parties quickly realized they were equally over-reacting and publicly apologized to one another. It seems fitting to post it here as well. Absolutely nothing should be read into this than just what it says. You two reminded me of two of my dogs. They get into a brawl with each other for no apparent humanly observed reason and with no special warning. After they are done, they will stand there and lick each other's face. Not saying you should lick each other's face, but it was nice to see calmer minds prevail! This is a highly stressed business that causes us all to over-react from time to time. You all have a very blessed day!

OK, I was so aggravated today at the two who called and one who came by to see how their very special tax returns were "coming along," my daughter said I needed a Snicker Bar. I want to just offer everybody a Snicker Bar and report that I AM going to write it off:

Best to fit in around your schedule. Although we will suffer withdrawal for a day, it won't be the end of the world!

Eric, whatever is most convenient for you works for me.

Any time works for me. I say schedule it when it is convenient for you.

On the speed issue--I've had my current machine (decent dual core processor with 8gb of RAM) for 2 1/2 years. It seems to run ATX just fine. However, I have noticed that it now takes about 50% longer per return than five years ago. I know the code has gotten more complex and the IRS increasingly uses tax preparers as enforcement agents but some of it is just increased complexity in the ATX process (things that used to be direct entries now required opening a separate screen to make several entries) and in the ATX code--rollovers take longer, opening a return takes longer, saving takes longer--all things that point to bloat. I'm grateful things are better than '12 but Oh for the good old days when I was cranking 'em out with Parson's tax package. $79 and flawless execution! By the way, in case you're curious, after selling off the pieces of Parson's Technology Bob Parsons started another little computer outfit. It's called GoDaddy.

https://support.cch.com/kb/solution.aspx/sw37113