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Dear ATX, Auto Save is not a random Jack issue - the lack of autosave on our system has been reported repeatedly and has not and still does not work - even with all your attempts at trying to fix it. I have not renewed yet, I have not been contacted to ask why - maybe because I emailed my salesperson that with all the ATX errors - ATX sucks (excuse my language but that has been my season! ). July 1st is our date to find a new program as apparently Northern WI is incompatible with ATX. Sincerely, WITAXLADY

I will call "tech support" tomorrow and see what silly games they have me play. The autosave has never functioned since the rollout of 2012. I have 10 workstations, 3 different ages of machines and NONE of them have functioning autosave. Even with autosave enabled, anytime I close a return after making changes, I have the option to exit without saving or save and exit. When I get the unexpected error, it shows for 1.5 seconds and then closes the program down. I had trained myself to click the save icon regularly, but then a long stretch of no "unexpected errors" caused me to slack off. As a result, I lost 50 minutes of work on a new return in 2014. Hence my rampaging rant.... Rant over...

I have autosave turned off. I prefer to have the option of closing the return and not saving changes, in cases where I screwed up or was just testing something. I usually don't use autosave in any program. When I get the 'unexpected error', I am usually able to close the error message with the x, manually save the return then close the program.

It's how I would do it.

So it does appear however it might have been a default -- in which case it might be possible to roll it back and start over. Especially if the check was not cashed.

Considering that the beneficiary is under age 70 1/2 there are 3 options available (sounds like an IRA or qualified annuity due to the amount of tax withheld). 1. Open an inherited IRA, Life Expectancy method. 2. Open an inherited IRA, 5 year method. 3. Lump Sum distribution. It appears beneficiary took option 3. Local podunk financial manager may be thinking about a spousal beneficiary.

And so it continues.... Hello, We do apologize for any issues you may be experiencing at the time. In regards to the Auto Save ATX will automatically save all open returns at regular intervals based on your selection in preferences. Returns that have already been e-filed or returns that have been marked Complete will not be saved. In order to further review the issue please contact customer support to speak with a representative and if necessary remote in for further troubleshooting. If you need further assistance, please contact our customer support department at 1-800-638-8291. Thank you for using our products!! Radisha Daniel Wolters Kluwer ATX, CCH Small Firms Services 225 Chastain Meadows Court, NW Suite 200 Kennesaw, Georgia. 30144 phone- 800-638-8291 fax-888-815-7587 [email protected] My response.... No disrespect intended, but you may want to read my original e-mail again. ATX does NOT automatically save ANY open returns unless I click on the save icon or close the return. I have been using ATX since 2002. I am computer literate. I KNOW what an autosave function is supposed to do. After working in a return for nearly an hour, the program pops up “An error has occurred and the program must close” messages, closes the program, and ALL the work I have just been doing is lost. I have contacted customer support about this issue multiple times since the train wreck of 2012 was issued. I have yet to see ANY change in the functionality of the autosave function. IT DOES NOT WORK. I await contact from someone at your company that can give me REAL and SUBSTANTIVE answers concerning this issue. I grow weary of the smoke being blown at me. I am NOT an average user. I DO understand computers much better than the average person. Stop trying to snow me. Your reply as well as my response will be broadcast on social media. This kind of incompetent treatment of a known deficiency for 4 years is totally unacceptable. Regards Jack L. Raby J.R.'s Tax Preparation

This discussion makes me glad that we mere tax pros aren't permitted to give financial advice. We can give tax advice--like telling the client who has no tax liability one year they might as well make their IRA contribution to a Roth because the deduction won't help them and the future tax savings might. We might even go a step further and suggest to a client who has 10 little IRA CDs in 10 different banks that they might consider consolidating to make their life and tax return less complicated. Or give the same advice to someone who has so many brokerage accounts they have no idea what they actually own and get so much mail they end up forgetting half their tax docs because they are in the habit of not opening those myriad statements. But as to what they should invest in, we must remain silent. Good thing, 'cause not all of us watch the same TV shows.

I thought of this thread today when I read something on www.bogleheads.org Financial Advisor: "Your portfolio need changing. It isn't set up to properly pay for college for the kids." Client: "I don't have any kids/" Financial Advisor: "I was talking about MY kids."

How many times have you seen clients after being informed of what they owe on their retirement distribution, take out more to pay the tax, so the problem occurs over multiple years?

"why oh why won't people stop robbing their retirement accounts? Leave them alone. Please." PLEASE! What do people think they are going to live on in retirement? We've all seen it time and again. Client takes $100k out of retirement account, then falls on the floor when we tell them how much they owe. "But I already paid the taxes!" Sure, you had a whole 10% withheld (which only covers the early withdrawal penalty) and NO state. And with the added income, 85% of your SS is taxable, and your Medicare contributions will go up too. On rare occasion a client will call BEFORE they take the distribution. When I tell them how much to withhold/put aside for taxes and they have to keep adjusting the withdrawal amount to arrive at the cash they need to buy a home, pay bills, whatever, it does give them pause. Yet they still do it. Combine this common practice with the number of people who give their homes and businesses to their children so they will qualify for Title 19 someday (while their kids live in luxury) and you can see what the future holds. There won't be enough people paying taxes to cover the nursing home costs of the purposefully destitute. Back to the days when nursing homes where people went to die. Ten or 12 in a room with one nurse, no activities, gross food, because the taxpayers won't be able to afford it. Repeat: PLEASE leave your retirement accounts alone.

Yes, but we are talking about the 10% penalty that applies to conversion amounts not left alone for five years or until age 59.5. They are subject to 10% penalty to discourage people from converting traditional IRAs and then taking out the conversions penalty free. Here's a good article: http://www.fool.com/money/allaboutiras/allaboutiras07.htm

Yes, if I understand it correctly, and we're talking about a 2015 distribution, she's met the five-tax-year period that starts with the year the conversion was distributed from the regular IRA (2010). 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 have passed. * I'm going to go on record as admitting that I may or may not understand it correctly, and why oh why won't people stop robbing their retirement accounts? Leave them alone. Please.