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NOT intended to be political. I think it is the IRS' duty to prove they have taken steps *not* to be used as a political tool, by ANYONE. They have enough legitimate work to do, and not enough people to do it, as it is! Judge orders IRS to respond by October 16

"We delivered strong improvement in revenue, profit and cash flow," McKinstry said in summarizing the first half performance. Profit of about $314 million represented an increase of 33 percent over the first half of 2016. Revenue for the most recently ended period of roughly $2.57 billion rose 6 percent over last year's corresponding period. The figures were up 4 percent in constant currencies and 2 percent organically. The company reported 3-percent organic growth in its Tax & Accounting and Legal & Regulatory operation." It would appear that CCH has the cash flow to fix some of the problems at ATX, if they had the desire to do so ?

Ultimately, the only way to keep the shareholders happy is to keep the customers happy. That said, a small product line (like ATX) may be down in the noise for that purpose. Sigh.

On glasses that is......Clouds...Clouds ....Clouds. Only a 70% coverage here, But couldn't even see that with all the clouds. At least it got kinna dim out... Neat.

full coverage, zero clouds at my office. Very cool.

Thanks for all that research, FDNY. I still think more should have been put into program improvements we've been requesting forever. Maybe next year - nah, not likely.

Oh, that was yesterday? I was in the dark. I may as well have been, didn't notice anything. I have memories of '79, but remember the one in the 60s when our neighbor Mr Corso made all the kids cardboard cutout devices for viewing. I still had my "13 Ghosts" 3D glasses but was told they were useless for viewing.

I checked out the stock's performance, it's an ADR that is up 33% since last November. The dividend yield is 0.54% based on a price of $43. It's PE is 20.7, so it looks like the shareholders were rewarded with a nice price increase, not a generous dividend. Too pricey for me, but I would be a buyer at half the price (I have strict requirements). Something happened the 3rd week of January where volume increased wildly, really wildly and price fluctuated up and down by about 2%. Probably when people were relieved and partying like it was 2016, not 2012.

I wondered what type entity was CCH/Wolters Kluwer so looked it up. As it is an international company it does have shareholders so perhaps, to please investors, profits were passed through to shareholders. With the profit increase given the current status, why would they not just make the shareholders happy instead of the customers? Isn't that sort of the capitalist way? I'm thinking the figures cited above support whatever it is they are doing or not doing and our pleas to make our lives better as tax preparers are not as loud as the shareholder's voices. Just guessing.

I'll put in my 2.5 cents worth. I have to agree with Catherine and Jklcpa when it comes to Drake. I flipped flopped back and forth for a couple of years when it came to deciding to use Drake. I bought Drake for 2016 last year and have no regrets. Matter of fact, I purchased Drake again before May 31 to get the best discount. Moving forward, and as long as I am able to prepare taxes, I will purchase Drake. Do as Catherine says, download the previous year and play with it. If all you have used is ATX, switching from forms driven to input driven software such as Drake may be a bit challenging. If you have used other input driven platforms, then the learning curve will not be so bad. There are folks here to help you and I can tell you I am still learning features of Drake and I am amazed at how much easier it has made my life as a tax preparer. Don't forget to look at the secure file pro feature. The document cabinet is also amazing. Thanks to Drake, my office is nearly paperless. I took Catherine's advice and subscripted to signature flow for electronic signatures. All of this flows nicely into Drake. Adding documents external to drake takes a couple extra clicks but it is well worth it.

This is a great thing! My only issue with it is why do they have so much time to respond. The State that I call home uses the standard practice for taxpayers to respond to their notices within 15 days. I am personally taking the State to task on that policy. And even the IRS does not give the taxpayer that much time usually. Nonetheless, this is a very great development. Thanks for sharing this.

We went out back and saw the 98% occlusion. It was pretty cool, as was the temperature for a short while. I'm so glad that the high clouds didn't obstruct it.

I think I will have a big party with burgers, hot dogs, brats, etc. You have a reserved space!!

I booked it home from the office in time to pull out my grandfather's welding glasses and see maximum occlusion (~63% here) and boy oh boy was that ever neat! Jack - save me a parking spot!

Gollum needs some dental work. Too many candy bars I guess.

My plans fell thru too. They say Cincinnati is also in the totality ban in 2024.

IF the judges order only extended to normal everyday IRS's coorespondence. Getting any answer to ANYTHING within 45 days would be amazing. Rich.

I agree with you on this. They have had several years working on this already; the information the judge wants should be available within a week. Maybe two if he wants pretty copies, arranged in date order and bound.

Save your eclipse glasses! the next total solar eclipse will be April 8, 2024 and we will be in the center of the totality ban!! Taking parking reservations now...

We were in about 92% eclipse band, but we had plenty of clouds too. I saw it for a second, then the clouds came back. I'm glad I got my glasses for free! Maybe I will see more in 2024.

Is anyone here attending the Forum next week in Vegas? I will be attending and would love to have a face to face meeting with some of my tax family on here. I am flying out on Sunday, Aug 28 and returning late night Sep 1.

Good luck. I personally can't sit through tax classes that long without entering into a coma. Just finished my 40th hour of CE today! Done for the year.

My plans fell thru.

I'm not sure what the problem was......I was able to change the password and log on for her. Thanks anyway, but I guess sometimes things are made out to be more complicated than they are.......................

I'm watching the NASA site's coverage on facebook. They showed the space station crossing in front of the sun too. All so very cool!

They lie.

Hey, @Jack from Ohio the Drake live stream feed is here: Drake live stream solar eclipse

Gosh Elrod, just wondering what you put in the search box to get that image, I can't watch too long as I become sympathetic.