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I wish you great success in restoring your lives in California. It is so sad to hear of such destruction and loss of life.

I think my marriage marred me, too.

So heartbreaking for those who lost so much, we wish the best for recovery and rebuilding of lives.. I have a friend in Santa Rosa who was caregiver to her Mom who passed away a week before the fires. My friend had do an immediate evacuation and was only able to leave with her dog, it was that urgent. Everything was lost. Imagine trying to evacuate her Mom who would have been immobile. Her passing was a blessing. When a firestorm is heading your way, immediacy is the most important realization to respect. As a former firefighter I cannot stress enough the importance of preparation. After 9/11 people were preparing for another attack possibly chemical or biological. Many people were putting together "GO Bags," packed with your own personal list of items, ready to grab at a moments notice. You can Google "Go bag" and get a comprehensive list of items.

Thanks for this information and reminder to us all. Every part of the country has the possibility of some disaster, natural or human induced. We here are all grateful for your safety and wish you well in the difficult return to 'normalcy.'

All at Medlin, and our families, were unharmed during the recent fires. How prepared are you to bug out? How prepared are you to start over with nothing but what you carried on your person? --- One of our friends had literally no time to escape, beyond getting self and pets in a vehicle and driving through smoke and embers. Find out how to sign up for your local emergency notification system. Do not depend on getting a phone call, or an wide cast alert on your cell or landline. Be proactive and sign up for something which your authorities will be able to use. Be prepared for no notice at all... If you have a locked gate (such as in a rural area, at the end of your driveway) make sure the authorities know the access code (do not use a key lock!). Just as authorities cannot make you leave, it appears they do not have authority to cut locks to warn you to leave. Check your insurance. Your agent will be (should be) glad to go over scenarios with you. Don't forget to consider your temporary housing needs, and such housing may be some distance from your usual residence. In the case of our fires, so much housing was lost, and so little empty housing exists, many will be forced hours away from their residence area, and likely their place/area of work. --- Personally, we left the area under advisory evacuation, and due to the air quality. A few tweaks are still needed to our personal process, but we were close to being fully functional while leaving in minutes. Our main risk is earthquake, which is not so much a bug out, as a how can we get by for a few days on our own for all needs. Evacuating is not something we planned for. We had supplies ready, and were able to pack easily, but a few things were not as easy to get as they should and could be. If we simply had to escape, we would have been fine, though not because of planning. Lesson noticed and learned...

My husband was a firefighter at one time also, and he gave me a good talking to shortly after we were marred about the importance of leaving at once when a fire alarm sounds. I used to work for a largish bank, and often when the fire alarm would go off in our builing people would continue to work right through until the fire department arrived. The only time I remained after he scolded me was when I was headed out the door and saw the fire in a trash can, so I stayed to put out the fire.

Where my husband grew up, in Los Alamos New Mexico, there was a huge fire about 15-ish years ago. Lots of houses were lost (not his family's house) but plenty of folks he knew either lost homes or had major damage. It's all rebuilt now - but the photos he has from years ago show well-forested mountains, and I've only ever seen mountains that look like they have toothpicks sticking up all over the place. New growth is coming in slowly - but the higher the elevation, the slower it goes. We have never had to "bug out" here in eastern (& central) Massachusetts - although with one storm or another, we have been without power for >1 week several times and without water treatment (plant failure) once that was also a week or more. A number of those times were in central Mass with a well for water. However, it's not impossible that we'd need to bug out from here, and that is not something I've really ever planned for (I have the hunkering down to last out the week-plus down; oil lamps, water sources, burner that hooks up to a propane tank, bleach for water treatment, filtration, ways to stay cool or warm). I'll have to add the bug-out scenario to the list. Thanks.

At least 10 years. The experts say it will take about 10 years to rebuild the lost homes (10% per year is the rate for this large of a disaster). Those who do not have an inside track to a builder may be without their home for a long long time, and their insurance may only cover the first 12 to 24 months of additional living expenses. Something to ponder.

I have a non-TWAIN scanner that we use for client docs with the Drake document cabinet. We just save directly to the cabinet. It is literally zero more work - you just do the folder-choosing and file-naming in a different place. I need TWAIN for bank deposits - so I take those to the my home office and use the Kodak i1120 scanner there.

1. You probably already know all of this, but for anyone reading this that doesn't - It was implemented in 2016 on a much smaller scale and expanded to the 50 million level we encountered last year and was still considered in the testing phase. IRS reported a success rate of about 94%, and a reduction in refunds issued on returns with fraudulent W-2s. Even if the W-2 contained the code, not entering the code didn't stop a return from being processed. We don't know if the return received extra scrutiny, but I'd say probably not. 2. They won't. IRS and the large payroll processing companies collaborated on this, and the verification code is the generated by applying an algorithm provided by the IRS. The resulting code is unique and is based other data contained on that particular W-2. I suspect that even our tax software that we use to prepare and file W-2s will not be able to generate these codes. Logically, the IRS won't be releasing the details of how the algorithm generates the code because that would defeat the purpose if the fraudsters are able to generate valid codes for a fake W-2. That's in a similar vein to why we practitioners were not told specifically what additional data is being transmitted with returns that we e-file. One was obviously the amount of input time so that IRS could shut down the preparation mills where thieves were generating fraudulent returns in a matter of seconds or a few short minutes.

I read that fast and thought you had been using Xerox for 152 years! And thinking - is Xerox that old? And assuming tax preparers never die.....

To get it out of the way. This is the official start of the 2018 tax season. Tom Modesto, CA

^^ Catherine said exactly what I was also trying to convey. I have a Twain scanner that works perfectly within Drake's doc mgr, but I can also scan using the scanner's software and save to Drake's Doc Mgr directory without ever opening the doc mgr or tax programs. I did that last week when someone brought in a state revenue notice that didn't require any attention on my part, but I wanted to save a copy in the client's records. I scanned and named the file using the scanner without having to enter passwords to open any of Drake's programs. Easy and quick. Drake "recommends" using a twain-compliant scanner, but it is only "required" if you want to scan from within the DDM software itself.

Please see my response in bold in the Quote.

My understanding is that it is a 'rolling' renewal.

People can access the internet on their phone's data service. They don't need to use your wifi.

Disclaimer - I don't do farm returns so this reply is meant to generate additional discussion in hopes of getting to the proper reporting and may not be helpful, but I'll take a shot. Thinking out loud - I think these are the main issues regarding the wife's involvement in the farm: First, the wife already has s.e. income from another activity other than the farm. Does she also materially participate in the farming operation in a substantial and significant way for this to really be a partnership for tax reporting purposes? If she doesn't then I'd have trouble calling this a partnership merely because jointly held land and buildings are used in the farm operation and are collateral for the loan. If you think it's a partnership and if she does materially participate, then this can be a qualified joint venture and not be treated as a partnership requiring 1065 reporting, and instead the income and expenses may be split and reported on the appropriate schedules and forms of the 1040. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/married-couples-in-business If the wife doesn't materially participate but you still think this is a partnership, then they can't claim QJV and report only on the 1040. In this case the proper reporting would be on a 1065. Additionally, without her participation, I believe that any loss to her would be considered passive and not be available to offset her other s.e. income. If after all of this, you decide that the 3 years' tax reporting is not correct, I don't see this as a 3115 change at all because there is no change in the income or deductions due to an accounting method change, only a split in the reporting and that the wrong forms were used. Sorry that's so lengthy and might not be of much help.

I kick them out and tell them to come back when they can do things without connecting to the internet. If they cannot do that and insist, then I insist that they accept our mailing them copies of paper they request. Had one that said he would then just go visit the taxpayer. I told him to go right ahead but before leaving my building give me the number to his supervisor so I can report his insubordination and lack of respect of my POA. I can be the nicest of guy most of the time - but don't ever challenge me to play hardball - you will usually lose. PS - it is not written in any of the rules and regulations that I have read that gives anyone in or visiting my office unfettered access to the internet. The day that happens, I will pull the plug and they can figure it out on their own.

I have a bridge to sell you....

I'd be wary of disabling auto updates. At least make sure security updates come through. On my machines with Windows 7, I chose only "critical" updates. These are usually security patches. I don't need the ones that "enhance your gaming experience."