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rec'd email today from IRS for my PTIN some items done this week finished my CPE renewed my CPA license through 12.31.2020 renewed PTIN for 2018 new website published

15 years ago if our office went up in flames - we were basically out of business forever. We had EVERYTHING in physical form and we had about 30 filing cabinets worth of stuff. Today it all fits on a zip drive and I have 2 real time copies and a bi-weekly backup. A ton of our stuff is scanned into and operated off of a remote office environment via another firm. Amazing how things have changed. When it snows here and I stay home from work - I literally can do 100% of what needs to be done and no client would know I'm not in the office. If I need to switch laptops in an emergency - it would take me <30 minutes to up and running.

Now I just have to press the same few keys and my password is automatically entered. When ATX makes me change my password, I just edit my script.

Now that IRS came to its senses and hired Experian to do the identity protection questions (and issued a stop-work order to Equifax), the agency says it will take them a little while longer to get up and running. Hopefully we will have eservices access without jumping through hoops for some time.

We scan when the documents are received. It's so much nicer than working with paper. We type notes, draw boxes, circles & arrows, and put calculator tapes right into the PDF, always in red so they stand out. We also switched to scanning in color because some documents were not readable in B/W.

We may be revising our processes anyway. We have been discussing having the front desk person do the scanning, so maybe that would allow them to put the material directly into Document Manager outside the "View" mode in the tax software. It sure would be easier on me! Notwithstanding the above, I still say I will never spend another penny on anything Epson. These scanners are just too flimsy, especially considering the price. If they were less than $ 100, I'd cheerfully use them for a few months and toss them out and go buy another. Well, not cheerfully, but you get the idea.

Yes, I even scan credit cards with my S1500. It sounds like it's destroying them but it doesn't.

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

Years ago, I used to buy paper at Costco. It's just not worth it due to jams etc. Especially, since Staples and Office Depot have name brand high quality paper on sale constantly. No more jams or feeding problems

Read a lengthy IT security article yesterday, which said that a security flaw has been found in one of the predominant chips used in many encryption devices. In conclusion, the article said, "There is no way to participate in and use modern technology without the risk of being hacked."