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This is a privately owned unofficial forum made up of other tax preparers who graciously help one another in our spare time. Demanding immediate answers on any forum, including this one, will not get the help you desire any faster and may actually result in not being helped at all! You can try calling ATX tech support, but I'm not sure they are still offering support back as early as 2014 any more.

I now live in TX, but I still have my CA phone number. I tried to call the IRS at 7AM local and it gave me the message that the IRS is closed and call between 7AM and 7PM. At 7PM local, I called again and got right through. So I think the computer looks at the area code of the phone and decides the time zone and hours for the messages. I think I am going to get another phone with an east coast area code so I can call in from 6AM -9PM local. Tom Longview TX

A surface pro. Add a desktop monitor, add bluetooth mouse and keyboard for stationary use. Easy to use mobile, and is VERY secure if it should ever disappear. I have yet to see a mobile computer with large enough screen for my tastes, so I focus, like always, on getting a good machine and adding the human interface I prefer. I rarely use the built in screen unless I want to work outside. Even for travel, I will carry a monitor (only a few pounds these days) or cables to hook up to whatever monitor or TV I come across.

If you are going to be preparing a handful of tax return, I would also recommend getting a big monitor and wait for it, a keyboard and a mouse.

Some of the larger laptops have a numerical keypad. Although I still prefer a mouse to a touchpad.

Ditto, done with CPEs too, just waiting on NY’s release of classes. I try to make the last 2 months of the year as stress free as possible, like it’s a vacation

We are all tax preparers on a private message board. Please contact ATX tech support or your IT support person. Read jklcpa's response to you.

Sylvia, it would be helpful to know specifically what error messages you are getting and when they occur. Also, I moved this to its own topic so not to revive one that was 6 years old, and I've removed your private information. Please know that this is a privately owned unofficial forum that was started for ATX users. No one here is from CCH that will be calling you directly, but hopefully some of our members may be able to steer you in the right direction so that you can use the program.

I just renewed. One less thing to do in December.

Judy's knowledge and research is always top-notch. As she explained, when a PTE has an option to file a composite return on behalf of its owners &/or the owners have an option to opt-in to a composite return, there are a lot of factors to consider if your client is the company or if your client is one of the owners. And, the new and rapidly expanding into more and more states PTET, sometimes mandatory and sometimes opt-in, is just one consideration.

Good discussion from all parties - thanks. Judy, good to see you posting again. Those of us who often need help should be thankful.

It's real. The passthrough entity can file a composite state return on behalf of all nonresident shareholder's or partners as a group, and then the individuals are relieved of the filing requirement in that state if they have no other income there.

You are mostly correct as far as your points about the SALT limitation, but the payment made on behalf of the individual owner where a composite is not filed does have to opportunity to include the taxes paid in the calculation of itemized deductions vs the standard where it may be possible to gain some benefit if that owner hasn't already exceeded the limit and is itemizing. Also, there are more things consider if you are advising and preparing the S corp returns, and especially if there is more than one owner. The operation in nonresident states to create a liability isn't an absolute given, but has the *potential* to do so. Filing a composite return may yield a higher tax overall than if filing individually because not all owners may be in the highest bracket in the state, especially if operating in states having graduated rates, and the individual owner may possibly be able to utilize other deductions or exclusions. Some reasons why filing individually rather than using a composite return may be better: the individual may be able to have some of that payment refunded that the passthrough made on his/her behalf, the individual will also be able to claim a credit on the personal resident state return for taxes paid to other states, and if the individual's return has other items of deductions or losses that factor into AGI, filing individually may yield a lower state tax than the composite return at the highest rate in that state Not meant to be all-inclusive as I'm sure I missed some points, but here are some other considerations in deciding to file individually: If the passthrough has more than one owner, composite payments made for only those that are nonresidents may violate the company's operating agreement as to making equal distributions for all if there are owners or partners that are actually residents of some states, so cash payments may be required to some owners to make sure that distributions are equal for all, especially in S corps where unequal distributions are prohibited; Some owners may have other income from those nonresident states, so the benefit of the composite return is negated or is to the detriment (see the point above about credit for taxes paid to other states); Owners move, so there may be times when an owner is a part-year resident of two of the states where the company operates; Owners with potential nexus or domicile issues in a particular state should carefully consider whether or not to file composite returns on his/her behalf because the statute of limitations does not start in that state if no individual return is filed; Composite filing at the company level does not allow the individual taxpayer to choose between MFJ or MFS, if there may be some benefit to doing so for a particular state.

IR-2021-207, October 21, 2021 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service reminds the more than 759,000 federal tax return preparers they must renew their Preparer Tax Identification Numbers (PTINs) now for 2022. All current PTINs will expire December 31, 2021. "Taxpayers are relying on your expertise to help them meet their tax obligations and for some to complete their largest financial transaction for the year. Make sure you're ready by renewing your PTIN now," said Carol A. Campbell, director, Return Preparer Office. https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-reminds-tax-professionals-that-its-time-to-renew-ptins

I haven’t used it. But I used to work for a firm that did that kind of stuff under TurboTax’s protection plan. It worked, especially for the smaller audits. CP2000s & simpler full on audits. But I got yelled at for working harder audits too much, ones where you had to really fight for the client. I remember one when I was fired where the guy was an author for fairly esoteric scholarly books and had a nearly zero income Sch C, for the time he was researching. He had previously been published, so it was ok to have that. But they just wanted me to close it out.

I did the search and found it for the OP and anyone else that may be interested:

Copy your data first. Don't use ATX backups or exports. Copy the ENTIRE DATABASE FOLDERS. Then when you install ATX, it will see the database and not try to create a new database. This will work flawlessly most of the time. If not ATX has database repair batch files you can download and run. If you search this forum, you'll see my post from January of 20(?) where we moved all years of ATX to a new Win10 computer, and I provided step by step instructions.

I just made a list of all the programs I have on this computer that I'd need to download. 23 programs. The biggest thing was that I printed off the server instructions for my email. Every time I have to install that - it takes me a few hours to figure it all out. Why did I never print it out before?

I am not getting ‘used’ to crypto. I’ve told the few clients I have that are dabbling in it that they will have to provide me with gains & losses or they’ll find someone else. Most of my clients are like me: too old to deal with it.

Hahahaha, hey, everybody! All is well! Best wishes to everybody finishing up. Remember, they need you more than you need them.

I have some for her to plant !!

Oh no, she's not retired. She's working the back field since hugging all those late filers! #ritahugs