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May your holidays be merry and bright!

Merry, merry, and blessed Christmas to everyone here! And my deepest thanks for another year of friendship, support, advice, and more.

Merry Christmas to you and everyone here!

Joy and happiness to you all.

Sleeping dogs...

Without knowing all the facts, I would probably let him know there it not enough information to file complete and accurate tax returns after all these years. I would be carefull how I phrase it, but after 10 years how likely is the IRS going to contact him now?

"Never underestimate the power of stupidity"

and Merry Christmas to you and all on this board!

All the best to you, my friend!

Wow it sounds like she has no compassion for tax preparers.

I am referring to any storage, local or remote. There are consumer level things like 7zip which can pwd and encrypt files. For me, I use Cobian for making backups, which included PWD and encryption and can send to multiple places local or remote. My online backups are on servers I control, with a redundant copy on the server(s) of a public service. The key is my files are encrypted before upload, so even if someone found them, and broke the encryption of the storage server, they are not going to get into my file without big $ in mainframe time. For what they can gain from me, it is a money loser. Cobian does probably 20 backups or so per 24hours for me, and lets me know if there are any issues, real time. I do not use any sort of mirror or live remote shortage like OneDrive, since I cannot control when or how the data is stored. Even though our family group is not all using apple photos and sharing the family photos, I have been around enough to know to make my own backups of those as well (my phone uploads to my computer, and I have a routine to backup the actual photos to several places). For photos, I use AMZ Glacier as it is very cheap, and it is not an issue waiting a day or three to download if ever needed. AMZ S3 or similar is good for online storage too, but again, after encrypting myself, and with the understanding AMZ, like all online servers, does fail from time to time. Even for photos, I use two different regions for redundancy reasons. -- I was just sharing similar with a now former customer who believed program level PWD is a requirement, and is actually secure. Program level PWD has been dead as real security for quite some time, as is anything where you can have a reset ability. (This is why I encrypt first, then I don't have to wonder or inquire as to the security of the location I choose for saving.)

I have not been in a car collision this century, yet I still make sure I belt up properly, and keep my seat as far back as I am comfortable with. I rode a motorcycle for just over a million road miles and never had to lay it down, yet I gave it up when I had kids because I cannot control others, and it did not seem fair to be so risky. I have raced boats, cars, and karts. Never got hurt, yet I wore all safety gear available at the time. Same for being a baseball ump. Best gear I could get, yet the one time I was hurt (besides a few more bell rings), it was a HS kid who bailed on the first pitch of the game, THEN told me he had never caught before. When someone tells me they are no good with a computer (yet they want to use my software), either they are being honest, and they likely should be hiring out their accounting/payroll, or they are being less than honest, and want me to do some of their work for them. Usually the latter these days. Either way, it is a huge red flag not to be ignored. Unless the data you put in your google drive (or sheets, docs, whatever the current verbiage is) is encrypted before you upload, you may as well consider it public. Same for any of the "drive" type sharing services. Any online storage can be hacked. Online storage is great, but you must first secure the data before upload. Look back and see the number of times such services have been compromised already.

not a fan of hers either.

Just don't forget your annual Ethics, Terry. It does get old. My best Ethics course was taught by an IRS agent who started the meeting with "I know I'm preaching to the choir." Second best didn't use a text but scenarios used for class participation. Worst was one presented by Karen Hawkins, then head of OPR, who literally spent the two hours reading us Circular 230 and making it clear that all tax professionals are dishonest and will be penalized.

Yeah I forgot the TaxBook. I too have used them. I think you get like 7 courses with your subscription??? Can't remember but whatever it is, I use it. This year I accumulated 39 hours. I have two years left to renew my EA so a good start to the 72 total.

Form 5329 provides for the calculation of additional taxes on excess accumulation; I recommend you request a waiver of those taxes when you file (it is compatible with e-filing) rather than paying and then asking for the money back. As Catherine points out, penalties cannot be waived before assessment.

Yes, I get the most of my CPE from the Tax Book Self Study courses

Hi folks, Last Friday a mandatory microsoft update corrupted by OS and I had to wipe the drive and reinstall. My backup and recover software worked great for backups and for recovering files. But. The new version won't read files from the old version. The old version is no longer supported or installable (with NO warning from the vendor, mind you - and that's including not installable from the saved, downloaded, install file from a year or two back). So I'm having to use my personal machine to restore files to an external drive, and then reload them to the being-restored machine. That's ludicrous. Utterly and completely. And I will not continue with this software going forward; they have now proved they are not reliable and won't stand by their products or customers. So I come to you, dear friends, and ask what software you use for backup and recovery, and whether (or not) you would recommend it. Backup to a local storage device, preferably with an option for "cold metal restore." Many thanks.