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Any time works for me. I say schedule it when it is convenient for you.

I'm going to shoot for next weekend.   I'm going to get the ball rolling on Saturday May 2, and hope to have it finished by the end of the day on Sunday.   That is, unless I forget, which has been known to happen.

As long as it is after April 15, and we know that you will eventually get the forum back up for us, we will be fine. As someone mentioned, we might have withdrawal symptoms, but all will be well once we get our next "fix."

Best to fit in around your schedule. Although we will suffer withdrawal for a day, it won't be the end of the world!

Eric, whatever is most convenient for you works for me.

Just please warn us a day in advance, and we will try to survive it!

EIC is a big player in my town. I would estimate that at least 60% of the 300 clients I saw this year qualified for EIC. You do have to be diligent with your questioning, and sometimes a bit sneakier than they are. I would estimate that of my 60% EIC clients 99% are upfront, but I have some that I catch in misstatements. Keep them talking long enough and they will reveal the truth!

I have my 1040 at $100 with CT at $80 and around $100 for "foreign" states including NY and prices for every form and schedule. Trying real hard to keep everyone at a total of $500 or more, but have lots and lots of long-time clients that are a whole lot less than that. Kids at half price or maybe $100 or whatever sounds reasonable to keep the kid here and not doing it him/herself. However, I have kids that have more states and more schedules than their parents: live in CT but college and work in VA or where ever and summer job in NYC and SE in CT and investments including a couple of K-1s from grandparents and worked for a couple weeks in NC while at the second home during the holidays and.... I don't care if the parents say the kid has just a W-2 or two; I really have to see it before I can quote. The real downside to pricing them too low is that they expect that after graduation and earning $90,000 on Wall Street (of course, they expect Daddy to pay for it still, too.)

Nothing will be lost.  There's an extensive migration process (it takes hours to run) that should get 100% of the data into the new format.  I'll be making full file and database backups before I start, so if anything does turn up missing I'll be able to roll it all back.

Clearly, her mistake was the standard "too much information" error. Had it been listed simply as 'office supplies' it would never be questioned. LOL

Eric...thank you. What works best for your schedule is how you should proceed. We'll survive without the Community for a few days while you do your thing!

a number of years ago, a local long distance trucking company had the bright idea of going to a 1099misc after always doing a w2. i'm guessing they had 25+ drivers. within 2 tax return cycles, the irs hammered them for unreported back employer and i believe employee fica...plus substantial penalty with interest. there may have been a claim for unreported fed withholding...although that may have been settled. why? my deduction... when the drivers filed their returns, even assuming they (or their tax preparers) did it correctly on a sch c, many/most of them had no money (since they had no prior fed or fica withholding on a w2) to pay the lump sum fed and se tax liability from a sch c. that got irs attention. it's not nice to fool with mother nature.

My preference is for Sunday. No clients. No work really. But I have no objection to you taking it down any time you want. Whatever works for you. Tom Newark, CA

On the speed issue--I've had my current machine (decent dual core processor with 8gb of RAM) for 2 1/2 years. It seems to run ATX just fine. However, I have noticed that it now takes about 50% longer per return than five years ago. I know the code has gotten more complex and the IRS increasingly uses tax preparers as enforcement agents but some of it is just increased complexity in the ATX process (things that used to be direct entries now required opening a separate screen to make several entries) and in the ATX code--rollovers take longer, opening a return takes longer, saving takes longer--all things that point to bloat. I'm grateful things are better than '12 but Oh for the good old days when I was cranking 'em out with Parson's tax package. $79 and flawless execution! By the way, in case you're curious, after selling off the pieces of Parson's Technology Bob Parsons started another little computer outfit. It's called GoDaddy.

It's good to see that most of you survived tax season with your sanity (mostly) intact. The forum is going to receive a pretty significant makeover soon, but it will require some downtime, perhaps an entire day, to complete all of the changes.     My question you you folks is when the best time for that is?  When will things be sufficiently slow that taking down the site for a day won't be a huge disruption?

She should have had a business meeting with someone, documented it, and shared a piece of that candy. /s

Eric, is there anything that will be lost that should be printed out or copied to a file such as our private messages?

Sure there's an extension of time time to pay. I didn't say it was without cost, but the cost is actually fairly modest, especially for a taxpayer who has to borrow the money. Anyhow, a taxpayer who files the return without full payment is in exactly the same situation as a taxpayer who applies for an extension and then files without fulll payment. The only difference is, the collections clock begins ticking six months sooner. Costs (penalties & interest) are basically the same. But IRS charges that FTP penalty, which when combined with the interest charge adds up to about 8-1/2 % effective APR. They bluff taxpayerrs and tax preparers with the dreaded "Penalty" word, and common sense goes out the window.

'Leasing' solar panels is a crock. It's more like the company is leasing your roof to put the panels up; I was flabbergasted when Solar City started promoting this, but Elon Musk is laughing his way to the bank. I've had several clients buy panels, and most have no electric bills now, even in summer. I'd like to put panels on a pole barn or carport. My roof isn't really suitable, but I've plenty of land to put em up anywhere I want to.

However, I believe that ruling did not apply to EA's. They are regulated by and subject to Circular 230 at all times in practice. Tom Newark, CA

Also, thank you to everyone for all their help!! For the life insurance - whatever the atty did took care of it - so it came thru Fri closed - my 2 hours of phone calls and work nada.. but we can file them with a little raised rate rest of the questions resolved! one way or the other Extensions - staff left at 10:30!! gotta be a better way to rollover and open and lock and date and create!!! about 400 filed and 100 of those should have been done but just ran out of days. Gained a ton of new clients so had a lot of 2011's that came in last week, lost clients to do it them selves and didn't want to wait (so they paid more to go elsewhere) to much atx retry! and locked up program... Brandon needs to talk really hard.. But other than that a pretty darn good season! Need a post for best ideas and practices...

A UCC1 is a lien on a specific item. I deal with them all the time. The bank usually takes out a UCC1 on their customer's property (like backhoes, trucks, tools,etc). They are normally not used on buildings. At my day job, our bank has a UCC1 filing on our equipment. I think a bank knows what a UCC1 is. And I don't have a PhD. Tom Newark, CA

Our pricing model is almost exactly the same as Tom's, right down to the price that our returns start at. We do offer children's returns at about half the price of what we would charge if the return did not come in with the parent. I do that mainly to encourage them to let us file the child's return so we can be sure they don't claim themselves.

Surely the NJ tax dept has satellite offices around the state. Tell the client to bring the documents to an office. That way they know they are giving up their information to the real thing.

Catherine, tell your hygienist to go to the Compliance Dept where the rep works (if a financial firm). If that doesn't work, go to the state insurance commissioner. Just the threat of either will make the rep or firm more willing to work out a deal. If not, the state will start a file on the rep. Client can't undo what already happened but hopefully can be made whole for the taxes paid and just maybe get out of the annuity without any early cancellation penalties.

Hey Rita, we chatted about this in another thread a week or two ago. In my case, the problem is not that they expect a break. It is that I give it to them. In all the years (28 or 29) I've done taxes I've had only one pastor ask for a break solely because of his clergy status. Of course, most of them came to me because of word of mouth and knew I already had ridiculously low rates. However, I think/hope most came not just to get a price break but because they were looking for someone who specialized in the unique nature of clergy tax prep. Like you, I've seen some misguided counsel given. I makes me as sick as it makes you. But frankly, those have been the exceptions rather than the rule. I can also tell you times that my colleagues (and I, on at least two occasions) have talked suicidal people into giving life a chance. Or the times they have put in ridiculous hours to try (often successfully) to salvage a marriage that the players seemed ready to throw away, or commiserated with parents over a wayward teen, or a spent hours at a hospital bedside or garsh, I could go on ad nauseum, but you get the picture. Sure there are charlatans out there; but aren't there just a few scurrilous tax preparers who give us all a bad name? No true professional wants to be judged on the sins of a disreputable few. I do respect your position and your frustration over a few bad actors. I just hope you'll give the honorable majority the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, that's my two cents worth.

KC-- we had an attorney a while back but the guy--a supposed specialist--gave up after the first rejection. We didn't press it because just about that time the docs finally found a med regimen that seemed to be working and we hoped she would be able to return to work. Turned out to be just a temporary lull. She started to pursue the claim again but was told by SS that she had missed the filing deadline. About a month ago she started working with a new attorney who does nothing but SS claims. He is virtually certain he can get her approved ... eventually. He says it will likely take 1-2 years and that if/when approved she would get benefits backdated to two years prior to her application. So, we're hoping for a 'someday' mini-windfall. Till then ...

I have no idea if this is some new scam -- but at least you could check the address to send to and see if it is a known NJ taxation dept address. If it is, it's far more likely to be legit. But I would recommend to any of my clients to hold off sending unless/until they can confirm with the state. My two cents' worth, ymmv.