Leaderboard

I agree. And imagine how bad it really is. We see a very small fraction of what is happening. IRS sees it all, but they apparently don't think any prosecutor would press charges. Sorry, its seemed like I had to. Sorry.

The thing that frosts me is that, instead of going after the bad apples, they instead levy all sorts of extra requirements across the board. Well, that's not going to make a gnats-pee-in-hell worth of difference to a crook or "just" an incompetent -- but it does but all kinds of extra burdens on us good preparers to NO effect. Grrr.... Then we get info like this latest newsletter I just got this morning (see the lines in boldface - added by me - especially): Preparers Plan for Shrinking IRS Budgets and Growing Penalties by Eric L. Green, J.D., LL.M. Budget cuts have decimated the ability of the IRS to perform its job. From exams to collections, the IRS has insufficient resources to work cases and perform basic customer service (the last time I called the Practitioner Priority line I waited over an hour, and I called at 7 a.m.). Nevertheless, Congress expects the IRS to collect revenue. It’s no wonder that voluntary compliance is down and the tax gap has increased. It appears that the government may be seeking to increase compliance by placing new burdens on return preparers by way of increased application of preparer penalties. We have seen several recent instances where preparers, after giving accurate advice and performing proper due diligence, are assessed penalties after their client fails to heed that advice. For example, the IRS has always been concerned that S corp owners may not take reasonable salaries. Thus, most preparers who have S corp owners as clients provide a letter identifying the requirement and suggesting a proper level of salary based on historic income. However, when the client returns the following year for tax preparation, lo and behold, the income level taken was too low. First and foremost, the obligation of the preparer is to accurately report the events that already occurred. Second, the tax year is closed. Fixing the problem would require the preparer to convince the client to recognize more salary, and amend quarterly employment returns, causing the incurrence of large penalties. When confronted with this, and similar scenarios, the IRS is looking to preparers to fix the “problem.” The preparer has no power to force their client to do anything. By attempting to hold preparers responsible for the pre-existing actions of the clients, the IRS can use the specter of preparer penalties and ethical charges against professionals to cause preparers to perform basic IRS audit tasks. When confronted with preparing returns for a taxpayer who will be reporting information that may not be compliant with tax laws, it is incumbent on the preparer to understand available safe harbors and ethical responsibilities. For example, under §§ 6662(d)(2)(B) and 6694(c)(2), preparers are entitled to a safe harbor if they disclose a position taken on a tax return. Preparers should always request that their clients comply with the tax laws and explain how that can be done. Finally, if necessary, preparers should consider not working with clients who chronically fail to adhere to their advice. Having to defend against a preparer penalty assessment or Office of Professional Responsibility investigation is expensive, time consuming, gut wrenching and, simply, not worth it. The new IRS has fewer resources. Do not be surprised if it leans more heavily on return preparers to do its job. Preparer penalties constitute a powerful and coercive tool to force preparers to police their own clients. Preparers must prepare. Eric L. Green is a frequent instructor for CCH® Webinars and the creator of the CCH® IRS Representation Certificate Program.

Yesterday, I got a final short year 1065 from a respected larger local firm. First thing I noticed was no dates for the short year. They took entire year of depreciation. Today I get a 1040 faxed and the preparer proudly proclaimed on the cover sheet that they took no depreciation on the rental in 2014 because taxpayer might be selling. AND they didn't back out any amount for land. I appreciate the extra work and the chance to showcase my admittedly limited competence in tax law, but these are fairly basic issues.

Internet Explorer 11 is there, but they don't make it easy to find. Hit the Start Button (or wherever the search box is now), and in the search box, type "Internet Explorer" When you see the familiar blue 'e' icon in the results, right click it, and pin it to your Task Bar and/or Start Menu

For the best results to tour question.......... Please call 800-829-0582, extension 623, between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. It will resolve all your worries....

I agree with jklcpa that Drake would is a better choice vs ATX, albeit you will never have 100% success with any software. I switched to Drake 4 years ago from Tax Works which was a quality program, ultimately absorbed by Ultra Tax! I have also used ATX for 8 prior years before they were absorbed by Wolters Kluwer. My recollection of ATX is that it did not handle multi states well at all. I needed to go into each state and fill in all the information as well as repeat every time numbers were adjusted. I have a small but somewhat complex practice encompassing multi state partnerships. Drake handles all of this quite well. Their support is overwhelming and the price is quite good for the value. Best of luck Mike Dubin CPA

And. If you REALLY value your time, switch to Drake. You'll find you have much more of it available.

As Eric said, IE 11 and Chrome both work perfectly in Win 10. Edge has some nice features with being able to set up reading panes for unruly websites and being able to "mark up" internet pages with virtual markers to underline important parts and save them. Edge has some problems with loading some extensions, however, so I do not use it yet but rather defer to IE 11. All of my programs,including ProSeries from 1998 through 2015 and ATX from 1997 through 2012 (my last year with them) all function as perfectly under Win 10 as they did under Win 7 and Win XPS. I run two high-end stand-alone computers in my business as the only employee preparing approximately 400 tax returns and handling the books, payroll filings, and financials for 35 small companies.

True, except that Sara asked specifically about ATX software's capabilities and limitations.