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Hello all, We've had some (very few, but more than zero) issues where database tables have crashed during times of heavy load on the server. These load spikes are usually related to other sites that I'm responsible for that happen to share resources with the ATX Community. These haven't been significant issues, and in fact have been very easy to resolve when they arise, but it does cause brief downtime on the Forum. So, in the interest of constant improvement, I would like to move the ATX Community to its own server (VPS) with its own dedicated resources. There are other server configuration changes/challenges that I'll tackle at the same time. Because this is the only forum I maintain, I am less experienced with performance tuning for this software than, say, more standard website content management systems. All that to say, I am expecting it to be a slightly bumpy transition but with improved speed and stability in the long term. There might be as much as one or two days of downtime followed by intermittent hiccups until everything is smoothed out. I'm aiming for mid-May to get this work done, but there is no hurry on my end. If there are business reasons to put it off longer, please speak up! Thanks!

yesterday Catherine White EA was the presenter for Tax Practice Pro, a c.e. provider. Her presentation was a case study of what happens when a client changes tax professional, and issues with prior years are discovered by the new tax pro. Kudos to Catherine on a well developed and perfectly presented class.

Any time is ok with me for the conversion business-wise, but I may have withdrawal during the downtime. As always, thank you for taking care of us so well, Eric.

I have to decided to limit my involvement to informing my clients of their obligation to report I am not giving any advice or answering any questions. BOI has nothing to do with providing accounting. payroll or tax services.

Thank you and good luck with the move!

After reading all that, for one of my biz clients similar to my example, from what I've seen of them in action, I'd say the H&W are but the kids are not. In another one of my biz clients, I'd say all four are. In both cases, I think the one with the ownership interest would disagree with me (for different reasons in each case). So, I really don't want to be involved in these filings. Less and less the more I read. I'm sticking to tax!

My E&O (NAEA group policy via Calsurance) said they are NOT covering preparers for this -- at this time. They did say that IF reporting BOI becomes a core service for tax preparers in the course of their biz, that they would consider covering in the future. From Megan Killian/NAEA: "As of right now, Calsurance will not cover this under their E&O policy, and the consensus has been that most other providers will not be either. However, I suspect that this will change over time once it is more established and it is also demonstrated that this will be a core service offered by many tax and accounting professionals." I do NOT want to report BOI for my clients. My biggest worry is that clients will forget to notify me of changes in ownership until next tax season, missing the short deadline for reporting changes. And, create new businesses without telling me until next tax season. I don't think I could charge enough for this. Wresting true ownership info from clients will take time. Penalties are high. I can make money by preparing taxes all year long. Why break my stride to jump out of my tax software over to FinCEN and also spend the year making sure no client has made any ownership changes?! I will make sure all my biz clients know about it this summer. I hope to steal a 1-pager from someone who creates a thorough how-to flyer.

I just did this for MD. Check the box on the state EF info form to unlink from MeF. Then just create the state efile. Easy peasy.

Thank you, @Eric, for everything you do for us. Do you need any donations at this time to fund the new server? If so, please let us know!

I'm at a loss why someone would want to track this manually rather than on a spreadsheet, but some options: In Amazon search for trading log book for numerous options. If you use comb binding for tax returns, make your own. Google custom book binding for any number of companies that offer that service.

I like to say, "I have easier ways to hurt myself!" and Eric has (or had?) a GIF for us on that exact topic.

I'm not Lynn EA but can answer. I upload the client copy of the returns, pdf. I then upload what I call the signature pages, beginning with 8879. The signer(s) are part of the portal with their email address originally entered as a client. The software prompts me to determine if I want to add signatures. For the client copies, no, but I click Yes for the signature pages. All is then uploaded for client access and I am prompted to indicate which signer is to sign first, i.e., taxpayer. I scroll to the signature line and highlight it. Then highlight the date line. I also highlight for initials the bank information and selection for payment or refund. At the end, I am prompted for the next signer, if there is another. Repeat the process, review if desired, send. The clients receive an email (each one) and are directed to the highlighted spaces to accept/enter. When the first signer is finished, an email is sent to the next one. I am notified at every step. A few of the folks were reluctant until I or someone explained it's similar to the now ubiquitous signing pads everywhere. I think you can try it out.

First it's too complicated to cover in 1 page, given all of the exceptions and etc. IMHO, creating a "How To Flyer" is offering advice.

I am not touching it. The potential for the client to not give updated information to report in the required timeframe scares me. The penalties are just too high to justify the potential revenue from the client. Plus, if I understand the rules correctly, you have to report yourself as the preparer of the document. Some will do this, I will not. Tom Longview, TX

An office support place like Staples or Kinkos, or a local stationer, can make those for you in whatever format you want. Talk to a local shop to see what format they want you to provide, and about options. Hubby needed some specific type of scorebooks that were commercially available 30+ years ago but not for a long time. He took an old one to a local place, asked "can you make me more of these?" and they could not only make them, they gave him the choice of glue-bound or spiral-bound, paper color, page count per book, quantity, etc - all for what he considered to be a VERY reasonable price.

I am having withdrawal ever since the 15th. I would like to see these extensions disappear. I am so totally disappointed in the IRS for various reasons; many of you can relate. I am disappointed in ATX for pouncing on us before tax season was even (over?). I have since been bombarded with emails and calls and snail mail from them. They choose to attack when our resistance is at its lowest. I only want to sleep. I am fine with whatever Eric does for us. It can surely only make our lives better and easier. Thanks again to Eric and all of you for what you do for me.

And the recording still qualifies for CPE credits.

As long as they are in a Workspace thread with both people, you set up the two signers. It goes to #1, automatically to #2, then back to you once signed.

What is substantial control? For example, husband owns 80%, wife 20%, adult son 0% but VP of marketing, and high school daughter 0% but VP of finance. Both H & W are the producers of the local TV shows as well as being the on-air talent. Does only husband report? Or, some combination of 2, 3, or all 4? Would it matter if the responsibilities stayed the same, but the "kids" didn't have VP titles? Is there a difference between the kid that's over 18 and the kid that under 18? I guess I have to go read the details at the website! Thanx, Lynn, for your post. That's what I'll send my clients, with the website in large font, bolded, and highlighted.

Fortunately for me, the Oregon Secretary of State has published a two page guideline with live links that I am going use. I am also going provide a live link to FINCEN'S guidelines which is 51 pages long

Thank you Abby. That worked perfectly. I had never seen that option before. Greatly appreciate all the help you provide to this board.

The smell and sounds of a printer is one of those favorite things for me. We had a printer really close to our office back in the 90's and I was the lackey who would get sent over to have something printed and loved that smell. Only thing better is a barn.

Isn't that what Excel does, with speed and accuracy? I know, sometimes it feels like you're more connected with your finances when you interact with them manually. I still keep a paper checkbook register and balance it almost monthly (tax season doesn't count).

Old college professor of mine said "You only start to understand thermodynamics about the third or fourth time you teach it."

Might not matter where they still had their residence at the time. States vary, but over time more are taxing full-year income regardless of where earned. Then they adjust based on % earned in what state, or $ earned in each state, or they apportion by date. Home state will give credit for tax paid to another jurisdiction, usually up to the amount they tax on that same income. You'll need to research what KY and WI want for part-year resident reporting.

Since property is in KY, it is taxable there. Since it was only one month after they moved, I'd look to see if they were WI resident at the time of sale. When did they change such things as drivers license, car plates, etc.

A spreadsheet can be created at any point and during an audit, it might leave an aroma. Paper records, along with a couple of pictures sent to your email every 6 months will not be challenged. Thank you for your suggestions and going to my local store sounds excellent.

It was recorded for later viewing

I have one couple who share an email, and I send to them twice - once for him, and once for her. I suppose in theory one could sign in both spots, but for that you'd have to know the clients, I guess. I had emails in the workspace sent by each of them (signed by name; different 'voices'), and so knew both were on board and spoke with each other about the returns regularly. If it was a couple where I had contact, mostly, with only one of them, I might be chary of using a single email address.

Both good points. Even in a situation where the site is cached for logged out users, the TTL would be set to a low value, likely to an hour or less, so they would still see almost all of the most recent content. Then, after that period of time, the cache expires and the next hit generates a fresh copy. It would go a long way to dealing with all of the bot activity that the site sees. Every hit from one of those bots is processed like any other, which generates multiple database queries. Serving them a static file would be tremendously more efficient. In any case, I'll know more once the move is complete, and I've had time to work on the server/software configuration for a little while. There's a reasonable chance we'll be able to get away without the caching layer at all.

The site does have the option to stay logged in, and stays that way until the user clears browsing history unless leaving cookies intact. I'm logged in almost all the time. The site also has the ability for a user to log in anonymously too and stay that way.

I wasn't asking if the preparer must send two emails. Based on what Margaret said here: ...what I meant was, for example, must each party signing the 8879 have his or her own separate email address.

Verifyle is only $9 per month if you are not with one of those organizations. I have been using it for 3 or 4 years and am very pleased with the service and responsiveness to my questions at the outset. I use workspaces, one for each year, and request that all client communication be managed there. That way I can keep messages for each client in one place. At the end of the season, I copy the message string to my client file for each one for each year, just in case.

If you are a member of NATP, NAEA, Tax Pro Fellowship, these organizations offer free subscription to Verifyle, a secure document sharing platform. Also included, and free, is electronic document signature.

Half time student determines if AOC is available. To be a qualifying child she would need to be full time for 5 months. Parents can not claim her.

I agree with mcb39. If a resident of WI at the end of the year, he'll file KY 740-NP. Ky source income (the sale) will have to be reported to KY. Yes, check to see how much can be excluded as residence but the business is business.

I ran into something similar with an amended OH return. I decided it was easier to include a 1040X with no change and the explanation that it was being filed solely to amend the state return. Apparently OH requires a federal return to accompany an efiled return. Client received a letter last week from IRS acknowledging no change. Client is still waiting for the refund from the amended OH return.

Part-year residents are generally taxed on income earned in the states they lived in in each part of the year. Check the two state websites. In the states I am familiar with, wages, interest, dividends, etc. are broken down by which state the taxpayer lived in when they were received--there is no credit for taxes paid to other states because each one only taxes the income received while t/p was a resident. If your client was truly a resident of WI when he sold property in KY, it will probably still belong on the WI return. Only if he was a full-year resident of WI would his income be taxed a WI rates with a credit for taxes paid to KY.

Thanks. I will double check my material. I probably read it incorrectly. Appreciate you! Tom Longview, TX

I would call Sigma. My experience is the people you call are terrific at fixing computer problems, not tax problems. They'll try and help but you aren't getting the best answer if you need help with real tax questions. I've never called with real tax questions but that's just my interpretation from talking with them. If it's not printing, they'll be great with that type of problem. All efiling and downloads go directly through the software to / from Drake. Once installed, you can't tell Sigma is involved except their logo shows up on the initial log-in screen.

Both articles I read said it was half year, and I tend to assume ATX has it right. https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2022/nov/amortizing-r-e-expenditures-under-tcja.html

Use Z-Amortization and 5-Amort-174-Rsch and exp and you'll get 5 year SL HY.

Rule 1, umpires are always right. Rule 2, if umpire is wrong, see rule 1. But of course, the good ones work hard to never be wrong, and understand they will be wrong and have to rule the best they can with what they have at the moment. Good training for life. Sadly, the difference today is any perceived slight will follow you forever at any time. I have been asked about a call from 20 years ago while online at the grocery. Must have kept little Spike from making the show. My very first call in my very first game was an ejection. Little JR cursed at me. The grown up JR resides at state expense as a predator.

I might add the following: If you really want to learn a subject, prepare to teach it to others.

A slight variation, but the same basic thought: “Experience - that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” - Anthony Hopkins as CS Lewis in “Shadowlands”

I have access to the Knowledge Base, not the forum. Even when I was using the software purchased directly through Drake I never used their forum. If I can't find a specific worksheet or where / how to enter something I go to the Knowledge Base site and have detailed instructions very quickly.

Asking now before I start this return - before the board goes dark and I go into withdrawal symptoms..... Have any of you done the amortization of R&D costs on an 1120 return yet? I have one in my extended pile that I have been holding waiting for the Senate to act on the bill that is stalled. I have not even started the return yet, but I am curious if there are any issues with entering in ATX. I know it is a 5 year asset (but which one). I think it should be SL, but how do I keep ATX from taking mid-year? I am getting to this return in a couple of weeks and would appreciate any advice on how to enter in ATX Fixed Assets. Thanks - this is my first return with R&D costs. Tom Longview, TX

Oh right, he meant after the program updates. I had that happen once mid-season but hasn't happened since then. I'm more tired than I realized.

Yes, it has been like that almost since the beginning of this season for me. When the program would open, I had no alerts or notifications in that bottom left corner of the manager screen, and I wasn't able to get program updates. I didn't realize this at first because I was only waiting for state approval of a certain form. Also, MS Edge browser window would open on top of the program every time, and I couldn't make the support person or her supervisor understand this. I have never used Edge, and the supervisor's suggestion was for me to try changing to Edge as my default browser, or try Chrome. I could NOT make either of them understand at all that something with my computer's environment was blocking communication from the program to Drake's server, that it was not a browser issue. Finally after about 6 calls the supervisor sent a message to a higher level support person. Very frustrating! We worked on it and thought it was solved with me changing settings in my AV, but the problem reappeared again in late Feb. I ended up changing to a different AV software completely but had only disabled the original one. That worked until I rebooted the computer and a portion related to the original AV's VPN was still enabled, and THAT was the issue.