John A

To be fair, I've had no problems with TRX as a company as of yet. So far they've delivered on their promises, for the two years I've been with them. I've never used/offered any bank products, and probably never will. (My problems have largely been with the software itself. As everyone else here has pointed out, however, the price is at least a couple hundred bucks better than anything else out there. I'm going to see what I can do to get involved in RedGear and/or TRX product development this offseason, hopefully to help improve the Oregon return.)

Hmm. Just FYI, here's an except of an email I got from TRX today when I asked specifically about RedGear:

Thanks so much for the detailed info, Mike. I really appreciate it. (Not sure why the sales rep I spoke to gave me the incorrect info about RedGear for 2012; maybe I wasn't clear in how I asked him about it! I'll assume the mistake was on my end.)

They confirmed? I was told they wouldn't have an answer until mid-summer. This was earlier this week.

I'm not going with TRX for 2012 unless 1) I get a sense that Redgear will be more on the ball this year (specifically in terms of the Oregon returns), 2) TRX can confirm that they will be offering the same Redgear software for the coming year as for 2011 (that is, no conversions necessary), and 3) they give me the same package deal as last year, which included 5 free business efiles. (I use the Pro version, not the Premium version.) So far, I'm not sure about 1, they can't confirm 2, and they've refused to offer me 3. So it's a no go at this point. I requested a demo version of OLTPro, and will report back here. I'm also going to be checking out TaxAct Professional Edition. Anyone have any other leads?

Can someone with TRX Premium (I have Pro) do me a huge favor and check and see if the DC D-30 and D-40B have been released in your version of the software? I don't have them yet. It's kind of inexcusable to be missing forms at this point in tax season...

As yet unavailable forms that I need: - DC SUB 30 Unincorporated Business Franchise Tax - DC D-40B Nonresident Request for Refund Forms that I need that don't work at all: - Portland OR Form SC (S-Corp Tax Return) It's March. All I can say is, really?? It's March.

Jut too many problems this year. The Oregon return is simply too primitive. Very little of it carries from the federal return the way it should. It's not a complicated return, so... no excuse, really. The Portland local forms don't auto-populate correctly, if they autopopulate at all: SSNs end up in the date box, numbers don't total correctly, none of the information carries from the federal return, etc. I just noticed that the Medicare premiums entered for Spouse on screen SSA are not transferring to Schedule A medical expenses, even though it specifically says that they do! So... I've lost faith that this program is calculating things correctly. I guess I'll stick with it for the rest of this tax season, but I'm done after that. Time to shell out the money for a real tax preparation program. - John

Does anyone know if 1040Works can track 529 plan contributions? Oregon offers a deduction for amounts contributed up to a yearly maximum, with anything above that carried forward to the next year. Other tax programs I've used have allowed me to track the amounts. And honestly, I can't find anywhere to even input the full amount contributed; all I can do is manually enter the maximum deduction amount on the Oregon screen.

None of my efiles from 2010 were indicated as MeF (per the reports at the E-File Center). I didn't check the "opt-out of MeF" on any of the returns, and I didn't have the global "Disable MeF" setting checked, but they seem to have all been sent as Legacy anyway. So my guess is it isn't going to work. I haven't had a chance to test it yet (no one's come in needing to file for last year), but when I do, I'll post results here. (They almost all involved Oregon, which as far as I know does accept MeF.)

Amen! It's much appreciated, Ryan and Eric.

Just wanted to make a list here of forms/worksheets that I'm still waiting on. Feel free to add to the list. OR Form TM (TriMet tax) OR Portland AER (Annual Exemption Request) I can't file any business (Sched C) or rental (Sched E) returns without those forms, so it's really slowing me down! The "estimated release date" in TRX Pro 1040 keeps getting pushed back and back (first it was Jan 20, then Jan 27, now Feb 3). Both forms have a final published version available on Oregon Dept of Revenue website, and neither of them can be efiled, so I'm not sure what the delay is.

Thanks, Ryan. I appreciate the help! It'd be very useful to have this available next year in the Organizer. For this year, I'm just having to make my own lists to email to clients, which is unfortunately very time-consuming! But so it goes...

I didn't. Someone at taxworks said no, and then I asked again, and they said maybe. Or rather, they said: So I still don't know what this means for those of us using TRX. Did the 2010 TRX program (final version) support MeF on 1040s? In which case, it might work. I guess I'll find out at some point, but it would be nice to tell any clients who still need to file 2010 whether they'll have to paper file or if we can e-file. Thanks, Ryan.

See the Dec 9 2011 post here: http://blog.taxworks.com/understanding-mef/ I'll get in touch with Tax Works and see if they have an answer for this. Thanks.

Thanks, but I don't think that's quite what I'm looking for. The expanded organizer is way too complex for almost all of my clients. There's a page that's produced in the Simple Organizer that lists all (or rather, NOT all, which is the problem I'm having!) of the items included on the 2010 return in one column, with another empty column labeled "Comments". It's basically just a checklist, which I'd like clients to provide to clients to make sure they've got all their tax forms before they make an appointment with me I think that the answer to my question is "No" - there's probably no way to fix this other than getting Tax Works staff to fix the program so that the list includes all items.

Anyone know if we'll be able to efile 2009 and 2010 individual returns (1040s) using MeF, starting in Jan 2012? I read somewhere that this should be possible... Using TRX Pro 1040. Thanks!

Does anyone know if there's a way to customize the Simple Organizer "List of Items that were on your 2010 Tax Return"? It seems to be missing so may things that's it's virtually useless - things like home mortgage interest, property taxes, tuition payments, IRA contributions, rental income, etc. (I'm using TRX PRO 1040.) Thanks! - John

I just did the split, and it worked fine for me. I did the same steps you described above. The two new returns showed up in the same folder as the MFJ return, and I could easily open them from the "Clients" screen. So... I can't be of any help!

I haven't tried this yet, but anticipate needing to use it for a return in the next week or so. Please let us know if you figure this out! I'll post if I find anything...

I submitted one the other day, but don't remember the steps exactly. You have to uncheck the Efile the Return box on the GI page, then check the efile box on the EXT page. Then Review the return, and the 7004 should show up (but not the entire 1120S). Then click the Create Efile button, as usual.

Nope, certainly don't miss ATX. Though switching programs always takes a long time, so I may have continued with ATX if the price range had been more acceptable to me. To be honest, I think the current year program hits a sweet spot for very small tax prep businesses, like mine. With growth, I'll certainly need something bigger and better - my personal favorite being UltraTax, which I've used for may years at another job. But at this point, it's just not an affordable option for me. I wish we could somehow know in advance whether TRX will offer the same program next year, before we have to pay our re-up fees. Only because the time involved in switching is easily worth several hundred dollars to me in price. - John

Ryan - Do form upgrades download with all other program upgrades, or is there a specific step I'm missing? Thanks, - John

I just updated; still not seeing it... - John

Hi Ryan, Thanks for your efforts on this one. However - I downloaded the latest program update, but I still can't open the form in form filler. The form is listed ("OR Portland AER"), but when I click on it, I get the message "Form file is ORPTAER1.HP is not yet available." - John