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Since 10/15 the official forum has been pretty quiet as far as new postings and the number of participants go. I think this forum has had more activity than the official one has had lately. It almost seems deserted.

Way to go, Rita! It does look like fun, but I know that I could never do it myself.

Yes, the refund policy basically says that the first return is free and then $20 per return filed after that is deducted from your purchase price, not including the handling fees and sales taxes paid, like being on pay-per-return. For those of you that might have requested a refund and are considering renewing with ATX, please also be aware that their current refund policy also says this (last sentence of paragraph A): To prevent abuse of CCH SFS' refund policy, a refund of tax compliance software may only be requested once in customer's CCH SFS account history (as of April 1, 2010). I requested and received a refund on 3/30 after ~ 4 weeks of calling them, and then on 4/2 I received a call from a sales person that I hadn't ever spoken with. My salesperson left and I dealt with someone else for the refund process. This person was reaching out to those that had left and was trying to get users to reinstate ATX, saying it was fixed. I won't belabor that point, but I questioned this person on that point in the refund policy and he said that it wasn't true, that if I renewed again that I could get my money back if ATX 2013 wasn't going to work for me. He didn't even know what the refund policy said and asked where in the policy it said that.

Ok, got it. That number would be similar to many of my returns, so that would include the letters, comparison, estimate calcs. Quite a few of mine are also multi-state. I didn't ever use the ATX invoice. The returns of mine that have depreciation on an individual return have a handful of assets related to the Sch Cs and Es. Where I have the larger number of assets are on the business returns with the number of assets in the 100-200 range. I converted 2011 returns from ATX. You are converting 2012, right? I'm not sure that our conversions would be similar simply because of that. I think you are dealing with the issue of having customized forms, more depreciation, and possibly issues related to whatever troubles the ATX 2012 files are causing? I'm curious to hear what Drake's response is to the extra time this is taking you compared to experiences others of us had last year.

Ok, I'm drooling over the ham and turkey. Not so much over the possum. lol I'll be thinking of you all next Thursday when you are feasting. Our turkey day is still TBD because two of the gathering work retail, one on Thanksgiving, one extra hours on other days following. At this rate, it may be combined into Christmas!

jsh, when you say "forms", do you mean 40-50 forms to input or that the finished return contains that # of forms (1040, Sch A, B, C, 4562, etc...)?

That doesn't mean everyone saw it though or followed through. For us solos, this forum and a couple of others might be our most consistent contact with peers, at least it is for me, and it is important to keep it up and running.

Thanks for taking care of us so well, Eric. With that in mind and with the upcoming busy season close at hand, let's show Eric our appreciation for his efforts and hit the "Donations" link above.

Yes, I still have one filling that is the amalgam too. It's been in there so long I don't remember when I got it, but it's not coming out until I have a problem with it or the tooth.

Me too, Catherine, as a second grader! I still remember it rolling around on my desk splitting apart and going back together. Each of the students in my class had mercury on our desks that we played with. How crazy is that?! I did not know about the CFL bulbs being hazardous or how disposal is a problem. I haven't had one go bad yet. I did recently break a brand new 4' fluorescent tube that scared me when it exploded and went into a zillion tiny pieces. I dropped it in trying to get it out of my Mom's car.

I just had someone message me to set up and appointment for mid-March. That's a first for me, to have someone schedule before year-end.

Yes, the calendar year is a permitted year. I believe the procedure is found in the instructions to Form 1128.

I will also agree that the tone is mostly getting better. This isn't just a discussion board or chat room on the internet. It is a professional forum that should be able to maintain a level of civility and decorum without personal attacks and insults. Recently several members have said that they found this forum to be very unprofessional at times. I hope that they will change their minds as things continue to improve, and that we can get back to this being a friendly place where people are willing to help each other with problems or issues.

Good analogy SFA. MsTabbyCats, I wouldn't consider this new mutual bond fund to be substantially identical as the one that was sold, for many reason. There are many NY bonds that each of those funds could potentially invest in, they are with different companies, under different managers, different yields. They probably have a different rules from each other that the investors must follow as to minimum amount of purchase and length of time one must hold the fund, etc.

Oh, I haven't seen that one, but Nick also has one where he does 9 blocks of Les Miserables. Here's that one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9IWAxSpgKA

My last post was meant for the OP, but Jack, I do understand your reason and remember all too well that day in 2007 when CCH shut us out. I also hadn't logged in in a long time, but finally felt that I should when some of the problems were cropping up early on last season.

You should really sign on and see for yourself. Personally, I like it better here with the smaller and more knowledgeable group that generally doesn't ask the very simple questions. The official forum has many times the users that this forum has, some of whom are skilled while others aren't at all. Some of those people are leaving ATX for other software in the coming year. I've found that the official forum has so many posters that sometimes a post goes unanswered, not because the question is too technical, but because it can get lost in the sheer volume of posts. Also, there are those questions that are asked over and over again because program users don't read the instruction manual and don't use the search feature to find answers to their problems, many posts are in the wrong forums, and posters ask simple questions that are answered in the 1040 instructions, all making for some frustrated reading at times. However, it has its place and had some technical workarounds that might not have been posted here. I do believe that whatever software is being used, users may find it beneficial to have access to that vendor's official forum.

Yes, many of us are on both. If you look at the header of this forum you will see a functional link to "MyATX". That will take you directly to the official forum. If you leave your web browser opened after logging in to the official forum, that link will take you directly to the forum without having to log in again.

Rfassett, I agree that you bring a wealth of experience and knowledge, and I hope that you will reconsider. Each of us brings our unique experiences to any forum that we participate in, if we are willing to share our knowledge with others. The block function can be a wonderful feature.

Jack, thank you for publicly sharing what you feel you are able to, and what your final decision is for the coming season. I hope you find that it is the correct one for your firm and the clients you serve.

Yes, statements of that nature are unacceptable. I do have to say though that when someone participates in a public forum and repeatedly posts responses of a nature that basically say "I know something that others don't, but I'm not going to provide helpful information", then others might begin to question the motivation for that person's continuing to make posts such as those.

jshtax, I've sent you a PM concerning the conversion of files to Drake. Also, here is something else that may help you and others too. It is not necessary to open each return and perform keystrokes to find out the file names. The complete list of all the backup files that includes the client's name can be found in this directory: C:ProgramDataCCH Small Firm ServicesATX2012BackupFormset. Note that the above is a different path than the following one that only contains the lettered/numbered file name: C:ProgramDataCCH Small Firm ServicesATX2012FormsetsFormset. Other than including the clients' names, the remaining letters and numbers of the file name are the same in both sets of files.

I'm definitely not an expert, but since you are asking a question because it puzzles you and aren't looking for specific advice on replacement hardware, I'd say that the first step would be to check each computer's Windows Update setting. It may be that the one computer is scheduled to check for updates at a different time or on a different day of the week than the other two are scheduled to perform that task.

I did not know about the editing of master forms causing slowness of conversion, but that does make sense. I don't customize the forms, just go with what the program offers. Maybe that's why my average conversion time per return was less than what you are talking about. I didn't have any issues that caused the conversion program to stop working either. With the slowness of opening the ATX files in their 2012 program, I would not want to take the time to open each return unless you were also considering restoring those forms that had been customized back to the defaults. Would that change the outcome of the returns, or were the forms customized more for style of presentation?

Yes, it is possible for an S corp to have a fiscal year. It's a sec 444 election, and requires filing form 8716. It also requires that the S corp pays the tax on the deferral period each year via form 8752. Years ago I had an existing S corp that wanted to keep its June 30 fiscal year end for no other reason than that's how it had always reported. I didn't see any advantage since the corp is basically paying tax on the deferral period that is like a deposit held by the IRS. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8716.pdf http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8752.pdf