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I agree 100%, Jack. IRS also said the PTIN fee for what used to be free was to help pay for their program of testing and monitoring of CPE. Now that's gone and we are still paying. I do think the testing and monitoring will be back in some form though.

No, Jack. lol There was a comment about political strategy regarding the shutdown that didn't belong here so I removed it. If anyone would like to start a related thread about the ongoing effects of the shutdown as it relates to politics in the politics forum, that is OK. If it's something that directly affects tax preparation and what we will be facing as tax preparers, it stays here. There are some original posts like this one that are more of a PSA so that we are aware of a sitch.

I'd like this thread to stay in the general chat area so that all can see the delay in PTIN renewal. Let's not bring the blame game and politics into it.

Thanks for that reminder, Mr. Pencil. MAS, was the rep asking for clients' names, or was the rep only networking and marketing his/her services?

Well said, Marilyn and Jack. I've also had to care for aging parents, and I would never think of being paid or that my brothers and sisters need to contribute equal time either. I've heard them each say many times, "don't worry about it, Judy will take care of it" and that's ok too. I have a little more time to help Mom out than they do. We all pitch in, and I know that all I need to do is make the call and they would come at any time of the day or night.

Haha! Cute one, Jack. Now if only someone would invent a simple device that could be installed on public restroom entrance doors that would disable the phones! Do people not mind hearing that (couldn't resist, sorry ) or hearing a flush?!

Rich, I'm sorry to hear what your wife and you are going through, and you'll certainly both be in my thoughts and prayers. I know how difficult it is when a spouse is diagnosed with cancer and goes through its treatments.

Yes, the states are able to get the returns from IRS. I received state ack yesterday, and waiting on one last ack from DE. It's not uncommon for the DE acks to come back the following day, so I'm not concerned about it.

Something else to consider when evaluating other software is whether or not the company gives access to the prior year programs and how many years are made available. People file late, we file for carrybacks, and the need for amendments always comes up. Those long time users that renew with their existing software vendor will continue to have access to the back years and be able to file 3 years through the MeF as long as the return qualifies for that, obviously. However, for those of you considering a move away from ATX, if you don't renew with ATX for this coming year you will lose the ability to efile through the ATX's system. I know that Drake gives access to all the years back to 2001, but what about the other main vendors (Ultra Tax, Lacerte, Pro Series, and CCH for Taxwise and Prosystem fx) ? How many back years are made available?

If the return was efiled prior to the deadline, I believe you have 5 days to fix the errors and resubmit or 10 days to paper file.

My returns don't go on extension and almost all of it is completed before I get too busy. I operate as a C corp and also have another business that's a sole proprietorship. Both close out at year-end and all recs are done by third week of Jan, payroll returns filed and W-2s issued. The corporate return is usually filed in Feb. The input for the personal return is completed late Feb with the exception of one K-1 that usually arrives in early March. I enter that data, finish the states and send it on its way.

My last one picked up yesterday afternoon, efiled today and am waiting on state ack. Relief! Now to catch up on CPE.

Is it too irresistible for some to avoid it... like me and anything chocolate? Darn it, now I want a cookie.

If she were my *friend* I'd tell her that what she is doing is fraudulent, evasion of taxes, lying, and whatever other descriptive words I'd attach to the personal tactics of getting things for free like the hair in the food when dining out, and then I'd tell her that I'm not going to listen to it any more. After I said my piece, I'd hang up the phone or leave if this was a face to face. I would not want this person as a friend.

I think I'm going to adopt John's policies for almost all of my clients. My last client on extension picked up his return this afternoon, and I showed him the calcs of P & I that weren't included and told him to expect a bill. He's getting one anyway since he's not paying in full. State of DE has no way to add in the P & I to a return, so this method will be consistent with the state too. Now my only wish would be that DE would change the wording of their notice so that it doesn't say they've corrected errors in the return, when it's only a matter of assessing the additional interest that they don't allow the preparers to add in!

Michael's got it. It should be part of SOP to check for missing 1099s by looking at last year's return and asking questions and documenting answers. My guess is that we've all had clients tell us an account was closed and later find out that it did have some activity that affects the tax year we are preparing a return for. A couple of years back one of my clients thought he didn't have to give me his tax-exempt interest income, also t/e for the state, because after all, it's tax exempt right? He never had t/e investments in the past and this was a new investment for him that generated over $30K in t/e interest. I found out about it in the course of discussing the sale of real estate he had earlier in that year and because I didn't see any bump in other investments or increased investment income.

For this last return I'm working on, I think I'm going to print out the interest and late payment penalty that is calc'd through 10/15 but then delete the calcs and go with the return and instruction letters showing only the tax and 2210 penalty. This client is smart and will understand it, and since he is still only able to make a partial payment of about 35% of the balance due and will be requesting an installment agreement, more interest and penalties will be added anyway. Most of the time I include the penalties and interest even though I know that the client may get a notice adjusting it by a small amount for the difference in the # of days since I don't always use the exact day that the payment is posted to the government's system, but it's better than them getting a bigger notice if I don't include it at all.

I can't tell you how best to actually pay the employees since the company can't open a bank account, but I think the fact that you are unable to obtain the EIN would fall under a reasonable cause for not being able to pay the tax liabilities. From circular E (bold is mine): Penalties may apply if you do not make required deposits on time or if you make deposits for less than the required amount. The penalties do not apply if any failure to make a proper and timely deposit was due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect. The IRS may also waive penalties if you inadvertently fail to deposit in the first quarter you were required to deposit any employment tax, or in the first quarter during which your frequency of deposits changed, if you timely filed your employment tax return.

Some of my larger business clients that have partnerships or corps make large equipment purchases where it's easier for me to project out the depreciation and analyze whether or not to take sec 179, or how much 179 to take by keeping the fixed asset schedules up to date. Then there are the hypotheticals where a client calls in when he gets offers to purchase one of his commercial rentals (shopping centers). Those numbers are pretty big, and I need accurate data if I'm going to project out his tax impact on the potential sale. That DSII program will handle the bulk disposal and future depreciation with ease. It has a variety of sort/print options that make my life easier when doing my financial reporting or budgeting for clients that have retails stores with multiple locations and multiple types of assets too. Keeping it up-to-date is easiest for me and meets the needs of my clients best.

I don't know what a new user would be charged. My renewal price is due in a couple of weeks at $328.

Joel, I don't do that many, so I used the fillable forms for this year because I used Drake on a PPR basis this past season. For next year I purchased it on an unlimited basis, and I'll probably use their CWU component. At first I didn't realize, but it is possible to use the CWU like a fillable form without entering all detailed write up. It does require that you sign up for the IRS FIRE system with a user # assigned. I still have to do that.

Does anyone here not have the tax prep program calculate the interest and late payment penalties on the extended returns and let the IRS calculate and assess it instead? Those figures only show up on a worksheet that isn't sent with the return and isn't shown on the bottom of pg 2 of the 1040 like some of the programs did in the way back.

Agreed, and I don't want to know the client's log in or password information or have them enter it on my system either.

The warning system applies to the entire ATX Community in an attempt to keep things friendly. Here's how it works: Any warning you receive will expire after 30 days. When you get a warning, you will not be able to post again until you acknowledge that the warning has been received. If you accumulate three warnings within a 30 day period, you lose the ability to post for 3 days. Every warning received above 3 removes posting ability for three days. The only way to reduce your warnings is to behave yourself and let them expire after 30 days. All of these things are automated by the system, except for the actual handing-out of warnings by the moderators, who will do their best to be fair and consistent.

The report function works by alerting the site administrator, Eric, and the moderators of problem postings, and it gives us a visual indicator on our main page when new reports have come in without us having to read every topic or postings within them. The report is specific to the post , the system references it automatically, and gives us a link directly back to the reported post so we don't have to search for it in order to see it. If multiple members are each sending reports on the same post, the system groups all of the reports for any one thread into one line item and gives a tally. From there, we can look at any comments that may have been sent, and gives us the chance to decide if a warning is warranted. Using the report function doesn't hurt the member whose post it is, and it doesn't cause the system to automatically generate the warning point. When "report" is clicked on, it opens a box to enter a comment about why you are reporting that post. Comments may be helpful for us to know your feelings but aren't necessary. It could be some short phrase, for example:, advert by spammer, attacking another, vulgarity. It doesn't have to be short, but it could be that easy, and it's easier for us to all see what the group thinks are problem posts. Remember that Eric may not spend much time on here and he certainly skips many of the tax topics because taxes aren't his thing, and moderators time may be more limited once the busy season rolls around. We might miss postings or the topics in some of the forums we don't frequent regularly line the alternate vendor subforums, but some spam was occurring there that could easily have been brought to our attention. People have been using it, and it is a lot easier for the Admin and moderators than to have each of us getting separate PMs, having to search for the post in question, and then for us having PMs back and forth. No one should feel like they are being a tattler or whiner if they report a post. If anyone here thinks he or she is being attacked, that person shouldn't feel like they are being a whiner or being too sensitive by reporting a post they feel is an attack. That is what the report function is for.