MAMalody

I just completed the renewal process for my 2015 PTIN.  Took about 5 minutes.

Excellent timing.  Not like there will be any returns filed the last week before the extension deadline.

I got the same as cbslee in an e-mail today, except, I never received the code to start with.

Karen, I sent you a PM.

Where are you in western WA?

I just got an e-mail from a client that had received a CP2000 about two missing W-2s from their 2013 tax return  Looked up the return, checked copies of W-2s, not there.  Informed client I had no copies of said w-2s and they did not appear to be on the return.  It looked to me like they owed the tax.  Just got a subsequent e-mail from client, I don't have W-2s but know I worked there, guess I will pay the tax, P & I.  Good end to story.

I used Windows Media Player with Windows 7 Pro with no real problems.  For my first webiinar it wasn't too bad.  Thanks for the link.

I signed up for it.  Will see how it goes.  Thanks for the input.

I have not done one of these before. How are they? Are they worth the time?  How do you do them?

I took the easy way out.  I just send out four extension notices, each on the 15 of the month  One in June, July, August and September reminding them I do  not have the information to prepare their tax return.  No notices after the 15 of September. Any  person after the 15 of September I make a judgment call on whether I think it will be done in time.  For me this is just mechanical.  I only had 24 on extension this year so it hasn't been a real problem.  I do have about 8 that have not yet responded and am currently working of 12 or 15. Hopefully, should not be a problem getting done.  A couple of those are from US citizens living abroad.  I have to finish one from China, Australia and Malaysia....I am not sure I like tax treaties.

 I did contact ATX and they defragged the data base and all seems to be okay at this point. See posting 21 August this thread.

I get a little different take on this.  While it may be a business expansion, I wonder if it is driven by the expansion of use of the Free File program.  The companies refered to make a living off the less complicated tax returns, the quick in-and-out EIC returns, etc. It  may be they see a significant diminishing market in this arena of tax return preparation.

Hmmm.  I thought I had tried that, but I must have missed something.  I will give it a shot and let you know how it goes.  Thanks.

Whatever is required would be good to make sure ATX knows so they can include that request on their Tax Organzier.

Is there a way that you can backup all the returns without doing each one individually.  I guess that would be a batch?  I can't seem to find a KB that tells me how to do that.

I am not sure I agree with that.  When I was an auditor, the mission was to apply the law and let the chips fall where they may.  So those things required to be disregarded were.  Our mission was not to play let's make a deal.  For that matter, that is not tax courts mission either.  As I understand it, your best bet on  non-evidentiary information would be in appeals.  Their mission is, or at least used to be, close the case...so let's make a deal was the the game.

Good idea.  Thanks.

When I was an auditor we were told that no precedential value meant exactly that.  If something was brought up in that venue, disregard it.  If the taxpayer/tax pro wants to argue that way, let it go to appeals or beyond.

I understand because of the type of case it was, that it cannot be used as a precedent.  Is that correct?

<<< I confess, though, that it's so much easier to use debit when you dash into Target or the grocery store and have no idea how much you'll spend so don't have the cash on you.  I hate to use an actual credit card in these places because I dislike putting everyday expenses on credit.  I guess I'll have to break that habit, because real credit cards have much more protection.  Sure, if there are fraudulent debit card transactions the bank will eventually reimburse your account, but you lose access to your cash until that happens.>>>

I had the same feelings until I began to research the credit card issue.  I found out that one of my cards will give me 3% back on gas, 2% on groceries and 1% on all other purchases.  I have begun to charge all my annual and semi-annual bills where there is not fee for doing so.  This would be things like insurances, medical premiums/costs, telephone etc.  I also will do gas.  I do still pay cash for groceries.  Last year I received back over $500 and over $400 the year before (my first year doing this) for those items that I normally would have anyway. I do admit that I have had to be cautious to make sure that I am not actually spending more than I normally would. Not a bad return for something I would be spending money on anyway.

My business card operates in much the same fashion and I also receive money back on that.

Mamalody,

 

You could have hard drive issues and you should solve it before you install ATX2014.

If my computer indicates no need to defrag and there appears to be no problem when I do a hard drive scan, what else should I be looking for?

I think it is fixed.  I went ahead and allowed ATX remote access.  By use of the ATX Admin Console and it looked like dos commands they defragged my database.  At least that is what it looked like to this vastly untrained eye.  I was able to open my program and load a return at that point.  To me the jury is still out because last night I went to open the program again and got the same initial message again.  I rebooted my computer and it opened on the first try then.  I will see more today. Hope it works correctly as I still have around 38 clients to still finish up. Six or seven still have not provided any info.  What a late year it is. I have the above info and will return here if still have problems.  Thanks for the assist, I truly appreciate it.

My computer shows zero defragmentation. Still have problem.  If it makes any difference this is a stand alone laptop. 

I just tried again and got the following message from the dialogue box titled Server Progress: Data Base Error: Secondary index is corrupt. The data base must be defragmented. Prior status was initializing.

I have tried 10 times to open ATX to no avail.  I rebooted my computer and tried another 7 times to no avail.  I keep getting the message: There was an issue conecting this workstation to the configured database.  Please ensure that the server is running and that the service is started and try again. 

What gives?  If there is a solution, step by step instructions would be needed for me.