Terry D EA

I agree, you can do it. Change of depreciation is the easiest part of the 3115. Just follow the instructions as they are fairly straight forward.

Thanks for the article. While the article doesn't mention she has been disbarred, reading between the lines would suggest so. She claims no wrong doing and all charges have been dismissed. If she did no wrong, then why the disbarment? Hmmmm

I have just had my first negative experience with Drake. I have struggled to print envelopes from within the software. My printer is compatible for printing envelopes, all settings appear to be correct. I called support and got an agent who clearly did not know how to help. After being placed on hold 5 times, I asked for someone who could help me. The response was my concern will be escalated and someone would call me back. Sad to say, I am disappointed with this as normally the support is phenomenal. Finally, I chose the Drake pdf printer and am now printing the envelops through .pdf. However, I still couldn't filter the clients that I wanted. When trying to do so, it would only print three out of 125, so I had to print them all. I wanted to do my trusts, partnerships, and S-Corps separately. If anyone could help with this, I would appreciate it.

If a SMLLC is taxed as a disregarded entity on Sch C, then why wouldn't they qualify for the 20%?

Just thought I would let everyone know there is a virus that is called "Premiere Opinion" this can also be label with the words "voice5". This is adware that will come piggy backed onto some other website. It will try to get you to answer surveys that literally go no where. I don't know all the ins and outs but some how it got into my machine and tied to take over all of my browsers. I recognized this is non-responsive, can reach website's etc. At one time, I saw a survey with the name premiere opinion and didn't know what it was. Anyway, this is easy to remove. Go to control panel and add and remove programs to uninstall it. Yes, I have byte fence and windows defender but it did get by them.

If anyone had trouble viewing the article, after you click on the link, then go to the "Look, ma tax fraud' to read the article. Sorry for any confusion with this.

There are times that we all wonder why we as taxpayers need to obtain some type of credentials. In the articles below, I didn't see any specific designations for the prepares who were caught by the IRS, in the past I have seen CPA's and others guilty of some type of wrong doing. Some of these cases just amaze me. Do folks who are preparing returns actually think they could squeak these things by the IRS? To me, some of the expenses and other items come glaring right off of the article. Now for the client, do they really trust these people and do they know their return is being fraudulently prepared and what the consequences are? Personally. I couldn't begin to do these things. I worry about honest mistakes and question the death out of a suspicious client. How do these folks sleep at night. https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-season-begins-jan-29

Thank you for this information. I downloaded the first installation and am assuming it will update to the second version without trouble.

Rita, I do itemize now and will probably not be able to in 2018. Sorry if I wasn't clear. Yes, I get the 20% which maybe my only saving grace. I will, however, reap the benefits by 2021. I plan on retiring from my teaching job by then and will live on SS, pension and business. Oh yeah, I'll get the higher standard deduction then too. Have been thinking about moving to the beach for our golden years and keeping a place here that has living quarters attached to an office for tax season. All sounds nice but time will tell.

The original post is questioning the math for calculating the tax liability before any credits are applied. Given the assumptions of the child tax credit for 2018, I will agree with Rita the client maybe better off in 2018. It is probably needless to say but each situation will be different and it will be so hard to give any advice until we see the entire picture. On another note, if you're like me, married with an empty nest, and right at the so called middle class limits, not being able to itemize and with the loss of the personal exemptions will no doubt have a negative effect for 2018. BTW- the math of the OP is correct

Thanks Margaret!! ADP did return my call, I forwarded the spreadsheet with the errors highlighted for them to review. They said their entire "RUN" system was giving everyone trouble and it was not down for maintenance but having some kind of melt down. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how they correct the mistakes. I made all my entries in the client QB file and it shows the same differences as my spreadsheet reconciliation report. What is really interesting is the totals are off by $8.25 but... the SS paid was off $51.25. So, as I said, we'll see what they come up with.

Margaret where did you find it?

I have a client who uses ADP to process their payroll and payroll taxes. Each year there is always some kind of discrepancy. I am beginning to loathe this company. My client has two employees and for the life of me, I can't understand how they (ADP) can mess things up. This year, I have three different figures for the SS withholdings. ADP reports one figure on the PR liability summary, that is 8.25 less than taxes withdrawn from the bank. Of course, there is no breakdown except the ADP liabilities summary. The forms 941 show the actual SS to be $102.50 more than what ADP withdrew from the bank. WTH?. Medicare matches, FUTA matches, NCESCU matches, everything is correct except the SS. I Went back to their site (Yes, I am an authorized user) to see if there was anything I might have missed and the damn thing is down for maintenance!! In the middle of the day??? So, to add further aggravation, I called ADP and am in line to receive a call back in approximately one hour and 15 mins to one hour and 30 mins. It also looks like they (ADP) failed to deposit enough funds for the 4th quarter and there is an additional amount due per the 941. Yes, my client has a high enough fund balance in the bank so that is not the reason for a shorted deposit. WTH?? Okay, rant over. Where's the head banger emoji when you need it??

I literally hate IE in any version. Unfortunately, there are still programs that use it. I either use Edge or Chrome and have no problems. When I have to, I go to the dreaded IE. Yes it comes with Windows 10.

>>>>>>Thanks Judy. Looked at Drake some years ago after tax season. It just wasn't for me. I'll probably just end up going back to ATX. Miss the good old days when you could get ATX Max for $750.00.<<<<<<< Why do you say Drake wasn't for you? Did you give Drake an honest try? I can tell you first hand and a s a previous ATX user, TaxSlayer, TRX Crap including Red Gear and finally dropped to the bowels of software with OneDesk. After ATX was bought out by CCH, their product declined and I decided to try other platforms and took the route of trying to save money. Well. none of the worked well and after all of the craziness with OneDesk, I purchased Drake and the only thing I regret is not purchasing it sooner. If it is forms drive entry that you like, you can toggle to forms entry with Drake. Drake support is phenomenal. Their speed is also far above the others and they live up to their 60 second update. I had virtually no problems with anything at all last year using Drake for the first time. The learning curve was minimal and I am still learning all of the functionality. Don't forget, with the software you get the client write up program and now the Drake accounting program. The document cab is absolutely wonderful and my office is now about 85% paperless. They do incorporate a third party with secure file-pro that comes at a very small cost of $9.00 per month. Electronic signatures through the program using a signature pad or you can use signature flow as well. All of this works seamlessly. I suggest getting their demo and giving it a test drive. As Judy said, if you buy it now, you'll pay full price or if you buy the PPR, then they will automatically switch you to the unlimited user once you reach the threshold of the full user cost. For me, I'll have no intentions of ever changing to another tax software again.

Thanks Margaret but I'm not sure. I did fully understand the details you listed and do see that the most notable changes take place after December 31. 2017 which I can only assume is the same for the 20% deduction and it appears it applies to income from 2018 going forward.

I have been looking at this bill extensively and from various resources and have not be able to determine when this becomes effective. Anyone have an answer here? If so, could you cite a reference please.

Drake may be calling this by a new name this year. I read your description and that is exactly the process I used last season. In the doc manager there is a "portal" tab for secure file pro. That is where the documents are sent to the client and received by the preparer as well. For those clients of mine that used this, it has been a blessing. I work off of two monitors and once I retrieve the client documents, I open their docs on one monitor and the Drake package on the other. No more paper on the desk. The client can sign through the portal or in some cases, I use signature flow as well. Either way, this is a great feature.

I haven't been to any update classes but I do use the Secure File Pro Connect and I love it.

Just to backup Jack here. The online download should have the latest version/update to the software. Well, haven't used ATX for a long time but when I did that was the way it used to be.

Thanks for all the replies. Don't know this for sure but don't most boats have an hour meter? If so, the of course, the question is how to determine business verses personal use hours.

What do any of you use for land evaluation of rental property for depreciation purposes. I normally get a HUD handed to me that shows the total sale and have to put in a few hours to find the land value. Just wondering? Also, I have had this happen, the land value is more than what the purchase price is for the building and the land.

QuickBooks here too. I use the square system to process credit cards plus a PayPal account for online payments. Drake's support is phenomenal so no issues there. However, QB is another story. I agree with Tom.

I*'ll just add my 2 cents worth. Abby said the magic word 'IF". Before you do anything, find out what type of trust this is, get the trust instrument and read it. Doing so will give you all the details you need regarding what the trust is, terms, and tax filing requirements. I never touch any trust of any kind unless I have the trust instrument. There are trusts that have exhorbant penalties to do this any other way.

I use Square. It is completely trouble free, no hassles, no monthly fees, no PCI insurance, no maintaining proof of destruction of client records. I bought the chip reader as well. Again, no troubles. I get my funds always within two days.