lindakay

The general public is not even aware of how these crooks manage to defraud the government. I've been explaining it to my clients this year -- and last year, too -- and they are all shocked that the IRS is sending large refunds out before the W-2 info is even keyed into their computers, and that these crooks can just fabricate any info they want and get paid billions based on their fabricated W-2s. I think if there was enough public awareness (by "enough" I mean a LOT -- maybe more than is possible), it may even be possible to put enough pressure on congress to get this crazy thing stopped.

The phone number to call is 1-800-908-4490, Ext 245. The taxpayer should file the 14039 with the paper return and call the number as well to report the incident. If they end up having to wait too long on the phone, I would tell them to maybe wait till after April 15th and try again. It's not major critical to report it right away because they aren't going to do anything about it right now anyway. But the tp should at least call the number after 6 weeks or so and check on the status. Oh, and btw, it's best to send the 14039 and paper return CERTIFIED. That way you can prove they got it.

I had one 2 years ago. It took 6 months to resolve and he got his refund (btw the crook got a refund as well). The IRS issued him the 6-digit IP (Identity Protection) PIN which I have used to file his 2012 and 2013 tax returns, and both were accepted. So the PIN thing works, but only in retrospect, so anyone who has not been previously violated doesn't have the PIN and needs to go through the 6-month process of getting it resolved while the crook who stole his identity spends whatever money he managed to get out of the IRS by using his SSN. A crook who snags lots of numbers gets lots of big refunds, but of course with the PIN system, they can only use each number one year (that is, unless the person whose number it is doesn't file a return). It appears to be a lucrative business. They snag personal info somehow (which isn't really hard to snag I don't think) and they make up fake W-2s, and in a month or so they've managed to get all the money they'll need to live well the remainder of the year. If we were crooked we could do the same thing! Marilyn, your story about the WI return does sound like a mess. I'm wondering if some of my rejects this year will end up messy like that. I've wasted quite a bit of time so far over other peoples' greed, and I'm thinking this is just the tip of the iceberg for me. Just had my 7th reject a couple hours ago.

norcalea, that's a good idea. That would help me narrow down the possibilities of where this is coming from. I'll make some phone calls around town tomorrow.

Yes, I've referred my 6 rejected clients to the ID theft unit and they have all reported the incidents, and I have helped them through the process of preparing Form 14039 and sending it with copies of ID and their paper return. I really don't want to have to do this for 20% of the rest of my clients. The worst part is informing them of what happened. I get mixed reactions, some of them even crying and shaking. But what mostly has me concerned is if somebody got into my data, they still have it and I don't know what they're going to do with it. I also am wondering if I should take new clients, because I may be putting them in danger of ID theft. I just don't know. The clients it has already happened to will get the special 6-digit IP code so they can e-file next year, but who knows what other havoc a crook could cause with the info they already have.

I've had 6 rejected returns so far this year with reject code 902, "SSN of primary taxpayer already used on a previously accepted return." These are all previous clients of mine and their SSNs are correct. Therefore, somebody got hold of their names and SSNs and is filing fraudulent returns using their info. Needless to say, I'm freaking out. The IRS says the average for this situation, i.e. an imposter filing a return with another person's info in order to get a huge refund, is 1%. Well, I'm a small business is a small town, and because I've only filed 30 returns so far this year, that makes my average 20%. I'm told that it's just the way it is nowadays, but I believe my percentage of rejects is far too much to be just coincidence. I don't know where the security breech is, but I'm doing all I can to investigate, which is why I'm posting this. Has anybody else been having this problem?? Linda

I made several phone calls and sent several emails trying to get a refund. No answer to any of my attempts. They are ignoring me and probably anyone else trying to get a refund at this point as well. I did get an email from Kathy Hughes today, though, saying "TRX is listening and you have been heard!" Now that is a bunch of hogwash!! Well, I guess they heard me, but they are just not responding, so technically that was a true statement. It's hard to believe that they will send these emails trying to get us to buy their product and act like nothing is wrong. I feel bad for those poor innocent newcomers who are looking to buy software and go to their website believing what they are saying to promote sales. Is there any place to write reviews to maybe help someone avoid the pain and suffering we've all been through?

Drake got the job done, so at least my business was saved. It will go a lot better next year (just today I renewed Drake for next year) because now I'm familiar with the program. It was rather cumbersome, especially at first, because here I was in the thick of the early season rush trying to learn a whole new program. I would have liked to have time to practice on it WAY before the last week in January, that's for sure. One of the great things about Drake is that when I called tech support, MOST of the time they were right there available to help, with no waiting on the line for 40-50 minutes like I've grown accustomed to with TRX. There were a couple of times that the line was busy for a couple of hours and that had me a bit frustrated those times, but I eventually got through. One of the benefits was the forum where I could ask questions of seasoned Drake-users from all around the country, and that was very very helpful to me. So all in all, I'm happy with Drake and I don't foresee them going belly-up and leaving their customers in a lurch.

I started having some hope of a refund when I read the posts on this thread, but now after 2 weeks of calling and sending emails with no response whatsoever, I'm wondering if I am just beating my head against the wall. Meanwhile I've gotten renewal notices by mail, email and phone, and I'm amazed that they can even think anyone would buy into it again.

Renee, DO NOT GO AHEAD WITH PURCHASING TRX SOFTWARE!! The rest of us are wishing we didn't pay for it already, so you are in a good position to back out with only losing $50. There are a number of softwares available for different price ranges, but whatever you do, I'm sure you realize it has to be soon. If I were you, I'd read as many posts on this forum as you can where we are all discussing the alternate software programs we bought when we realized that TRX was not going to deliver. I'm amazed (but not surprised) that they are still selling it to people, because it's garbage. I purchased Drake early last week for $1395, and even though that's a huge investment for me, it was either that or lose a whole season's worth of income, so in that light it's a small investment. Other people have bought Taxwise, Tax Slayer, Tax Act, to name a few. Don't buy TaxWorks from Red Gear, because they are having the same issues as we are, and also ATX is having issues, so those are good ones to stay away from. Good luck!

Personally, I don't have time to fiddle around with TaxExact anymore. Haven't downloaded updates for about a week now, because I need to concentrate on saving my business from a train wreck. Until I got my new software up and running 10 days ago, I was actually hoping nobody would call or come in! I think I scared some people away, because now that I'm up and running, several of my clients who are usually in and out by this time of year haven't even called. I'm having trouble getting motivated now, and I think it's because this whole fiasco with TRX wore me out mentally and emotionally. I was still trying to make their software work at a time that I usually had letters and organizers sent out to everybody, and to this day I haven't sent letters out or even looked at how to do organizers. Of course it's quite late for that, but I do have clients who come in later in the season who will probably still want them. But I've really lost my pizzazz over this whole fiasco. I'm having trouble getting excited about even going to my office. I just want to stay home and make it all go away. Having been deceived like this really took the wind out of my sails. I think I'm depressed!!! How about all of you?

I was talking to my 88-yr-old mother on the phone last night about this, and I told her that even if we did win a class action suit, whatever fines TRX would have to pay would probably all go to attorney fees, so why bother. Then she said, "Well, at least they've have to pay somebody something and that might get them to stop deceiving people." Now that's a pretty smart observation for an 88-yr-old!

Many of the states were accepting returns way before the Jan 30th date. In fact, I knew a woman who already had her Calif refund on Jan 13th! Whatever the case, there is absolutely no excuse for not having all the states ready to efile by the end of Jan. Apparently this bait and switch thing happened way before the end of last year. They had plenty of time to come up with a working software by mid-Jan. That's why I bailed early last week. I didn't figure a few days would make much difference in preparing the software since they'd already had several months to get it ready.

Here's the email I received in March of last year, shortly before I renewed via telephone: Hi Linda , I hope you’re having a wonderful tax season and now that it is drawing to close, I just wanted to let you know that TRX really appreciates your business and would love to have you back for the 2012 tax season. Give us a call at 1-855-880-1040 and press 2 for sales or renew on the web by clicking on the link below. www.trxsoftware.com I look forward to talking with you. Thanks, Kathy Kathy Hughes 906 Dashiel Street Murfreesboro, Tn. 37129 855-880-1040 ext 3701 www.trxsoftware.com [email protected]

Yeah, I see that. I've been checking my converted files and finding that for the most part they are proformaed correctly, but any of my files with depreciation will need some tweaking. I'm starting out by practicing on my own return, and hopefully I'll see a pattern so I can zero in on roots of any discrepancies. I noticed that the house depreciation for the 8829 didn't come through at all, but that is easily fixed.

Yeah, I really miss the forms tree, that's for sure. Most of my calls to tech support for help are because I can't find the screens I want, but whoever answers the phone helps me find them. I'm getting the hang of it, although I really miss TaxWorks.

I purchased Drake software a week ago today, and even though there is a learning curve, at least I'm moving forward. I've called their tech support a few times and every time a real live human answers right away and solves my issue. It's wonderful! It has already paid for itself in client preparation fees for returns I wouldn't have been able to have ready to efile yet if I'd have stayed with TRX and waited for all the bugs to be fixed in TaxExact.

Some clients just do not want to do taxes the "drop-off" way. They want to watch the process, ask questions as they come up, even chat about other subjects like children and gardens and vacations and stuff. Personally, I would rather do all my returns without the client sitting there, but several of my clients actually came to me because the person they had been going to for years moved out of town and left his business with his son who will only do returns by the drop-off method. So they come to me because I give them the choice. I do have a couple of things I do, though, to keep the pressure off a bit. I run a slide-show of interesting pictures through a computer monitor on my bookshelf in the line of sight of clients sitting at my desk, and it's so captivating, sometimes they forget to breathe down my neck. Also, I have puzzles on the far edge of my desk for clients to play with, and some of them get quite carried away with solving (or more like "not" solving) them. And btw, I ALWAYS check any proformaed returns for accuracy before clients come in, unless of course they show up without making an appt.

Just wanted to compliment tech support today for answering me within 5 minutes and solving my problem quickly today. When I fired up my office computer this afternoon I couldn't open my TaxWorks 2010 or 2011 programs, and that worried me a bit. But now thanks to Nick in tech support, both programs are open.

Maybe he could use the money he got from H&RBlock to buy us out? It's kinda like our money anyway.

I am so excited!! Did my first actual tax return today. Downloaded Drake yesterday, converted my clients from TaxWorks this morning, and completed a return by noon today for a client that was in my office 2 days ago. That was an embarrassing and humbling situation, but now I get to call her and tell her her return is done and ready and that she can come in to sign anytime before Jan 30th. It should have been like this all along, but in an effort to avoid forking out a bunch more money, I stuck with TRX for awhile. This is such a relief! It is totally worth the money, because now I can actually do tax returns, which is pretty much my only income. Linda

Thank you for your well-wishes, Taxman74 and Taxed!! I wish you both a successful tax season as well. I wavered between TaxAct and Drake for awhile, all the time knowing that if they were the same price, there would have been no question. I downloaded demos of both on my computer, and Drake was way easier for me to navigate than TaxAct. Also, the posts on this forum and other forums convinced me that it was an excellent program and had a tech support dept that was readily available and helpful (imagine both of those things at the same time!). Not sure if this was a valid point, too, but it seems to me that the bigger companies are less likely to be bought out than the smaller ones, so that was another point for Drake. My husband also encouraged me by saying whatever the cost, the most important thing is that I get something going that's minimum hassle because there just isn't time for any more fiddling around not being ready for clients. Yes, they can convert clients from TaxWorks. I just got the program downloaded right before I left my office, so haven't started on that yet, but of course that will be a priority tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it goes. And yes, I'm sure I will sleep better tonight . . .

Terry, I do hope you are right about the program being ready and able to do its job in time. I don't have that confidence and have gone another route by purchasing another software today, but I still genuinely hope it works out for those of you who are hanging on. I admire you for reminding us all to put ourselves in Doug's shoes. Many of us -- me included -- have been quite rough on him due to our frustration and anxiety about the situation. But I also realize that TRX didn't have to sell out, and they should have at least been honest with us way back when they knew they weren't going to provide the software we all thought we were getting. It would have been common courtesy to let us know before we got the CD in mid to late December, but instead we were all in for a big surprise. It's possible that Doug had no say-so in any of that, so I'm not going to complain about him or to him anymore, but I still don't have anything good to say about the TaxExact program. Now that I've purchased another program, I'm very relieved and even excited about this tax season, because instead of waiting and telling my clients to wait as well, now I can move forward.

Well, adios amigos. It's been fun, but I decided to jump the sinking ship before it goes under. I bought Drake software today, and in spite of the expense, I feel really good about finally moving in a positive direction. This is the time of year I'm usually encouraging people to come see me to do their taxes, and so far I've been hoping nobody calls! Somehow that just doesn't seem right. Now that I have a workable program installed, I'm starting to get excited about tax season and the extra income it brings. Of course, the first few clients will help pay for the huge mistake I made by trusting TRX, i.e. $340 for TaxWorks, $300 loss from turning down Drake's discounted offer last spring (because, of course, I already had my software for 2012 from TRX) and the $1395 I paid Drake today to get a working program installed. But in spite of the blow to my bank account (or rather my credit card), I'm having an amazing feeling of relief!! I've needed to call Drake support 3 times now to help with the installation process, and every time an actual human answered the phone who was able to help me immediately. Things are looking up . . .

Just realized today is January 22nd, and we haven't seen the Jan 21st updates yet, so I'm out. Too much at risk. I have to have something that works very soon, and even the promised updates are already a day late, so no reason to wait any longer. I'm already on the verge of a panic attack.