Lee B

No, they're not cloning it. They paid Drake for a license to use it and resell it.

11 minutes ago, Lion EA said:

Or, your client's Congressperson.

Yes, they have priority access to the TAS

Perhaps you should try the Taxpayer Advocate Service   https://www.irs.gov/advocate/the-taxpayer-advocate-service-is-your-voice-at-the-irs

Intuit's CEO has openly said that they plan to expand to take 25 % of the small business accounting/payroll/tax market.

I wonder if cutting services to boost profits will help them

Changing to Sigma Tax Pro to save $400 isn't worth it to me.

I can make that up with one tax return.

Just thought I would mention the possibility, since there are 4 different kinds of transcripts and the standard Tax Return Transcript

only shows what was on the originally filed Form 1040.

Perhaps you have a Tax Return Transcript instead of a Wage and Income Transcript?

A Record of Account Transcript will give you the necessary information.

The basic Tax Return Transcript will not.

28 minutes ago, Lee B said:

If a client signs up for an online account, can they see a history of all of the notices?

28 minutes ago, Lee B said:

 

I decided to answer my own question

A Tax Return Transcript just shows the original line items without any subsequent changes.

A Record of Account Transcript shows the tax return line items plus all of the subsequent changes.

I get the impression that there's no history of all of the notices?

 

Now that that they have restarted sending notices, the current notices just show a balance due,

so we and our clients never see the suspended notices that were never mailed.

If a client signs up for an online account, can they see a history of all of the notices?

Good point about the bot activity. In which case, caching the site makes a lot of sense.

4 minutes ago, Eric said:

.  If resource use seems excessive even after tuning, I may entertain caching the site for guests (those who aren't logged in) so that content might be outdated by an hour or two unless you log in.

That might make sense, except that some regular users probably check the site without logging in just to see if there is anything new that might be interesting.

Fortunately for me, the Oregon Secretary of State has published a two page guideline with live links that I am going use.

I am also going provide a live link to FINCEN'S guidelines which is 51 pages long

2 minutes ago, Lion EA said:

 

I will make sure all my biz clients know about it this summer. I hope to steal a 1-pager from someone who creates a thorough how-to flyer. 

First it's too complicated to cover in 1 page, given all of the exceptions and etc.

IMHO, creating a "How To Flyer" is offering advice. 

I have to decided to limit my involvement to informing my clients of their obligation to report

I am not giving any advice or answering any questions.

BOI has nothing to do with providing accounting. payroll or tax services.

I had a very similar situation recently. However she was a full time student living at home. The parents were paying her tuition over $8,000 and paying over 1/2 of her support.

Claimed her as a dependent and claimed the full AOTC for the parents.

4 hours ago, mcbreck said:

I would call Sigma. My experience is the people you call are terrific at fixing computer problems, not tax problems. They'll try and help but you aren't getting the best answer if you need help with real tax questions. I've never called with real tax questions but that's just my interpretation from talking with them. If it's not printing, they'll be great with that type of problem.

All efiling and downloads go directly through the software to / from Drake. Once installed, you can't tell Sigma is involved except their logo shows up on the initial log-in screen.

So this means if I am having difficulty finding a specific worksheet, I can't call Drake Support ?

24 minutes ago, mcbreck said:

I buy via Sigma Tax, $999 for the last 2 years and the same next year.

When you have support related questions, do you call Sigma or Drake?

Does your efiling activity and download updates go through a Sigma or a Drake website?

I have received mine:

1.  Drake has raised the price of their standard multiuser software by about 20%.

2.  Drake as added two new selections:   Single User Unlimited and Single User 1040 (No business returns)

3. I will continue to use Drake Pay Per Return (ten Individual returns included) as I have the past 2 tax seasons

     although they have raised the price for additional personal returns from $35 to $40 and additional business returns from $ 50 to $60,

     which will cost about me $150 more for next tax season but it's still about $600 leas than the Single User Unlmited price.

16 minutes ago, jklcpa said:

Oh right, he meant after the program updates.  I had that happen once mid-season but hasn't happened since then.

I'm more tired than I realized.

Well, it just happened to me, I just updated and had to sign back in

4 hours ago, jklcpa said:

What program are you having to sign into again?

Given the context, I assume Jim means signing back into Drake?

Which hasn't happened to me.

4 minutes ago, mcb39 said:

It says that return is still being processed.

That means that the return has been selected for additional scrutiny by a live person.

Until the return is actually assigned to to someone, you won't be able to find out much if anything.

When you go to "Where's my Refund" what does it say?

"Being wrong is the only way I feel sure I've learned anything"

Daniel Kahneman  -  Nobel Prize in Economics  ( 1934 - 2024 )

24 minutes ago, Lee B said:

Perhaps Perplexity.ai can answer your question

I made this post "tongue in cheek"

However, I do think that in a few more years, many preparers will be using generative ai to answer their tax questions.

That will be sad because the participation on this board may drop significantly