Lee B

Someone been drinking a little too much Jim Beam

Post copied from the ATX Board: IRS changed refund 8863 did not calculate correctly IRS changed client's refund because of an error on Form 8863. "The error was in the computation of the credit on Line 19 of Form 8863 and/or transfer of that amount to Line 50 on your Form 1040. Her efile was accepted on 1/23/15. Client qualifies for the American Opportunity Credit and the form looks correct ATX Reply: GMW, All you need to do is mail a copy of form 8863 with the notice the taxpayer received and the situation will be resolved. There have been a number of posts like this. The issue seems to be the mishandling by the software of the "felony question."

I don't know whether you're using Win 7 or Win 8, but if you haven't done so you should go into your system settings and turn off all energy saving settings and set the your system for max performance. Also make sure all ATX files are excluded from your firewall and your whatever security program you're using. Finally to the extent you can, reduce the number of programs you have running in the background.

Did you manually restart the server processes ?

Very good article. I am going to print it out and use as a guideline. Thanks for posting this

Just updated to 14.5, updated forms and efiled some S Corp returns Everything went very smoothly. Yea !

There have been some posts about this problem on the ATX Board. It's something that support seems to be able solve fairly quickly.

Great ! Good to hear !

I did one last Friday and it worked fine.

Everyone will still need to review their clients repair/capitalization decisions for the past 3 to 5 years in order to see if a 3115 may be needed to bring their clients into compliance, reduce their audit risk and pay the 481 (a) adjustment over 4 years without penalties and interest.

Spidell News AICPA provides hope for practitioners struggling with Form 3115 February 11, 2015 In a News Update, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) announced that the "IRS and Treasury are considering our recommendations to provide relief from the reporting requirements related to the repair regulations. We are hopeful they will release some form of relief for small businesses in the next couple of weeks." (www.aicpa.org/publications/newsletters/aicpanewsupdate/pages/20100210-specialnewsupdate.aspx) The relief the AICPA has requested includes: Make Form 3115 and the IRC §481 adjustment optional; Make the rules prospective; Accept a statement in lieu of Form 3115 to acknowledge compliance with the regulations; and Raise the de minimis safe harbor from $500 to $2,500. The AICPA advises that practitioners may consider the option of temporarily suspending all related work in hopes of IRS relief. Spidell was unable to get any confirmation of this information, but we will keep you posted as news develops on this issue

Copied from the CALT website: Security Freeze May Freeze Taxpayers Out of IRS Online Applications In the wake of numerous high-profile financial data breaches, many Americans have asked credit reporting agencies to put a security freeze on their accounts. This may cause a problem for taxpayers seeking to use IRS online applications. IRS enlists third-party credit reporting agencies to authenticate the identity of certain users when they register to use certain online services or attempt to use the service with guest access. If a security freeze has been placed on the user’s account, the taxpayer will be unable to pass the verification process when attempting to use an IRS.gov application that employs the eAuthentication system (e.g., IP PIN, Get Transcript, etc.). If you or your clients need to use one of these systems, you must contact the credit reporting agencies and ask them to temporarily remove the security freeze. This will allow you to register for an online service or use the "Guest Access" feature on IRS.gov eAuthentication systems. Once you have been successfully registered, the security freeze may be restored to the account

Issue Number: 2015-2 1. New on IRS.gov 2014 Pub 531, Reporting Tip Income 2014 Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate 2014 Pub 17, Your Federal Income Tax (For Individuals) 2014 Inst W-9, Instructions for the Requestor of Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification 2014 Pub 15, Circular E, Employer's Tax Guide 2014 Pub, 15-B, Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits 2014 Pub 15-A, Employer's Supplemental Tax Guide (Supplement to Circular E, Employer's Tax Guide, Publication 15) 2014 Pub 15-B, Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits 2015 Pub 15, Circular E, Employer's Tax Guide 2015 Pub 15-A, Employer's Supplemental Tax Guide (Supplement to Circular E, Employer's Tax Guide, Publication 15) 2015 Pub 15-B, Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits 2014 Inst 8959, Instructions for Form 8959, Additional Medicare Tax 2014 Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification 2015 Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement (Info Copy Only) 2015 Form W-4P, Withholding Certificate for Pension or Annuity Payments

There are more posts with depreciation issues, for example; assets not linked to Schedule C, E , or F listed assets not rolling over etc.

There are at least a half dozen posts on the ATX Boards of users not being able to open the program since the 14.5 update. Also a couple of posts with depreciation issues since the 14.5 update. May want to hold off updating for a few days.

The two previous years a number of users had this issue. Just go into each asset and relink it to Schedule E. Hopefully this fixes the problem.

Jim, Thanks for the info. So the process is exactly what I had to do with 2013. Go to the 2014 Admin Console, Start the Servers, Wait a minute, Start ATX 2014 ( takes about a minute) Other than this annoyance, no other problems. As far as I am concerned the program is running better than it has since 2010.

There have been some recent posts on the ATX Board with similar problems. Several posters had to uninstall and reinstall their printers to get going again.

What the heck was I thinking ?

Copied from USA Today: TurboTax rival Tax Act is the latest company to try to lure angry TurboTax users – by literally offering to pay them to switch. Tax Act, which is a desktop and cloud-based tax-preparation software, will pay consumers $1.50 if they file their Federal tax returns using their software. The payment is being made using an online service called Swag Bucks, which can be redeemed as cash by using eBay’s (EBAY) PayPal. It’s unclear if $1.50 will be enough to lure away die-hard users of TurboTax, which continues to be the market leader. But Intuit (INTU), the maker of TurboTax, has certainly angered many of its users with a number of missteps this tax season. First, Intuit company attempted to push through a stealth 50% price hike by removing the forms investors and self-employed taxpayers need to fill out their returns. Users of TurboTax’ Deluxe product found out, right when they were finished, they needed to buy the more expensive Premier or Home & Business versions. Intuit first offered a $25 rebate to users – and then later this weekend allowed for free upgrades to Premier and Home & Business. And then, last week, TurboTax temporarily shut down its ability to e-file state returns due to fraud allegations. The outage lasted less than 24 hours, but was still a mar on what has been the gold standard in tax-preparation software. Taxpayers who file using its $12.99 Deluxe program, for instance, can get Swag Bucks reward valued at $9, making the cost of the software $4. The move by Tax Act is just one of the latest by TurboTax rivals to take advantage of TurboTax’ missteps. H&R Block (HRB), for instance, is offering its software free to TurboTax users. Taxpayers, though, tend to form strong habits they repeat year after year. It’s unclear if $1.50 will be enough to convince longtime TurboTax users to switch. Investors are still trying to gauge how Intuit’s rough tax season will affect profit and the stock. Scott Kessler, analyst at S&P Capital IQ, reiterated his “hold” rating on shares of Intuit. Intuit “has issued related apologies, rebates and free upgrades, he says. “We wonder about the impact of these developments.” Shares of Intuit rose a penny Monday to $87.84.

Tried it, but it didn't help. Wished it would have worked.

This morning, I experimented a bit: 1. After turning on my computer, I waited at least 30 minutes, ATX 2014 still wouldn't open. 2. Went to the 2013 Admin Console to start servers. (Purposefully did not open ATX 2013 ) 3. ATX 2014 then started up and opened just fine ??? Some things with this program will remain a mystery forever !

Second thought, it's not uncommon for the annual depreciation limits to result in the depreciation of a vehicle for some years beyond its MACRS life.

The personal use % could have changed every year. Unless you can look at each year's tax depreciation schedule, the only thing you can do is assume that the remaining undepreciated balance is due to the accumulation of personal usage.

You might try to use the "Redownload Forms function under Return Manager/Support/Client Service Utilities. You have select one or more clients before the option will appear. The fix in back in 2012 was to delete or rename the folder(s) that contained the Forms, which then gave you the ability to download new forms. I have noticed from posts on the ATX Board that support has had to do this several times recently to fix this problem.