Lee B

There have been conflicting Circuit Court decisons on the legal fees, so it's going to depend on which Circuit your taxpayer lives in.

All Congress has to do is change the law to allow the IRS to crossmatch the tax return info with the bank account info and a big chunk of the fraud would go away. We have a bunch of leglislators who like to tell the voters about how they're protecting them from the BAD IRS !

Since the last update fixed the sever retry issue for me, I don't have any real issues. Can't open multiple returns, not a big deal for me. A bit of hesitation on worksheet data entry, but way better than last year. The Print Manager is so much better than last year. The Education Credit is annoying but workable once you get used to it. I agree, the Home Office Worksheet is a design failure. Last year, other than dealing with the slowness of opening the program, opening returns and loading forms to print, ATX 2012 worked OK for me.

Actually a number of large corporations, including I believe Walmart have arranged for complicated expensive surgeries to be done overseas i.e. India & Thailand and if the employee agrees then they pick up100 % of the cost

My system has been fairly quick and hasn't slowed down yet. Win7 Pro standalone with 8 Gig of Ram and nothing else on the system except what is absolutely necessary to run ATX. I have noticed a slight hesitation between fields on rental entry worksheets.

Good Ideas Thanks,

ATX has announced a 13.5.1 update but no time scheduled for release If you click on "Blog", it's the first post.

Update from ATX from Stephanie B CCH SFS Customer Care we do not advise you to uninstall the update. We plan to have this resolved in 24 hours.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014 The ATX tax and FAM 13.5 updates have been removed We have removed the ATX tax and FAM 13.5 updates while we investigate an issue related to opening returns that were marked complete in 2012 and rolled over into 2013. Our Development Team is working diligently on a resolution, and we will release more information as soon as it is available. If you have returns that will not open after installing 13.5, please take no action on those returns until we post a resolution. Thank you for your patience. Posted by Stephanie Bradford at 2:46 PM

I have an elderly client who owns a Time Share in Palm Springs. She doesn't travel much any more so she doesn't use her week(s). Unfortunately, she is still paying annual fees of close to $ 1,000 per year. How to get out from under these fees? 1. Turn back the week(s) to the Time Share Company. Is this possible ? 2. Sell the Week(s) ? I know there are a number of shady operators asking for money up front. 3. Donate the week(s) to a charity. I heard this is possible, but I have also read that there are lots of scams out there, again asking for money up front? If anyone has successfully helped a client thru this, I would like some feedback. Thanks, Lee Barckert

Actually both of these issues were discussed during a tax update that I attended mid January. He is correct

Good question. I know I couldn't do it. For me it would be too easy to make a mistake.

Myself I would wait for a letter unless the client wants to amend after you have advised them that they should amend.

California FTB is probably the most agressive state revenue agency in the country. Be careful and make sure you have all your ducks lined up before you respond.

We have had tax preparer regulation in Oregon since 1973. Overall I think it's been good thing.

Strange, after I did the most recent program update on Friday, I did a forms update and 24 Forms updated on my system.

ATX posted on their Blog the following post: ATX Version 13.4.3 – Server Update Not Required A server update is not required for version 13.4.3. The update only affected the client (application) portion of ATX and not the server. If you receive the following message on a Server Only installation, please click OK and disregard the message. Posted by Stephanie Bradford at 2:25 PM Labels: ATX, Installation, Software Releases So, this error message that some users with server installations were getting was totally incorrect and not the fault of the users.

Four posters on the ATX Board who have server installations are reporting that they cannot install the update on their servers because of an error message that says that a later version of the program is already installed. Another poster updated and now he can't save or close the corporate return he is currently working on.

I've had 3 "randomly selected" UI compliance audits in the last two years. Almost every payroll processing and payroll recordkeeping client has a workers compensation audit every year.

It's hard to answer without knowing what kind of entity is involved. Plus it's supposed to be FMV ???

In my state it is not always a piece of cake. I always have the auditor come to my office since I prepare the financial statements and process the payroll or do the payroll recordkeeping for almost all of my clients. In Oregon the auditor will review the cash disbursements records looking for payments to individuals, asking for documentation to see if they should have been classified as an employee. They will also ask for documentation on all independent contractors reported on 1099s to see if they were really independent contractors. The last UI audit I had took almost 4 hours and the auditor proposed an adjustment for some payments to a independent contractor reported on a 1099 because my clients documentation was somewhat weak. The audit drug on for over 6 weeks as I emailed the auditor more information as my client passed it on to me. In my state if a tax return only client asked me to take care of a UI audit I would have to say NO !

Some practitioners in this situation, just plug in the net fundraising income and move on. Not saying it's the right thing to do, but it's seems to be done that way quite a bit.

I've done this in the past because of this exact same situation

I would suggest two possibilities: 1. Capitalize the 2012 interest and add it to the depreciable basis of the equipment or 2. Consider the interest to be a start up expense and deduct or amortize accordingly. It will be interesting to see what others think.

Yesterday I received an email from one of my clients, who owns a bar. One of his bartenders said she wanted to be paid back for all the excess SS withheld from all of her 2013 paychecks because Turbo Tax said her W -2 was incorrect. She hadn't input her Tip Income in Box 7. LOL