gianni1212

Thanks for the advice. I will absolutely give it a try. I have been using quickbooks payroll but I'm not too happy with it and if it is as user friendly as the tax program is then I'm sure that I will switch.

Hey guys, I just wanted to share my experience. I switched to drake after the horrible ATX revamp experience a few years ago, but I continue to use the payroll software because as far as I'm concerned it is the best payroll software out there. I had to upgrade today but my password was not working so I had to call support because the rest password option is horrible and forces the user to enter a "registration code" instead of normal procedure like security questions. After a tough time getting through due to the system would hang up on me for a mistake in my user number and that I had to look up my user number I have now been on hold for 20 minutes to speak to someone just to reset my password. Whenever I call drake support I am able to reach someone after a few rings. I can't believe that ATX does not realize that these customer relations blunders are the reason why they have lost so many customers.

So I switched in to Drake in 2013 due to the 2012 debacle, but I have continued using ATX payroll program because that is a good program. I renewed my payroll software today with ATX but I was unable to log onto the website to download the software. I called ATX support and had to wait 15 minutes to talk to someone. This never happens with Drake. I call them and they answer the phone after one ring. The best thing about the program is the support. Also, I asked the ATX customer service rep a very simple question about the payroll program and she says that she has to create a case and have someone call me back. Are you serious atx? I have called Drake with some pretty complicated questions and they have always taken care of it during the phone call. Everytime that I have to deal with ATX support they remind me why the best thing that I could have ever done is switch to Drake, not to mention the numerous software benefits that I am not mentioning. Just so the post is not entirely negative I will admit that the payroll program is far superior to anything out there and that is why I continue to use it.

i saw them at the IRS conference...no experience with them, but at least if they were at the IRS conference they must be somewhat legitimate, although i must say the name does not sound very professional and i think that says a lot.

lot of experience with these....needs to fill out 1040 nr. Fill out a schedule a and itemize deduction even if its less than standard because they cannot take standard deduction unless they are from india. If they are from india let me know, there is a special way to fill out the form to get the tax treaty benefits of the standard deductiosn. I highly recommend using nr-ez....will make your life much easier.

i understand your point, but i would much rather unauthorized aliens pay taxes than work for cash and pay no income or social security taxes on that income. If you only knew the advantage this gives illegal aliens you would feel the same. Side note, they really aren't illegal in my point of view until they break a law that is logical...guy comes across the border to feed his family and i'm not really going to call him illegal because i'm sure any of us would do the same thing in his shoes.

i had no trouble getting through....but just in case i actually faxed and mailed it...they received within like 2 weeks i believe...pretty fast.

thanks to all for the help!

Hey everyone, I have a client who started a partnership to build and sell a house. They opened the partnership last year and spent considerable amounts of money to build the house, but did not sell the house. They will be selling the house in 2013. Should I be filling a partnership return with zero income and expenses for last year and just add all expenses to the basis of the house to be deducted on the return when they sell the house? Thanks a lot for any input.

i faxed and it was resolved...wouldn't worry too much but does not look good for cilents to see the letter because the letter states that there was information missing from return.

i agree tom....they don't do a very good job at representing us. I remember sending NATP an email about how quickbooks practice is to set default option on all quickbooks payroll to automatically send w2 data to intuit. This is first very anticompetitive, and second a very blatant violation of privacy. They said they were unaware of this practice, but instead of asking for more info or at least trying to assure me by telling me that they would contact the irs etc, they just tried to sell me things like ce. I would love to start an organization that is just about representing us and doesn't sell any ce or other services that may distract from the focus. I think that this sort of organization, if it had enough members, could raise the significant amount of funds necessary to lobby congress against these big corporations.

i filled them out and left the other boxes blank...i think they should see that the clients don't have more children so there is no need to fill in the boxes...hope so.

i've seen intuit w2's with the turbotax logo right on the w2!! this is actually printed on the w2....and how about the service where people who do payroll through quickbooks and quickbooks automatically sends all w2's to turbotax? i have heard from friends that they don't even need to punch in information from w2, they just log into turbotax.com and their w2 information is already there. this is very anticompetitive to us small tax preparers...not to mention the fact that people who do there taxes with us this year must bring extra documentation to claim eic...with turbotax they don't need to fill in 8867. yesterday i had a cilent who said that he could not prepare with me because he would then have to waste his time getting a letter from his kids school. this is getting really rediculous...but i guess it is hard for us to compete with these big companies lobbying power. I think maybe the answer would be for us to talk to the organizations that represent us, like natp, etc. and make sure that they are lobbying against these big corporations.

I have had two clients with dependant children with itin's return with letters from the irs stating that form 8812 was submitted incomplete. They added four questions at the top of the form and if that yes or no question regarding dependants with itins meeting the presence test are not filled out yes then they will receive that letter. If I had a competent software provider maybe they would have included something in the error check letting the user know that the question needed to be answered then i wouldn't have probably looked bad in front of these clients. Am i alone in thinking that these error checks are why we pay for the program? i would love to sue atx over all the lost business and time i have suffered for using there horrible program.

i was trying to import a k1 from an s corp return, and the program does not let me click on the k1. It only let's me click on paperless plus import. is there something else that i need to do to import the k1?

i don't like to file with people around either.....only do it when people come from really far..dont like to ask them to come back again....thinking of discontinuing this practice.

i'm sure your clients do business with you because they want their returns prepared and not really because of you. I have over 3500 clients and its because i know what i'm doing and take care of them. Yes im sure they do like me, but i'm not going to fool myself into thinking that they are sitting around all year waiting for tax season to come around so that they can do business with me and they won't care how long they have to wait. Time is money for my clients as well as me so i am sure that they won't like to lose money to do business with me.

I know this forum is more of a place for us to help one another and not to vent, but I would really like to share my experience to know if I am the only one who has lost a lot of money due to this years program troubles. This is the 5th time that my program has frozen in the middle of a client return that was unsaved. This happened twice with clients in the office and when I was reaching the end of their return and I had other clients waiting. This made clients leave the office and embarrased me by making me explain to my clients that my computer froze and I had to prepare their return again. I just reached the end of a return that took me an hour to prepare and I have to do it again because my program froze. I try to save often but this also takes a lot of time. Monday and Tuesday I was in office until 12 pm and I attribute this to ATX problems. I will probably lose at lease 10,000 dollars in wasted time and lost clients due to ATX horrible program issues. The worst part is that last year was my first year with ATX and for me it was the best program that I had ever purchased. I became a HUGE fan of ATX's excellent system and now, if I had the time to document all of the many problems that their software has caused me this year I would sue the company to recuperate the money that I have lost due to their incompetence. We accountants have enough competition from Turbotax to worry about and we shouldn't have to worry about our software which we pay thousands of dollars for making us lose money. Turbotax makes it so easy for people to prepare their returns at home and we have to compete with that, and ATX just gave a few of my clients more reason to prepare their returns at home. At minimum I would really like to request a refund of my money for the ATX program this year. Am I being unreasonable here or does anyone support my opinions or have similar experiences? Once again, sorry for using forum to vent, but I really think that I am not alone in my experiences.

i did this before for a client and it was really easy. Just fill out 1040 x with social and changes, and write in explanation field: "ammending return with SSN to claim EIC."