Gail in Virginia

The more stories like this that I read on this board, the more frightened I become. I don't know what we would do without this forum to help each other.

If they would answer e-mails, maybe we wouldn't all have to call. And then too, if we had chat support...

I don't think it is a local law, I think that it is part of the Uniform Commercial Code. However, whether they ask that many questions about the check is probably a local matter. In many cases, if you don't volunteer the information, you are never asked.

Thank you for answering, Beth. I really appreciate you, and the others who were laid off, continuing to help us anyway. I am not sure that I would be that big of a person. :wub:

Does anyone know why we can't e-file fiscal year 2006 returns that are due after 1/1/08? Is this a problem every year? It seems to me that I did some last year without a problem, but I had the same problem with a 990, and I have two more that will be due 2/15 that I am assuming I will have to mail. I emailed tech support last week, but so far I have not received an answer. At this point, I really don't expect to any longer. However, it did appear from a notice I got when I e-filed last week that this is a problem for this year only. If any one knows more about this than I do, I would love to hear about it.

Have you actually tried changing the last two digits? I tried changing the last digit of the password - I was just going to use the same password and number it to keep going - and I got an error message telling me I couldn't use the same password even thought I had changed the digit on the end from 1 to 2.

I thought it was funny, too, Nicole, but I wasn't laughing. I did send them last year's letter. We will see what happens. The woman I talked to really did not seem as knowledgeable or as interested as I was used to with the Caribou people. In fact, it was almost like I was back with the year ATX outsourced support to India. :(

A local church had some of their members attend a seminar put on by a firm that is an "expert" on accounting for churches and other religious organizations. They now are questioning how they do things, which is probably good. They have asked us to come and explain exactly what they should be doing, and while I thought that I had a pretty good grip on the subject, some of the questions they are asking make me wonder since I am sure they are points raised by the expert. For example, they wanted to know if it is "illegal" for them to have more bank accounts than an operating account and a building fund. To the best of my knowledge, they can have as many accounts as they can keep up with, but does anyone know why this question would arise? They also asked if it was true that church payroll cannot be more than 32.6% of the total income, and I have no idea where that specific percentage came from. Do they actually have to retain the envelopes of member pledges for 7 years? I am pretty sure my church throws them away once they are entered into the computer. There were other questions that were more in line with what I think of as normal questions for a church to ask, but I wondered if anyone on this board had any thoughts about these questions.

I may be wrong, but I don't think you can replace your EIN with a PTIN - I think that they only replace SSNs. Unfortunately, your EIN is still going to be out there.

Actually, I suggested the letter from last year and was told that I needed the letter from this year. I am going to send them last year's letter; if that is not good enough, they can go on line and look for my ERO status. I was trying to give them a chance, but I think, like Old Jack, I will be looking for new software for next year.

I did finally get on as ADMIN, but now I find out that they no longer have a record of my EFIN, or my EIN, and they have to have me fax them the letter from the IRS showing that I am registered to EFILE this year. Now as we all know, the IRS is not sending out those letters. I am not currently enrolled in e-services (I keep forgetting to change my password often enough because I don't use this service much.) It will take up to 28 days for IRS to mail me a new confirmation number so I can print out a summary letter showing my e-fin for ATX to set me up over again. What is the point in staying with the same service? I was a little ticked before, but I am FURIOUS now!

You are doing better than I am - I have been on hold for 1/2 hour so far and counting to try to get someone to help me log on to the account. I don't have time for this every time I want to look something up in support. :angry:

This has been very frustrating for me as well. In the first place, I use Firefox for my default internet browser and everytime I try to use support, I get a warning that I need to use IE6 or higher. I don't want to, but... But now I can't log on at all, and I can't see my "secret question" to reset my password. I know it is supposed to be secret, but I can't remember which sites have which secret question. I know that if I had the option to set a secret question when I first logged on to this, I did. So, since tech support lines are down, I thought I would just e-mail them and see if I couldn't get an answer by tomorrow. Well, as far as I can tell I can't email them until I can log on to tech support. This certainly is a more secure site - tech support shouldn't be bothered with clients much at all, if any. Not a happy camper with this today. :angry:

And this is only the beginning! I love it when I come in on a holiday or weekend to try to catch up while it is quiet, and my clients think that is a good time to catch me with "nothing to do." OH YAY TAX SEASON!! ( And this year I am taking three college classes at the same time because I can't get them on my schedule otherwise. Its gonna be fun!)

I find that lots of times when I get the warning, I can continue anyway without a problem. I, too, use Firefox and for the same reason - security. But now that I have used it for a few years, I hate to work with IE when I use someone else's computer.

I AM NOT AN EXPERT on this area of taxation, but... If the day care is totally owned by the church, and if the purpose is part of the same tax-exempt purpose of the church, then I think it is probably covered by the church's exemption and would not have to file. But this might be a somewhat gray area, and I would do more research than this before offering real advice. You might ask the CPA and/or attorney for their reasoning for advising the day care not to file - it would save you time in researching something that has already been researched if they will just tell you how they arrived at their conclusion.

I don't really mind most of the implications about Democrats implicit in your holiday wishes, even though I am a life-long, dyed in the wool, card -carrying tax and spend democrat (as opposed to a don't tax and still spend Republican), but I really don't think that we are two years behind the rest of the world. :P

It did not arrive in the nice binder with the instruction book even if you had renewed already. I kind of miss that, even though I normally prefer less packaging to more.

Can anyone explain to me the reason the business mileage rate increased from 48.5 to 50.5 for 2008, and yet the medical/moving rate decreased from 20 to 19 cents? I understand it takes an act of Congress (literally) to change the charitable rate, but why would medical/moving go down?

Tom, I should never shoot from the hip like this (I did not even look at the form to refresh my memory) but if memory serves, the form calls for the qualifying income, followed by subtractions for expenses related to the qualifying income. Now if you can make the case that the overhead that causes the loss is not an expense against the qualifying income, you might be all right BUT you do have to do a certain amount of segregating the profit to relate to the qualifying activities. Don't know if this helps at all, and I certainly don't recommend that you rely on it.

It was way too basic when I took it, especially since the instructor was actually from TaxWise and knew way more about that program than about ATX. THe instructor was nice, I think the book we got will be a really nice reference manual (much better than the one that came with the software), and I did learn a few things - but from the other class members. One of the most insulting things about the whole class situation was that they changed the location and did not notify anyone. We went to the originally published site in Charlotte, only to find they didn't know anything about us being there. Fortunately, they were nice enough to contact the site contractor and find out where we were really supposed to be. But I even called the day before to verify the time, and one of the students called to verify directions, and neither of us was told of the change in venue. I doubt I take any of their classes again.

Amen!!! :lol:

I think it is interesting that someone from ATX would request a copy of your e-file authorization letter, when this notice was posted the last time I pulled down Acks for my returns: October 18, 2007 ATTN: Authorized IRS e-file Providers/EROs The IRS will no longer issue credentials in the form of the annual letters for continued participation in IRS e-file. Instead, you may confirm your status as an Authorized IRS e-file Provider by viewing the summary page of your e-file application online via e-services at IRS.gov. Go to irs.gov, click on the e-file logo and scroll down to the Tax Professionals link for more information on steps in identifying your Provider status. FAQs are provided for explaining this change further. Refer to Publication 3112, IRS e-file Application and Participation, for important information such as the use of your EFIN and rules and requirements for participation in IRS e-file. Authorized IRS e-file Providers should continue to safeguard and protect the EFIN assigned to their firm. If you experience difficulties in printing the summary page of your e-file application, you may contact IRS e-help desk, toll free at, 1-866-255-0654,Monday through Friday, between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.(ET). Thank you for your continued interest in IRS e-file. We are looking forward to working with you. ---------- This has been an IRS e-file QuickAlert Not sure how I am going to give them a copy of a letter that I am not going to get. Don't they read the notices that they post? :rolleyes:

The client id is a new number that does not have any relationship to the old customer number (just what I need - another number!) When I went to the screen there was a link to click called need help that stepped me through putting in my old email userid and password, then assigned me a new client id number and had me create a user name (not the whole email address) and new password. I did not have any problem with it other than that I think this is a pain to have yet another set of id numbers, names and passwords to remember! :wacko:

Bernard, You seem to be on the right track with reporting the timber sale. The basis for determining her gain (or loss) is the amount she paid for the timber originally. If she bought the land the timber is on in 1966 for $12000, was there timber on it then and could a portion of the cost be allocated to the purchase of the standing timber at that time? If so, then that is her basis in the timber and it would reduce her basis in the land. If there was no timber of any value at the time she purchased the land, then the entire $12000 purchase price would be considered basis in the land. If she did not purchase the land, but received it as a gift from your grandmother, then her basis in the land is usually grandmother's basis in the land. This is a simplification of the basis rules, but it looks like the "cost" you are using on the 4797 is what she received for the timber if I understand your post. What she received for the timber is proceeds. Good luck Gail