SFA

awwww. right about now I could use a good laugh. Where's the video??????????

Ok. I love this topic. I just had the same issue with a client who is sick and dying. She doesn't care about an audit. She wanted me to expense the new roof, but caved when I said capitalize. Bah. Humbug. May be we should amend!?

In the US

We are having a serious problem. Our backups files are corrupt. Some client files are ok, others are not. ATX support is at a loss. We have restored our backups from the cloud and they too are missing many of the client files in our directories. Some of the files are returns that are finished and sent, others are work-in-progress files. It is random. Today many of our clients are simply missing from our menu. Our computers are great, our server is new, our backup procedures are daily. With three weeks ahead of us, I am worried. I will keep you posted.

Good to know. Thanks.

Yes it is just a tad bit different.

Great. She has credentials. So do we. Trust what you know. This should be straight forward. Sometimes the answer is obvious: Form 8594. Why ignore that and look for some "case." The question becomes: What is their motive to avoid Form 8594? Perhaps it is to the buyers advantage to classify the payments as "box 7"?

Oh, then I would treat his distribution the same as the others.

I think I would sort this out using the K-1 based on the actual circumstances, and classify the distribution based on what it was consideration for. Now the monkey wrench. How many partners are there? Did one partner sell to another, OR did the partnership buy him out? Who did he sell out to?

Hmmm. The partner sold mid-year but the sale is retroactive to beginning of year? Even though the articles of organization of the partnership stipulate an effective date of January 1st, looks like the partners adjusted that document by over-riding the rule.

What is the nature of the distribution? For services rendered after the partner sold out? As part of a sale agreement to payout according to some sales formula? More information is needed.

When a business is sold, we sort it out using Form 8594. Not sure of the details in your situation, but the 1099-Misc Box 7 approach doesn't appear to fit the situation, unless the previous owner is continuing to provide some type of ongoing service such as consulting? Even so, if the agency is sold, refer to Form 8594 to determine what assets, tangible and intangible have been transferred to the new owners. and oh yes, good luck and have fun!

We waited until Saturday to update. For us, not much difference. So why are we getting the 12.11 email today?

Awww. Rings true for me. Pretty pathetic isn't it?

Oh John, Your buggy whip comment is funny. I was laughing when I read it. I am the last person who cares about political correctness. This forum is fun and I am enjoying learning about how others are handling the pressures of this tax season and have picked up a few good pointers on some specific tax topics. BTW, I am not Amish.

Birddog, I am on the fence about joining a class action lawsuit. Part of me wants to return to the gool old days when ATX was a good product. If we do a class action lawsuit, they are ruined and I will have no choice but to find another tax preparation software package. I feel like Charlie Brown and they are Lucy. With every update, I trust that this time, I will be able to "kick the ball" and they won't yank it away. I seem to fall for it every time! At this point, we are still having techical issues with ATX. We don't even bother to call them for help. We just keep working around the problems and then check and double check that the return is correct and safe to efile. I have asked my ATX sales rep (Gil Watts) for a refund and he never responded to my email. It's like they have given up, and are now hunkering down for the after season tsunami of lawsuits.

Yes mistakes happen. Nothing leaves our office without someone in the back proofing and packaging the returns for pickup. We never proof our own work, and clients never leave the interview with a "finished" return. We have a team approach to preparing taxes. Always two separate eyes, and then every singe return that we produce, I personally walk through, sign and invoice the final product. That's the obsessive/compulsive side to my nature. The ADD side needs the comotion.

Different strokes, for different folks. BTW my neighbors are Amish. It's just my personal style and I hire people who enjoy the client interaction. You probably are more efficient, and perhaps make more money than we do. Oh well. I'll happily retire with the buggy whip people.

We have dual monitors. One for them to follow along the progress of the tax return. Since ATX shows balance due and refund constantly recalculating with each entry, it draws the client in. Also I tell them they are the first line of defense for typos and spelling errors. When the entry work gets too tedious or the appointment drags because of too much info to enter, I may put summaries and estimates in place to at least give the client some sense of where the return is headed. We ask a lot of questions, and try to keep the visit focused and upbeat. Having said that, if a client wants to sit there like furniture, that's ok too. Same as a drop off.

OK, so this all started in 2006. How many years would you amend?

This isn't just about depreciation. Anytime that we have an error, such as taking a deduction twice on a return, we should let the client be aware of the mistake and they need to authorize us to file the amended return to correct it. So I don't see this as a "change in a depreciation method." It is how to remove duplicate entries on filed returns.

AMEN. In these types of cases, sometimes I find myself working too hard to figure out why it can't be done for the client and have to slap my self back into tyring to figure out how it works for the client. After our best efforts, let the IRS figure it out, and let the chips fall where they do.

As I dig out from under this mountain of returns resulting from the ATX fiasco, I am hoping that my clients will forgive the extra time that it is taking for me to complete their returns. They are not expecting me to "discount" their returns because it has taken longer this year to turnaround. So if in the future, if any one of them ask me to expedite their return for some special reason, I will try my best to accomodate. Having said that, if someone new plunks something in front of me, I will need to consider those already patiently waiting in a long line. We just can't be all things, to all people, all the time. It is healthy to say no sometimes and turn clients away when necessary.

KC, right on! Too funny!

Yikes!