michaelmars

sounds like my kids

I like the political forum...I find it informative and its great to see opinions from others across the country. Its a big country out there and we are a diverse group. I love seeing how the other half sees things. Everyone around me is from the same socio-economic environment, doesn't lead to much diversity. That being said. I don't like the personal insults, the ad-hominum attacks, the constant repeating of one's point of view to every post, but as Jack said, this is a segregated forum and can always be skipped by those not interested. I think it also brings people here who might, in between, pontificating, answer a tax question or too. Its a great diversion between returns or while printing a return.

ahhh we are just monkeying around with you, don't go banana's on us

have you seen the tax prep programs that integrate with prosystem and others? You scan in the w-2's, 1099's and k_1's and they are supposed to autopopulate the return. We previewed it and it was a disaster with wrong amounts and wrong entries but in the future it will be there!! Another alternative being batted around is you will be able to go to the irs database and download the above info and then you only have to adjust the info and enter anything missing. But all data in the irs database will be entered for you.

A couple of years ago [when my kids were born] I dumped all the clients that made me cringe when they called. I decided to only deal with clients I liked. Hurt the wallet a bit but I was much happier. its amazing how 3-4 clients can keep you on edge. You don't need to get into details, I just say I am taking my practice in a different direction.

we switched to Lacerte locked for 3 years @ 13,000 for everything they offer. For 2013 taxes our locked rate is done and our new rate is $17,000 with only 5 states and the rest we will rep as needed.

Just curious, was that a new customer discounted rate? I wasn't involved in the firms billings when we used them but our last year was $33,000. I think they offered some extra services with estimate payment due emails to the clients quarterly etc and postcards to the clients to let them know when their returns were accepted, etc.

Its easy to sped 30k on prosystem, you need every 6-10 state unlimited, you need rep fees for another 10-15 states, you need all tax types and you need efiling fees for $2000 returns.

if your practice is like mine, only simple returns are done during tax season, we have more on extension than done by the due dates. Brokerage accounts are getting amended 3-4 times, K-1s come in after the 9/15 deadline, etc. Plenty of time to learn the nuts and bolts needed in may and june. Also, the better the software, the more automated it is, for example atx takes a while to do multi states but in lacerate or pro, its done on the fly.

I am in a fairly large practice and we have don't have a back up software in place but we do have one chosen. I don't think the learning curve is as great as people think. My large practice changed from prosystem to lacerate 3 years ago and MAYBE a return took 15 minutes longer due to learning curve. Mostly asset entry and k-1's don't convert well. My side practice changed this year from atx to proseries and I did have a leaning curve of maybe the first 10 returns of each type, then I flew on it. Since I am 7 days a week starting mid January, I always preshop a new car so if mine craps out during the season, I know what I want and just have to go to 2-3 local dealers to shop price. When my hvac at home was giving me trouble I did the same. This way you are covering bases.

did you get the same blank tilted head look that I did? He says he is interested but looked like the meeting was the last place he wanted to be or he was trying to remember where he left something. All his v.p.'s and managers took notes of the conversations but a month later, it was again like talking to a blank wall when I spoke to some of them. That's why I dropped out of the beta testing.

So did I but I think its in one ear out the other

i too am fairly pleased with proseries but miss a lot of atx. atx is easier to edit, generate and fix letters, has more, what I consider, basic forms and better linking back to entries... Adding muni interest for multiple states is very difficult in proseries too which is big for me. proseries does have great support, fairly better diagnostics, better on passive loss etc. carryovers and regular vs. alt min calculations, multistate tax credits are automatic, has no state k-1 inputs to enter state adjustments [this might become a deal breaker for me for this coming season]

I am in NY so I only follow their regulations.

Unfortunately is doesn't always matter what you believe, we have to follow regulations and many states have enacted regs that say we must encrypt. Here we have to encrypt AND we have to shred. Nothing with a soc sec# can go in regular garbage. We have been using encryption but are going to a client file share system for larger files.

Thanks so much, nice feature Now where is the option to ignore my pia clients?

how do you block someone?

THANKS for the advice but I guess you don't know my situation, I think most here do. The returns I prepare are for my side practice which I never merged into my firm, mostly individuals and small businesses. I am a partner in a mid size firm 3 partners, 8 professional staff, 3 admins and at anytime 3-4 interns. It is their work that I review. I never merged in my clients because the firm clients need net worth of at least 10mil. The firm specialty is 65% involved in real estate the rest are jewelry. Its not unusual for these returns to have 50-75 k-1's in them, one return for example has 75 single member llc's and is 14 states. These are not basic returns and as Tax Partner I have to sign off on them. our total return count including entities is around 1800 and the last couple of years with the increased exemption we are doing about a 100 gift returns a year. I used atx and now proseries for my side clients because I like formed based, and until 2010 we used prosystem for the firm but after paying $30,000 for the software we switched to Lacerte.

if a partners shares of an LP are diluted is that deemed a sale? In this case the partner had neg basis of 200,000 but qualified nonrecourse debt allowed him to take the losses. Now with the change, the capital account is still negative since that didn't change $205,000 with the current activity but the qualified nonrecourse debt is only $50,000. I know the current years losses aren't deductible but is there actually a capital gain to report? [no distributions were made]

years ago I had a long time client that worked on my floor. About $200 fee since I was the cpa for the office he subletted from. well one year he came in on 4/10 and I told him no; to backed up and too many others ahead of him. Sch A, B, C, D and E. He wouldn't do an extension either. The next year he came back around February even brought his adult sons info. he had the prior year done by hrblock for over $400. I charged him $325 that following year. He was happy knowing I was still cheaper than hrb and convenient to him. I got a nice increase in fees and a compliant client. sometimes you just have to stand your ground. Just yesterday someone dropped off her stuff, I told her it was 1/3 higher this time of year and she agreed, apologized and prepaid before she left my office. Next year she will be timely or I will earn a great fee for 20 minutes of work.

KC - ERIC THESE AD HOMINUM AND JUST OBNOXIOUS POSTINGS HAVE GONE ON LONG ENOUGH, DON'T YOU THINK. 3-4 POSTERS ARE never going to agree on anything and there personal attacks are getting tiresome.

I do add a vig to their fees when they come in very late. I do this for each deadline but its still not worth the wear and tear on my body or my family life. 7 days a week since 9/1 and now till 11 each night or so.

still waiting for them to send me their tardy K-1's 16 to prepare and 130 to review from staff.

THAT because you were working for a franchise....Most cpa firms encourage their people to develop their own clients, its great training for the staff in handling and talking to clients and when partnership talk comes up, its great for the staff to have some clients to bring in as part of their buy-in. We give % of fees that we collect from any client brought in by staff but prefer if they develop their own side practice. I personally will help them if the client is beyond them or if the return becomes too complicated for their software. My first boss not only gave me a client that needed weekly services and he didn't want to get involved with and during a review-I negotiated 3 part days a month off to handle personal clients.

Just received this: ATX 2013 Preview Successfully Concludes The ATX 2013 Preview has come to a close. Over the course of three weeks, your peers tested an advance version of ATX 2013 software. Preview participants provided input on ATX software across critical performance areas such as stand-alone and network installation, speed and stability and on features such as Client Letter functionality, Print functionality and Return Manager. The ATX 2013 Preview is a critical step in the software development process. It is important to us to get out of the development lab and get real-world feedback from the people who use the software every day. We are in the process of compiling that feedback now. Look for a summary of ATX 2013 Preview results in the coming weeks.