Abby Normal

That's what I do, but if they're retired and have to make estimates, I honestly prefer they have zero withholdings from pensions to remove that variable from the equation when calculating next year's estimates.

It hasn't been updated. My guess is that it's a very low priority, especially after the malware fiasco. It also likely affects a very small percentage of taxpayers.

I stress the actual percentage of total income (not taxable income like ATX does).

And I've caught employers not correctly calculating withholdings, especially state withholdings.

From the linked page: Third parties who use these forms for income verification have other alternatives. The IRS offers an Income Verification Express Service (IVES) which has several hundred participants, who, with proper authorization, order transcripts. Lenders or higher education institutions can either contract with existing IVES participants or become IVES participants themselves. The tax transcript is an official IRS record. Taxpayers may choose to provide transcripts to requestors instead of authorizing the third party to request these transcripts from the IRS on their behalf.

I have to force my phone to use wifi at home due to bad reception. I just put the phone in airplane mode, then turn wifi on. Before I had this feature, I could barely text or call at home.

One big plus for me about cordless phones is that my employees were always getting their phone cords twisted into knotty messes, and that drives me nuts!

I've taken my cordless phone into the bathroom more than once.

I think the fallback (once the software has changed) will be the employees wages at that company as if they were single taking the standard deduction, which essentially is single 0. To me, the improvement is that the employee can't claim a bunch of allowances to reduce their withholdings so much that they owe a ton at year end. If joint filers take the time to look up the (yet to be published) numbers in the tables in the instructions, they should have a better and an easier way to get their withholdings close. Paychecks are going down in 2020 if the new calculations are implemented by QuickBooks and other payroll software, and the IRS will spend fewer resources on collections.

The IRS doesn't have one giant computer that integrates all their systems. It would take untold billions to modernize and integrate their computer systems... and there would likely be even more problems than we have now. Client just brought in a balance due notice even though the IRS has had the amended return for over 2 months. The computers just spit these letters out and our job is to let the client know that they don't need to worry. The IRS will have it sorted by year end (we hope).

This actually isn't horrible, except for the fact that you're no longer claiming a number of exemptions. But will the payroll software companies really reprogram to accommodate this anytime soon? I wonder if they're going to change the online W4 calculator at irs.gov.

The program is the same whether you buy Max or Total Office. Even Advantage is the same with just some added functionality.

This is why I never set up a portal.

Plus, being able to check the client's account for things like estimated tax payments.

Nothing yet.

No need to be sorry. I just wanted you to have more info on this. And speaking of 'metal acuity', I just noticed that I typed 5/5 instead of 5/15 in the title, and left out a word in my last sentence above!

I already posted about this: But I only two all year that even used the Sch D tax worksheet. You have to have 1250 gain for it to apply.

ATX 17 efiling has been down for about a week or more. Rumor is it will be back up this week. We have a 990 due Wednesday (7 day extension due to CCH malware), which we are planning on paper filing.

I think you're referring to the line 11a tax worksheet, but the one that changed is the Sch D tax worksheet, which you can jump to from line 2 of the line 11a worksheet. And here's a link to the Sch D instructions which include the tax worksheet when 1250 is involved, Edsel: https://taxmap.irs.gov/taxmap/ts0/scheduledtaxworksh_o_3bd946a9.htm The normal worksheet is part of the 1040 instructions: https://taxmap.irs.gov/taxmap/ts0/capitalgainsworksh_o_2dddbbf0.htm

http://www.theprogressiveaccountant.com/index.php/news/item/5386-wk-malware-was-new-strain

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/error-in-tax-calculation-in-schedule-d-tax-worksheet-form-1040

Don't know if it's temporary or permanent, but you can't download forms for 2014 & prior. About a year ago, I saw someone complaining about not being able to download forms after leaving ATX, so I decided to download all forms for federal and all states. It really doesn't take up that much disk space, and it's one of the first settings I change when installing ATX. The other related setting that seems to cause problems is updating forms or program on start. I would never have that turned on.

States are getting desperate. We'll have to wait for the courts to weigh in on these assertions. And, of course, the states have little ability to police most of this.

I've been seeing some buzz about the tax worksheet changing, so I checked the instructions for Sch D and they are dated May 15, 2019. I ran the original instructions and the revised one through a difference checker, and found that line 18 of the worksheet is now 3 lines labeled a, b & c. Line b references the same amounts used in 199A calculations. I only had one or two returns that used the Sch D tax worksheet this year.

If you still have an XP machine or a 2003 Server, you'll need to manually download the update here for your version: http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/search.aspx?q=4500331 It will not show in automatic windows update.