Abby Normal

The IRS has a page to calculate the W4. I personally like the new W4.

What I tell my clients is the percentage that they need to have withheld to breakeven. Then they can look at their pay stub and see if they are having about that percentage withheld.

I'm not sure what your issue is but you might have moved your data wrong, if you mean that you used ATX to restore its backups of returns.

Finally bought a new computer with 11 Pro and it was shutting down when not in use. After several days of troubleshooting, I determined it was a Windows issue. Turns out it's an issue with hibernation. I never use hibernation so I opened Control Panel advanced power settings and set hibernation to never.

Don't know how often this happens, but when I first searched for solutions, I found posts from a year ago that this was a problem.

It's nice to know that Control Panel still exists with all its familiar screens, since the dumbed down Settings screen is so limited.

Just enter the ones that matter. And if you don't know which ones matter, you shouldn't be preparing taxes.

Exploratory expenses are not deductible but since this business actually started operating (did it really?) then the expenses are deductible as start up costs.

I have encountered times when after making changes or fixes to a computer that restarting the computer several times has fixed things. Windows is such a massive and complicated software that oddities are more the norm than the exception. I've seen windows behave differently on two perfectly identical computers.

I haven't seen this year's config file yet, but it was always the first 1 you change to a 2,

ATX makes a backup when you CLOSE a return, not when you open it. I like to open a return and close it before making any entries so I can restore to a clean file if needed. Also like to close ever 20 minutes or so to make a progress backup.

You can run Admin Console to see both your data location and your backup location, but if you haven't changed from the default it will be here:

C:\ProgramData\Wolters Kluwer\ATX 2023 Server

Note that ProgramData is a hidden folder by default in Windows, but you can change options in View settings in File Explorer to show hidden files and folders.

3 hours ago, Eli said:

I don't see an ATX config file. Sorry a bit short on the tech savvy

Go to the ATX program folder and look for ATX.exe.config file.

Open it with Notepad

Select Ctrl+F (find) and search for Memory.

Scroll down and you will see two sets of long numbers with max values.  One starts with an 18 and a bunch of numbers behind it the next starts with 16 (print Memory).

Change the 1 to a 2 in each set of numbers.  Then save it.  Make sure you have all the permissions to have full control to save it or it won't save.

Try right-clicking the file and choosing Take Ownership, or making a copy of the file, renaming the old file with .old extension, then editing the copy.

On 1/30/2024 at 8:33 PM, Lee B said:

I think Abby has posted several times about using Google for faxes.

I gave up my fax line about 3 or 4 years ago, which hasn't caused me any problems.

I wish Google Voice would add a fax service. What I recommend is giving out a Google Voice number as your cell phone for clients. That way they can text you documents and you can save directly to your computer from your browser. You can also type texts to your clients on your computer.

I have mine set to not forward or ring, but just take messages, if someone calls. Google does a fairly good job of transcribing those voice messages to text. You can also save those voice messages to be replayed later, if the need arises.

I just use GotFreeFax to send faxes when needed. 3 pages is free. Up to 10 pages is 98 cents. I currently can't receive faxes, but clients rarely want to fax me anything.

3 hours ago, Lee B said:

When I used to use ATX, the software required the forms in the prior years returns to be the current version before the you could rollover to the next year?

Never seen that happen in the 10 years I've been with ATX.

1 hour ago, BulldogTom said:

Did you get a new computer this year?   Seems to me I had to do that same thing the last time I got a new computer.

Tom
Longview, TX

You shouldn't have to do this, IF you moved the data following ATX's procedures.

Devil's advocate: If you had a single member LLC for a rental, you would put it on Sch E. Are you saying that LLC doesn't provide legal protection? If all rents are paid to the LLC and all expenses paid from the LLC, isn't that adequate for legal protection?

None of us are lawyers, as far as I know. I would explain all of this to the clients and just keep putting them directly on the Sch E. The IRS won't care because going the 1065 route just increases their cost of processing returns and K1s, and there is no additional tax or penalties the IRS can assess, as long as the 1040s are timely filed.

Make sure your ATX 2022 Server is running. You can see it in Windows Task Manager. You can run the Admin Console for ATX 2022 to both see and start the server.

I can't think of any reason why it couldn't be claimed.

Were these IRA or non-IRA?

I usually enter all of the codes ATX gives me.

ATX does not have built in macros but there's plenty of macro software out there. The one I currently use is AutoHotkey but they just released a major upgrade (2.0) and I'm still in 1.x. It's not the easiest or most logical macro software. I needed help and a lot of examples to even begin using it.

But currently, I'm not using any macros in ATX, because there isn't anything I needed to automate in ATX, but I do have some simple typing macros when saving PDF files like:

:*:ef=::
Send, Efile Forms
return

:*:es=::
Send, Estimated Tax
return

:*:tr=::
Send, Tax Returns
return

In all of the above examples, the = is the trigger key, so I type tr followed by the = sign and it type Tax Returns for me.

I also have my ATX password in a macro so when ATX asks for it, I don't have to type it out or press Enter. You can even use a single key like Pause/Break to enter your password and press the Enter key.

Backups are great for data but to get fully restored and running super fast, you need a disk image. That will save you from installing programs and configuring windows.

Sleeping dogs...

There are a lot of advanced search features. One I use is to exclude things with a minus sign, like -pinterest or -pdf.

Also, there's a page for that you should bookmark: https://www.google.com/advanced_search

And a useful list of operators for Google search: https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/

All the best to you, my friend!

2 hours ago, ILLMAS said:

I was not aware of this and someone may correct me if I am wrong, but a couple of years ago a client sent me a Google sheet file via the drive, I clicked on the link and notice I could see all their folders.  I called  and notified them and mentioned they forgot to give access to that just one file.  This why I don’t use it.

Just because someone is bad with computers is no reason to not use a service. I have shared files and received shared files from Sheets for almost 20 years and never seen the mistake made of sharing the entire Drive or even a folder.

2 hours ago, Lee B said:

they are required to to take an RMD in 2023 if the deceased owner had not taken one before before passing.

 

This is why I recommend that everyone take their RMD no later than September, so that there is time to take any needed RMD by 12/31. I learned this after a client died late in the year and normally took their RMD in December, and it was not possible to get the RMD out on time.

I use ATX1040 package to do about 10 returns. Half were mine or close family that were not billed but the other 5 more than paid for the software (1k).