Randall

I agree. He needs insurance. You never know what may happen and even doing everything according to Hoyle, you're still vulnerable. A news story around here a few years ago (nothing to do with business or entity choice) was a child drowned in a neighborhood water drain opening during a storm. The opening had a grate over it, but it apparently was not enough. The lawsuit was against the builders, etc. But the kicker was that all homeowners within a certain radius of the location were also included in the lawsuit and the judge allowed them to be included.

All the frivolity aside, this illustrates a point I've wondered about. How does anyone really separate themselves and personal assets from their business LLC and the business assets. It has always seemed to me that if someone were sued, they would sue both the LLC and the individual and how could one defend themselves from this even if they had dotted all the i-s and crossed all the t-s.

I agree. I think in general, businesses are going to cut cost and try to be lean and mean (no pun intended). And the easiest way to cut cost is to cut people and take shortcuts on training people. I expect things to be better next year though. With a whole year, a lot of the Georgia people should be able to come up to par on ATX. I don't have plans to change as of now. With the price of of the higher end programs, I think I'm getting a pretty good deal. If newcomers bring low end programs out, I may try one and see how they progress with their improvements. But they'll have to start out pretty basic just like ATX, then add improvements over the years. Then of course, they'll want to sell and make a killing too.

Overkill.

It usually takes a year or two for the software applications to catch up with the new operating system. I try to time a new computer purchase after SP1 and preferably SP2 comes out. Vista SP1 is due out soon. I expect most of the problems to be ironed out before next tax season. My current computer is about 2 and a half years old with XP SP2. I'm hoping Vista SP2 will be out before I buy my next computer. If I had money and time to spend, I'd get a Linux machine and play around with the software applications available.

What's the ATX A.M.? And how do I access it? I couldn't find anything on the ATX website.

I think the program comes with tutorials.

There's a message on ATX MyAccess. It says some are getting thru and some are not. To keep trying off and on. They are working on it.

Not sure about the 1120, but doesn't IRS say you can have IRS calculate the penalty on 1040 for you. In other words, is it mandatory to calculate the 1040 penalty? I'm not sure what I did wrong last year, but I had the 1040 penalty calculated and several clients got back that money. IRS didn't calculate the penalty. I've stopped calculating the penalty this year.

Client's spouse is usuing a hyphenated last name. When I create the efile, the error message says the name is too long and I must truncate it. The message gave me the priority steps to truncate, first using only initial for first name. I did so and it allows me to create the efile. I haven't transmitted the return yet. Any one have this before? Any problems with the SSN/Name matchup?

I've not had any problems with Norton. I just upgraded from Norton Security to Norton 360. Been using Norton for years. So far so good.

Ordinary or rental income?

Scratch that. Not real prop of course.

You can also elect SL depreciation to lower the depreciation expense up front.

It went thru. Received the IRS acceptance notice.

And perhaps determine client's insolvency position at time of bankruptcy in case 1099-C shows up in future.

KY accepts the Fed 8879. ATX loads the KY 8453. Just discard it. You should be able to piggyback KY as long as everything else is ok. 8879 in your file should satisfy KY.

Per www.irs.gov File 2007 returns for those who normally file. IRS will work with Vets Affairs & Social Security for the others. Not sure what that means but it appears they may not have to file returns if they normally would not. IRS should keep us updated.

I agree. But you really do need to upgrade from dial up. Whew. Kentucky passed a ludicrous tax reform law a couple of years ago (only to revert back after 2 years). There were a lot of new forms and form changes. I've only used ATX and they were late getting a lot of forms ready. I don't know if other programs were faster, but I realized these things happen. Good luck to all the MN people. Hopefully, it'll be smooth from here on out.

From this and other problems I've heard about, I think those with the lower products (saber, zillion forms) are the ones experiencing the difficulties. I've always gotten the MAX program with all states, and unlimited efiling, whether I needed it or not. Fortunately, it's been pretty smooth sailing for me. I can't guess what CCH will do but it seems these piecemeal programs might be the ones that go. Hopefully, they'll keep ATX even though they may only offer the MAX whole package product. It would be easier for them in their marketing/pricing policy instead of trying to keep tabs of what they've offered here and there.

I noticed a little change in the input sheet. For joint accounts, both names and SSNs are listed. Does anyone know if this affects efiling. I assume it's ok. Will find out soon anyway.

This is what I do too if it looks like it might be close. If I don't think it's close, I just use the MFJ vs MFS worksheet. Then take a quick look at the state return for MFS to see which is best. I don't have to worry too much in Ky but I'm on the border with Ohio and have some OH returns.

Yes, it's been available for awhile now. I used it in a return but I knew I couldn't efile it yet. Then when I saw it was better for the client to take the tuition deduction, I discarded the 8863 and efiled the return.

Your competitor is probably giving them the loan advance.

Found my own answer. Next month according to today's WSJ. Also, SP3 for XP is coming out soon.