Julie

I can't find the worksheet for additions to Sch A line 5 that do not relate to the line 10 worksheet.

I don't charge per W2 either. W2 and 1099R are included in my base rates. It's been a long, long time since anyone brought me ten or fifteen W2s.

I've learned never to look at the refund till after the return is processed. I think it never reflects the last change you made.

Okay, it's showing the right information now....I don't know that I changed anything.

I must be doing this wrong. Rental house put into service in '08, remodeled later in '09, sold in '10. In Asset Tracker, I created (I hope) a group that should include the house and the remodel, with the idea that they would combine on the 4797. Instead there are two identical entries, each showing the full gain. How should I have done this?

There's a checkbox somewhere that suppresses it.

That's what I've been doing, too. So far as I can tell, it's the only way that does work.

New potential client came in the other day and told me her tax preparer had retired. I asked her a few questions and it turns out she's been self-employed for a few years. So I asked her whether she had mileage logs and the like, and she said "I'm not a records kind of person. Can't you just put down what I said last year?" Sigh.

I took it with paper and pencil, too. I remember being astonished when they said calculators were not allowed. But I did pass all four parts on the first try (but it was August, and I'd spend the whole summer studying this stuff). It had nothing to do with the taxes I was familiar with, and a whole lot to do with basis calculations. Anyway, congratulations....only one part left to go!

I seem to recall that if someone CAN be claimed as a dependent, whether they are in fact claimed or not, they cannot claim themselves. So that if it's better for the student to claim his own education credits, no one can claim his personal exemption. This hasn't changed, has it? In this case, there seems to be no choice. Not a matter of who gets how much back, or how inconsiderate the son might be. Just a simple matter of following the law. The son can be claimed, whether or not his parents do so, therefore he cannot claim himself.

I've noticed...family members never believe me about keeping records, receipts, etc. Aunt Julie knows nothing. But the tax guy they know nothing about knows everything. Shrug. I hope they get good info from him.

I routinely tell them, "The IRS says they'll deposit it on this date, but occasionally they'll be a week late. I don't know why. And your bank may need a day or two to process the deposit."

No, don't have him mail anything. At least not yet. It will probably make a mess of their processing system.

I'm with you, Kea. I'd been with ATX from the beginning, when I started my own business almost eleven years ago. I have about 100 clients, and one or two non-1040 returns a year. ATX effectively chased me off, too. If ATX had continued as it did under the Willett (I hope I spelled that right) brothers, most likely I would have stayed with them. This is my second season with TRX, and it seems to be much better in some ways than last year. The depreciation screen is certainly much better. The zip code auto-fill is nice. It still bugs me that the efile forms must be signed before they can be printed, but that's a minor quirk. The more serious concern to me is that there are a few things I very rarely do, (meaning I have not memorized the form number) and I think it will be harder to locate those than it was with ATX.. I don't care for the separate input and review, but I'm getting used to it, and it does work. I don't find it especially fast, though. Printing is fairly quick, but review is slowwww. All in all, I do miss ATX, but for now I think I'm staying with TRX.

ATX is, essentially, an elaborate spreadsheet, so adding an Excel spreadsheet is just adding another page. TRX is not structured that way, so I would not expect this to be possible.

I've never held a return for nonpayment. In ten years, very few have not paid. I don't even worry about those few; just mark them in my appt calendar so I won't do next year's until this one is paid for. This is not because I don't need the money but because it's a worthwhile gamble for me to do the return and trust that they will pay me when they get their refund. By and large, they do. This works with my lower-income clientele. With this situation, I would talk to the client, perhaps offer a payment plan or see if he has a barter arrangement that I would like. If all else fails, I would just ask him to pay when he has the money, and explain the difficulty this causes me. So far, this has always worked.

Me too.

I don't see any issue with that, if your knowledge is reasonably current and local. Keep a note of your calculations so you can make the correct basis adjustments, just in case they rent out their house in the future. Another possible method: Since the space is fitted out as an an apartment, its value per square foot is comparable to the house. So you could take the total structure value off the property tax bill and take the apartment portion.

Since California has never required that 8453s be submitted, it really is not a problem if the program provides an 8453 instead of an 8879. Either way, I can't get the efile forms to print unless I have filled out the federal PIN information. I would much prefer to print the forms first. I have several mail-in clients and I don't want to make the return transmissible before I have the signatures in hand. This way seems backwards.

Okay, the checkbox was the only thing I was missing. It wasn't creating the engagement letter, so I had no way to print it. Thanks!

On the "letters" screen, there are options to print a privacy policy and an engagement letter. The Privacy Policy prints, but the engagement letter does not. I have not found any way to add the engagement letter to a return, and it does not appear in any of the distribution sets. Has anyone else figured this out? The search term "engagement" pulls up nothing on the TRX or Redgear help pages.

I'm thinking I'm going to wait, too. At least let them get some of the bugs worked out. I got my original PTIN the first year they were available....hoping I can keep it, too.

Oops! I'm late! :bday:

My ATX to TRX conversion didn't pick up the accumulated depreciation. I had to go back and put that in by hand.

:bday: Belated, yes. Hope you enjoyed it.