Julie

We've already discovered the coffee/donut shop. And although it's been many years, I remember those milk shakes! Yes, we'll have to stop by there soon. You'll have to come by and say hello sometime soon. I'm moving in next month.

Thanks for all the encouragement and good advice. I will follow some of it. KC, I had some vague ideas about shared advertising; thanks for crystallizing them for me. I was planning to send the first "we moved" letter in June, with an map and invitation to an open house/art reception in July, and the second with an appointment card in January or December. Joan, you got it exactly right. It's in Tallac Village in Tahoe Park. Tom, although it's in the southern half of Sacramento, it's still a long way to Elk Grove. You can find it on a map if you want; it's near 14th Ave and 60th St. Using a route we might use to get there (probably not the shortest, Google Earth shows your location as about 12.3 miles away. (I love Google Earth.) I understand your concern about walk-in traffic, and although being overwhelmed with work seems like something impossible now, I'm wondering how I would deal with it. Might have to drag Walt away from his paint to help manage the traffic some days. As for that Ouija board, Joel, if you keep asking the same question, eventually it will give you the right answer. And I think you'd best ask your wife about that concubine. And I think I'll try to keep you away from my husband; you're a bad influence. I'm already wondering why I didn't do this three years ago.

I just signed a lease on a nice new office space in a shopping center a couple miles from here. A bit longer commute than I would have chosen, but not too bad (bicycle distance). Not real visible from the main street. Plate glass windows on three sides. Street frontage on a residential street. For some reason office rent is much cheaper in this middle-class residential area than it is in my own lower-income neighborhood. Shopping center has a couple restaurants and a grocery store, so there's some foot traffic. Lots of signage, including some visible from the main thoroughfare. The space is larger than I need for a one-person tax office (but smaller places cost so much more per sq foot that the absolute rent is just as high). The excess space will, of course, become an art gallery (which my artist husband and I will manage together). I'm scared. Will I be able to make the rent? Is this thing gonna fly?

Congratulations on the new job, and hope it's just as much fun a few years from now. --Julie

ATX will not import the information directly into the Sch D. What it will do is allow you to create your own worksheet in Excel and import it to ATX as a master form which can be added to any return. It will also allow you to create a spreadsheet within a return which can be exported to Excel.

I agree....it's not a situation that I've encountered before, but it's one that I'm dealing with next year, since I'm moving my own business this month. But I don't have any employees, and the biggest expense will be storage rental.

And it's a very long 85 or so miles from Sacramento to downtown San Francisco. I can't charge San Francisco prices, but I don't have to pay San Francisco rent, either.

I don't think he's ever been here. Last I looked, he was living on the NAEA board, where they've given him his own "Cracker Barrel Lounge."

There are only two choices that I can see: 1. Line 21, expenses on Sch A, subject to 2%. 2. Sch C. By saying, "It is not a business for him," you're suggesting that #1 is the most correct answer. However, he might do better by putting it on Sch C, because his expenses almost certainly would have exceeded $100, and which would put the SE income below the $400 threshold and reduce the taxable income at the same time. Unless you're saying that he received $500 more than his expenses? In which case I'm misunderstanding your question.

My minimum is $75, although I do a fair number of returns for free. Basic short form (EIC, child care, fed and state) is $85.

That's my next plan...but somehow I left the cord for the other phone at home...have to try that later. I'm hoping that will be good enough.

I got mine yesterday, and it works fine, except that the voice volume is much too low. I will have to find a phone with a mic volume control to use this often. For the price, I suppose it's worth it.

When she can get a social security number, she will use that. The ITIN is for people who cannot get a ssn.

Couple of thoughts... Some of the facts presented are unclear. What exactly is the "minimum" the client is required to give to his order? Is he merely permitted to keep a small amount to live on, while the order gets the rest? Or is it the other way around? Whose education? Is the "brother" using it to educate others, or is it for his own education? I'm no expert in the field, but it seems like those questions might be germane.

Thanks for the detailed info, Don. Really, it seems like a database is the obvious structure for a tax program, although I've certainly been spoiled by the ATX spreadsheet base (meaning I can read the Excel code when I need to understand what they did.) Seems odd to need administrator privileges to update the program, since all tax programs require regular updating (and that is one thing I don't mind, unlike some others here). I doubt I would ever try to do what you did, but it's good to know what happens when the limits get tested.

The $299 program is Orrtax (Intellitax). The $699 program is TaxWise. They are completely different programs. The Orrtax demo I have has 1041 and 1065 function, and is supposed to have business efiling by next season. No 1099, so far as I can tell. I don't know if the TaxWise program efiles 1099s, either.

Yay! Congratulations! I used dialup when my business was in my front room, but have been using dsl since '03, and I agree completely. I still have dialup at home...when I have a computer there. The internet is a whole different thing when you don't have to wait for the phone company. If this magicjack thing is half as good as advertised, I may even splurge and get dsl at home now, so I can use it there. But I'll test it at the office first.

That is exactly what I needed! Thanks, George.

I think I need to adjust my monitor....I never noticed the other white box! Works when you click the plus next to the entry you want. The plus next to line 6 of the Sch A takes you right into that worksheet. I didn't test it, but the table for line 7 of the worksheet looks like it may be expandable to as many lines as you need (otherwise, why would there be scroll arrows?)

I tried, but I couldn't do it either.

Trusting your word above that of the people on the other bulletin boards, I just ordered one. Yes, it's $40 for the first year. You must have gotten a deal. $20 a year after that.

I admit it, I'm not a good listener. If I have to absorb information over the phone, without being able to see it in front of me, it goes right over my head. I would have to be taking notes as fast as I could write to get any benefit from something like this.

Thanks....I'll try it.

Of course there will be....because that's the easy (default) thing to do. ATX is a known quantity. I know exactly what the software will be like and I know how to use it. And I have a good idea what it will cost. From what I have seen, TRX has some faults in relation to ATX...but for a fraction of the price, maybe I can live with those faults, perhaps keeping a PRS version of ATX for backup. However, if I want to have a choice in the matter, now is the time to evaluate competing software. Not November. Does anyone know how to change the default zoom in TRX? What they call 100% comes out much too small for me, even on a 17" monitor. 125% looks fine.

Okay, I'll go through what I did, step by step, and you can tell me if I found something different from what you found. (I'm not arguing for TRX, which I am still evaluating, but I did use your comments to test the program.) From Sch A: 1. Clicked plus on line 12 of Sch A. This takes you to a line on the Interest Paid Worksheet where the amortized points can be entered. I did not use it. From there: 2. Clicked plus on line 9 of the Interest Paid Worksheet. This opens a small window labeled Points Amortization Worksheet (Sch A). Select "New" 3. Input the name of the lending institution, then "OK" This opens the Points Amortization Worksheet. Line 1: Name of lender. Line 2: Amount of points paid. Line 3: Date of first mortgage Payment. Line 4: Length of mortgage in years. Line 5: Amortization deducted in prior years. Line 6: (auto calc): Current-year amortization. Line 7 (checkbox): Check if the mortgage associated with the points was paid in full this year. Does it look like this on your version? If we actually have different versions of the program, then I'm really confused.