kcjenkins

How could any program automatically allocate the price between assets? That is the sort of decision that the tax professional is hired to determine. Bulk disposition is used to speed up the entry when you bought a property and set up multiple assets, such as equipment, then sold a group of them at one time. But you still have to determine the category, and allocate the sales price between categories.

I think that we are mostly agreed that no single program is "the best" for every type of office. Some offices do many RALs, at high speed early in the season, and it pays them to get a program that is as fast as possible and as "automated" as possible, even if it costs significantly more. Especially if they use lower-skilled 'data input' personnel to help handle the rush. Others handle more complex returns, with one or two experienced professionals doing most or all the work, few or no RALs, and need the wide variety of forms ATX offers more than they need either speed or automation. And for them, the flexibility of ATX, and the price, make it a great fit. Some offices handle thousands of returns, with an absolute need for data input personnel, extensive error checking, etc. And some need a program that easily and almost automatically handles large, multi-state returns, and the complexity means that they can buy those top-of-the-line, super expensive programs and easily recoup the cost based on the fees for those returns. Everybody has to decide which factors best fit his or her own level of skill, time constraints, preferred manner of preparation, etc. There will never be a program that is right for everyone. But ATX is a fine program for many, especially many sole proprietors or small firms where we handle a lot of varied types of returns and have a mature practice where we have clients in many states. It's not the cheapest on the market, but it is the cheapest for what it offers, I believe, although Drake is close. It is also one of the easiest programs to learn to use, IF you started out doing taxes on paper, by hand, with just your ten-key and a handful of Pubs. Because you can enter directly on the forms, it's easy for that sort of preparer to learn to use.

It is best that he do it as a trustee to trustee rollover with the new bank handling it all. He never touches the funds, thus there is no chance of any of it being taxable. And, of course, if he does not need it, this one year he can elect to skip the RMD.

OK, so you are saying that since Paragraph 1 applies, Paragraph 2 does not apply to the pension? Thanks. Had never had it be an issue, but I always appreciate learning something new.

Send a request to the Suggestion Box. If enough people request it, odds are they will do it.

First, get a GOOD SCANNER, as this is not the place to pinch pennies. Its a valuable TOOL, no matter what program you use. Second, you don't have to have any document manager, if you simply set up your own system of folders. Several members have posted here about their own systems that they set up, and are happy with. The ATX Doc Manager does tie in automatically with the tax program, which is convenient. It's not as good as it should [iMHO] be, but it's included with my package, and it works. There are also a number of stand alone programs that are good, plus have the advantage of not being tied to any program, so you can use them for not only Tax, but other files as well. Of course, you can use the ATX program for other files, as well. Why not use the live web demo and see what you think of it? For a live web demonstration with a Product Specialist, please go here. http://www.atxinc.com/demoreg/

A good reminder. I've found them to be pretty open to suggestions for improvements. And who knows better than the users what would improve the program? If more of us used the suggestion box, we would all benefit.

It can be done, if the mother is going to be using it as business property, but the fact of the relationship has to be disclosed on the Form 8824. and if the property is sold within 2 years, there are no exceptions to paying tax on the exchange.

YEP !

So share, Joel !!! What is the basis of it not being taxable, when they are both citizens? Since citizens are taxed on world-wide income?

I have not figured out a way to do that, yet. I just added a couple of columns for that [one for each spouse] in the excel worksheet, then added the dates myself. Just because I wanted that list, that I could then sort by month.

Some of us who have been with ATX since back 8 or more years have both pros and cons with the CCH folks, but we almost all LOVE the program. It's just gotten better each year, without any significant price hikes until recently. And when CCH did raise the price, they also added some significant improvements as well. And so far they have shown no inclination to kill it, they are still adding features. I expect if you compare what you have now to the Total Tax Office package, you will be surprised at how much more you get for somewhat less money. Look especially at things such as you get ALL states, you get more forms, and no extra fees for things like Payroll forms, Sales tax forms, OIC forms, 706 forms, 5500 forms, gift tax forms, non-profits forms, etc. Even many of the City tax forms are included. If you would let us know your state, that might help us give you any special 'heads up' about any state issues that are known. Most states there are none, but where they do exist, odds are good we know about it here. Also, if you get the demo and try it out on some of your typical and some of your complex returns, we'd be happy to help you learn the shortcuts and special features. There are so many that it's easy to overlook some of them.

I did buy the new year's program through TRX. Since CCH has agreed to honor those just as if we bought it from them, I did not have to cancel or do anything at all. Effectively, nothing changed except that I saved $699 on the renewal.

I will stay with ATX.

Yes, I'm scared of that one, big time. I'm beginning to think that there is something in the DC water supply that turns everyone into idiots and crooks. That would sure explain a lot, wouldn't it?

And the nice thing about that is that you can save the client list as an Excel file, then you can modify it any way you want to, ending up with a Birthday list, a Phone and Address list, etc. Then you can sort the Birthday list by month, the address list by zip code, etc.

So far it still is. Of course, they could still change it retroactively, if they wanted to hurt the economy even more. It does seem sometimes that this is what DC is trying to do! That would fit right in with Cap & Tax.....errr, Trade.

Since he will be doing the work in NY, he will be subject to NY/NYC withholding, unemployment tax, etc. But that can be done just as easily through a NJ business, if that is what he wants.

No, the IRS does not care how they file, as long as it is any one of the legal choices. No one has to file jointly unless they want to. There are a lot of reasons why someone might choose to file MFS.

Reread Edward's post. Clearly he thinks his client should avoid tax on it.

Jainen makes a very good point. How often have you told a client something they did not want to hear, in response to their telling you what they want to do, only to later hear that they talked someone else into doing it 'their way'? I know I have. I've had a potential client tell me "his lawyer" or "his former CPA" told him he could do XXXXXXX, when I knew very well it could not be done that way. Sometimes I've followed up on that, and every time I ever did, the other professional told me right quick that the idea was not his, it was the client's, and he advised against it. Which, no doubt, led to the shopping for a new person to do his work.

One question, who does handle the payments? That should be the trustee for the plan, and that is who issues 1099Rs. AND THAT IS WHO SHOULD BE PAYING HER. Not him. If it is not actually a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, issued to the pension plan by the JUDGE, then it is not exempt on him, nor taxable to her. Your client should never touch the funds that go to her, they should go from the trustee of the plan to her, based on a QDRO, to achieve the result he is expecting. If his attorney dropped the ball on this, he's got a good malpractice claim against his attorney, but the IRS is not going to care. Best he can do is make his attorney go back and get the QDRO signed by the Judge, for future payments, and perhaps make the attorney pay him for the extra tax he has to pay on this year's taxes. Better get cracking if 09 is not to be screwed up too.

So, does Hubby have a green card? If so, it's taxable, as I read it. If not, then non-taxable in US.

KBase offline this weekend 10/2/2009 The Knowledge Base will be unavailable this weekend Oct 2-4 while we perform maintenance. It should be back online Monday morning.

The library suggestion has two benefits. Say you have 7 subscriptions. Once you know that the library already has a subscription to A, C, and F, you can save money by reading those at the library, and dropping your subscription to them, if you don't actually read them when you get them. And you cannot only clean up your space by giving them to the library, they will keep them in better order than you do, so when you do want to reference them, you can actually find the one you need! But I really like Lion's husbands idea, too. Only thing I'd add to it would be not to file the paper pages torn out, but to scan them into the computer instead. Reading them on the computer means you can use the tools like "Find" to go right to the part you want to read. And we all keep a lot of stuff we don't really need. I've found that moving some things to a banker's box, with a date on the box, and storing it for a year, makes it easier for me to throw things away. If it's been in that box for a year, and I never looked for it, I can cheerfully dump that box now. This is not for files, of course, those need to be shredded not just dumped. But Scanning them and then shredding the paper file sure does feel good.