kcjenkins

Well, of course, that is true. I guess I over-simplified my post. The Quit-Claim is not something you just do on your own, in this situation. But, it is one of the things that you might offer while negotiating with the lender, which is what I was referring to. The point being that IF the lender is going to have to eat this one, because the borrower does not have the ability to pay, or significant other assets, then they will often agree to accept the quitclaim as a way of reducing the BANK'S legal costs for foreclosing, which can be significant, and also reduce the time that the asset can not be turned. It is not always possible, but it is still worth offering.

Fee Collect is for those of us who do not do RALs. in fact, it's my understanding that you can not use it if you do RALs. But it costs only $15 per return, your fee comes out of their refund, directly into your bank, and is pretty simple. One limitation, you can not use it for a fee of more than $900, I think. The $15 dollars comes out of your fee, but I do not see any problem with your fee itself including a $15 process fee. :lol:

Why the heck would he not try to sell them, rather than just abandon them? Or negotiate with the lenders? Right now, the lenders are much more willing to negotiate than ever before. At worst, a quit-claim in lieu of foreclosure would still be better on his credit record.

I don't think so.

Yes, you are correct. If it's a late return, you must carry back the NOL.

One bit of advice to anyone who has not yet installed. It's always smart to clean up your disk, and do a defrag before you install a new program, especially one as important as the tax software. Does not take that long, but can speed up both the install and the operation of the disk. But we tend to get busy and forget to do it.

Well, I'd go ahead and call support and get back into MyATX. anyway, now, because you are bound to need it next month, and it will be much easier to get a new password now than it would be if you wait until Jan when everyone is trying to get help. I recommend that you make your password end in 01. then each month, change the password to end in the month, 02 in Feb. etc. Easy to remember, and avoids the dreaded lock-out problem.

I have not gotten my disk yet, but downloaded it from the web. The install code is available at NyATX.

Last year, for some reason known only to CCH, they ended the install without CD, remember. So we had to do the initial install from the disk. I'm very happy that they gave us back that option this year. My disk has not arrived yet. As for the codes, last year I installed with the code given, no problem. But later, when I needed to use the activation code to update my password, for some reason they had changed two digits of that code. Took me a long time to learn what the problem was. I hope this year they will not have that sort of problem.

I wish you COULD 'lock' the COA. but if you think about it, that is impossible because the very thing that we hate about QB is what the clients love. That is, if you type a check and don't have an account set up tor it, QB just makes another account for you. That is why you can end up with three or four 'rent' accounts, if you are prone to typos. But the client does not even notice that, they just know that entering their 'bookkeeping' is easy with QB.

You add the original cost, the additions made, and the sales tax, and all of that goes on the depreciation schedule. Then you may use §179 on as much of that total as you want to use, subject, of course, to the limitations on total §179.

Ditto

I have not gotten anything from that person. Of course, I've already renewed, which could be the reason I did not get it. Could you copy the letter, so that we could read it for ourselves?

Whoa, folks. you missed where Joel asked us about if it was an E before, NOT a C. Joel, in that case it is still filed on the E, no change at all, [in either case] on the depreciation. Same depreciation is continued forward in either a C, an E, or a Sub-S corp. Only in the case of the Sub S, you do have to transfer [at book] the asset to the 1120S.

Why aren't you using the worksheet in the program? I've had no problems with it myself. Did you look at the tabs at the bottom of the NOL worksheet?

Yes. it is OK to amend an amendment, as long as the first amendment is old enough to be in the system.

It's too late to efile personal returns, they will have to be mailed.

I truly think he meant it in a joking manner, Atticus. He's too nice a guy to have intended as a real insult to the profession. Please grant him a little slack.

I did not mean to in any way imply that CPAs are not competent to do tax work. Many are, although we all know that some concentrate on audit work and do not attempt to keep up to date on taxes. Just as some concentrate on taxes and do little or no audit work. I guess I just assumed that everyone here was familiar enough with Tom to understand that my point was that, FOR HIM, AT HIS POINT IN HIS LIFE, it makes no economic sense for him to try to get the CPA, when he already has his tax business growing at a healthy rate, so getting the Masters in Taxation made much more sense for him. I would advise any beginner just out of school to go ahead and get those letters. I'm sorry that I did not do that when I could have. Frankly, it was the $$$ [that I did not have for the test] that stopped me. I wish I had, just for those people who put more value on the letters after a name than anything else. But I still point out that tax is a tiny portion of the CPA exam, and unless anyone keeps studying tax all year, every year, they will not know a thing about taxes within a couple of years, no matter how many letters they can claim behind their name.

Yes, I think I'll be asking all my clients if they purchased a home during the time frame, and then putting a special tag on all those clients files, as well as putting the data in their Permanent File, so that at least if I am doing their return when they sell I will be able to calculate that correctly. I agree that it will not be a big problem right now, but in future it will be huge.

Do you have a list of which states or localities have that right in their laws?

I'll take you up on that the next time I get there, Tom. Because of Don's health, I did not get out at all this year. Hopefully next year will be better. Congrats on the Masters Degree. by the way.

Yes, it's almost a shame that they call it a 'credit', when it is in fact just a loan. I suspect that some folks are going to get burned on this one, especially the self-preparers. They may calculate their ability to buy taking the loan into account, without taking into account the payback. While $500 a year is not a lot extra, it's still enough to make a notable difference in a refund. And for those who already have to pay, it's going to upset them if they did not understand that is was just a loan, not a gift. I think I'm going to keep IR-2008-106 as a pdf on my desktop, to print out for every client who asks me about that 'credit'.

Atticus, I know Tom personally, and I can assure you that he has the ability to become a CPA if he wanted to. Not a doubt in my mind about that. However, like many of us, he's much more interested in tax work than in auditing, so taking the time to get those letters after his name does not make economic sense. He was, however, working on getting a Masters degree in Taxation when I met him. Since he has a family and works two jobs, I don't know if he finished it yet. But I have no hesitation in stating that he is a very competent tax professional, as well as being a very nice guy. And married to a very nice wife, as well.

I'm not defending CCH on this, as I agree that they should have updated the form in a timely manner. However, I will suggest that when any user becomes aware of a local or state change, especially one that comes at an unusual time, they would be wise to use the 'Contact Us' AND the 'Suggestion Box' to alert the company to the need for the update. You might even use the 'Request a Form' link which you get to by using the 'Find a Form' button. Remember, there are over a thousand forms provided with the software, and it's easy for someone to overlook a change on a low-usage form, especially one where the bottom line does not change, just the allocations above the net. I do think that sometimes we forget a bit that we get the best outcomes when we consider ourselves a part of the total team that is made up of the software and the users. I know it was a lot easier when ATX was smaller, and the communication between the users and the company were treated as a valuable thing. I miss those days, myself. But I'm not going to let the poor attitude of the company stop me from communicating with the company, and I will always at least start from the assumption that they want to make the product as good and as useful as possible, because that is what will make the product more salable.