Lloyd Hudson

I think we are to use last year's organizer that is generated in the 2007 Return to gather information for the 2008 Return. The 2008 organizer is for 2009. Is this right?

If we use the organizer in 2007 it seems that most of the numbers are there but the Client letter and engagement letter are for TY 2007

I can change it but why? And in my personal return "most. but not all " the numbers are present. I do not remember it being that way before. I have only been using the program 10 years,LOL

The organizer looks okay but I cannot get prior years numbers to come forward. I created in 2007 and it put 2007 years numbers in but they did not come to 2008. What am I missing?

I had limited success with using the VITA training program on IRS website.

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=150767,00.html

Gave the student basic info and worked in conjustion with pub 17. Also, tests your ability to explain simple tax rules. Stuff I had forgotten with the computer programs.

Taxes......As Romatic as Monday Morning

I have a new client coming in tomorrow. British National working in U.S. Not sure of Visa Status. Married to U.S. citizen. I understand difference in Visa status and non resident status etc. Problem is that he has income from rental in england. Do we report it on schedule E and handle any british taxes on 1116 or is there other treaty implications that I am not aware of?

Taxes..As romantic as Monday Morning

Lloyd Hudson

Tucson AZ

I never had to get a replacement but a few years ago I paid $20. for dos to windows.

I believe that you can correct that by using the repair feature. see KB 16568. I have had to do that in the past (with guidance from ATX Support)

I think that he is pushing the envelope. No work in home state, makes tax home under flag of ship. maybe. Notwithstanding tax home, I would concur that he probably has no meal expense at sea. Interesting to think about.

47 files awaitng acks. finally got through without hanging my server.

I could tell that it was a server/traffic/bandwidth problem. But if no one else is noticing the issue, then it's probably a local phenomenon. Folks getting home from work and logging in to World of Warcraft.... then I can't reach the ATX servers before the connection times out.

But, if others were having trouble too, then it would have pointed to the ATX servers getting overloaded.

Thanks.

Catherine

this is the first day I have had issues with the same problem. Been behaving like that since about 3pm Eastern time. Just tried again 12PM EST still same issue. rest of the internet stuff is fine. Just Rome GA LOl

When in doubt, go to the state website and find their ERO handbook. It'll tell you what forms can be efiled, if non-resident and/or part-year are supported, whether they allow State Only returns, if they require some sort of registration.

Arizona is e-file friendly, You can do stand alone state or piggy back, use federal efin file any form. Only caveat with Arizona is don't send any paper to us. create AZ8879 and save in YOUR files for 4 years. I called on an 8453 and the director says "Just hold on to it" Been e-filing Az since 2001

The problem I've been having with letters is limited to Massachusetts. Whenever I do a multi-state return, the MA letter goes flaky; it sets itself to "no balance due, no refund" - despite the actuality of a refund or balance due. The other oddball glitch (again MA-only) is that the return _cover sheet_ leaves off the state name completely. So I've had to train myself to manually edit the cover sheet and letter anytime there's more than one state involved (and one of them is MA).

Catherine

We do multiple states ad for the last few years a rolled over return inserts client letters with no state name etc. I just delete the rolled forward letter and add back and it correct itself.

Yes, 1040 Sch-E income, no deduction allowed for the office in the home expense.

Thanks I knew that just could not get it together, LOL

I am sure this is addressed somewhere but I am not smart enough to figure it out.

New client is in sub S. She draws a salary correctly reported on W-2. the "corp" accountant also issued her a 1099-misc for "rent" Rent is for her office equipment used at home. She actually does work from home, they do medical transcriptions. K-1 is clean. Question is how do I report the home office rent??

Sched E personal rental?

Do not know if this link will work

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/articl...=177376,00.html

If not it is on the IRS web site under Husband and wife unincorporated business, requires two schedule C"s divided according to each participation and SE on both parties

I used to have a support worksheet, to help in determining if you provided more than 50% of a person's support. I remember giving it to a client that was trying to determine if he could take his parents as dependents. I just cruised through the instructions to the 1040 and couldn't find it. Does anyone know if its still there, or have such an animal. It listed different kinds of support & expenses.

Also, do loans count as support? I think they do, but I am so fried right now...

Yep me too same thing, still don't know what is causing the error or which W2 it is on!!!

Quickest if you donot have 1345A is to call • E-Help Desk 866-255-0654 (IRS)

They can point out which field is incorrect.

Where are you seeing the efiling fee?

Eli

I received an e-mail as to "February billling avialable" went to my atx and seen 134 e-files with no charges. Would have been especially irate if there were any charges. Waste of my time to send me a billing notice. I only pay once and that is in front.

I am aware that this probably has been addressed but I am not smart enough to find it again.

I have always been on a peer to peer network and have had no problems installing ATX. Now have a RAID server. Installed ATX 07 on it and wanted to import the returns that are already in process from the peer to peer to the server. Exported to file "returns" but unable to locate that folder in the server install. I know it is not as difficult as I am making it but hope somebody has "key word" to make my brain work.

TIA.

You can add me to the list of interested. No connectin to ATX or CCh other than as consumer. Check out my bonafides

WWW>financialsafeguards.us

pay no never mind to the addresses on website. Lost HDD with website on it some time ago and have not had the opportunity to rebuild. so site is dated.

I processed the first of my three annual RALs yesterday. Fees direct deposited to business account this AM. $10.00 "transmitter" fee added to tax prep fees. $25.00 document fee added to tax prep. Deposited to my account all of the $$s plus additonal deposit of "incentive" 4.00. The $4.00 was a separate deposit.

could not resist, checked out bunny tail. I have been using ATX some version or the other for 11 or 12 years. Never knew the bunnies tail moved. I guess I should have spent my money and driven two hundred miles to get the training. LOL

[Does not help you with EIC but IRS notice this morning

Most Taxpayers Eligible to File Their Taxes Online for Free

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service and its private-sector partners today announced the Jan. 11 opening of this year's Free File program. The free tax preparation and electronic filing initiative begins its sixth year with high customer satisfaction ratings.

Most Taxpayers Eligible

Seven out of 10 taxpayers — 97 million filers — qualify for Free File. Taxpayers must have an adjusted gross income of $54,000 or less to be eligible.

This year taxpayers can choose from 19 tax preparation software companies. The program is operated by the IRS and the Free File Alliance. The Alliance is a consortium of tax preparation software companies. Each company sets its own criteria for who can use the service.

"Free File gives taxpayers an opportunity to use private-sector tax preparation programs for free," said Acting Commissioner Linda E. Stiff. "The IRS encourages taxpayers to take advantage of this valuable program from the IRS and the Free File Alliance."

High Customer Satisfaction

Taxpayers consistently give high marks to Free File in satisfaction surveys. According to Russell Research, 98 percent said they would recommend Free File to a friend or family member. The results also found that 95 percent intend to use Free File again this year.

“The Free File Alliance is an innovative one-of-a-kind partnership with the IRS that offers free federal tax services to millions of low and moderate income Americans," said Free File Alliance Executive Director Tim Hugo. "We have worked hard to strengthen Free File every year and incorporate user-friendly consumer protections, including critical privacy protections, into the program. We are proud that the Free File initiative has a tremendous track record of success, with steady growth in use and taxpayer surveys that indicate a nearly 100 percent satisfaction rate."

Accessing the Real Free File Program

The only way taxpayers can access the authentic IRS Free File program is through IRS.gov. That includes both new and repeat users. Otherwise, the e-file provider might charge them a fee. Also, having taxpayers type www.irs.gov in their browser is the only way to ensure they are accessing the legitimate IRS Free File program.

This Year's Features

Here are the highlights of this year's program:

Two companies offer Free File in Spanish.

Some Alliance members are offering online tax preparation and filing of state returns for free. All Alliance members’ Web sites display whether this service is available and the associated fees, if any.

Taxpayers can use Free File to prepare the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Schedule for free.

Taxpayers can use Free File to file a Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File.

Taxpayers Affected by Recent AMT Legislation

Most taxpayers will be able to use the Free File program immediately. However, because of recent Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) legislation, as many as 13.5 million taxpayers will need to wait until Feb. 11 before they file their return. The affected taxpayers are people who use one of five forms.

Returns that include the following forms should not be filed until Feb. 11, 2008:

Form 8863, Education Credits.

Form 5695, Residential Energy Credits.

Schedule 2, Form 1040A, Child and Dependent Care Expenses for Form 1040A Filers.

Form 8396, Mortgage Interest Credit.

Form 8859, District of Columbia First-Time Homebuyer Credit.

If returns with these forms are e-filed before Feb. 11, they will not be accepted.

The February date allows the IRS enough time to update and test its systems to accommodate the changes without major disruptions to other operations related to the tax season. See IRS News Release 2007-209 and these questions and answers for more information.

Free File Alliance

Just got off phone with ATX sales, They called to advise us of the training availabilty on website. we were encouraged to attend some of the training semianrs to learn the software and revel in its new features. I promptly looked at the options and discovered that they klare offering classroom instruction as well as webinars, so far so good. We have been using ATX software for about 10 years and probably do not know how to maximize all the features. then I looked at the pricing. I grant you that they are offering CPE with the classes but I became a bit agitated that they would CHARGE to learn how to use the software that has steadily increased in price every year. I asked if this was a forerunner to pay per incident support, which is my suspicion. we have always renewed early and have always appreciated the new features and more flexibilty that has ocurred every year, but paying for support is not something that I look forward to.

I never post but this got me going.

Lloyd Hudson

Financial Safeguards Group

Brother supports sister and niece. All live in the same household. Brother makes 55K (all w-2) and sister makes nothing, no one else lives in the household. Niece is only 2 years old, can he get child tax credit?

According to instructions and flow chart for line 6C the answer is yes.