Catherine

A friend and my husband both had to "swallow the camera" (as my friend put it). Again, they put you under so you don't know what's going on. The worst part was drinking the glop. I put a big book (size of "War and Peace" lol) in the bathroom and so had entertainment for the day. I got 10 years for a callback. Another friend, whose dad died of colon cancer, had to go every year for probably over a decade; lots of polyps when she was in her 30's! After watching what her dad went through, she considers her every 3 years (or so) schedule to be luxury.

More research is required.... blech. Thanks, Lion! At least I feel better about the RSU calculations facing me today; those I _know_ how to handle.

bump.

my cousin sent me this one... Dave Barry can make anything funny! Fwd Message: Colonoscopy Journal For those that have and those that will, this is a good one... This is one of the funniest things I have ever read. If you ever had a colonoscopy or are planning on one, you can't miss this one!!! ABOUT THE WRITER Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for the Miami Herald. Colonoscopy Journal: > I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis. Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!' I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America 's enemies. I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous. Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor. Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons). Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon. The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose, watery bowel movement may result.' This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground. MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but, have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet. After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep. The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough. At the clinic, I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked. Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep. At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering Around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house. When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point. Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand. There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' had to be the least appropriate. 'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me. 'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like. I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, ABBA was yelling 'Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine,' and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood. Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that IT was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ. --------------------------------------------------- Colonoscopies are no joke! Get one.

Can you post that procedure? I have turned to extensive use of notes coded "needs review" but prefer the one-click estimated field. Except this year, with estimates, I end up having to delete the form and re-add and re-enter everything.

Two sales; one expired right.

Client who usually has lots of stock transactions brought me the usual spreadsheet of info. It's very nice; all the details already looked up and filled in. I re-arrange things a bit, put it into csv format, import, double check -- poof; done. Well, this year he has three "put" transactions. Completely leaving aside the whole topic of what on earth a "put" is, (I know it is neither a call nor a putsch, further than that not so clear), HOW do I enter these things?!?! TIA, Catherine

I like that in the areas where we can enter details (such as the charitable gifts) we can delete as well as add new rows.

Client sold of principal residence with office in home. So we need to report depreciation for gain but there is NO gain on the overall sale of the home -- not just Section 121, but the house sold for an overall (small) loss -- so the ONLY reportable "gain" is the depreciation taken for the past several years. I need to adjust the basis for improvements needed as condition of sale (this puts the property from gain on sale to loss on sale). I can enter basis adjustment on fixed asset --> dispositions -->disposition info screen and the total properly recalculates for federal AMT and State, but does NOT recalculate for "normal" federal, NOR can that total be over-ridden and adjusted manually, NOR can it be fixed on the 4797 -- which is showing an imaginary, nasty, "gain" as taxable. Can anyone help here?

That's been happening with me on version 12.11, too. Closing the return & program, then re-opening, seems to fix it. Annoying but far better than the constant crashes we were all seeing in earlier rev's.

My cutoff date for promising to have returns done to file by 4/15 is March 20th -- and only holds true for those clients from whom I have EVERY piece of information! No dropping off half of it just to "get in the queue" and expect to be done when the other half is still missing on 4/5. Anyone now may go on extension -- and they all know it. Lots depends on the clients. Every year, I get 4/10 emails asking "when will they be done?!?!?!" to which the answer is "not until you get me items a, b, c, and d, which I first requested on March 5th -- at this point, you are going on extension."

If it is a qualified annuity -- which my client assured me this was. Turns out, on talking to the financial adviser who helped with the transaction, that it was a non-qualified annuity, and was not put into an IRA at all. So the whole question is moot (and another in the long list of good reasons to talk to the broker when your older clients make major financial moves).

Older client didn't like her annuity. Cashed it out (~$85K; basis ~$70K). Well _within_ the 60-day limit, put $50K into an IRA. 1099-R from annuity was coded 7, normal distribution. How do I enter the rolled over amount in ATX? TIA, Catherine

I don't sprecken no Deutsche. Italiano, si.

Six AP classes?!?! Jeezle Louizle the poor boy is going to be burned out before he ever gets there!! When you folks come east, PLEASE stop by and have dinner (lunch, coffee, whatever you can manage) with me and my husband. Bring your son; we can regale him with "tales of the 'Tute" until he either runs screaming back home or can't wait to get on-campus.

I didn't delete YOU -- I deleted a PM thread from a couple years ago that was no longer germane. Sheesh!! I was making it possible for YOU to send me something new! Silly wabbit.

PM or no PM, we all love all of you.

Yep; every return. I'm having to re-add a bunch of forms so this one just gets added to the list.

Because my quota was at 100% -- went and deleted a bunch of ancient stuff. Back in business now!

I exported all my returns (in blocks of 6 or 10 at a time) to an external hard drive. The export goes very fast; I only spent a couple minutes at it. The first set you choose the folder want to use, and after that it defaults there. That external hard drive then gets backed up to an online secure site every evening. Phew!

Does the manufacturer have a web site? I have found maps online that you can blow up bigger.

Margaret's advice is good -- no one should pay a dollar without that W-9. But we know our clients, who want the work done now and figure they'll get the W-9 later. Then they forget when the vendor wants their check (also now). For one client who just kept paying and paying and paying one contractor, I changed the "pay to" line in their QuickBooks file for that vendor to read, "No more checks until TIN is obtained!!" The office lady didn't know how to change that back. Tee hee. They got the TIN. For some folks, having your client tell them "we WILL file this 1099 and the IRS will come looking for you" gets them to comply.

File what you've got. If the missing SSN is less than 25% of the total, you can still e-file. Else you'll have to paper file. The penalty for NOT filing can get steep, fast. I've never seen it imposed on someone who did file (and one of my clients always lollygags on getting me info; I got his 2011 info in Nov 2012), but the possibility is there and gets worse the more time goes on. Get 'em filed. What the client should do is tell the stone-waller that s/he will get NO more payments until that TIN is received.

I just checked and a whole _slew_ of my backed up returns are 1 and 2 KB files. Yikes!! My assistant and I exported _everything_ to separate folders on an external hard drive and we will do that daily from here on out. Thank you SO much for the warning, Jack, and procedures, etc. Thank you SFA for posting the info from the tech support guy.

Too, too, TOO funny!!!!! I needed that one; thanks, KC.