Catherine

Accounting client of mine called in a panic on Friday. Computer crashed (video card) and bought a new one with Windows 8. Installed Peachtree (Sage 50; whatever they're calling it this week) and it will NOT run. Sage will NOT help as they do not support Windows 8. I told him to downgrade to Windows 7. As for me, my new computer (that I am still configuring) is Windows 7. My principle on computer OS changes is to make the change as late as possible and let other people be the guinea pigs for errors, incompatibilities, and other problems. So far, so good. ^_^

Will do and thanks!!

Good heavens! I missed this post when it first came 'round somehow -- my apologies, KC. I hope that you are doing better now and that the prognosis is very, very, very good. Yes, that video is very inspiring. All the best, Catherine

MA certainly DOES need to straighten up!! Thanks for the chuckle.

MA has been closed for weeks. Just in case anyone wanted to e-file returns on Thanksgiving -- check with your software provider. ATX stops accepting returns for e-file as of 5PM today. Form 8948, anyone?

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL my dear friends and colleagues here at the ATX Community Forum. May you all have a lovely holiday, surrounded by people you love, and have lots of your favorite foods. We all have so very much to be thankful for. Among many, many things in this life, I am thankful for each and every one of you -- your friendship, your support, your knowledge, your wisdom, your smart-aleck comments (oops; those are largely mine), even your corrections. And of course, for the very existence of this wonderful forum! Thank you, my friends! Catherine

Yeah, that one!! I have a couple of folks it applies to but they are all good clients who come in Feb/Mar and so I had forgotten the niggly details until next sprint (um, spring; whatever). It's been a hectic day.

I can understand why some folks do this, JohnH. Many banks charge annoying fees to transfer money. If I needed money to to go two places and I can get one transaction split at the source and thereby escape a fee, I'd go for it. I certainly hope that those IRS employees who illicitly re-directed refunds to their own accounts were summarily fired, and that tax preparers guilty of same had their licenses yanked permanently. Then all should be prosecuted for theft.

Great point! I just went on a search for it after reading your post, mcb39, and cannot find it anywhere. Eric --> please put back the "Donate" button!

And yet another example of the fact that any government program will ultimately have the exact opposite effect of the one intended.

FBAR definitely; those rules apply if account balances go over $10K for even ONE day. The new 8xxx form; that I'd have to look up - but that one may also apply. ATX has them all, with instructions.

And in Massachusetts, whether the hire-er or work-er believe they are in an employee situation or independent contractor situation matters not a whit; state law decides. Small detail: the state has three different sets of rules. The only thing they have in common is that all are more strict than the federal rules.

I was able to log in but I was NOT able to make any posts or even to look at any messages beyond what was in the quickie preview area! SO very glad that the problem is now fixed. Thanks again, Eric.

Eric! Eric! Eric! Eric! Eric! Hooray and THANK YOU to Eric!!

I've used Gruntworx for several years now and LOVE it. It really makes prep go faster PLUS it's only one file to password-protect to put on the client's CD.

To all my dear friends here -- regardless of whom you support, remember to go and VOTE today. In some countries, people risk being shot on their way to vote. All we need to contemplate are having to park farther than we'd like and possibly waiting in some boring line. We are awfully doggone fortunate. Catherine

Definitely more likely to print more money -- it's the standard dodge of bankrupt governments. It is also the definition of inflation (or currency debasement) as well as a hidden tax whenever there are progressive brackets. The nasty bit about inflating the money supply/debasing the currency is that hyper inflation can (and does!) kick in quickly and without warning.

Thank you for the kind words and concern! Usually with a hurricane it's not cold (I know; tell that to West Virginia) - it stayed in the 50's and 60's the whole time. A friend who still has no power (or at least didn't yesterday) reported that her pet lizard is sitting under his heat lamp, waiting for it to come on. It's not cold enough to harm the creature -- but that tale is both funny and a little pathetic.

We lost power for a few hours, then had several more short interruptions (including one yesterday, just long enough to disrupt all the digital clocks in the house). Lots of small branches down, lots of leaves. I went out to clear leaves from around a storm drain at one point and there were gusts that I definitely had to brace myself to stand against. We were very lucky. Then last evening (after just showers all day) there was a very strong thunderstorm that went overhead while we were scoring targets after our pistol match. Once we were done, though, the sky was clear and the moon and stars were out. We still had clouds, some gusts, and occasional drizzle and showers today as well. Thanks for asking! Catherine

At least in this case the driver can't be charged with harming his attacker!

I've gotten a bunch with a new twist lately -- always from people on my email list. Subject line is "Hey Catherine" and the message is a link with nothing else. The tip-off (other than that my daughters would use a subject line of "Hey Mom") is that - while it LOOKS like it's from someone on my list, the "reply-to" line shows something like (using KC, who started this thread) "KC Jenkins" <[email protected]>. The first one of these, a couple weeks ago, might have caught me except I have a firm rule of never clicking any link that doesn't have a recognizable note in an appropriate style from the person (and sometimes even then I email back, asking "did you send me this?").

Just west of Boston. We just got power back a while ago; it was out for a couple of hours. Lots of wind; the gusts kept making me look out the window as they sounded like big trucks rumbling by. Rain has been relatively light (but driven by the wind) except for a heavy patch mid-afternoon. Rain is picking up now. I would not be at all surprised to lose power again this evening or overnight. Lots of small branches down but nothing big in this area; maybe most of the likely culprits got taken out last year (when there was _lots_ of tree damage from the surprise snowstorm). Flashlights and oil lanterns and candles at the ready. Was able to make some serious headway on replacing a zipper on a winter coat with the power out; old zipper is out and new one pinned in place. It was nice to have an un-escapable excuse not to do any client work!

The mathematically correct answer is 20, for reasons shown and displayed above. There is a reason for the ordering of mathematical operations -- and this "test" is a prime example of why they exist. Do the problem in other orders if it pleases you, but you must NOT then claim that your answer is the only "correct" one. After all, you have started by tossing centuries-old conventions to the wind. You may not then claim that your method is the new convention, giving the only correct answer.

I renewed last night without incident. Don't recall any CPE questions, just the update of the expiration of my EA license. Then again, I get the CPE questions when I renew that.

How about APL? Anyone remember that (also known as "Martian"). We still use that around here (especially my husband) and in fact keep an ancient HP printer around as it has the drivers for the special APL fonts.