Catherine

Colleague here in my state asked if I had a recommendation for accounting software that is good for tracking truckers' income and expenses. She's been using spreadsheets but was hoping for a better overall solution. Her husband has a small truck, and has been sending his colleagues to her, so the need is getting more pressing! Thanks to all in advance.

Round and round and round we go; where we stop, nobody knows!

The old saying - the only two certainties in life are death and taxes - but at least death doesn't get more complicated every year!

Neither is PayPal. I rarely leave more than a few dollars in my PayPal for that reason. It's not real until it's in my bank.

You might want to consider NOT telling us when you do - or you might find a long line of friends at your front door, ready to dive in!

To mis-quote Heinlein, "The ways of God and computers are strange, and not for mortal men to figure out."

Yup! They had asked me to teach one of the modules, but the week I'm away teaching at Camp Constitution fell right in the middle of it, so I had to decline.

A couple of times a season, I stumble across some terrific little feature I didn't know was there. Yes there are annoyances - as in every program. Yes there are quirks - again, as in every program. Ultimately, the best software for you is the one you are most comfortable with - but it is not only possible but sometimes imperative to switch to a new program. With time, it will also become an old friend. How many of us fought the switch from DOS-based programs years ago, after all? I know I did. New, different, and weird-seeming do not equate to worse.

Massachusetts has some kind of provision for one-day licensing so anyone can perform a legal marriage ceremony. Wouldn't be surprised if other states have similar provisions. (Allows an out-of-state minister, or a friend or family member, to perform the ceremony for the couple.)

She is one week old today!

Glad you liked that. Been using it for years.

Good luck, @Terry D!

I also switched to Drake in the 2012-season debacle. Yes, there was a learning curve (in late February!). Yes, some things are different. Yes, there are annoyances (as there were with ATX, as well - no program is perfect and the ones that come significantly closer need another digit in the pricing, at least). I recommend you take a good hard look at Drake. I helped a friend, years back when I was still with ATX, to do some returns on ProSeries. I detested it so much that I never even considered using it. Couldn't find a bleeping thing, couldn't search, couldn't trace any numbers back - I spent more time on those three returns than on any nine other returns ever. And they were not complex; one straightforward S-corp with good trustworthy QB reports, one trust, and one personal.

Very true. I am good at self-study and crammed for five weeks before the exams. The totally unexpected side benefit was I had zero complaints about homework from my girls that entire school year; they had seen up-close and personal what real studying looked like!

What everyone else said. The 3115 will NOT cause problems with prior years - its purpose is to correct all those prior year problems in one swell foop, without making any changes in the deep dark past. Lisa Ihm's book/booklet is terrific and well worth the price. Once you actually sit down with it, you'll be surprised how relatively straightforward it is. What you will need to do is to manually correct depreciation on that property, because the 3115 corrections do not automatically flow anywhere; there are too many possibilities. The hardest part is to remember to MAIL in a copy to ...wherever it goes; Ogden maybe, in addition to attaching the form as a pdf to the return.

My informally-adopted (absorbed?) son and his wife are also expecting a baby girl, in September. So I'll get to be a grandma-equivalent again!

She's four days old, and this was on Day 2.

I got to meet her today and she's even MORE beautiful in person!

I used Gleim to study back in the early 2000's for the EA exam (back then, four parts, in two days, given only once a year and you waited three months for results). Passed all four sections first try, thanks to Gleim. I recommend them highly. I recommended them to a young man looking to become an EA and he is very impressed and learning a lot both about the tax code but also about how to approach the testing. That was also my experience; learning to recognize the no-right-answer questions, and learning to trust my FIRST response, were I think key to passing. From Gleim I learned that every time I re-thought something, went back, and changed my answer, that 3/4 of the time the original was right and the change was wrong. Far fewer overall wrong answers by not going back. Phew! Learning to trust that was a hurdle - that probably led to my passing all sections at once.

Cordelia Rose arrived on the 19th. 7 lbs 10 oz, 19" They asked us to stay quiet until they got home and settled, so I've had both hands over my mouth at all times for four days now! And I just had to share with all my dear friends here.

Dunkie's!!! Their donuts are terrific. I'll treat myself maybe once a year to a real one. Boston Cream. Or chocolate filled. Or honey glazed. Or - well, maybe I'll just stop right now. I do get boxes of Dunkin' Munchkins as our post-pistol-match treats - they split up among all the participants better than full size donuts. 'Course that's hasn't been an issue running postal matches, so my waist is safe at least until fall.

As the song says, "Almost heaven, West Virginia" but I've never been there. Idaho is spectacularly beautiful - but beware if you enjoy veggie gardening, because there are a lot of areas with soil contaminated from mine tailings, that have cautionary levels of arsenic in them. How about you do your research, figure out three or four top contenders, then take you and your wife to visit ATX friends in the area? Tour around, talk about what it's like to live nearby. Massachusetts' isn't on much of anyone's "let's move here!" list - but if NH gets on the short list, I'd be happy to introduce you to friends who live there.

I came here to post a "WE MADE IT - THANK YOU ALL" note and there's nothing more to add. You may not post often, @Patti in Upstate NY, but when you do, it's spectacular. Thanks for being a lurker/rare-poster here. As for the rest of you - I cannot begin to say how grateful I am for each and every one of you. And - WE MADE IT!!! By the skin of our teeth, but we made it. Praise God. By this time next year, there will be a little more room - from settling, of course - in RitaB's back 40, too, so we can do it all again. Taking a few days to recover and we will y'all here for extension season. And, of course, to report on the new grandbaby once s/he deigns to appear. My poor daughter is SO ready.

Just under two hours for me, but I also think I'll pass.

New grandbaby, due ANY DAY NOW!!!!! should keep me busy. I avae never had so many PITA clients as this year. Even generally good clients turned into client-zillas on occasion, and every referral client from existing good clients was someone - well, let's just say it's a good thing I live so far from RitaB, or her daisies would be super-fertilized this year!