Catherine

1 hour ago, BulldogTom said:

I was doing a Spidell update seminar yesterday and the presenter said that one of his friends got hit by a cyber attack.   He went to his carrier to file the claim and the first question the carrier asked was for his WISP.   He did not have one and the claim was denied.   This is second hand, but Spidell is pretty reliable source.   Just something to think of...

Tom
Longview, TX

I still recommend Ben Roberts very highly, to everyone here at the ATX Community Forum. He got me an excellent WISP in short order. 

Ben Roberts, [email protected] - tell him I sent you 

send me a PM for his phone number.

22 hours ago, Lion EA said:

Hey, Catherine, I see you're teaching for John Sheeley's Tax Practice Pro now. You go, girl.

https://taxpracticepro.com/featured

Yes indeed - just finished presenting, in fact. They'll have it on self-study webinar at some point. We'll see if they ask me back!

On 1/14/2024 at 1:11 PM, JimTaxes said:

@Catherine have you submitted any for tax year 2023?  all mine still show In Process under the order history tab.

Today I have gotten a couple of emails for orders that have been accepted by the IRS. Yesterday I got emails saying they had been submitted.

Thank you, @Lion EA - I'll contact her tomorrow.

On 1/11/2024 at 6:34 PM, Lion EA said:

A colleague asked me if what we provide to Protection Plus goes against our WISP

That would be a great question to ask them. It might be that if the help is needed, at that point you get a section 7216 Disclosure Authorization from the client. If they want the help, they'll sign.  

4 hours ago, JimTaxes said:

@Catherine have you submitted any for tax year 2023?  all mine still show In Process under the order history tab.

I have submitted several. In general, they wait until nearer the deadline to submit, in case you have changes. Once they submit and the files are accepted, they email you the submission confirmation (by order number). That delay has proven useful in the past. Post-deadline, reporting to the IRS is done within 24 hours.

21 hours ago, kathyc2 said:

Is it worth $500- $1000 to you to have someone else write a correspondence, or to ascertain if the notice is correct?

I had one case for tax year 2021 that ended up taking over a year and a half to settle (state issue). Had I billed for that time, it would have exceeded the amount of tax at issue - which itself was over $1,500. Why didn't I bill for it? High school friend of my older daughter, who had quit work to go back to school for some special certification program. Can't get blood out of a turnip, or money out of a starving student.

On 1/6/2024 at 8:24 PM, Lee B said:

Efiling of 1099s doesn't reopen until the 10th so you have Monday and Tuesday to get it fixed.

Very true - but the reason to contact support at EFMF is to make sure only the RIGHT one(s) get filed. I don't recall their process.

4 hours ago, JimTaxes said:

have you submitted any yet this year.

I have not yet submitted any this year; those are on the schedule for next week. I'd contact support and ask them; my memory of what to do with wrong amounts is fuzzy at best. I did have one, and I recall it wasn't hard to deal with but I don't recall, sorry! Plus if they've made any changes, my memory would still be of no help.

Installed yesterday. Mostly customized the Eng Ltr; one detail left to fix. 

Happy Healthy and Prosperous New Year in 2024 to all my dear colleagues here on the forum.

I have permission to post his email.

Ben is his name;   [email protected]

He says I can post his email.

Ben is his name;    [email protected]

@artp just sent you email.

Anyone else who needs a WISP please contact me and I'll send you Ben's contact information. I don't want to post it openly without his express permission; I should ask him, I guess!

3 hours ago, Medlin Software, Dennis said:

Cobian for me.  It handles the file gathering, full and intermediate backups, encryption, and can send the data to local and.or remote storage.

Thank you very much. I have that now bookmarked, and will investigate once I'm closer to restored. 

Eric Green of Tax Rep LLC does a great 2-hour Ethics program every year in December. Useful and practical, rather than reading Circ 230. It was just earlier today, so y'all missed it. Next year, though!

Merry, merry, and blessed Christmas to everyone here!

And my deepest thanks for another year of friendship, support, advice, and more.

Hi folks,

Last Friday a mandatory microsoft update corrupted by OS and I had to wipe the drive and reinstall. My backup and recover software worked great for backups and for recovering files. But. The new version won't read files from the old version. The old version is no longer supported or installable (with NO warning from the vendor, mind you - and that's including not installable from the saved, downloaded, install file from a year or two back). So I'm having to use my personal machine to restore files to an external drive, and then reload them to the being-restored machine.

That's ludicrous. Utterly and completely. And I will not continue with this software going forward; they have now proved they are not reliable and won't stand by their products or customers.

So I come to you, dear friends, and ask what software you use for backup and recovery, and whether (or not) you would recommend it. Backup to a local storage device, preferably with an option for "cold metal restore."

Many thanks.

TheTaxBook also has some excellent self-study courses.

It's not just recently; the no-green-card-return has been going on for years, and it's why I stopped recommending it. I was told by a mail carrier who delivered to a local office that the mail is delivered in bags, and it's anyone's guess as to whether those green cards are ever even seen, let alone signed (or stamped) and returned they way they're supposed to be. And our local office is a small one, not one of the big centers.

I have successfully requested penalty waiver when an elderly person died late in the year. The beneficiaries are generally unable to get distributions by EOY simply because there is insufficient time to get paperwork complete. Death certificates and notifications to beneficiaries and proof of who they are and setting up new accounts - and that's all after someone gets appointed as executor and can start to notify retirement plan custodians that there has been a death. 

Working on one case now where the retirement plan custodian is not accepting a state-certified death certificate sent by an executor, simply because the executor appointment was delayed by several months due to reasons out of control of the executor. By the time that dust settles, there will be a couple of years of missed RMDs, simply because the custodian refused to cooperate. 

But you have to wait for penalties to be assessed before you can request the abatement. You can, however, and while it's all fresh in your mind, write up the reasons for the abatement request, and have it waiting.

You might also look at TaxAct and see if they have a pay-per-return option. They were decent basic/pro software twenty years ago and have only gotten better. Ufortunately, they lagged my needs so I stopped using them many moons ago.

9 hours ago, JimTaxes said:

will i be able to access the same filers and recipients that i just entered

Yes, they will be there waiting for you.

Kudos to this young person, indeed. I hope the IRS comes down hard on the employer, too.

In this case, paper-filed returns with check payment(s) enclosed is indeed the only way to file. 

21 hours ago, Terry D EA said:

doesn't always satisfy some states

The EF ack saying "received by stateDOR on date x" sent out by their own computer systems isn't accepted? That one I'd fight, for sure.