Catherine

One of my colleagues has done that for a couple of years. Don't know if she still plans on it; it was during a transition after a move so her business was temporarily small.

That's actually all too common. And we end up having to back it off either on the IRA line or the other income line (whichever is easiest in our own software).

Tell the local guy that with the new, higher, standard deduction, this is going to become a LOT more common. If he wants to keep his clients, he NEEDS to figure this out. It's not rocket science.

Indeed! I switched *during* the 2012 season debacle, and my "learning curve" took far less than the time I'd already spent trying to get ATX to work. My business partners also switched, and while neither of them consider themselves experts yet, they both agree that it took far less learning than they had feared, and that they believe it is faster overall (for our client base, anyway).

$30 paid up-front before we'll re-print and mail. Gee, when they go back to look they never call back.... As for multi pages - MA went to four pages last year. Was only two not too long ago. Only the *middle* third has any info. Total tax at the bottom of page 3 info; withheld tax at top of page 4 info. Impossible to compare without flipping pages. Grrr!

Well, Abby, you may enjoy playing with fire - and you may be experienced enough to handle it. I've done it myself, on occasion. But I would NEVER advise someone who hasn't been down in the trenches to attempt it without a full registry backup plus restore point. A couple extra minutes before diving in, so that you can edit away without fear of permanently mucking up your machine, is very cheap insurance; doubly so for a registry-edit newbie.

Would it help to write a letter stating these facts? Domicile actually in China/India/Timbuktu/New Zealand/whatever, uses brother's address as a convenience due to difficulties in receiving mail at legal residence. Any proofs of same (details from FEI form, pay statements from Acme of India Pvt Ltd, Wile E Coyote CEO, scan of envelope for electric bill from Christchurch Electric Power, other) to placate Illinois. However, if this guy really has a *domicile* in Illinois (rather than merely a mail drop), then you have to look at what the state will tax.

In some ways, it always *does* - this is just going to suck in new and different ways.

Oh, jeezel louisel, folks, never, ever, EVER edit your registry directly without having a fresh REGISTRY backup as well as a SYSTEM backup. That caution in place, it's a powerful tool.

First question is WHY is he getting a W2 from a partnership he owns? He should be getting "guaranteed payments" on a K-1, subject to SE tax. At first glance there are more problems than merely "does this get the reduction" going on.

We ALL do it on occasion!

Or pay her to stay HOME until you give the all-clear that the plow has been through!

And sometimes things hide *until* you ask.

At least they puked in dad's car later, instead of in your office?

How veddy 'Nancy Reagan' of you, sirrah! (NOT political; it's supposed to be funny, 'cuz that was the campaign she started umpty years ago and we're ALL of us here old enough to remember it!)

To the moon!

So the question for @RitaB is - is it OK to kill those co-workers?

I hope everyone had a VERY Happy Thanksgiving!

Almost worthless. It will allow you to find out if the return is in the system and being processed; not much else.

We have a Fuji ScanSnap S1500 that scans duplex, is fast, and wasn't expensive.

I've used efile my forms for the last half dozen years. Info rolls over; easy to efile that *o-o-n-n-e-e* last 1099 your client tells you about last-minute. It might be cumbersome is we had more than a three or four dozen w2 and 1099 forms. Then again, I've never looked into uploading to them from an Excel file.

Yes indeed. I have learned that sending them in by fax is highly dependent on WHEN. Sending them after hours or over the weekends is useless; the machines run out of paper, memory, or both. Likewise, before 10 or 11AM on Monday or post-holiday - they haven't been re-loaded with paper yet. 11AM or later, and before 4PM, on weekdays that are not holidays. And just hope your fax re-dials often enough to get through the busy signals. Sigh.

Or a well-paid spouse.

Absolutely. And set up a SECOND admin account, in case login for the first ever gets corrupted. That dodge saved my bacon once, long ago, when my account *and* my admin acct logins both got corrupted on the same day -about two weeks before the close of the tax season! (I also took it as a warning that machine was getting flaky, and changed the machine itself right after the season closed that year.)

The one thing I've had bad luck with is optical drives (CD/DVD reader-burners). The one installed seems to die after a while (this has happened to three different machines). Fortunately, every time Dell has sent a new one and I've just popped it in. First time they sent a tech; when I saw how easy it was I just told them to send me the drive after. Two were machines bought at the same time, that had the exact same optical drive - so those might have just been a batch that was poorly made. Third one was a much older drive but I'd renewed my warranty so it was still covered. No other issues. I do detest their keyboards, so I found and bought one I liked and just use that on any new computer.