Catherine

I am just making my list to pack and looking at the (ridiculously long) list of chores I need to finish before I can leave. REALLY looking forward to seeing everyone, and hoping this northern girl (with the temporary high thyroid that makes me extra hot all the time) won't melt in the Tennessee heat! Here's a picture of Doug and me that Gwen took last year. But Doug can't come; it will just be me.

Britain's NHS is the largest non-military organization in the world, in terms of employees. And if you want real health care, you have to leave the country...

I charge double what the bank charges. Any client gets one strike. Yes, occasionally we get someone who does not make good, and we eat the fee. Way cheaper than chasing them in the long run. I had one deadbeat call me years later, looking for papers relating to her daughter's adoption (she knew we scanned everything). She paid up - with profuse apologies - I went digging and found her docs, she was thrilled.

To @NECPA in NEBRASKA please take care! I saw Adam Savage of Mythbusters fall from a treadmill, utterly drunk (for a myth) and he was so gone he just bounced with nothing but bruises - but BOY did he bounce hard. If you need money for your doctor, we'll take up a collection for you! If you're sure of Aleve and ice, go for it. I certainly self-treat a ton of things most folks go running to the doctor for. That has included huge bruises, serious sprains, nasty deep splinters, and two (at different times) broken toes. Yeah, people (if you tell them) look at you like you're nuts - but YOU know how you feel. Look up the signs of punctured lung (bad break for a rib can do that) and as long as you don't see those, ice and Aleve are your very good friends. Yes, that's all they will do for you; they don't even wrap them these days. @Edsel, I certainly hope you can talk your wife into coming along!

I will be there! Flying in to Nashville a couple of days early to go to another meeting in Cleveland TN, driving from there on Saturday. I can pick up *anything* you might need on that drive if you tell me what. I'm not going to pack plastic tableware in my one bag, so I'll buy as needed. What can I bring? Chips and dips? Paper plates? Case of soda?

I was going to, but get a message that you cannot receive messages. If that's a setting you set, you'll have to change it. Else it's a glitch for Eric to look into.

Yup. Most decidedly inconvenient. But it would keep data safe. In extremis, the e-files could be shuffle-netted on one-use CD's.

A non-networked computer that interfaces with the internet for email, research, etc. Networked computers with NO connection to the internet for data handling and tax prep. The internet computer for transmitting e-files shuffle-netted over to it. Grrr.

Scott Bonadker, of Tax Talk, Tax Pro Exchange, and taxprofessionals groups, died on May 9th after a battle with cancer. Obit is here: Scott Bonacker obituary

I checked today. Our big workhorse is an HP 4015.

This one from the NAEA page on facebuck (sic): John R. Dundon Yesterday at 2:07pm Scammers almost got me and my team today. We are very particular but these scammers are getting increasingly clever. Email title was innocuous enough reading 'Help with Tax Issues' - we get about 5-6 of these per day originating from my tax blog. Most are deadbeats but this particular email referenced that they were a referral of an existing client, asserted that we had met briefly at a social function, referenced a bike race in which I participated and included links as well as attachments for 'efficiency' purposes because they 'knew' me to be 'trustworthy and forthright'. The email completely disarmed me and I almost bit... Before reaching out to the 'prospect' (or clicking on any links or opening attachments in the email) I called the client to thank her for the referral only to learn that her server had been hacked. Turns out yes indeed the email originated from a scammer intent on getting into my server. This is the 3rd type of incident of attempted hacking that has happened to me and my team in the last week or so all with increasing sophistication. Tread lightly y'all. This shit is getting scary.

Mounds' don't!

In MA, the state penalty interacts with the federal - that is, they subtract the federal penalty from the state and you pay whatever is left. Plus, unlike the aca, the MA state law is written that they CAN go after you for unpaid penalty (unlike the feds, who can just send letters but not lien or levy). Watch for those complications, too.

I have never used any chat support with Drake. However, from the tax software (dunno about acctg), the "Support" menu item has a drop-down menu. One of the items listed is chat support; second up from the bottom. Good luck, and tell us how it goes!

We've got a big HP in the main office - 45xx or something. About two feet tall, holds an entire ream of paper, duplex prints, really fast. We got it as a hand-me-down but boy that thing flies.

Simple. State-paid insurance for nearly anyone who applies. And vicious penalties for not having insurance pushing people to apply.

Go to the census office and ask them "Can you print this out for me 'cuz I don't have a computer?"

We tend to have a few who forget the checkbook (or wallet) and send a check once home. If they forget, we send email reminders with the bill attached. However, when gearing up for the new year we will occasionally find one or two who slipped through the cracks. Those people get our welcome packet with a note that NO new work will be started until the prior balance is paid. Over twenty years, I've only had a few people stiff me, and for all of them I was glad to see them go. Although one lady came back almost ten years later, hoping I had copies of her daughter's adoption papers that had been lost (burst pipe? something; don't recall). She still owed $150 (a partial pay who stopped). I promised to look after she paid and I had payment through paypal in five minutes. *And* I found the adoption paper scans, too. She was thrilled. But I would not take her back as a client! (Not that she asked.)

Ooh, ooh, we should do this, too!

Doncha just *love* those! Here in MA the state sends out "prove that you had tax withheld on this 1099-R income" letters where they want a copy of the 1099-R showing MA tax withheld. INCLUDING 1099-R's for Mass Teachers Retirement, where THEY are withholding the tax! How deeply stupid can they be?! No, wait, I should NOT say that - they take it as a challenge!

I have someone coming shortly so can't answer most. I will note that once you put in the AOTC years, it should update next year. That might be a conversion issue.

When I converted, I had a few depreciation details (asset numbers, mainly, if memory serves) that got mixed up.

Drake has so many customization features that - even after five years - I have not taken the time to investigate. But they are there, and there are tutorials online if you want to investigate them.

I had to go look up perichoresis... Perichoresis at Theopedia (who knew there even was a Theopedia?!)

I switched to Drake - enough of us did that we have our own mini-forum that you can see from the home page. Customer service is astounding, but you won't need it much once you get used to how Drake arranges input. They'll give you current-year software for free, now that we're past 4/17, and any/all prior years for free as well. AND they will support those years.