Catherine

After using ATX for many years, I switched to Drake mid-season during the 2012 filing season debacle. Support is excellent (if not quite as good as it was before Phil Drake retired). Not quite as intuitive but the search box works really well. No bunny-hop endless circles as I ran into in ATX on too many occasions. If you switch, you get (or at least always used to get; ask about current terms) the current-season software free to roll over returns, or re-create them (to learn how the s/w works), plus prior-year programs free. I don't use Portals but use Verifyle instead. Gruntworx - that was once standalone but got bought by Drake and integrated with it years ago - is something I now consider essential but rarely use more than the non-verified (i.e., automated) bookmarked/indexed pdf creator. It makes methodical entries far easier, but the best use is looking for substantiating documents for the tax agency "send us proof of withholding" type letters. Boom, found in an instant, instead of endless searches through vaguely-named pdf's. It also has The Tax Book as an integrated add-in but I prefer the standalone version. Pricing has been remarkably stable. This year there is a price break for single-user offices (like mine) which I like. TL;DR version: jumping in the deep end worked and while it's not perfect I would not go back to ATX.

I believe this is it (I've asked the hosting group for confirmation, too). https://www.bigmarker.com/tax-practice-pro-inc1/When-1040s-Go-Wrong-Navigating-a-Tax-Train-Wreck

Praise God!

Self-prepared using some online site for 2022. I've already told him he needs to find someone else for next year. I've put the return on extension and have asked for a phone conversation. I may ask him to go elsewhere for 2023, too, as I am getting increasingly uncomfortable with this whole mess. Considering for all of 2023 they took in less than $5K (and yes, spent it on PF purposes), that's saying something!

They are under the impression that they cannot accept larger donations until they are "activated." As far as I know, that was the Nov 2022 determination letter! I had been wondering if the guy was told "de-activation" and heard it wrong. But since this is not an area of expertise, I also figured there was a chance I was the one misunderstanding it all, too. It's a new entity, and has not yet even begun to serve it's purpose (because he's been holding off for this $%^&* form issue); it's not being disbanded, that's for sure!

Private foundation needs help with its 990-PF, but also says they were told they need to file Form 8940 "to allow us to become 'active' as a foundation" and there is nothing I can find in the Form 8940 instructions that has anything to do with being "active." They got their 501c3 determination letter in November 2022, and did file a 990-PF for 2022 (no activity, so late in the year). I've done PF's before and this one isn't hard (only two donations totaling less than $5k, a couple of office expenses, and a prepackaged web site; all expenses are maybe $1k). The stumbling point is this insistence that they "need" this form filed to "activate" the foundation. Every other bit of advice they got from whoever was talking to them about taxes seems to be highly suspect, and I'm thinking this is again the case with this form. But I'm somewhat out of my league here in PF startups. The one other PF I dealt with had their own issues (meant to set up a charity & did the paperwork wrong; had to file PF for two years while that mess was being fixed) but there was nothing about some form for "activation." Instructions for the 8940 have nothing that sound like it applies. Other readings online ditto. However, I could well be missing something. Anyone here have any clues, pointers, reference sites? TIA.

I had an elderly client, gone these many years now. He had interest from a dozen or more different banks every year, chasing interest on 1-year CDs. His great joy and glee in life was calculating (by hand on paper!), and paying, his estimated taxes such that he owed less than $25 in April, each to the state and the IRS. But always he wanted to owe and never overpay into refund. I got a real kick out of him and he (and his wife) were lovely to work with.

Look at Drake single-user full license. Not worth any small price "saving" to me if I'm going to spend dozens of hours learning a new software, converting returns, checking every single bleeping depreciation item (those are most likely to get mucked up in conversions), every single carry-forward amount, etc. I have easier ways to hurt myself, and easier ways to save a couple hundred bucks. YMMV.

I feel better just from saying "YEAH!" to everything you wrote.

Only the one who creates the workspace can control signatures. I had a client do this, and I started a new workspace for her & her husband, saying it was the only way for me to get signatures. It was a mild annoyance only. Next year, I'll start her workspace early, so she does not.

The client can type their name and choose the font they want displayed.

I bumped to the single-user and that also kept the price down a bit more. Everything is going up. Time to raise my prices!

And the recording still qualifies for CPE credits.

I like to say, "I have easier ways to hurt myself!" and Eric has (or had?) a GIF for us on that exact topic.

I have one couple who share an email, and I send to them twice - once for him, and once for her. I suppose in theory one could sign in both spots, but for that you'd have to know the clients, I guess. I had emails in the workspace sent by each of them (signed by name; different 'voices'), and so knew both were on board and spoke with each other about the returns regularly. If it was a couple where I had contact, mostly, with only one of them, I might be chary of using a single email address.

I did get a renewal notice from Drake, with different options. I'll be looking at them soon. Still recovering from bronchitis.

As long as they are in a Workspace thread with both people, you set up the two signers. It goes to #1, automatically to #2, then back to you once signed.

Old college professor of mine said "You only start to understand thermodynamics about the third or fourth time you teach it."

I ended up sending a letter for my case. we're now past the "response date" of the letter and I started mine out stating that I've been trying to get through from about a week before the response date. If the IRS never answers the phone, they cannot then say the t/p is SOL because they did not respond in time.

Might not matter where they still had their residence at the time. States vary, but over time more are taxing full-year income regardless of where earned. Then they adjust based on % earned in what state, or $ earned in each state, or they apportion by date. Home state will give credit for tax paid to another jurisdiction, usually up to the amount they tax on that same income. You'll need to research what KY and WI want for part-year resident reporting.

An office support place like Staples or Kinkos, or a local stationer, can make those for you in whatever format you want. Talk to a local shop to see what format they want you to provide, and about options. Hubby needed some specific type of scorebooks that were commercially available 30+ years ago but not for a long time. He took an old one to a local place, asked "can you make me more of these?" and they could not only make them, they gave him the choice of glue-bound or spiral-bound, paper color, page count per book, quantity, etc - all for what he considered to be a VERY reasonable price.

Thank you, @Eric, for everything you do for us. Do you need any donations at this time to fund the new server? If so, please let us know!

Wow! I've tried to call several times for a trust issue; letter response call number X and use ID number Y. No one has picked up, in an hour and a half, any time I've tried. Yesterday I got disconnected after 47 minutes; my shortest call yet. Very, very frustrating.

Not always! I've had a few over the years where no letter ever followed to explain discrepancies. The states tend to be worse about that than the IRS, but the IRS does it too. I'd call. Next week.

The forms may also insidiously end up being issued years afterwards, when the taxpayer is no longer insolvent. Then it can become taxable income.