Ray in Ohio

No I haven't, KC. I haven't really looked at any programs yet. Thats why I would like some ideas as to where to start. Thanks

I currently am using peachtree for my payroll processing and it is not performing to my standards anymore. I need more flexibility with reporting, W2 processing, etc. I do payroll for approx 75 companies with roughly 400 employees total. What programs would be suitable for this kind of operation. What are your experiences with different programs? Pros & Cons?? Any ideas would be appreciated. I am almost sure I will be switching to a different program later this year and would love to hear your opinions on what would be a good choice. Thanks and have a good week. (I know everyone's busy, but I thought if I wait till after tax season to post this, most of you might not be as active on this board.)

I've had that message a few times. I am thinking it was an issue with my network. I closed out all programs and rebooted computer and it solved my problems. Also, make sure your internet connection is ok. Hope this helps

With all the reported sightings of Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty in front of cartain tax prep offices, I am seriously considering if we shouldn't come up with a unique mascot for ATX users. I have had some ideas run through my head but can't really make a decision with out some professional input from fellow ATX'ers. Here's some of the first ones that came to my mind: Cowboy Sam (with his lasso to rope potetential clients) Sports Illustrated Models wearing a cardboard IRS refund check; (when is that issue coming out anyway?) Grim Reaper (is ATX next for him?) Luckily I have plenty of work waiting on me, and personally don't need to resort to methods like this, but hey, it never hurts to be ready for whatever the competition comes up with next. Now, I would like to hear some more ideas from all of you out there. Lets see what we can come with.

lmao... that's a good one KC. (keep 'em coming)

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/13/pf/taxes/r...sion=2008021316

um.... just curious what all the other Ohio Tax Preparers do with the Oh Dept of Taxation mailer that gets sent out to all taxpayers. It seems that is one thing that the taxpayer never forgets to bring along. They might forget a W2 or quite often forget a SSN but never will they forget that mailer. I think we should get together and come up with something useful to do with these things. It seems some taxpayers are almost offended when that is the first thing I grab out of their stack and throw it in the trash. Should we all save them and get together after tax season and see how big of a card house we can build with them? Any other ideas?? Just checking!!! (hope this post is ok on this forum)

Wooohoooo!!! Looks like I'm getting a room mate!!

>>> my 2 cents worth<<< Just curious if you get to deduct that on schedule C or A ??

I think that would be a great idea.

So would you take enough milage to equal his income? Zero profit?

KC..... message received. Good Idea!! Agree it has its place, so lets not totally lose it. I enjoy reading a funny post and suddenly bursting out in loud laughter. Makes people look at me strange, but it does relieve tension for me. I will try to do my part.

Taxpayer is employed as a carpenter and gets a W2 for his hourly wages ($40,000.). On top of the wages TP gets a 1099misc for over 15K in rent. TP uses his own truck to haul the employer and tools etc. He has over 50,000 business miles on the truck and he says he always deducts the mileage expense. This is a new client for me and I am just not sure if that is correct. The mileage deduction would be over $24,000, so he would show a $9,000 loss. How would you all handle this?

Thanks for the reminder. I been wanting to do this since I found the site. Now I just went and did it!! Thanks for what you do, erc!!

Thanks for all the answers. It's good that this client is not in a hurry for the refund. He basically efiled for the sake of convenience and not for a quicker refund. I am taking his return to him personally today and I totally expect him to understand. I will offer him a discount for next years prep fee. Thanks again!!

LMAO!!!!!!

Filed a return last evening for long time client with fairly large refund. His teenage son had W2 income or $1015.00 with $39.00 withholding. I filed him also for th refund. (I don't charge full for returns like this) Anyway here's where I messed up. On the Kid's return I failed to check the box that someone else is claiming him as a dependent. Now this morning when I got my ACKS, the parent's return has been rejected because of this. What can I do to take the exemption off the Child's return so that I can file the parent's return? Or what are my options? Do I need to file an amended return for the kid? If so, can I efile that right away? Should I try to call the IRS and have them take off the child's exemption? (dont think that would work). Just looking for ideas!!! Thanks; Ray (is it Friday yet?)

ajuroff.... I had an error earlier that had similar language. I don't remember the exact error message. What I finally figured out was the problem is this: I had typed a figure in a wrong field on the return. (I belive in the W2 entry screen). When I went back to delete the info that was entered in the wrong box, the field was highlighted and I hit the space bar. This deleted the info, but there was actually a "space" in that field and that is not an allowed character. When I went back to the field and hit "delete", it sovled the problem. Hope this makes sense and takes care of your problem. If not, just have s'more frikken bananas!!

This is something new for me. I have a client who adopted two children in 07. From what I can find in the publications it seems to be fairly simple to claim this credit. I guess I am just asking if any of you have used this and what your experiences were. It looks like any child under 18 is a qualifying child and basically any expenses associated with the adoption process are qualifying expenses. Including travel, motels etc. If there is anything I am missing or just plain don't know about, I would love to hear from any of you. That's what makes this forum so great!! Thanks in advance for any advice etc.

I am thinking about offering additional treats on Saturdays. I need some help here. I had some great ideas, but I'm stuck. I wanted to do M&Ms. But it takes way to long to peel them. Then I decided to do frikken bananas, but once I peeled those, there was nothing left but the core. So I think I will just set out some Kool-Aid. But someone HAS to tell me how am I supposed to get a quart of water in one of those little packets???? :unsure:

Well they really were on sale. Would a 50# bag be enough? Thats a lot of sucking!!

I just restocked my drawer. let's see, there's those yummy 'Gummi Grapefruit Slices' and 'Gummi Peach Rings'. Also Root Beer flavored twizzlers. And this year I have a special, Chocolate Covered Peanuts. They must be outdated, cause they were seriously discounted at Uncle Joe's Nuts. Anyway they work great for me. The peanuts taste old, so here's what I do. I suck the chocolate off them, then I put the bare peanuts in a lil' candy dish on my desk and let my clients snack on them while I do their taxes. Makes it really interesting, trying to concentrate on taxes and also trying to watch how many sucked off peanuts they are eating. My question is: After I'm done with their taxes and they are done snacking, should I tell them what they just ate, or should I just shut up and laugh quietly to myself?

Jb.... She was here to sign and pay, then left and came back 30 minutes later, during which I transmitted the return. Her dad owns a fairly large business in the area with a decent amount of employees. So (being the sneaky rotten um.. thing that I am) I am hoping with the refund of his daughter's small tax prep fee, and WHEN (not "if") I am proven right, I would gain more than that one fee with the referrals etc. Or maybe that is just wishful thinking too. Besides she still hasn't showed up for her money back yet.

This is so much fun. This forenoon I did a tax return for a young girl. She wants her return e-filed and the refund as soon as possible for she is going on vacation tomorrow. I quickly do the return and she comes back to sign and pay my fees. I show her the amounts of her refunds and when she can expect them and she leaves. We talked about her refund amounts and that they weren't very large. She wasn't thrilled with the amounts but wasn't really upset either. So I send the efile right away to try to beat the 11:00 AM deadline. 30 minutes later she is back and wants the return cancelled as her dad advised her to go to her former tax preparer, as she should be getting a bigger refund than what I had told her. I double checked my figures and made sure I hadn't made a mistake and I tried to explain to her how I came up with the refund amount. I could see she was still clueless. She had (3) W2s and 11 dollars in dividends so it wasn't like anything could be prepared differently to get her a bigger refund. She simply didn't have as much withholding as she had in previous years. So my question is, would there have been any way for me to retract the sent file in this situation? I told her I will try to find out. But as of now, the return has been accepted by the IRS. She has taken her W2s to her former preparer and told them to redo her taxes. Being the gentleman that I am, I told her to stop back this afternoon and I will give her the money back for my fee. Even though I know her former preparer will come up with the same numbers. She hasn't showed up yet. Otherwise it's been a great day!!!!! :D

My question is: was the $100 interest reinvested in the account? (I sure hope he got items that don't spoil)