Chowdahead

Depends on your objectives.

I used these folks to get the job done without leaving my computer.

PlatinumProStudies.com

Why am I only seeing tyhat it costs $27.95? Is this the entire 15 hours or the cost per course?

Who did you guys use for your Continuing Education requirement this year?

Thank you!

Have a client who lives in her 3 Family Property. She worked out a loan modificatio with her bank. The bank issued her a 1000-C for a cancelled debt of $144, 094 (Box 2).

Box 7 indicates fair market value of $89,000. The other 2 apartments are rented, she lives in the third.

I have seen a 1099-A issues, but this is the first time I have seen a 1099-C for this much. How would you guys handle this. I assuming this entire amount is not going to go on Line 21 of the 1040. Given the signficant depreciation of the property to $89,000, and the fact that it's 66.6% rental property.

Is the IRS really going after the gazillion homeowners receiving these forms with all the modications being performed?

I have a police officer as a client and he made almost $80K, single, no dependents. Did his return with the usual police deductions on Schedule A.

He then went home and got on HRblock.com and entered his info in there and determined that he could have cliamied more deductions and gotten more money. He also wants to claim the medical expenses of his children who live with his ex-wife and who he cannot claim.

I looked up the medical expenses in the 1040 Express Answers and it appears he can claim medical expensives for the kid. But I told him they need to be over 7 1/2 % of his AGI to even begin helping him. He said he would look into it.

He allowed me to go into hrblock.com and print his "proposed return", and I noticed that on 1040 Line 36m is printed the item "501©(18)..... $4524". This is adjusted right off his income.

I could not find this amount on any of his W-2 or any of the paperwork he gave me. He says it's contributions to his employee pension with the city. It's not in Box 12a of his W-2., or anywhere on the W-2.

This contributed signficantly to the increase in his proposed "refund" on hrblock.com because it signficantly reduces his taxable income. I also find it odd that it's not listed a box on the 1040.. it's simply on the dotted line. I have never seen this in ATX.

Is this a valid deduction?

Have a client whose 4-year-old son attends Pre-K at a Catholic school. She pays over $400 a month for it.

Is Pre-K considered "daycare" and can it be counted as dependent care expenses as long as the school provides their Tax ID number to her? The credit would boost her refund by a few hundred dollars.

On that note, I have been looking at the instructions for the form 2441 and it is very vague on what expenses actually qualify. it basically just says that the parent has to be working or looking for work and the dependent must be under 13. So does this mean that any paid "schooling" under 13 could qualify for "dependent" care?

OK Thanks. I'm guessing it will go through fine.

Regarding the name issue. I have told my clients that I cannot guarantee that their refund will be accepted into someone else's account. Sometimes they want to deposit it into a parent's or sibling's account. I tell them it depends on the bank policy. In the past, Bank of America has allowed it, but they could change their policy at any time.

I am unable to get onto MyATX using my new machine running Windows 7 or an older XP machine. Both are using Internet Explorer. I guess I will need to go in and delete the cookies.

BTW, I have never been able to access the site using Chrome. It says it is not designed for it, which I know is just CYA and laziness on the part of the web coders at ATX.

Had a rollover and the client had a new bank account. I entered the new account number in for the direct deposit, same routing as last year. But I forgot to change Savings to Checking.

Does it matter, as long as the routing and account number are accurate? I seem to recall in the past that it didn't really matter as long as the account info was accurate, but I wanted to be sure.

I usually just hit "Restore" at the top of the box and that fills everything in.

I have noticed that HR Block has a nice refund/info page that they put on top of their return. It includes both the federal and state refunds, plus a bunch of other information like AGI, tax rate, preparer fees, etc.

In ATX, I have found the Tax Summary page but it isn't very consumer friendly, and must be manually added unless it rolls over. So I generally use the Client Letter feature. But that takes some work because it doesn't update all the time to reflect how the refund will issued, so I have to go into the options for that letter.

The letter is nice because I can set the program to add it to every return. but I would prefer a nice single page summary sheet for everything like Block, and I would like it automatically added to each return.

Has anyone found anything like this in the program?

Thanks. I just read through http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc515.html and apparently the loss is not large enough due to the 10% rule, plus there is the whole question about the loss in value to the property etc.

Is there any way, other than in the program, to reconcile fees collected through FeeCollect? Does ATX provide the info online? I looked through the entire MyATX site and found nothing. I even logged into SBTPG and found nothing.

I did a few returns prior to the cutoff date for the Jan 25 direct deposit date and I saw a small deposit but nothing near what I should have seen.

Just wondering if I could reconcile this online before I get to the office and look through the program and encounter the stress that comes with being there. :)

The IRS issued an e-Alert yesterday warning preparers that many refunds are being delayed initially while they "fine-tune" their fraud management systems. Here is the text from the e-mail I received:

The IRS has opened its filing season successfully this month, and refunds have started going out to many taxpayers. As with the start of any tax season, there are system validations that occur requiring some fine-tuning of our systems. As part of this, some taxpayers will receive refunds approximately one week later than initial projections they may have received, but these are still in line with historical refund delivery times.

The IRS reminds taxpayers that refund time frames provided by “Where’s My Refund” and tax providers are projected time frames and are subject to revision. Many different factors can affect the timing of the refund after the IRS receives the return for processing. The IRS apologizes for any inconvenience caused by the revised refund dates.

When the IRS announced the opening of the 2012 filing season, it advised taxpayers who electronically file and select direct deposit that they could see their refunds in as few as 10 days and 90 percent of refunds are provided within 21 days. Some taxpayers are getting refunds much faster, but at this time taxpayers should expect refunds to be issued as indicated in the original IRS guidelines.

The one-week delay for some refunds relates to fine-tuning IRS systems to adjust for new safeguards put in place this tax season to provide stronger protection against refund fraud. The IRS is providing additional screening for fraud this year before issuing refunds, but the vast majority of taxpayers can still continue to expect to receive their refunds in a timely fashion.

Have a client who is already itemizing due to owning a single family. Had a bed bug problem and paid Terminix $900.00 for fumigation services to fix it.

Plus the client purchased about $300 in bed bug proof mattress covers after the treatment.

Wants to be able to take this as a casualty loss. Possible?

I have a feeling we are going to be seeing more bed bud related expenses if the news is any indication....

I was able to acquire an answer fro Support. The number is to the left of the barcode on the flyer the card comes attached to.

Is it me or is the documentation on this process non-existent?

Can someone familiar with the Moneywise card tell me where the "Verification Code" for the MoneyWise card is? I am issuing the taxpayer their MoneyWise card in my office, in conjuction with FeeCollect, and I have the card in-hand. But where is the "Verification Code"?

Any help will be appreciated!!

Client sitting in fron of me right now... ATX is updating forms as part of a normal update I have set at 4pm.. It has been sitting at 2%, and then 4% for 15 minutes!!!!

I know it's the start of these season.. but my goodness.. How much small talk can I make!!

The f-file info form is now availale for me. Still waiting on my state forms. Competitiors already have their state forms.

We get this question about forms hundreds of times each tax year. The IRS and each state and local entity has to approve the forms ATX creates for each year. ATX cannot release them for PRINTED filing till the forms are approved.

E-filing can begin as soon as the IRS opens the computers. I have heard that Jan 13, 16 or 17 is the first day for e-filing.

As for other companies... When their firm starts preparing returns has NO EFFECT on my/our business. If the only reason a client comes to you is how soon you can file their return, are they really YOUR client or the client of the calendar. I'm just sayin.....

The 1040 E-File Info form is not a filing firm. It doesn't even print. The E-File Authorization Form, 8879, which does print, has been available for a while and can be manually added to the return.

The e-file info form is where the refund type, direct deposit info etc is entered into the return. I have never seen this "form" delayed so long. I came in this morning to expecting it to be available. I have a few returns in the hopper trying to get them ready to simply transmit tomorrow, but I cannot even do that.

That did the trick thanks!

I have a networked Windows 7 PC. The server is also Window 7.

On the workstation, whenever opening ATX I am always getting Windows 7 Security File warnings. When using ATX, it's common to get a "Not Respondng" window. Sometimes it's not easy to notice because it doesn't pop up and then the program will stall when working through the return. I didn't notice this right away after I ran netsetup.exe on the workstation last week.

Both PCs are in the same homegroup, and the root ATX 2011 folder is shared between them. I turned down all the security settings on the network station, but the security warnings still appear.

I found a similar issue in a thread back in 2008, but it appears to be for Windows XP. Any network savvy people out there that can give me some advice on this? Thanks.

When did the date change from the 13th??? I read last week e-filing was starting the 1/13/2012. I remember because I thought it was odd to start on a Friday, but I think they did the same last year.

Anyone know how ATX can be set to display a DBA name on letters, invoices, and mail slip sheets? I tried entering it under Firm Name in the Preparer Manager but it still shows my full name instead the of the DBA name.

I am pretty much resigned to the fact that I need to accept credit cards. Last year I used Intuit's service and while it worked ok, it was somewhat more expensive than I expected. Additionally, their system ended up triple billing one of my most pain-in-the-butt clients. It was a nightmare. Plus Intuit charges $70 for each swiper, which I think is a rip-off.

While I will go with Intuit again if absolutely necessary, does anyone have any recommendations for another company.

I did order a Square mobile card reader, but my only gripe with it is you can't print a receipt. It must be e-mailed. Some clients want a paper receipt. I thought perhaps I could e-mail the receipt to myself and print it for them. It is more expensive at 2.75%, but there is no monthly fee. But I'm thinking some clients may be a bit uncomfortable with me pulling out my phone and swiping their card through it.

Does ATX offer anyway to accept credit cards within the program? What other fair priced options are out there?