samingeorgia

Sasha, thanks for the help! I called the lady and her name was right, so I tweaked the DCN range and it's accepted. All returns delivered / picked up, all extensions out, and all efiles accepted -- I'm a happy boy.

So, what are the range of numbers you can use for this? I keep getting this on about one out of five returns. Interestingly, one of the returns I got a "Duplicated" message I realized would be a problem as soon as I pressed transmit. The wife's name was entered as "Suzy" when I knew that her true first name was "Mary" (I've known her since she was a kid). It came back as Duplicated and when I recreated with "Mary" as the name it went right through. I got a duplicated reject this morning and I'll bet a nickel that the new wife's name is wrong; going to call the client this morning. I do work a few days at a colleague's office and efile from there, of course using my EFIN. As far as I know, they haven't had any rejects. Any suggestions?

OK, this is a new one for me. I submitted a simple return, SS income, a W-2, a K-1 from a trust and itemized deductions. The only quirk is that I used a direct deposit bank account that T/P shares with another family member whose return has already been e-filed and accepted. Is this a problem? Do I need to fix this? How?

Totally agree with RCooper: this is the most poorly thought-out form in the inventory. Why the heck can't the form indicate whether it qualifies for Hope or Lifetime Credit? Who would know better than the educational institution?

This is a slick trick! I've used it several times this season and love it.

I'm not seeing how the $ 548 tax for 2008 income is a repayment of the stimulus money. Isn't the $ 548 tax on various income that they didn't have in 2007 but did have in 2008? So for 2008: $ 548 income tax - $ 600 stimulus + $ 600 stimulus already received = $ 548 due. Am I missing something?

OK, thanks to all who replied. Capital "gains" -- ah, it makes one nostalgic.... Edited to add: I went back and checked and y'all are right (not that I doubted you, I just had to see it for myself -- auditors, ya know). It sure does look peculiar.

I'm doing a return for an older couple. They have some income from pension, W-2, interest, etc. and a capital gain on Schedule D. For some reason Line 43 (taxable income) has a balance under $ 1,000 so 10% bracket. But line 44 shows zero tax. If I open the worksheet there is an "X" in capital gain worksheet but no amount. The regular tax shows on the first line but everything else is zero. I update frequently, and have discarded the return and started over with the same result. I called support yesterday morning and they had me transmit the return to them, but no response yet. Any ideas?

I would suggest to the client that he go to the IRA custodian and for them to fix the 1099R -- why should you have to do extra work because they don't know their customers?

It's unlikely that anybody is going to keep $ 500K in diamonds for personal use. If the shareholder is going to try and resell the diamonds on his own, shouldn't he get a resale certificate from his state tax authority, thus making this transfer a resale exempt from sales or use tax? Won't he have to charge sales tax when he sells the product to an end-user, or be making an exempt sale if he sells to a retail jeweler? It seems to me that the shareholder has created a proprietorship business, which needs to register and file sales tax reports. BTW, even though sales and use tax rules vary from state to state, all 50 states are getting hungrier / greedier for money.

Spalding County, Georgia (about 40 miles south of Atlanta): 1. Home of John Henry ("Doc") Holliday, western gambler and gunfighter. His father was the first Clerk of Court of Spalding County; Doc practiced dentistry in Griffin after the WBTS but went west because of tuberculosis. 2. At one time, Spalding County was the pimento capital of the nation. 3. When I was growing up, the dominant industry was cotton mills. Now the jobs and equipment have been exported and most of the mills razed. The dominant industry now is the highway to Atlanta and Macon for jobs.

I ordered the write-up package and like what I see thus far. I was using Accountant's Relief. Both are good value for the money. ATX write-up looks similar to Accountant's Relief, but financial statement formatting looks like a big PITA just like in Creative Solutions. If you don't care about SSARS-compliant statements, use the ones that come with the package (which assume adherence to GAAP), but if you want to customize headings, etc. you have to go through some song-and-dance. Why on earth these software companies don't use templates like the old service bureaus did -- yes I'm showing my age -- I'll never know.

Thanks to all who replied! I saw 2007 today at a colleague's office -- the consensus there was that 2007 is better but does require learning where they put things. I suppose that pretty soon Microsoft will stop supporting 2003 and I was a little spooked by the rep at PPC saying that I could "get by" with 2003. I swear they're all in cahoots! As to licenses, I was told several years ago that the license was for the user and that you could put it on the home office computer and the laptop as long as they are not running at the same time. This would have strong implications for a network setup, but that's not how I have my stuff set up. I have network connections for internet but all three computers are stand-alone. I think maybe a call to Redmond may be in order to clarify this. I'm getting along fine with what I have on the dektop, but if I want to swap / move files (which I will) I don't want compatibility issues. Thanks again for everybody's input. I'll sleep on it and decide later this week.

So are you saying that in Office 2007 Clippy is even MORE annoying? :o

I just installed an audit program utility from PPC. This will not run on MS-Office 2000, which, of course, is what I have. For about the same money I can get Office 2003 or an "upgrade" version of Office 2007. The PPC tech said that either would be fine; I could "get by" (her words) with 2003. Most people on here are a lot more computer-savvy than I, so I'm asking for some advice. My questions for the folks here: 1. Is there much difference between Office 2003 and Office 2007? 2. What do I not get with an "upgrade" as opposed to a full version? 3. Will a 2007 upgrade work from the 2000 version? In other words, is skipping intermediate versions OK? 4. How may legal installs can I do? 5. Which would you do? Thanks to all in advance.

I started using a LaserJet P2015 last year with no problems, but it seems to really go through toner. I just installed a larger capacity (suffix is "X") cartridge; hope it gets me through April 15.

I've been working on an audit now for over two years concerning alimony. I filed a request for reconsideration and this case has been bounced from Atlanta to Memphis and now to Fresno (!!). I got a call from an IRS person in November saying that she is taking the cases in the order she receives them and will call me when she starts working on the case. To top it off, the client is a nervous nellie. Don't you wish you were me?

Why? Because the crooks in Congress don't want doctors, dentists, engineers, other lawyers, and accountants to accumulate $ 50K per year in their corporations at 15% per year! Because we peasants aren't allowed to get the freebies and graft that Congress gets, that's why! Our only shelter is 401K, SIMPLE, etc. and Congress' pals stole that from us, too. But I'm not bitter or nothin'.....

On the other hand, I have a C corp. so as to get health benefits paid for by the company. Strictly non-discriminatory, of course. Health insurance is a big expense at age 61. Since it's a Personal Service Corp., I spend the time between Christmas and New Year figuring out how much my year-end salary bonus will be to zero out the profit. For 2008: $ 59 profit!! No bailout needed here, nosirree!

All of us accountants need to realize that the good clients are not price-sensitive. We need to repeat this several time a day!

First, you'd better look at the correspondence he has received from IRS; I really doubt that he has an S corp. with a June 30 year-end. It's more likely that the year end is December 31, and if that's the case, you have time to get the draws reclassified as salary. Of course, if the company isn't profitable, he may just be withdrawing his own money or the bank's (!).

Along with the 2008 tax software from ATX, I received a demo disk for their client write-up package. I installed it and it looks to be just as good as what I've been using (Accountants Relief) and cheaper. The price for the write-up only portion was $ 420, and they discounted it when I called the sales desk. I don't do a lot of write-up, so I'm looking for cheap, quick, SSARS-compliant reports. I entered one client's data and so far, so good. Don't have a set of financials yet, because I couldn't figure how to get them, but trial balance looked OK. I'm supposed to be taking the webinar Monday.

Well, it looks to me that the $ 20K is taxable to the recipient, maybe some of the first $ 2,000 is deductible as ordinary & necessary business expense, depending on our old friend "facts and circumstances". The 18K is just invested in the client's new corp. The fact that the money came from a 501-C-3 doesn't enter into it. If you received an audit fee of 20K from a nonprofit client, spent 2K on expenses and invested the rest in the stock market or a CD, wouldn't it be the same thing? The good news is that the client has 18K basis in the new entity, which might stand her in good stead if she elects S status....

I have a few questions: 1. Is the new entity intended to be tax-exempt? 2. Has the new entity filed the paperwork asking for recognition of exemption? 3. To whom was the check from the first 501-C-3 made payable? 4. What are the terms of the grant? 5. The guy who received and spent the first $ 2,000 -- what is his relationship to the first organization -- officer, director, what? I agree it looks like they got the cart before the horse, here.

In addition to tax work, I do a couple of audits and reviews. PPC materials are expensive and, except for the DVD with forms, questionaires, etc., not very intuitive. Are there viable alternatives? Seems like the AICPA would produce some audit / review guides with checklists, etc. Along the same lines, I received an email from the AICPA for some ungodly number of CPE hours for under $ 200 -- anybody know anything about this?