BulldogTom

My father in law had a saying "You gotta make hay when the sun is shining". In our industry, the sun shines Jan 15th through April 15th. We try to accommodate all of our customers to the best of our ability. I would stay and do the return if that was the only time that the client had and we could not get them to e-mail their information. Tom Hollister, CA

I am good. The update seems to make the program better, and I can now backup to offsite media as well. I suggest you do it. Tom Hollister, CA

Nice plain english interpretation of the rules. Thanks for posting it. Tom Hollister, CA

Again, I am mostly on board with Mr. Pencil. But I am a little more aggressive on the "out of area" exception. This is a very grey area in the tax law. You can deduct your travel out of the area that you normally work. What that means is not exactly clear in the code or rulings. It is a facts and circumstances. In the example above, I would say that any travel that requires an overnight stay is pretty safe to take (remember, this is the tax law according to Tom, not uncle sam, we are talking facts and circumstances). Then you get into the 400 range. I would think that is outside of the normal work area. 75 miles seems to be an hour and a half drive, not so much a safe bet. The distances in between, who knows, it is facts and circumstances as to whether the client is working out of his normal work area. Other factors would have to be taken into consideration. Tom Hollister, CA

What does square do about the PCI fees? How do they calc them? No one mentioned them earlier. Tom Hollister, CA

Just did my first backup with the new program. It takes up 753 mb on my flash drive. I have 40 returns on the program this year. Last years backup of 211 returns took up 253 mb. Time to backup was approx. 20 minutes. Seems to be good to go. Just a little time consuming. I assume as I backup to the device now, I won't have as many returns, payers, and rates to backup for the first time, so it will go faster. Tom Hollister, CA

JB, I like you a lot, so don't take this as a slam or a knock at your abilities. You are dead wrong. Schedule C is for self EMPLOYED persons. They employ themselves. And it is commuting if he does not have an office in the home. This is why we have to document the OIH "regular and exclusive use" so closely for our clients, because the thing the auditor is normally trying to get rid of is the mileage, not the little bit of mortgage interest, depreciation and utilities that the SE taxpayer is getting on his office. It is the mileage that is the big ticket on that form. Establishing an office in the home opens up the mileage deduction. Tom Hollister, CA

I am with Mr. Pencil on this, mostly. If the taxpayer does not have an office in the home, he cannot deduct the mileage. However, if he has an office in the home, used regularly and exclusively for the ref activity, then he could be eligible for mileage from his office to the customer job site and then back to his office. He could, if this is how it played out, actually deduct some of the mileage without an office in the home if he is going from his first job (the bank) to his second job (the ref activity). In that case, he would not get his first leg of the trip (home to bank) or the last leg of the trip (ref activity to home) as those would be commuting miles. But without an office in the home, his mileage from home to ref activity and back home is not deductible on the sch. C. It is commuting mileage. He is a "turtle" in the eyes of the code. There is a tax court case on this that I read a long time ago for a logger who never worked in the same place for more that a few days at a time. He did not have a regular tax home, so the court said that where ever he was working, that was his tax home, and therefore he could not deduct mileage. Tom Hollister, CA

You (and my wife) convinced me to plunge in. Sent out 18 returns last night at about 8:30PM. Had all the federal acks by 9:45PM. Wholly cow. Is it possible that the IRS actually got it right this year? Maybe we should not start e-filing for another 2 weeks every year. Still waiting for CA acks, but they will probably not get to them until Monday. Tom Hollister, CA

That seems to be a very dangerous attitude to me. "Take aggressive positions on the tax return and buy insurance just in case you get audited." I think the policy will have some limitations on what it will pay out. Now, I never read the policy because I don't trust any product that CCH is associated with, but if they are offering an "audit insurance" policy, I am pretty sure they are not going to pay out on unsupported positions. Just my two cents. Tom Hollister, CA

Can we have a conversation about this after the tax season? Tom Hollister, CA

That is what I did. It got real annoying real fast to have to check that box. Like the first time it happened. I am not in the business of doing CCH's sales for them. I hate those foreign ba$tard$ who own that company, and I will not support their marketing efforts to my clients. Tom Hollister, CA

Thank you to all of you for the great information. I think a tablet and a reader are coming in the next year. Probably a "black Friday" special next year. I am locked in for this year with my current carrier, but I am dumping them at the end of the contract. This is a great topic and I appreciate all of your input. Tom Hollister, CA

I am still waiting for a couple days. At least until the Fee Collect issue is resolved. But thanks for the feedback. Tom Hollister, CA

Thanks for the heads up. I was not aware that the invoice was being changed. I know that we have gotten a reject on the fee collect and on the other board they are saying that a whole batch of fee collect got rejected for no reason and they would be resubmitting them. I told the client to wait, but he wanted to go on the first day. To be clear, the tax return is accepted, but the bank app is being rejected for an unknown reason. ATX is aware of the issue and is telling tax preparers not to resubmit the files, that ATX will resubmit all the rejects. Tom Hollister, CA

I read somewhere that the maximum balance allowed in a MyRA would be $15,000. At that point, the account would have to be rolled into a Roth IRA. I wonder if there will be an exemption for a required rollover from the MyRA? Tom Hollister, CA

Love this topic. Thanks for starting it. Are there any options for plugging into a laptop? Anyone have any experience with that? I don't have a tablet or a smart phone. I am leary of any product put out by CCH right now, so iTransact has not been on my radar. Anyone have more info on how that works? I really don't want to be too tied to CCH. What about Paypal. Do any of you use that and is it as cheap or convenient as Square? Thanks Tom Hollister, CA

Can you use square attached to a laptop or desktop rather than a smartphone? I would like to dump my vendor (same reasons, high fees plus %). I am looking for something new, but my phone is not very smart (it is really just a phone). Thanks for any info you can give me. My laptop and desktop are both Win7 if that is important. Tom Hollister, CA

California is notorious for late approvals. Besides, the state feels that every return should be e-filed. It clears up eventually. Tom Hollister, CA

That is not how it is supposed to work. It is not how my software is behaving. There is something going on with your application. I think you will need support to work it out. Tom Hollister, CA

When you click on the green arrow in the box for depreciation on the form, it should ask you if you want to get a fixed asset worksheet or go to the vehicle worksheet. That should bring up the fixed asset worksheet with the 4562. Tom Hollister, CA

I run two satelite offices (the are not in malls, but in small offices), and we use a laptop. I want to be able to take all my records and the computer off site any time I am not there. Security. I have a pretty powerful laptop, and we keep all the files updated on each machine after each day. I never thought about networking them, but I guess it could be done, but we don't do it. The biggest challenge is to make sure you have access to all the data and files you need. We try to work by appointment only in the satellite offices, but you never know when someone is going to "drop in for just a second to get this knocked out". When you don't have thier physical file on hand, it can sometimes be challenging. If you have any specific questions, just ask. Tom Hollister, CA

Anyone remember "Wrist Rockets"? They were a slingshot that wrapped around your wrist to give you more power. Every squirel, bird and occasional cat (when no one was looking - sorry cat lovers) that got in my way when I was 10 got hit by that thing. Incredibly powerful. Tom Hollister, CA

Tom Hollister, CA

OH CRAP, Did you really have to go over the top like that? He will be impossible to live with on this board now..... Actually, this is a great story, and a testiment to the relationships that can be made. Kudos to Jack. Tom Hollister, CA