BulldogTom

OK, here is what I would do, 1. Determine if you are going to get paid. Is this charity work or are you going to get paid. Because it is going to take a lot of your time. Can they compensate you. Of course, if it is pro bono, or at a very reduced rate, then decide if you can give away those billable hours. If you take this on, they will need you and you should not quit on them. 2. Take a total inventory of everything they have. Make sure you know if they have family silver, grandpa's gold watch, china from the 20's that great grandma passed down. You need to know what they have. Everything. 3. Determine what they will sell to get out of this mess. If they won't sell their stuff, they aren't serious. It won't do any good to go on from here. 4. Either you do the books or have them get someone in who will. IRS will never believe the numbers if there isn't some degree of competence behind them. The wife was part of the problem. Need to show that there is someone the IRS can trust to give accurate business results. 5. Call the IRS and ask for a very reduced payment plan. I think you said they could come up with between $500 and $2000 per month. Put them on a payment plan at whatever they can afford and get the collection activity stopped. Convice the IRS that the new bookkeeper is straightening them out, that compliance is now in place, and that with better business management, more payments will be coming down the road. Buy some time. 6. As soon as the wife has surgery, file a new offer. Try again based on the serious illness causing doubt as to collectability. Hopefully you will have a year or so of timely payments and a better picture of what the future looks like for the business. Get a business valuation to show the value. If she is going to be 65, can she get on social security? How far is he from social security. If all the IRS can see is two sick people on social security and medicare who are willing to sell their business and live on government benefits, you might have a chance. This is my plan. I give it a 30% chance of success. Like I said, this is not going to be easy. Tom Hollister, CA

Nice victim talk. Just like I predicted. You spout your racism labels all over the place, then retreat like the little dumb a$$ liberal TAXED who has been hurt. Now I am threatening you? Get over your victim complex you dumb a$$. I am calling you out for what you are. If that is threatening to you, that is your problem (isn't that what you said to me in the PM?) "where are the moderators" in your whiny a$$ victim voice. Looking for someone to come save you from someone who won't back down and won't take your Dumb A$$ Crap. You started it. I gave you the chance to apologize. You got offended that any words that came out of your typewriter were not offensive. Now you are offended. You jerk. I told you this is where it would go, and I am not backing down. You don't like it, leave. Don't post anymore and spout your racist baiting hatred on this board. If you want this to end, do the right thing and apologize. Otherwise, your dumb a$$ comments will be answered by this right wing republican at every post. Tom Hollister, CA

I am very sorry. My jabs were intened for one person on this board. It was not you. I will make sure in the future to talk only about "that dumb a$$ liberal TAXED" so as not to offend anyone else who considers themselves a liberal. By the way, it was me who had the idea about EIC going to the states. Tom Hollister, CA

You are correct. You should not be making statements regarding the viability of the corporation unless you are specifically hired to do so. It sounds like your engagement was limited to the preparation of the tax return, and if you have an engagement letter, it should say something like you did not audit the records and relied on the information provided by the client. You cannot attest to what you do not know. I would politely decline. Tom Hollister, CA

Respectable. You called right wing republicans racists. Real respectable. I am a right wing republican. You called me a racist. I will never let you forget that insult. Go ahead and play the victim. Isn't that what small minded race baiting dumb a$$ libs like you do? Tom Hollister, CA

Who is going to decided what in a background check keeps you from owning a gun? The government? Ha! They will take them from everybody. That is why the constitution specifically give the right to keep and bear arms. It is a personal right. Now some crazy libs want to make that a privilege, subject to permission of the government. That is not what the constitution says. If those dumb a$$ libs wouldent have weakened our punishment system, and our law enforcement had real teeth instead of being another supid social engineering experiment, then criminals would be afraid of using a gun as a crime. If you know you will hang in the public square for your crime, you might think again. But the race baiting dumb a$$ libs will see race in everything and find a way to excuse the unacceptable behavior of some socially disadvantaged or ethnic group and scream racism. Then they will blame it on republicans and fox news, because their tiny minds can't think that for themselves. Isn't that right TAXED. You have a tiny mind that only spits out the liberal garbage that you see on MSN. Bet you are a big fan of Rachel Maddow. See race in everything you think about. Would you allow background checks to limit the right of the people in the inner city to own a gun because there is no place to hunt there? Makes perfect liberal sense. OH - but that would be racial based in your tiny little mind that does not understand a world where race is not a factor in anything. Your superior sense of self decrees that you are right all the time. And even when you are wrong, you can't admit it. You just keep drivelling on about how great the toker in chief is and how his policies will save us all. What a sad existence your liberal mind must dwell in. Tom Hollister, CA

Why Ammo? If you have a gun, why a background check on ammo? That is just more liberal drivel. You passed a check to get a gun, now we are going to check again for ammo? How frikkin stupid is that? Only a dumb a$$ lib would think that is a good idea. Tom Hollister, CA

WITAXLADY, Jainen is giving you some very excellent advice. You are trying to be sympathetic to your clients, but they need to hear that what they did is theft. They need to understand that the IRS does not give a crap about their lives, lifestyle or desires. They want the money that your clients stole from the government and the employees. What you are telling the IRS is that they will not be able to collect the money. What the IRS sees is they are able to save money to buy new machinery. That doesn't add up. You are trying to say that they need to stay in business to keep ten people employed. The IRS sees a theif with ten potential victims on their payroll. Somehow, you need to get past the idea that this is a program that with just the right verbage in the narrative and the right combination of made up numbers on the 433 that the IRS will just automatically approve the offer. It ain't like that. That is not how the program works. If there is future potential earnings that they can take at will (via levies and seizures) over time to get more than you are offering, that is the best course for the government. Your job is to convince the government that they will get more now than they will get over time. How you do that, given the information that you provided here, is going to be a real challenge. It doesn't help that there are commercials on all night long that say "you can erase your tax debt by calling this 800 number.". We all know that ain't so either. Don't take anything you are hearing as a personal attack on your abilities and competence. It is not. Jainen and the others are pointing out the issues with your offer. And there are issues. They need to be resolved. Just my 2 cents. Tom Hollister, CA

Called OPR this morning. Suprise suprise, I got an answering machine that said leave a message and we will call you back. Doesn't anyone with a government job work anymore. Tax returns still stuck from Jan e-files, applications submitted on the first day of the renewal period not processed. The IRS is just frikkin' lazy. Tom Hollister, CA

And this is why we love Jainen.

I just realized that my new enrollment card did not arrive in the mail yet. I sent everything in back in Nov. Put my new address on the application and also sent a fax telling them my new address. Anyone who had to renew in this cycle not get their card? Tom Hollister, CA

That is funny. Tom Hollister, CA

I actually interviewed for a position with them at one time (long time ago). The customer support was located in Tracy CA. Seemed like a robust enough 1040 software the last time I looked at it, but it did not have all the PR, 1099, 571L features that came with ATX. This was about 4 years ago I think when I looked at it. Salesmen actually came to my office. One thing is, they have a lot of retail customers. You know the car dealerships that will do your taxes and use your refund as the down payment? Check cashing services that do taxes. Customers like that. I thought it was competing with me, so that turned me off as well. Not sure if there is a viable market for those services anymore with the testing and regulations that have come down in the last few years. But Crosslink used to play in that market. I think they also look in on this board. Tom Hollister, CA

Seriously dilusional liberal drivel. Seriously! Reagan not conservative enough? Seriously? Taxed must be from Colorado. He has been smokin' something. Probably partied with a guy named Barry in Hawaii back in the day. Killed the few intelligent brain cells he might have possessed at one point in his life. Now he just spouts off Mainstream Media blather. YUK. Just like something greasy and dirty that you don't want to even look at. Tom Hollister, CA

You can't fight revisionist history from the libs. They live their lies. The also love their lies. "If you pass this stimulus package, unemployment will not go above 8%" - President Obama, 2009. Liar, liar, pants on fire. "These are shovel ready jobs" - President Obama, 2009 (oops, 141 billion went to state employees to pay off unions for their 2008 support. When the money was gone, so were the jobs). Liar liar pants on fire.

Proof that idiot libs can't read sarcasm. Nuff said. Tom Hollister, CA

I wonder if the Boston Terrorists got EITC. We know at least 100K of their Jihad was funded by Welfare. One was in school too, so I bet the AOC funded the Jihad as well. Using the post-9/11 logic, wouldn't it make sense to subject these weapons of terrorism to increased scrutiny? Like we did with airline travel. How about we set up a TSA like agency to screen all the tax returns for credits that might be used in terrorism. We could have them demand that we take off our shoes while they screen our tax returns. Do full DNA tests to prove the relationships claimed by taxpayers to their dependents. Of course, we would have to subject everyone to this scrutiny because we could not just go after Muslims. That would be an afront to the libs. Tom Hollister, CA

Back in January, I ordered the free 2013 1099 INT forms from the IRS. They arrived today. Whooo-hooooo! Tom Hollister, CA

You brainwashed frikkin liberal. I don't watch fox news. What a dumb a$$ comment. Your ignorance of who and what I am is only exceded by your pompus arrogance. Tom Hollister, CA

Well, I think I said this before, but here goes again. I can actually see some good coming from this software. I think they are on the right track with what they are trying to do. But like the three stooges, they just can't seem to get it done the right way. Their support system is now a joke, and that is very sad, because in the days of Maine, no matter what the problems with the software, they had competent people to work on and fix the issues. Now they have a bunch of KB readers. I am going to see what transpires over the summer. I like the all inclusive package that MAX gives me for the price. I don't do a lot of Corps or Partnerships, but I have a few. I also do some PR reporting at the end of the year for a few of my clients, as well as 1099's. I don't pay a lot to get those features. The speed issue is getting acceptable, but not good. I think they will get that worked out. Most of the forms and calculations seem to be coming through properly now. There are some annoyances still, but in general, it seems to be working out OK. I can live with slow speed for the time being. I want to use some of the print functions next year. That was a huge disappointment that there seems to be a way to make some real progress towards what was a weakness in the old version of the software. It ain't there yet, but if it does get there, I think the print function could be a real winner in the future. I am learning to use the software and getting around most of its quirks. I did that in the old software, too. I am willing to go one more year. If it works out, good for me. If not, I will re-evaluate. But I will not re-up until the last minute. Tom Hollister, CA

You are the one who brought skin color into the discussion. You associated predudice against EIC recipients as racism, fanned by Republican states and right wing talk shows. Well, I am a Republican and I am further right than most of my neighbors in this beautiful screwed up state. What I am not is racist. I have eaten tortillas off the back of a truck tailgate in the strawberry fields of Watsonville with some of the hardest working, kindest, brown skinned, beautiful people in the world. Most of them illegal. And I think they should have to go back because they broke the law. I see all races come into my office and go through the same EITC checklist for all of them. I try to treat every person based on the creed of Martin Luther King Jr. "to see not the color of their skin, but the content of their character". I don't believe poverty or social status gives anyone the "right" to break the law. And I don't think the law should see color in anthing they do. What ticks me off is the liberals who need to push color in my face at every opportunity. I remember one year being very excited to see a Monday Night Football game. The high powered offense of the Minnesota Vikings in the Randy Moss era were playing the ferrocious defense of the Tampa Bay Buccanneers led by Warren Sapp. On paper, this should have been the game of the year. What did I get when I turned it on....Al Michaels going on and on about how it was a historic night because it was the first time in NFL history that 2 black coaches and two black starting quarterbacks were in the game. What the hell.....two great teams, regardless of color, with two great coaches (Tony Dungy and I forget the other guys name, but he made history with his post game speech in Arizona) were playing that night. Did liberal Al talk about defense, offense, coaching strategy? NO. It was all about the history of the night. It got so bad that I turned it off. So don't put your liberal crap out there that Republicans and right wingers like me are racist. I am American. Nothing more, nothing less. And I don't need some liberal know it all to tell me that my political affiliations and views make me racist. That is BS, and you should apologize for your remarks. (I doubt you will, because you liberals only see offense when it is you pointing it out, you never see your own racist tendencies). Tom Hollister, CA

You know taxed, I have been reading your liberal drivel for a couple weeks now, and it really irks me. I live in CA, the most liberal state in the nation. And I am really offended by the notion you liberals put out there that somehow because I think it is a constitutional right to bear arms, because I believe in hard work and a hand up, not a hand out, and because I am affiliated with the republican party, that I am some kind of racist. That is bull........ You don't know me. I take offense at the broad brush you paint me with. Tom Hollister, CA

Notice that the insert has a price for "Payroll" and "Payroll Tax Compliance" modules? If you read the MAX description, it still has "Payroll Tax Compliance" included as part of the package. I wonder for how long? Tom Hollister, CA

Hence the opening letters of the post - NT. Stands for "Not Tax". Tom Hollister, CA

Borrowing from my own list, this is the conversation that has been going around Washington lately and getting no real press. Should the President of the United States have the power of execution of American Citizens in foreign lands when he believes they are enimies of the state? Should the President have the power to order the execution of American Citizens on American soil when he believes they are enimies of the state? I have a real problem with this one. I know we need to protect our borders and our people, but being an American Citizen should still guarantee the basic rights of the constitution, regardless if I am in another country or not. Even the worst of US Citizens should get the right to a trial. Granting the President the power to secretly declare you an enemy of the state and allowing him to order your execution via drone strikes just seems to be the tipping point of saying we have no rights. And I don't want G-dub or BO to have that power. We have gone to a place that makes me very uncomfortable with the laws that were passed in the wake of 9/11 to expand the powers of the government. Tom Hollister, CA