BulldogTom

Rich, This is just for fun, so please don't take offense. You seem to know the rules. What if the athlete is injured? Let's say Tony Romo (Dallas QB) is hurt and can't play against the 49ers this year in SF. Can he stay home with the trainer and never go to the game and still get taxed on that income in CA? Tom Hollister, CA

Lets really split hairs. Could I put my advertisement in corp X w2's that you prepared, and you put your advertisement in corp Y w2's that I prepared? Tom Hollister, CA

My w2 had a JH coupon attached to the bottom. It was perforated, but definately attached to the W2.

Yes to your first question. I am told that CA is very aggressive in pursuing "visiting athletes". That is why they are always hoping for playoffs to happen in the state. More revenue. I am not sure about your second question. I believe it is per game, but you would have to check with someone who has those clients. That would be interesting if you could structure your contract to say "athlete X will be paid $500,000 for each game played in Tennesee, Florida or Texas, and $50,000 for each game played in any other state." Wonder if CA and NY would throw a hissy fit. Tom Hollister, CA

I worked for a temp service last year. At the bottom of my W2 was a Jackson Hewitt discount coupon. Tom Hollister, CA

But KC, when I rolled over the return, and every time I opened it after that, it told me the forms were not available and had the little check mark for download when available. This went on for a couple of days. Does this change your mind? Tom Hollister, CA

I have one client who has a MI rental. Not a big deal. Been doing their return a few years. Fairly simple to figure out. So they come in this year and drop off their stuff. I tell them the 8582 PAL form was not ready and it might take a little longer this year. So when the PAL is ready, I figure I better get on the return. But the MI forms are still not showing as available. This goes on until today. I started thinking that I was not hearing a bunch of bitchin' about late forms from Chuck and some other MI posters. I went to my update preferences, and sure enough, I forgot to select MI when selecting my states to update. When I hit the update, 303 forms came down. When I opened my client return, there were all the MI forms. So I think that the software is not trying to download forms you have in your return unless you checkmarked the state to download their forms. I don't think it worked like that in the past. Does anyone else think this is a "bug"? Or am I just a dufus for not checking on a state that I have a client from? Tom Hollister, CA

Yes, we sent ours out yesterday.

I think the deficit for this year is projected to be 800-900 Billion dollars. That is the amount those dirty SOB's are spending over the amount that they are taxing us. So the Sequester is cutting that by 85 Billion. As Maribeth and Rita would say -- WTH? That is not even going to get you close to balanced. But if you listen to those dirty SOB's in Washington, the planes are going to fall out of the sky, children will not eat and will starve in the streets, our military will no longer protect our shores, and police and firefighters will let your wife be raped and your home burn down. Lying SOB's. They are going to spend 3.8 trillion dollars. That is Three thousand and eight hundred billions. And they can't cut 85 billion without the hysterical lies they are spreading? I saw Leon Panetta give an interview talking about how much this is going to hurt. My ass....it would not hurt for them to take the pay cuts in salary and benefits. Let those SOB's find out what it is like to pay 50% of your own insurance and 100% of your family health insurance, and let them see what it is like to try and figure out how to get some money into a 401K that does not have a match. Let them pay $4.09 for a frikin gallon of gas. And tell them there is no housing allowance when they live in Washington, they can take the deduction on their taxes subject to 2% of their AGI. I don't know if I hate CCH or Politicians more right now. Tom Hollister, CA

Cool, I wish I had done something like that at 18. Tom Hollister, CA

Just a question, do you keep the form in the return just for the data it contains (EIN's of care providers, addresses, crap that the clients never remember) or are you keeping it for a different reason? I charge by the form, so I eliminate forms not needed in the return. Tom Hollister, CA

HV Ken, I have not had a chance to work in the print manager a lot because things are so "iffy" with the software. Could you elaborate on some of the things you like? I will start - I like the custom watermark feature. When amending, I usually include "As Originally Filed" and "As Amended" on my 1040 copies and I highlight them. Takes time. Now, I click on the watermark and it prints across the page for me. NIce time saver. Tom Hollister, CA

WTH = What the Hell. That is how them nice girls say it. Maribeth...watch your acronyms...you are starting to sound like a sailor. Tom Hollister, CA

I think they are confusing the rules. There is a 60 day rule for transfers when the taxpayer takes the cash from one plan and deposits it into another plan. But I am not aware of a 60 day rule to replace funds that were withdrawn early. Tom Hollister, CA

$20 Flat fee for the form, $1 per entry. Comes to about $100 per hour. Tom Hollister, CA

A couple of thoughts. First is the client is playing stupid. He negotiated with the bank to pay 50% and had the other 50% cancelled, but he does not know what the corp was or where the other shareholders are or who was responsible for filing the return? Seriously? How did he do that without the other shareholders approval? Where is the BOD minutes that allowed him to negotiate on behalf of the corp? Second, there is probably a 1099C coming with his ssn. Why would he agree to pay 50% of the debt if he was not on the hook for it personally? Sounds like there was a personal guarantee out there and he was going to get collected on by the bank. This is a mess and it is going to get worse until you get the corporate documents and shareholder list. I wouldn't touch, at least until I understood all the players and all the ramifications. And until I had a big retainer. Tom Hollister, CA

PTI - the new catch phase of the ATXer Community. I like it. We live on the PTI...and we like it... Eric is a brilliant guy. Tom Hollister, CA

My screen name over there is "IDONTLIKECCH". I have used it for 2 years. When I was on auto delete earlier this year it was suggested that my screen name was the reason. Kimmie said that was not the case, it was because SHE was offended that I would call out the people who work for ATX when they were working so hard. What I actually said was that the front line support was nothing but kb readers, and they did not have a clue what was going on because the new software did not have kb answers yet, so they were worthless as support. I still stand behind that statement. They may work hard, but they did not have answers for the problems that came up, and that made the support that they were offering worthless. Eventually, they took me off auto delete. Tom Hollister, CA

A money market account is a cash equivalent, and would remain on the cash line of the balance sheet in the tax software. It does not matter how many bank accounts the company has, all cash accounts are one line item in the balance sheet in the tax software. Tom Hollister, CA

It is funny what clients hear and what is actually happening. Old client, new job as long haul trucker. Sends me an e-mail that says "we are getting his per diem deducted because the company says it will get us a bigger refund"? Huh? Deducted? I send back an e-mail asking for a copy of the check stub. In the deductions column is a per diem amount, but it is a negative. They have been paying him a per diem all year. She says ok, but now they told me I can take all his expenses as well. I tell her you get per diem or you get expenses. Total up the expenses and I will let you know which one is better. "That will take me forever...I have a ton of reciepts" was her answer. I guess she expected me to do it for her for free. Clients, you just gotta endure them sometimes. Tom Hollister, CA

That would take a major conspiracy from all the programmers, and their supervisors. Too many people to pull off a scheme that big. I like this better, CCH tells the programmers they have 1 year to do what should take 3. The programmers say it can't be done, CCH says do it or else, and this piece of crap software with great potential is released at least 1 year too soon. When it becomes obvious that CCH made a mistake, they made Jeff the patsy and fired him for not pulling off their ill concieved, stupid, and irresponsible vision. Who knows, I may be way off base, but I don't think the programmers would work together to sabotage their own jobs. Tom Hollister, CA

SFA, What is your cost per return for software, and what will it be if you switch. With a server and seven workstations, you have a pretty large practice (my assumption, and you know what they say about assuming). I don't know what the price is for a networked software, but say it is 3K. If you do 300 returns, it is $10 per return. If you go to Proseries or something else and it is 6K, your returns go to $20 per return. If you have 600 returns, you go from $5 to $10. I don't know how many clients you have, but that is the math. I would think you could easily decide if this was going to kill your bottom line or if it is worth the frustrations of the current software. I can't do anything but bitch this year. I have a unique situation and I can't take the time to learn a new software. So no matter what the cost, I need to stay with what I have. Sucks to be me this year. Tom Hollister, CA

It is very counter intuitive. Here is what you do...bunny hop (the new green arrow) from Sch. C line 9. It will give you a choice of Fixed Assets or the Sch. C Tab. Choose fixed assets. It will take you to a blank asset. Here is where it gets tricky. If you click on "Auto/Listed" you see nothing. You have to fill in the information about the vehicle and pick both the category and sub category and link it to the Sch. C. All the sudden, your "Auto/Listed" tab will be there with all the questions and calculations. New enhancement. Tom Hollister, CA

I don't see anything where the CA FTB is accepting e-files of form541. We are still mail only for this one? Correct? Thanks in advance. Tom Hollister, CA

I am with OldJack on this one. Had to do the same thing with a client a while back. Put an explanation on the return that the K-1 never arrived, the TMP was not taking our calls, and that we estimated the amounts and would amend if the K-1 shows up. Not a peep from the partnership or the IRS....yet. But if it comes, we amend and go forward. Tom Hollister, CA