BulldogTom

Not a surprise at all. I bet they don't know yet if the data is compromised, and even if they do, they are not telling us yet. If they find out they are compromised, I would think it is their responsibility to notify all the affected parties and give them the free monitoring for a year. I think we will be shielded from liability, however, we will have an obligation to notify our clients as well. The degree to which we incur cost in any efforts to protect our clients will be an issue open for discussion. There have been so many of these breaches in other companies, I think if there is a data breach, WK will handle it just like Equifax, Yahoo, etc. Tom Modesto, CA

Thanks. That is something new to me. Tom Modesto, CA

Thanks DANRVAN. I was thinking of something along those lines, but was not sure that would be the way to go about it. Tom Modesto, CA

You are more than welcome. Happy to help. Tom Modesto, CA

@Ringers forgot to add...some of the escrow companies will provide the withholding certificate with the closing documents rather than mailing out at the end of the year. Have your client look for the 592 or 593 in their documents. You will need it for their return next year. CA will not refund the money without the information on that document. Tom Modesto, CA

You can use the smaller number provided you fill out the form correctly. The good news is that you work with the escrow agent on the withholding. You don't do it through the state. So long as you provide the completed form to the escrow agent, they should withhold the smaller amount. You can call the escrow agent and talk it over with them if there is any confusion. Tom Modesto, CA

So now the question is how to make this happen in the ATX software. Any suggestions? Tom Modesto, CA

Sorry for the bad formatting above. I am not good at this fancy dancy cut and paste and I don't do links. So my question is - the income is still excludible under foster care payments but is includible for EIC calculations? I think that is what this is saying. I have a couple of amended returns to get processed. Tom Modesto, CA

HSS payments are earned income for Earned Income Tax Credit May 16, 2019 The Tax Court has ruled that income that a taxpayer excluded from gross income pursuant to IRS Notice 2014-7, which treats qualified Medicaid waiver payments as excludable as foster care payments, is earned income for the purposes of calculating eligibility under the Earned Income Credit and Additional Child Tax Credit. (Feigh v. Comm. (2019) 152 TC 15) File amended federal returns for clients who qualify. Although California follows Notice 2014-7, it is unclear if the Tax Court’s decision will impact the California Earned Income Tax Credit because California also requires that the earned income be subject to state withholding. (R&TC §17052(c)(3)(A))

I think this is common. I think FDNY posted the fix in the past. Search for "Database server" you will see several posts on this topic. Tom Modesto, CA

Sorry Edsel, but I vote for stupid. Love you man, but you are voicing frustrations, not practical tax solutions. You cannot ethically sign a tax return that contains a position that you know to be incorrect. The taxpayer did not make estimated payments during the year, and to tell the IRS they did is to falsify the tax return. Agree with the rest that the TPA is the best first route. Then explore your options in court. Get some help if you need it, from someone you trust. Good Luck Tom Modesto, CA

Bit of an over-reaction, don't you think? Yeah, it sucks. But we do know that they were attacked and they are trying to get their system back up. I have no love for ATX, but I am feeling for them right now. Cleaning up this mess is going to be a pain, and it is important that they don't expose us to the malware that attacked them. Tom Modesto, CA

I wonder if the bad guys have figured out that going after us preparers is not going to get as much data for fraud as going after the software companies. Imagine the havoc they could do with all of our combined client info, not just one or two of us. I really think this hacking and stealing is going to break the tax system. The internet is not secure enough for the number of transactions that we MUST process over it. In the rush to find cost savings, security of the data has not been kept up. Now all these entities that only do business over the internet are scrambling to keep up, but the bad guys keep one step ahead of them. Tom Modesto, CA

Did you pick a hotel yet? Staying at the Westgate or somewhere else? Tom Modesto, CA

PM me with the details. My tax office is in Lodi. ATX since 2001. Tom Modesto, CA

Love those customers. They know it is their fault and they know they have to pay me for the amended return. Tom Modesto, CA

Bingo. Lets be real here. I big reason why I use ATX is because of the price. I am not ever going to step up to a premier software while I am a part time preparer. I am very price sensitive. I think most of us who use ATX are price sensitive. And in business, if you can't get your customers to pay more, then you have to lower the cost of the product somehow. The "easy" answer is cut the support budget. I think CCH has tried a couple things to decouple some of the features of the software (fixed assets) and sell them as an add on. I don't think it worked well. Tom Modesto, CA

A long time ago, I used ProSeries PPR. Once I grew out of PPR, I switched to Max in 2001. I like the software, but there are things that are making me go "huh?" over the last 2-3 years. Support has deteriorated to the point of little use. The states don't seem to be a priority anymore. Back in the early days, they used to advertise the Zillion Forms. They don't talk about that anymore, but really, that has been the thing I am most hesitant to move away from. I can't tell you how many times I needed a county property tax return or some other 1 time use form and I was pleasantly surprised to find it in my software. I bitch about ATX a lot...more than it probably deserves, but that comes from the frustration of knowing what they used to be and what they have devolved into since the CCH takeover. If they were to get their support in order, I probably would not have much to complain about. I think I will be able to complain for a long time.... Tom Modesto, CA

Soooooo…..does that mean no party at your beautiful home this year? I think I can take you in cornhole this time! Or not. Tom Modesto, CA

If you have an AMEX card, they will run offers on Dell products during the year. Last year, I was able to score a 10% credit on the purchase of my laptop and desktop computers, after I beat up Dell to get the price I was happy with. If you are signed up to see your AMEX account online, there are always offers at the bottom of the page. You just add the offer to your card that you will use to make the purchase, and a couple days after the charge to Dell goes through, the credit shows up on your card. My Dells are pretty awesome. Hope to keep them for 5 years. Tom Modesto, CA

This is the new model for software companies. SaaS was sold as something to make your life easier and make your data more accessible. The truth is, the software companies can make more money off of you over the long run, having you pay for the service of using their software, than they can buy selling it to you and providing support. And now they have your data in the cloud and they can hold it hostage with yearly subscription increases. Get used to it. It is the way of the future. I will not be surprised when our tax software is no longer delivered to our computers, but is a login to a massive company server. No control over the updates. No control over the software. No control over the backups. No historical access if you leave. Think MS Office 365. Pay by the month. Intuit online. Pay by the month. All the accounting software companies have a SaaS offering. Some only have a SaaS product. Its not paranoia when they really are after you. Tom Modesto, CA

I am on everybody's side, and it was not my intention to get into what is good and what is not about the provisions of the law. I was strictly looking at the tax implications for my client based on a situation that he had no control over that is now going to put him into debt to the government for the foreseeable future . I just am flabbergasted at how the IRS and congress have put so much uncertainty into the pricing of the required insurance, and the way you can be punished for not being good at predicting the future. I wish they would put some certainty into the pricing (taxing) model they are using. That way, in November when you go to sign up for the next year, you can make an informed decision on the choice to buy or pay the penalty. If I knew at the beginning of the year that the penalty was 2.5K for not having the insurance, and the cost was 2.5K per month to insure my family, they I could make the choice based on certainty. Right now, there is no way to know what the cost of the insurance really is until you have prepared your tax return. And added up the income of the rest of the family. Can you imagine telling your 17 year old to not get a job after graduating high school because it will increase the cost of your insurance tax? Tom Modesto, CA

Before you all take off from the board for the rest of the year, anyone else going to the CSTC Summer Tax Symposium? If so, let me know and maybe we can get together for dinner one night? Have a few drinks and commiserate on this miserable tax season. Tom Modesto, CA

Not exactly. When a client has a loss on the schedule C, and part of that loss is derived from mileage expense, I include the home office worksheet in the return and check on the simplified method. Obviously, the simplified method will not increase the loss on the return as it is not allowed by the code to do so. My reasoning is that if the return is audited, I can show that there was a home office on the return, it just did not produce a deduction for the business. The workpapers to the return shows the square footage of the home and the square footage of the office, hence, there must be a home office. Sorry if that did not make sense. Maybe it still doesn't. Tom Modesto, CA

Since we are on this topic, even though a client cannot utilize office in the home, I still put in the return the simplified method form if they have mileage expense claimed on the Sch C. It is just my way of protecting my client on audit. I am not sure if it would stand up, since I don't think ATX sends the form to the IRS. Opinions if this is a good practice? Tom Modesto, CA