Don in Upstate NY

I completed their EA 1040 CPE course in April. $27.95 for 24 hours including the two hours of Ethics. IMHO, if you just want to buy some CPE, they are the place to go. If you want to learn something or be challanged, try elsewhere.

Thanks Doug. When I saw that it was your own software you were reselling that was a big plus. I also prefer the forms interface. Where (if anywhere) do you want comments/questions/suggestions on the software?

We all know that TRX is a reseller of software, and that they have resold ATX, Intellitax, TaxWise and TaxWorks in the past. They buy software licenses in bulk, rebrand the software with the TRX logos and menus, and sell and distribute the software at a lower price than the retail price from the actual software developer. They are able to do this because they (TRX) assume the obligation to provide customer support and perhaps actually run the e-file service bureau. The benefit to the ultimate customer is a lower price; the downside is the lack of any assurance that the software you are using this year will still be available from TRX next year. For the last several years there has been talk on this forum of TRX developing it's own software. This would solve the software continuity problem and also potentially have a positive impact on customer service. A demo of the new TRX software and a 4 minute marketing video are available on www.trxsoftware.com. Over the weekend I received an e-mail announcing a (new to me) software called TaxExact. You can download a demo or watch a 4 minute marketing video on www.taxexact.com. Guess what - they're both the same software. Is the new TRX Pro simply the latest in a long line of other vendors' software being resold by TRX? Answering my own question: Yes - TaxExact and TRX Pro both want to install to a default directory named TEPro. Yes - The EULA on both TaxExact and TRX Pro is with "Tax Software Development LLC" No - TRX, TaxExact, and TSD are all located at 906 Dashiel St.

Is the product that they are offering a self-contained program that I can run on a laptop (at my client's home) without an internet connection, or does it require internet for data entry and calculation?

Your wish may have already been granted. The Korean Free Trade Act (S 1642) requires all prisons to report the names and SSNs of inmates serving sentances of one year or more to the IRS. This will save $122 million over ten years. In fact, the IRS could do a lot of things, if they had the manpower and budget to support them and they were a priority. Obviously they DO have the software to detect and enumerate multiple returns sent to the same address, otherwise we wouldn't know about the specific problems identified in the news release. Ultimately, the IRS does what congress and the executive branch tell it to do. For the new few years they have additional funding to hire more employees to enact the procedures required by the Affordible Health Care Law. I wouldn't count on too many extra projects being added to their plate except for the usual changes required by political year-end tinkering with the law, and specific problems of over-riding national interest (like taxing of Olympic medals,)

Not so. http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=100405&page=1

From the IRS website ... Pulitzer, Nobel, and similar prizes. If you were awarded a prize in recognition of accomplishments in religious, charitable, scientific, artistic, educational, literary, or civic fields, you generally must include the value of the prize in your income. However, you do not include this prize in your income if you meet all of the following requirements: You were selected without any action on your part to enter the contest or proceeding. You are not required to perform substantial future services as a condition to receiving the prize or award. The prize or award is transferred by the payer directly to a governmental unit or tax-exempt charitable organization as designated by you. See Publication 525 for more information about the conditions that apply to the transfer.

I don't know how long it takes a "good" POA to be entered into the CAF, but if the CAF unit finds any problems you're in for a long wait. I did an amendment for a client and his new wife in late April. Since they wanted to track the progress of the amendment and it was inconvenient for them to sign the amendment itself (home visit - they reviewed it on my laptop) they both signed POAs. I attached the POAs to the amendment and also faxed them to the CAF unit. I waited about a week and then went on e-services to see if the amendment had been received. I was not allowed to see the account of either my old client or his new wife - no POA had been recorded. I then submitted my old client's POA electronically since I had his previous AGI. On June 12 his wife received a letter from the CAF unit, dated May 8, refering to the POA which they had received on April 23. They were unable to process it because they had received only the first page. Please resubmit everything. We re-faxed it. Last week (July 19) the wife received another letter from the CAF unit, dated July 9, refering to the POA they received on June 19. They cound not process it because her name did not match her SSN. [it is a compound last name - "Aye Bee". Note that a 1040X provides an explicit box for the 'last name' but a 2848 does not. Her name as submitted was exactly the same as shown on her 1099-SSA. It also passed the name check when it was originally e-filed.] In the meantime, the amendment was processed and a refund check was issued, received and cashed. We no longer need the POA which hasn't yet been processed. If we stop responding to the CAF unit's requests, will they just go away?

I was the treasurer of a small food pantry, one of hundreds of 501c3 organizations in our area. The United Way 'pot' was directed to funding a handful of the major regional charities and developing new programs - our share of that pot was zero. A major source of our funding however did come through the United Way - the designated contributions of people who 'voluntarily' donated to the United Way because of agressive employer pledge campaigns. They were not motivated to donate to individual charaties directly ("we gave at the office"), but were quite willing to fill-in our organization name on their pledge card.

I'm that someone. To clarify, I sucessfully e-filed two 2011 Fiduciary returns (1041's) on May 21 for entities that had obtained their EINs approximately May 8. The difference between my case and yours may be that the entities (testamentary trust and estate) retroactively came into existance as of the date of death (which was in 2011). Or it could be that the1041's were e-filed using the legacy system while corporations use MeF. [Actually I was suprised that mine went through. I had the client also sign paper copies just in case. My only prior experience had been with 1040's, where the EIN must have existed during the previous year.]

Not in NY. Both a single member LLC and an LLC taxed as a partnership have to file an IT-204-LL. Our minimum fee is only $25.00 however. [based on a fast look at last year's form instructions. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.]

I don't offer bank products and my NASCAR experience is limited to watching "Talladega Nights", so I can't help you with those topics. As I mentioned in a previous post, TRX has two bugs that I know about and that I can work around. The price is right for me - I renewed. Your criteria and decision may be different.

Sure you can purchase TaxWorks directly from RedGear, but the price is higher. Here's their price list. Selling thru a reseller like TRX is just another way that software publishers can market their software without incurring the full cost of product support, such as adding staff to the customer-service department.

Cite please?

The $299 for life product has shrunk from what it was a couple of years ago. The 2010 version (and maybe the 2009 version) included access to a tax research service. The main screen of the 2010 version had a button on the upper-right labeled "RIA Research" that logged you into RIA. On the 2011 version that button is labeled "Coming Soon". I asked about it during the season - the support person said she had never noticed it, but her associate said it was for "some feature that would be added later in 2011 or maybe 2012". The button itself does nothing, nor do the "Federal Reject Codes" and "State Reject Codes" buttons. I know of three bugs in the program that have an effect on one or more returns that I prepare, and I know the workarounds. The sales associate assured me that the 2012 product will still have all the 1040, entity, and e-file features that it had in 2011. No research services however. I do less than 100 returns on this software per year, and do not do bank products. Yes, I renewed this week.

If you want to spend $30, the IRS DVD (Pub 1796) contains a .pdf of nearly every form for every year. So if you want to print out a 1938 1040 (a special year for me), or a Schedule G from 1975, click-click-click and you're done. Order the DVD at http://www.ntis.gov/...cts/irsdvd.aspx [if you want to file that 1938 1040, remember to send in a duplicate copy or risk a $5.00 fine.]

Thank you. Lenghty discussion archived on another board indicates that you are correct. Question answered.

Client owns single family house which he has rented out for several years. In 2011 he sold his main home and moved into the rental home. Are the passive losses which were disallowed during the rental period now released since he no longer has any rental activity, or must they remain suspended until he disposes of the property itself?

Now I feel like an idiot! I originally did the SSDI search on March 19 and it worked. I printed out a hard copy of the info and it came from a site called fold3.com, which I found via google.com. But when I try to recreate how I did it, I get nowhere. It looks like fold3.com is devoted to military records.

Just had a rejection for a 2011 death where the DOD did not match the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). But since the SSDI is available on-line, you can easily find out what the "official" date of death was and resubmit the e-file accordingly. In my case there was only a one day difference - maybe he died at midnight.

After you put the "X" in the "Print Electronic Signature" box, press <ctrl>-D to set it as the default.

This year the program is automatically transfering the Medicare B payment to 1040 line 29 (adjustment for self-employed health insurance) for returns containing a Schedule C. This may be correct if the taxpayer is not eligible to participate in a subsidized health plan offered by his employer (or his spouse's) or it may be wrong if he is. Not sure I would call this a bug, but it is the opposite of what the program did last year, and I have been unable to find any check box to mark regarding eligibility. Yes, you can always over-ride.

In the legacy e-file system, there was no record defined for a 1099-MISC -- they were NOT transmitted to the IRS. So there was actually no requirement to ever enter them into your software as individual documents. Don't know if that is still true for MeF or if your state has a special requirement. [e.g. NY has a special form if the 1099-MISC shows NY withholding.]

New York Form IT-214 provides a refundible credit to low income property owners or renters. The income criteria is based on total household income, both taxable and non-taxable, with certain exceptions. The instructions for Line 11 say ... TRX carries the social security amount from the SS worksheet, but does not reduce it by the Medicare premiums also on that worksheet.

And years from now, someone will google this up and the rumor will start afresh ...