Lion EA

I need sleep, too! My clients have forgotten that before the shutdown and before the sequester, Congress delayed the start of tax season by as much as 2 1/2 months for most of my clientele. Now I'm trying to make up for it by sleeping even less. (I too tried to get transcripts to fill in a gap here and there in clients' documents, but have found e-Services sporadic at best. I loved it before -- getting transcripts immediately.) I love everyone on these forums and learn from everyone on these forums, but disagree with certain people on certain topics. I don't venture over to the Politics forum, because what I learn from everyone is Taxes. And personal lives, whether a new grandchild or a new health challenge or a great joke. Thank you to our moderators for putting up with us and providing these forums for us.

One should be Personal Attack, name-calling, insult directed at a person on this board (as opposed to those dumb Congressmen), criticism that is not constructive, etc.

I love those! I'm going to steal them.

When did you preview Scan & Flow with ProSystem fx? I saw it in action within the last year, and it's pretty amazing. CCH also has outsourcing where you upload all the documents and they download a return! All for additional prices, of course.

Once when I was begging for discounts, the inside rep told me that they didn't give discounts unless you spent $15,000 or more with CCH. That didn't help me, but it might help your company, Michael. Also, they have reorganized their outside salesmen geographically and made some corresponding changes to their inside sales reps, so do get to know your salesmen in case they've changed over the last year.

Yeah, I prepare more like 100 returns, with what seems like lots of states as I'm doing them but really is less than 10 different states most years. So, CT unlimited but pay per return for federal and all other states and entities (I don't prepare consolidated returns nor 5500s) and e-filing (so far I'm efiling only 1040s and 1041s). Nice thing is I'm paying most of that monthly as I prepare (and get paid for) returns and efiling. I don't see my totals until I'm preparing my own return and typing in my expenses!

By the way, you'd have to add other products to spend $30,000 on ProSystem fx. In pricing out UltraTax and ProSystem fx this summer, ProSystem fx cost less for my mix of returns, including support. I have a small but complex practice with a variety of entities and spend under $5,000 on ProSystem fx with a lot of pay per return and e-filing. If I prepared only 1040s, I'd pay even less. And, yes, ATX is to ProSystem fx what ProSeries is to Lacerte. But, so is TaxWise to ProSystem fx. I never understood why CCH continues to have both ATX and TaxWise. Spreading their resources a bit thin.

I think some states may have regulations requiring this so hiring company does not have to do something, workers comp, maybe. FL is one. But, for the rest, it's probably just a CYA to have a better paper trail to show they do not have to send 1099s. It may remove some liability from the hiring company, also. Probably more of a legal question than a tax question. I too do few corporate returns, so someone experienced will jump in here.

SP creates children's art books and has not had a book translated to Japanese in years. Met this educated woman who volunteered in client's elementary school art class and felt she was a perfect fit. Potential employee may have come here on a visitor's visa after Fukashima (sp?) tragedy. But a lawyer was retrained to get the work visa with client's sponsorship. That's when they came to me to ask about payroll. (There is an estranged US citizen husband in NYC, but whatever that could have meant in regard to the Japanese woman and her son staying in the US was already dealt with by the NYC lawyer before I met them.) I just needed to know about FICA and Medicare withholding, because she does want to return to her aging parents in Japan when it's safer. And, whether she can do the usual 1040 things, such as HoH (instead of MFS) and a dependent son or whether she will be restricted on exemptions on a 1040NR. This is all great information plus it points me to the cites I need to educate myself as these international issues come up. Thank you very much for your help.

I have a sole proprietor client who is hiring a Japanese national here on a three-year visa who is allowed to work but intends to return to Japan. The work visa was issued 5/5/2012 and is good until 08/21/2015. (Actually, slightly conflicting dates on the paperwork from her lawyer/I-9, but we're talking about three years here.) H1B. Does she need to withhold FICA and Medicare? Additionally, while on an H1B visa, can we use the substantial presence test to file a 1040? I haven't had any foreign issues for years, then mostly international students at a local university years ago when I was at Block. This year I have the employee from Japan and Americans going to Singapore for two years.

There are state laws., also. My colleagues in MA tell me they cannot email tax information without meeting the MA regulations. I use CCH's Execusite, or whatever they're calling their website program now, which includes FileShare, a simple portal. I have clients that use it to upload their documents to me. I recently used it to post a return to a client who had moved out of state. I also have brokers and banks that similarly have the K-1s or whatever posted where I sign in with a password to retrieve. That said, most of my clients like to deal in email and prefer no passwords or encryption.

Congratulations, Jack!

I think you just busted a button! You obviously raised a fine son. Good luck to him.

Especially in October! Can't tell you the things I've had to redo, put on the wrong line, etc. It takes me twice as long to proofread in October because I'm tired and make twice as many mistakes trying to not smash into the drop-dead deadline.

I read the Pub. Just getting worried if letters are going out now. Had my first 1099-Q for 2012 and lots of tuition (CT school so pricey) and therefore not taxable. She's the thoughtful kind of client (husband was a tax preparer) who won't call me until 16 October. How did all of you report? And, who has gotten letters?

But, Taxed, the OP asked where/how do you report the 1099-Q amount and the expenses to show it will not be taxed? And, how do you respond to the letter asking for tax and penalty?

Prayers it is!

Weeks?! How long is weeks? It's already October.

That sounds like an incremental backup, fine for a daily backup if you have a good full backup. If you are moving to a new computer, you'll install the program and then need a full backup of your data. It used to be that you'd use Export and Import instead of Backup and Restore, but I haven't used ATX for years. One of the experienced techies will jump in. (If it were any other software, I'd tell you to call tech support !!)

Years ago when I was with Block, they allowed us to prepare "grandfathered" clients as well as the free friends & family, but required the prep to be on their proprietary TPS software. They also offered me bookkeeping-type clients to do from home. Eventually, national HRB advertised that we provided full business services, but locally we didn't do anything other than tax prep with few exceptions, so the referrals continued. Before I left, for the newer hires only, there was a cap on free returns. Don't know their regulations now.

35 years ago when I moved to this small town, I was told by residents to learn when to expect things like charge card statements so I could grab my mail as soon as it arrived on those dates. People were stealing various items out of mailboxes for sale to larger groups who probably sold bulk information to even larger groups. Strictly low tech, but some very high end items were purchased on neighbors' cards, loans opened in their names, etc. The only time our credit card was compromised was when we checked into a hotel and didn't realize until later that among all the paperwork we never got our credit card back. (There had been a lot of back and forth re rooms available or not and shuffling of paper and other confusion, probably specifically created to distract us.) It had already been used for a few small things (metro card, chinese food, maybe a movie or rental) by the time we called the credit card company that night. That thief probably did that a couple times each shift and hadn't been caught at it by sticking with small charges that might be overlooked on a joint card a month later when the statement arrived.

Happy Birthday, Jainen! Please stay here. I need you.

Wow! I need a few laughs in this busy time leading up to 15 October, while my computer monitors are failing, my son is suffering from severe anger issues, my ex is telling me to fix it as I'm the mother (my "kid" is 32 years old and married), and we're working on our church's main time-consuming fundraiser. Even the sick jokes bring me up for air and out of my panic. However, I laughed at that joke for an entirely different reason, didn't laugh at those that had been diagnosed as mentally ill. I laughed at the doctors that thought they'd made an accurate diagnosis based on one event in the woman's life! But, were proved wrong. Doctors are not God. Luckily they were proved wrong before the patient could be released. Now, I've offended doctors. Hopefully, no doctor is reading a tax board. But some of you have doctors in your families, so I do apologize. I remember going through a sick joke phase as a child, so it is easy to revert to that as a release valve in times of stress.

Been chilly but will be back to 89 + humidity on Wednesday. Thursday will be 68. September in CT. If you don't like the weather, just wait a couple of hours and it will change!

Take good care of yourself. Especially so you can hold that grandbaby!