Lion EA

http://www.cchgroup.com/opencms/opencms/web/TAA/Microsites/Partners/files/Partners_CCH_SP11.pdf Scroll down to the bottom right to click on Spring 2011 and then go to pages 6 and 7. I sometimes have my laptop open, too. My techie put a Share folder for things I want available on both my laptop and desktop, the files I work on at a clients on my laptop but then like to open the Excel spreadsheets on my 24" desktop monitor.

I have my left monitor landscape with this board and email right now, but also have Chrome tabs open for news, mail from my two bookkeeping clients, Facebook, and Twitter, and have an Excel spreadsheet minimized; often have QB open or minimized. When actively working on a return, the left screen might have client documents that were scanned or client email open or a client Excel spreadsheet or client QB or any combination of client data. On the middle portrait screen is the current tax prep; and on the right portrait screen is the government forms of tax prep now that ProSystem fx has a dual screen option. Portrait for tax prep so I don't have to scroll down to view a full page. I usually have the prior year .pdf minimized and available to pop up on the left or right screens, or on the middle if I'm comparing prior with current government view, or even the prior year program if I'm searching for how I entered something in the past. All three (24" Dells that were on sale a year or two ago) pivot between portrait and landscape and all swivel, so I can turn a screen to a client (but I seldom prepare with a client sitting here, maybe review on screen when they come in to finalize). I was told to use an odd number of monitors with the center one for current data entry. A colleague has six, three over three. Before ProSystem fx had dual screen mode, 2010 and earlier, I had prior year on the left portrait, current year on middle portrait, and right landscape with all the other things I want open.

How do I put in a picture?

My hp12C is from 1980 when I started an MBA program in finance. My son had a bad fall with it in his hands as he brought it to me. Besides the sidewalk scrapes on its face, it thinks it's in some financial mode with BEGIN D.MY permanently under the numbers. But it works great, and I've learned to ignore the extraneous memo. That's because I don't need anything more from a calculator than my hp 12C provides. For my office computer, I bought the fastest my techie suggested and three monitors (two portrait for taxes and one landscape for boards, research, email, Excel, etc.).

Through my NY/CT-ATP group, I get a subsidized price on the combo of TTB and Lasser's Pro. Hardly ever use Lasser's but use TTB often for it's easy to follow language, quick help with the tax lingo so I can research further, and usefulness to clients, making the combo worth the subsidized price to me so far. It's something I evaluate each season and will consider again this fall before ordering. I lose power and internet often, so TTB and even Lasser's are my safety net; if I finally install a generator, maybe I'll not renew. IntelliConnect has been hit and miss re the paper copy of MTG and other paper pubs, received the 2011 MTG in paper but not 2012; it's part of my online subscription, though, so I can access MTG and haven't bothered following up on my missing paper copy. I don't get the other "Express" books on paper, but my online subscription includes things with titles such as Tax Prep Partner. My favorite part of IntelliConnect is the Explanations where I access ALL of those CCH interpretative pubs. I probably went to the Tax Code only six times, too, but have many of my more complex returns on extension this year and expect that number to jump starting this month. Just looked up something this morning for a preparer I know. I like the everything in one place of IntelliConnect, everything from plain English explanations to MTG and IRS pubs up to the IRC and Tax Court decisions. It gets better each year, and I get better at using it's full potential. If it weren't for Hurricane Sandy-type events knocking out my power and internet, I'd drop all paper publications for IntelliConnect.

I still have Tax Book Deluxe in paper on my shelf (bought at a subsidized price via NY/CT-ATP) and like it for a quick look or to show a client quickly or even to get the terminology I need to do a more in-depth search. But, I love IntelliConnect to use within ProSystem fx or outside of it, to be able to email directly to a client, to save my own folders of info for future reference, to carve out what I need and print it with the heading telling me where it came from to keep in a client folder or for my files, to look up something on my iPhone, and for many other reasons. TTB is for quick answers. IntelliConnect is for research, for going straight to the code or tax memos or court cases or tax prep explanations, for preparing documents for clients or myself, and for more details. I use both.

I pay a lot less than $1,000 (probably half that) for IntelliConnect, so you may not have to leave that research software.

If you use higher end tax software, they probably have other "workflow" products that work together, both within and outside the tax software. ProSystem fx does. (I'm a sole proprietor so don't need some of those additional products.) If you're looking to change from ATX, then consider the whole package of products as you shop and demo.

The "sub" site CCHGroup.com is for ProSystem fx and other accounting and workflow products. CCH has a separate site for their Legal products and for their Small Business Services division and I think even for a Medical division that one of their new tax execs came from. Don't know if there is a CCH.com site at all.

Come help me with extensions!

You have to have enough money in the IRA to pay the expenses, mortgage, whatever, of the real estate. You can't go adding more than your qualified contribution each year. And, no self-dealing, personal or business use, etc. What happens when you retire and need a distribution? Your IRA has to sell the property to free up cash. Very complex and probably costs more than $40/year, maybe the rest is being pulled from within the IRA.

I also used the Export/Import to move to a new computer/new OS, but NOT this year with the new ATX. In the past, I installed the program on the new computer, exported returns from the old computer to a flash drive, and then imported returns from the flash drive to the new computer. Very fast, and everything was there. I did multiple years.

It's very telling that not one of the many branches of law enforcement or government asked any of you MA gun owners to be a well-regulated militia to help capture the bombers or protect your neighborhoods or even to protect your own grounds! They told you to stay inside your houses, or at least that's what the liberal media reported. But, I do have friends in law enforcement, including MA branches and branches that were in MA, so didn't rely on the media for more than pictures and headlines. If your guns are locked up, then how can you hope to shoot before the robber shoots?! And, the fact that the man/woman I kill is a robber or an attempted murderer does not make him/her less than human. Yes, I would be a killer. It is NOT for me to judge my life more important than someone else's. I might feel differently if our children were still in the house, as far as maternal instincts judging MY children more important that someone else's child; I don't know. But, it's be unlikely I could unlock a gun and get to my child's room before the killer already there shoots.

Deb, what a cute doggie!

SMLLC A has as it's only member SMLLC B whose only member is John Doe? Is that your situation? If so, then it's reported on John Doe's Form 1040 Schedule C if a business (or maybe E or F, depending on the activity). In other words, if each of the LLCs is a disregarded entity, then you disregard them until you get back to a person or an entity that should file a tax return.

When I was shopping, ATX that I'd decided against was around $1,200, Drake late in the year is what about $1,900, I had a price locked in from ProSeries for $3,800, and ProSystem offered me $5,000 for everything as a small business locked in for three years. (The following year when I knew more what clients I had, I went to pay per return for about $4,800). I promised clients that followed me no price increase for two years and easily took on half a dozen new clients that covered the $1,200 difference with profits to spare. I also dropped my assistant's hours after the first year, and none now. With the advent of Form 8949 recently, I've been raising my fees to all investors $25 or more at a time. I lost one client on fees, but I'd been trying to lose her by raising her fee each year. I'm in pricey Fairfield County, CT, where a CPA will not touch a return for under $750, so I have good pickings in the $150-500 range.

I know, and I'd be too chicken to do it, but I'd fantasize about it !! Maybe after all the legalities are done and I had my money back and the roommate (or I) had parted ways, if s/he ever showed up at my door, a good slap...

All of the above plus I'm out in the boonies so lose internet access even more often than I lose electricity, and for over a week at a time. Currently, I take my external hard drive off my desktop and take my laptop and drive to the library or a school comfort station where I can have power and get some work done. I wouldn't want to access the internet over such a public system, though. Want to be working from my hard drive in a public environment.

I remember the way it used to be. Used ATX for entities at HRB and on the side for a handful of partnerships and nonprofits that I had grandfathered in. In fact, I bought ZillionForms or whatever it was called years ago. Maybe even free one year. Then about $63 the next and $99 and $120. As the price went up, I eventually bought ATX pay per return but received all the forms included. Very handy. Bailed the season after the ATX message board closed down two weeks before tax season ended. So, I've been here since this board opened, but I was shopping for new software. I learned that I can afford ProSystem fx (or any other pricey software) in my very small practice, because it gives me the tools to do a few more returns to pay the higher price. It was a scary leap my first season, but paid for itself before tax season was over. Many of you found a software to work in your practices this season. I hope the rest of you find one, or at least a back-up software, during this off season.

When I was shopping, I realized that the less expensive software lacked features I needed for my clientele and for the way I work. I then re-demo'ed the high end products: ProSystem fx, Ultra Tax, and Lacerte. Lacerte worked less well for me; I think their support was less responsive, also. I settled on Pro fx as the best and with the best support, and then negotiated a price I could live with. The jump in price from ProSeries, for instance, to Pro fx was less than four extra typical returns for me (and from ATX to Pro fx, less than eight). And, the extra speed I gained in importing K-1s, G/L, Kiddy Tax, multi-states, no wait for support, and on and on, gave me plenty of time to prepare many more than four or eight or ten extra returns and have even better profit than I would've had with a lower end software. Now is the time to demo everything out there. We all work and think differently, so what matters most is if the software has the features you want, works the way you do. You're the one to prioritize. (I'm a sole proprietor, so support was very important to me, probably number one on my list or at least a close second behind reliability, but that's tied to support; but it would be less important for a younger more technically oriented person or a firm with a techie on staff.) List your priorities, demo all the software you think might work for you, and THEN negotiate the best price. If price knocks your #1 out, then you already know your #2 and what you're willing to give up to get the price you need. Demo-ing isn't a waste of time. It'll set you up for years of better workflow and profits. And, you can polish off your extensions at the same time.

Depending on whether he ever wants to be around his roommate again, I'd call the bank, IL, IRS Identity Theft division, and the local police. Maybe small claims court after filing a police report. Change locks. Get a new roommate. After bank returns funds, ask them to open a new account free of charge and close the old account. Depending on relative sizes, and after the police report, a punch in the nose or slap in the face!

I don't have to program my own software, reinvent the wheel, write macros. I can configure my program any way I want by checking a box for all returns or just this return (and, if I had other preparers, by preparer or by office or by other groups I designate or by types of return or combinations of those or...). It knows my PIN and my company info. I can have template returns (but I don't have a typical return, so don't; besides most are continuing clients and roll over with the forms I typically need). It can answer questions, assign e-file PINs, whatever I want it to do. The programmers have done the heavy lifting, so all I have to do is check or uncheck a box, answer yes or no. When I install a new year, I'm ready to work on returns, not work on the program! And, yes, I pay for that privilege, but my expertise is in tax preparation. My clients don't pay me for programming.

And, you earned it. (Do we have a bowing down in reverence icon?)

Explosions on the news on a client's street, so I call to see if she's alright. She's stopped a couple of miles from her house behind a police barricade. Her neighbor's house is on fire with multiple firearms and boxes of corresponding ammunition (and maybe some fireworks) inside while owner is at work. Well-armed and trained policeman is killed approaching the house. A child is killed in a neighboring house. Don't know if his parents had their own guns within five feet or not, but how could that have saved their child? When the fire spread to the second house, of course the situation just got worse. I believe we lost even more first responders before they were able to evacuate all the nearby residents, and that is a town with three-acre zoning. The builder/former owner of my house had a three-year old daughter who woke up about 4 a.m. one morning, climbed up on a counter to unlock the deadbolt, walked through the yards (two-acre zoning here) to grandma and grandpa's house next door, went into their bedroom, and took grandma's air rifle that she used to shoo crows away from her compost pile. Luckily grandma was a light sleeper, but would already have been raped or assaulted or killed in their sleep if it had been other than their granddaughter with arms too short to immediately shoot. Dad added chain locks at the top of doors. Don't know if grandma moved her air rifle or not, but they did start locking their back door. If I'm asleep with my gun two feet away when the rapist enters with a weapon, then I'm not going to make up for his head start. And if it's five feet away, what's going to keep my client's child from grabbing it before I can?!

Yes, Jack, been keeping the DD amounts from W-2s as it's the household premiums vs. household income that's one calculation. I've had employers telling me they are staying under 50 employees. CT is making noises about its exchange going live this fall. Still all very amorphous now.