Lion EA

OK, so for a college student, no longer a minor, who sleeps at her mother's house 35 nights and at her father's house 30 nights and in her own apartment near her college campus 300 nights, is anyone the custodial parent? Does anyone claim HOH based on this college student? Does anyone claim the dependency exemption? The student provides 35% of her own support, the father 65%, the mother 0.

I think much appreciated aid is an understatement. I think my software is my most important tool. Now, I agree with you that the characteristics that come from within, my intelligence, my training, my ability to relate to clients, my honesty, etc., are prime. But of all the things outside of me, my software is my most valued. It can even be a crutch at times, when I'm sleep-deprived or searching for why something changed.

We were trying to get you to turn around your thoughts from "35 days in this county" to 330 days in the country where he's earning the income he'd like to exclude. He can leave Iraq for only 35 days in a 365 day period to go to the US or Canada or Timbuktu. That's a short answer and like anything tax not the full answer. You received some very good full explanations, though. And, the form instructions are pretty good. Please study up on this topic so you can take on some paying clients of this sort. And, I apologize if this is short or less than polite.

How important is the client letter to you? That is definitely a weakness of ATX. But, you really need to run both along side each other to see what's important to the way you work. I agree that you need to prepare a couple of your typical and a couple of your most complex returns in ATX's 2008 program/demo including the states. Then tell us what's bugging you to see if we can help you with the flow.

PS And, bless you, too, and all of us working long hours these last few days to get all our clients off extension.

You can attach as a .pdf file to an email and email to one spouse to print, sign, scan, and email to second spouse who can repeat and email it back to you. Or, use fax for any of those legs. As far as I know, faxed and other electronically sent signatures are fine. If you have any worries, have the final spouse follow up by mailing you the original document to replace the faxed document in your files.

Joel, you're our lawyer. If you can't figure this out, none of us can!

And we've both dropped subscriptions to almost everything except a local newspaper and a couple of his trade magazines, because we can read all the others online now anyway.

I have similar problems, only maybe not as intense. One tiny tip my husband uses for all his professional journals: he skims them, tears out any articles he thinks he really must read more thoroughly, and puts the mags in the recycle bin. Off season (he's a teacher, so that's summer for him) he reads the articles, files a few he thinks he'll refer to again, and gets most of them into recycle. So by the time school starts again, he no longer has stacks but does have a few new ideas in his file cabinet. I've been married to him for over 15 years, and he hasn't bought any new cabinets. He tends to toss a couple of things every time he files a new article.

Over 65? RE taxes? Don't use ATX so can't check.

My site is the same Execusite.com SiteBuilder site (well, a different template, but you can change at any time) with the higher price charged CCH's ProSytem fx clients, but I can't find any differences for the extra money! I might purchase Zillion Forms to be an ATX client again so I can pay the ATX lower price. I've called my salesman to complain and need to decide before mine expires at the end of the year. DollarsSense.com

Don't know for sure and still working on extensions, but think those are considered one group for pension non-discrimination purposes. If you're considering taking him on as a client, definitely research the rules on this situation. Why is he leaving his last preparer?

I've been using it and need to work with it more. Did the short tutorial. Finally starting to save to folders I set up, such as Partnership. Like that you can save your recent searches along the top bar until you're done with them, or filed them, or decide to delete. That way, during busy tax season, you can tell yourself you looked that up back in February and it's still there. Like the synopsis that shows. Will probably renew for another year. Going to CCH's user conference down in Delaware and hope to learn a lot more about this and other products.

A very :bday:

I'm told the ATX version of SiteBuilder is low priced for what it includes. However, you can't unbundle it; although, you can add more to it. Look around on your trade journals, professional organizations, marketers such as Mostad & Christensen, etc. To get a site bundled for tax preparers is not cheap. But, you're trading time for money. If you have time this fall to do it yourself, you can save a lot of money. If you want it ready to go, try SiteBuilder by http://www.execusite.com.

Good one, John. I'm all for redundant solutions when it comes to tax information I'm responsible for on behalf of my clients. I backup going along to a flash. Have an external backup overnight that I could grab and run or plug into my husband's computer and be back in business. But, I also have an overnight backup up at VMS. One problem with being a single member LLC working from home is that I have no other place to park a backup that I can get to in an emergency. Bank safety deposit box is fine for long-term archives, but not for current files I might need outside of banking hours if/when my computer crashes or I trash a critical file. Call the good folks up at VMS.

All that holiday celebrating! I once worked with a gal with six siblings all with birthdays a few days apart. As they got older, they realized that the parents' anniversary was about nine months earlier.

Better Business Bureau and Chamber of Commerce and state's Attorney General and Consumer Protection Agency. Google their name to find mentions, good and bad, by others on blogs and such. I stumbled onto a site once called something like "Rip Offs" that collected complaints.

Thank you very much, KC. :read:

Sounds like the son has an ownership interest in the home that was his principal residence. Did the parents file a gift tax return?

A very :bday:

Hi, Kerry and Kris. All taken care of by your great staff. Thank you very much.

A very :bday:

Just what I need in February, March, and April -- audits of my companies, especially the ones that bring me their P&L and Balance Sheet. Maybe I need to start refusing business returns when I don't do their bookkeeping.

Preparer Hotline.