Lion EA

We've been having ice storms. All the gravel is scrapped away from my driveway; it'll be treacherous for clients. And, with the branches heavy with ice and snow, the power keeps flickering out so I lose computer, telephone, etc. Not to mention that hubby the teacher gets delays and snow days and is underfoot and playing havoc with my schedule! It's going to be a long winter.

What was it that I ate in CA? Tripas or something like that. Cows' intestines?

I like to fill out the L. Most of my clients don't have a balance sheet, except an inaccurate one in QB. Filling out the L turns up all sorts of information. If it doesn't balance, did money go in or out? Then, you know what questions to start asking. Besides, when they sell assets or sell the company, you need some of that information that your client hasn't been tracking!

I learn something new -- or two -- every day! Thank goodness. And, thank you all for sharing.

I did the export/import thing the year I got a new computer to get the prior year returns there for rollovers. I exported the prior year returns to a flash drive, ran upstairs to my new computer and did an import. Now, I'd installed the prior year program as well as the current year program on the new computer before importing the returns. It was quick and easy and worked perfectly. In fact, it worked so fast that I decided to move even older years' returns, too. All done in minutes.

Thank you for the information.

A very :bday:

I'm about as computer challenged as they come. However, I have heard people tell me I need to disable the Windows firewall if I'm going to use another firewall, that Windows firewall doesn't play nice with others.

You're very perceptive, Margaret. That is a big problem with her refrigerator. My 1960's house has limited space in the never remodeled kitchen. Refrigerators have gotten larger over the years, but my kitchen has not. There are like only two refrigerators in the world small enough to fit underneath the cupboard, in the only floor space available, and not block the door too much. Her bill increases every time she calls me! Last year I called the line item something like Research & quarterly organization/calculations. She actually comes back each quarter to write out her checks for ES payments; afraid she'll lose her vouchers or something. Of course, we have the same discussion about why she has to pay again when she only earned a little money early in the year. I remind her about the alimony. She's a good gal but never dealt with the family's finances and has no desire to learn. I wanted to charge her quarterly so it'd be a smaller amount, but she doesn't bring an extra check and would never get it done at home. I find all kinds of important non-tax items (her car insurance card that should be in her glove box) in the sacks of financial paperwork she brings me quarterly. So, I just add line items to her tax preparation bill knowing she'll have a check for me or her credit card when she picks up her returns. She is appreciative. A big thank you to everyone on this board. As Margaret said, I get much insight, support, and many suggestions here whenever I come seeking advice or just a place to vent. May you all find the same. A very happy new year and prosperous tax season to all of you.

I do get tired of saying that Jainen is right, but I like his idea about the refrigerator. Mine was from 1975 when I bought my first house in CA, and it came across the country to CT. I think the only thing keeping the motor running was all the refrigerator magnets. I was afraid to remove any. She left me a message saying I should call her lawyer to tell him her tax rate!

Won't they be the same servers you do not want to use? Same parent company. What did tech support say when you talked to them about the demo?

Now she's got Jainen calling her alimony a settlement, too! I just don't understand how she can be getting $60,000 and then $120,000 alimony during the last half dozen years and then instead of continuing at $120,000 for another decade she can get $300,000 for the next three years instead and turn it into a tax-free settlement. I have trouble getting her off the telephone and am tired of listening to her whine about how her Sub-Zero refrigerator is out of style and must be replaced with European technology, but I guess I have to call her. She doesn't have anything in writing yet from her expensive lawyer, but Jainen is right that I may as well read it sooner rather than later since I'll probably have to talk with the lawyer to have him explain where he found his tax cites.

A very :bday:

I'm very nice to her; I charge her a lot for my time. But, I bang my head against the wall when she tries to get legal advice from me. I guess I should be shaking some sense into her instead, but she's usually on the telephone instead of in my office. I have more trouble as time goes by being sympathetic re her money troubles. (Her renovations to her new "cheap" house cost more than three times what I paid for my whole house.) But, I did suggest she engage a lawyer if she was going to try to negotiate with her ex, and she did. What will constitute due diligence on my part when she comes to me with her tax information and says she no longer has to report her alimony? This new automatic six-month extension seemed to create a tax season that never ended for me. Add a few who got behind and came in after 15 October with one or two or three years, and I still have a stack of 2005-2007 returns on my desk. Before, so many people finished by 15 August that the fall did slow down and gave me time to catch up on bookkeeping and taking courses. A client e-mailed me today about sending me his partnership QB file. I was swamped mid-February to mid-April but busy all year long now.

I'll bump this up so more people see it as they return to thoughts of taxes instead of holidays.

Jainen, I know about the three-year rule, but she's been divorced since prior to 2004. Until their house sold, she got to live in the house and received $5,000/month in support. Since the house sold, she receives $10,000/month. She wants to increase that for two or three years and be done with her ties to the ex sooner than her divorce decree states. So, we're talking about her support increasing a second time and not decreasing until at least 2011 or later. She's been spending her money on lawyers and finally found one who said he could get her money sooner and have it be tax free. Of course, her ex wants to pay substantially less than she's proposing, so the only one benefiting so far is the lawyer. And, she has two sons with the ex, so the ties are still there while her sons are around. I think I'll tell her to talk to her therapist instead of her lawyer....

Try posting in the larger forum with a heading of Peachtree W-2s or something descriptive. You need a specific type of responder. Also, try a Peachtree-sponsored message board.

Now, if I'd responded to each topic in a different reply, I'd be closer to my goal of 500 posts before I get real busy!

Well, my whiny client has made me raise my hourly rates! I thought about asking her to give me her $10,000/month so I could demonstrate how to live on that for a few years. Jainen, her divorce was final a few years back, including the property settlement and monthly support. She's trying to change the timing on her support now. So, can her lawyer actually change the character of the support to property by changing the timing? Kyle, like everything tax, it depends. For those with a RAL clientele, 19 January or whenever e-filing opens through mid-February is busy with people getting their W-2s and wanting their rapid refunds, with March slower, and then a flurry at the end. My clients are waiting on brokerage statements and K-1s and...so I get busy gradually peaking on 15 April, but with a cluster at the beginning of January needing me to recompute their ES payments due to stock sales late in the year or whatever change happened to them. I promised to hold prices the same for this second year out on my own, but that's just for clients who followed me originally. New clients and new situations for old clients and old clients who came to me after tax season pay my full rates. I'm not trying to compete on price. In fact, I hope to lose a whiny client or two to have more time for my other clients, and to sleep.

Everything Jainen and John said. And, after a long explanation with the taxpayer who typically deals with me, then an even longer telephone call with the spouse! And, then maybe a second telephone call with the taxpayer. I expect to be explaining a lot of things more than once this season. I have very intelligent, involved clients; but they're dealing with situations new to them and have had months to let their opinions (and the opinions of their friends) settle into their minds before they get around to asking me the tax consequences of their life changes. I've already been dealing with underwithholding/ES payments -- the person who left employment and has that flaky new Schedule C and expected to owe less, not more, since they made less and never noticed that they've paid less FIT and SIT also. Luckily, some of those who sold investments to get them through the year did call me re capital gains and making ES payments, so had a chance to look into their whole situation. I think this will be a time-consuming season. Those that have called claim their situations are simpler because they have less money, but they've really been more complex from a tax standpoint with sales of investments, job changes with retirement fund distributions and rollovers, self employment, etc. I've been dealing with one gal who claims her lawyer says her settlement will be nontaxable. Her settlement? She's negotiating to get her alimony sped up in exchange for accepting less in total. So, she's bumping herself up into a higher tax bracket by getting alimony in the high six figures over another couple or three years instead of the low six figures for another decade or so. (She's a few years into the divorce and can't live on only $10,000/month!) She doesn't understand why she would owe any taxes since it's a "settlement" and she'll invest it in Dreyfus tax-exempt munis. She wants me to answer her legal questions because her lawyer charges $450/hour. I want to shake her until her brain begins to work! It's going to be a long season here in Fairfield County, CT, the NYC bedroom communities where everyone worked in the financial industry. The wives started businesses selling high-end clothing from wine parties in their living rooms and Arbonne skin care and never separated their purchases for personal use from their actual inventory and HAVE to use the product to show it off and had to buy that $650 lamp for their living room to show off the clothing. Even the husbands roll their eyes when their trophy wives try to explain business concepts. Enough venting. I should resolve to think positively.

My virtual computer guy (VMS that I've raved about before) just called me this morning to schedule a time to do a PC clean up before tax season gets crazy, make sure my anti-virus and spyware's up to date, do a sweep, etc. I'm glad he reminded me. And, I'm backing up automatically to their secure server as well as to my external hard drive since using them. The peace of mind alone is worth every penny. Love their service.

Your guesses are my understanding. A warm boot restarts Windows, but a problem could be occurring outside Windows. A cold boot turns off the computer, waits a minute, and turns it back on. I'm undoubtedly giving away my age with that terminology. It's the old Ctrl-Alt-Delete vs. turning off the hardware, waiting for the hard drive to stop, and turning the computer back on. I've heard it called a hard boot. When all else fails, reboot. And then, call for help!

I like to try closing and reopening first, the browser, software, whatever seems to be the problem. Next, it's a warm boot. Then, it's a cold boot. After that, I'm on the telephone. Now I have Kyle and his colleagues on my side, well on the telephone and on my computer while I keep hands off to not make the problem worse.

Why isn't it taxable wages on his 2005 return? Doesn't the return of an excess contribution to a 401(k) make everything as if the contribution had not taken place, in other words, replace it in his 2005 wages from which it came? Been a long time since I had one, so mainly I'm posting to get up to 500 posts before tax season gets real busy!

A very :bday: