Lion EA

And, HRB bought TaxWorks.

What I really loved about Max was that it had everything in one package. Every tax return and other returns, like sales & use, and 1099s, and efiling, and.... You never know what a customer will need in March 2009 when you're ordering in May 2008. Or, that client who says, "By the way, I never sent out any W-2s for 2005." And, my clients keep starting new companies. CT is a small state, so it's not unusual to need NY returns and RI and MA and NJ and PA, and people keep moving here from CA and WI...

When I worked at HRB, we input every return on the same screens as if it were a 1040. Ultimately, the program printed the appropriate form -- 1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ -- and priced accordingly. But, we didn't have to worry about where something went, what line #, or anything, for three separate forms; just learned the one form, the 1040.

And, I'm very interested in Mel's new venture. Please keep me posted.

With what I'm putting out for a top tier software and an assistant and...I see anything up to $1,000 as small. I'd invest $1,000 in stock, probably $2,500 with Mel and names I've known and loved. I'd also pay $1,000 NOW to reserve my software which won't be available for a couple years. It's a different world now. You can have telecommuters easily. (I'd personally like to move to Hawaii, but you don't need any of my talents!) And, as far as big bucks necessary for advertising, less so now. We get our information and leads from boards like these. I get trade journals, like NAEA, but read message boards twice daily. If someone on this or one of my boards mentioned a new software and gave me a link to their website, I'd check it out that minute. I like Tom's business plan. We'd be spreading the word as production progressed to make that second (and future) stock sales a reality. Keep thinking.

I like that blue scheme, Cliff.

Lila, great sites! Now we know your computer and software skills, too...

And, Terry's, too! I should add the Salvation Army Valuation Guide to my links.

Oh, Billy, I really like your site!

Thanx for the compliment, Tom. They provide a group of new newsletters the first of every month. I can uncheck any I don't want posted right now. This month, one was on EITC for which I have no clients, so I unchecked that. I can also choose past newsletters from their archives; think I have one about business receipts from their archives. Their newsletters can appear first; right now I have my own at the top of the page (first season out on my own), so everything down to the Dollars & Sense newsletter is mine and everything below is theirs. (Cut and paste, really simple to post.) Most of the other pages come with default paragraphs, introducing your client-friendly company blah blah, and the salesman wrote some blurbs and inserted all my contact info. I've been rewriting a few intros and printed out their cheat sheet on HTML so I can add bullet points, bold, etc. The calendar (I customize company info) and calculators and a bunch of links (MSNBC, tax refund status, IRS, etc.) and tax forms and publications are all built in. I dropped a couple of their links and added some client and miscellaneous links. I'm saving the firm profile page to get more specific once I think HRB won't chase me down! But, I do have some personal profile info buried in the contacts page under my name. Even the overall design and color scheme are just check the box and can be changed at any time. So, the site is starting to be more me, as I have time. But, I started with all them to get it up and running before tax season and was perfectly happy with it that way. The major change is they had a lot of text paragraphs, so it looked a little gray; now I'm adding bullets and bold and stuff and a little less passive voice and third person to let my personality show. If I had a logo, I could upload it for an additional charge. Everything you see is the basic charge only. It sometimes misbehaves under Mozilla's FireFox, but always works under Internet Explorer. A very helpful techie Chris said they all love and use FireFox, so they're working on the different way Java functions under FireFox.

DollarsSense.com and, yes, I paid the big bucks when I bought ProSystem fx software. Glad I did; never would've gotten it up and running before tax season. I had DollarsSense.biz for years and years with absolutely nothing on it; just used it to have my domain name for email. When I was able to buy the .com version, I wanted to get a web site up before tax season. The salesman did everything. I've been changing it page by page when I have a minute, posting newsletters, etc. The site provides a new set of newsletters the first of every month. Tech support has been excellent.

...and Danielle's baby refusing to go out in the cold! Again, congratulations and good health to all the new residents of Maine and their proud parents.

My picture was too big as a picture but was OK as an avatar. I don't understand, but I now have a picture with my messages! It's my stepdaughter Alex with the University of Connecticut Marching Band. Must've been freshman year when she played flute; sophomore was piccolo, and junior is baritone horn. They went to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, NC. The football team lost but the band was amazing... Happy New Year everyone.

Now wait a minute. Just how many ATX employees and ex-employees and temps are having babies, anyway?! Isn't there anything else to do up in Caribou, Maine? That's the opposite of death and taxes. How do the conception dates coordinate with the closing of the tax forum? Or, the buyout? Or, any other significant (to us customers, of course) event? Did all that sex have anything to do with the price increases? Or, the layoffs? (I think there's a joke in that one, someplace, but I'm not going any further.) Anyway, congratulations to all the new parents.

Off to the kitchen to eat some chocolate. Think I'm going to like working from home this season!

In a treasurers' seminar I attended in my diocese of the Episcopal Church, they did recommend fewer rather than more bank accounts for control purposes. More accounts with volunteers elected annually can have signature cards out of date. Some accounts -- specifically mentioned were clergy discretionary accounts -- might be a bit too well hidden for audit purposes. And, speaking of audits, our church audits must cover ALL bank accounts; so to keep the audit cost and time down, the speaker recommended fewer accounts. It also makes more efficient use of volunteers when you're trying to have someone reconcile accounts who isn't a signer or even a depositor on those accounts.... You get the idea. Speaker was pushing for one account, running everything through. We did consolidate some accounts and are down to three: one operating, one nursery school (which has their own board and fund raising but operates under the church's tax ID, and one for capital funds that has a higher interest rate for funds not drawn on often.

Churches and other not for profits need to use their funds for their stated mission and not excessively for one or a few individuals. That can be a problem for a small church with a highly paid pastor. I've seen examples of how the percentage of budgets can add up with items on different lines (rectory expenses, pension, salary, health premiums, etc.) to be a bit lopsided to the clergy and a bit skimpy to mission. Maybe those folks remember the example numbers more than they remember the principal behind the numbers.

And, yeah, I can't get our church to save the envelopes, either! Wish they would. Had a heck of a time getting the nursery school to store their payroll records with the church's instead of at some one's house!

Have the parishioners list the items of concern. Help them prioritize. Then tackle a couple of items each year.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! And, Joyful Holidays of every king, too!

The ProSeries salesman promised me the Lacerte program free just for paying as pay-per-return for returns that ProSeries wouldn't handle but Lacerte would. I'd try for the same deal from CCH, asking for ProSystem fx as pay-per-return without the program charge to handle this and any other return that ATX won't handle efficiently.

Can you download prior years, since you own them anyway, saving you the cost of shipping and handling? Or, at least, get Zillion Forms for those years, since it was actually FREE at one time? I don't have anything earlier than about 2000 myself. Good luck.

I went through the same thing when an old HP died that knew whether it was receiving a fax or voice message. Then went through two Brothers in rapid succession that said they'd do the same thing but didn't work consistently and died young. Went looking for an HP or anything other than Brother. Was ignoring the all-in-ones. But, decided that having a flat bed would come in handy when needing to fax or copy from a book. Bought an HP color all-in-one and started using it as a stand-alone fax and copier. Eventually hooked it up to hubby's computer when his color printer died. Then started using its scanner ability. It's a few years old now, and we love and use ALL its features.

Happy Birthday, Erc! And, many more birthdays and tax seasons, too. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for all you do for us with this website. Thank you for sharing your time, talent, and treasure with us. Many Happy Returns is an even more important wish on this website!

Thanx, KC. I noticed the trend over the years.... I'm going to post it on my website, if that's OK with you? And, a big holiday thank you for EVERYTHING you do for us here. My prayers for your husband, you, and your whole family.

You can do a little better through QuickBooks.

Prayers from my house to yours.

From the IRS post:

The standard mileage rate for business is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile; the standard rate for medical and moving purposes is based on the variable costs as determined by the same study. Runzheimer International, an independent contractor, conducted the study for the IRS.

Ask CCH for a consolidated 1120 as a pay per return -- without any extra license fees since you're already a CCH client. I know that Intuit provides that service to ProSeries Pro clients who have a need for a Lacerte return or two to deal with something that PS can't handle. Or export each individual return to Excel to combine the numbers for your consolidated return.