JohnH

Thanks KC. I'll remember it when the time comes. Do you have a cite for that?

--> One of the instructors I had at HRB (that was a long time ago now) used to call these "God returns," since presumably that's where they hope to get the answers. <-- That's different from my definition. I'd consider a "God return" to be any return when my prayers that it won't be audited are more fervent than the client's prayers.

Yesterday I received both a message on my voice mail and an email stating the following: "We'll get right to the point. After June 30th, your 10% ATX renewal discount will be gone! There will be no more discounts this year. " I wonder if this time it means they are going to do what they say and leave me alone until I decide whether to renew (probably in Dec or Jan). I say that tongue-in-cheek because I really don't mind the calls & emails - I like to study others' marketing successes and screw-ups. However, it has the look and feel of the old "It's Over" post-closing technique popular in the Sandler Sales Method. We will see if there's another round in the near future, maybe accompanied by coffee makers, toaster ovens, or other trinkets. That's about the only threshhold their marketing geniuses haven't crossed, but I have confidence in them that they may get there yet.

I agree completely with you KC. From a technical point of view I have few complaints about ATX - it has performed well for me. My problem stems from the fact that I wear a marketing hat in my other role. I admire good marketing & try to learn from it, and it irritates me when a company with a good product does such a dismal job of marketing as I've seen over the past 18 months with ATX

I haven't seen anything from ATX about the mileage rate increase, but Drake was nice enough to email me a reminder even though I'm not a paying customer (yet). They have my email address because I've been evaluating their software. Looks like Drake has some marketing people who are on the ball. Doesn't cost them anything except a few extra electrons to stay in touch with me and now the goodwill extends even to this forum because I admire their foresight & marketing savy. ATX could learn something from them if they didn't already know it all.

Maybe when you hit 1,000 the counter should reset to -0- and you start all over again. The when you hit ATXAholics Anonymous again, you get a gold star (or possibly an infiinty sign) below your name.

Tell your client a good battery choice for the portable CPAP is a deep-cycle marine battery. Sorry if I'm dominating the conversatoin, but I just can't resist providing any info I can about this subject. I'm a bit of a fanatic about encouraging people to do whatever is necessary to use their CPAP - it will prolong their life and vastly increase its quality.

While sleep apnea is a serious condition, I've never heard of anyone dying because their CPAP quit during the night. (Could be wrong, but I think the taxpayer is exaggerating a little in order to justify the generator, although it's a good thing that he is being this conscientious about using it regularly). There are several reasons the sleep apnea patient can lose positive pressure from the device, aside from a power loss. The hose can become disconnected at the machine or where it attaches to the head becauase all the connections are just slip joints, or the mask itself can displace as the patient moves around in their sleep. I've used a CPAP for over 5 years and have experienced most of this stuff, but in spite of the occasional inconvenience I wouldn't think of going to sleep without the machine. I own 3 of them - one for bedside use, a separate one packed & ready to go at all times for travel, and a third one just for extra backup.

Sounds like your client has already made the purchase, but rather than buy a generator to power his CPAP, he'd be much better off buying a battery-powered CPAP similar to the ones manufactured for campers. Not only would it be more practical, but there would be no question about the medical deduction for the second CPAP. Most importantly, he would have a backup machine if his primary CPAP malfunctions, which is infinitely more important than having a secondary power source.

I like how the chief puppetmaster Cheney lets this stuff slide away like water off a duck's back, as it should. I recently heard him say that he asked Lynn if it bothered her that some people call him "Darth Vader". He said that she replied "No, I think it humanizes you." Gotta love a sense of humor like that.

And nobody in Germany had anything whatsoever to do with Pearl Harbor. Maybe people back in the 1940's just weren't so limited in their understanding of what constitued a palpable threat to our national security, or perhaps they knew how to pull their heads out of the sand at the appropriate time.

I don't even see anything particulary misguided. Not perfect, but certainly effective. After all, I can count the number of follow-up attacks on US soil on less than one hand. After 6-1/2 years, that's a commendable result, especially since one would have to be incredibly naive to think the rabid fundamentalists don't have the desire and capability to do more harm. The 9/11 attack was a tactical victory, but so far it has been a strategic failure for them. For the sake of my grandkids I'd like for that perfect track record to continue, but common sense tells me the odds are against it. In wartime mistakes will happen. One only has to research "Exercise Tiger" at Slapton Sands in April 1944 to get a firsthand lesson in how wrong things can go, even when you're just PRACTICING how you're going to to break things & kill people. There are always competing opinions about how both the enemy and allies should be engaged in wartime, and the naysayers always turn out in large numbers when their cousel was ignored, but they mostly show up after the fact. Since one can't prove a negative, it can't be known if their advice would have produced a better result, only a different one. (And very possibly a much worse one)

Think of the indignity your poem is going to suffer when the PC thought police get hold of you and force you to change the words to "Hangperson".

Can you provide a cite for that?

Lucho: Maybe they discovered there was a typo which only affected one book. Owing to how efficient & customer-oriented they have become following the buyout, they were able to identify that particular book as being the one sent to you. I'm sure they couldn't stand the thought of having a dissatisfied customer out there, hence the replacement. It's possible...

Any possibility you may need to amend any prior years' returns for the same issue, or does this only affect 2007?

That's what I do, except this year I didn't even place my order until January.

I used to like soup du jour, but I got tired of it - seems like the restaurant served it every day.

I think you made a wise decision. It appears that they wanted you to be at risk for a major part of their business without giving you any upside profit potential. And if things didn't work out, can you imagine the negative publicity if you were trying to evict the residents of an Adult Family Home? I know there are exceptions to what I'm about to say, but your original comment that "they did not qualify to buy this particular house" initially caused me some concern. If the bank won't lend them to money to provide a hard asset to start up their business, there's a good reason. . After all, this isn't a working capital loan - presumably a house would be a fairly secure asset and about all the borrower would need to demonstrate is the abiity to repay the loan and a track record of having paid their bills on time in the past, plus a sufficient down payment to somewhat mitigate the lender's risk. I'm not sure you'd want to assume a liability that professional lenders have turned down

One major consideration would be potential liability issues. I'm thinkng you would want to consider owning the property through an LLC owned by you, your mother, or both of you.

Anyone who acts Pro Se needs to be careful not to make the mistake made by the accused convenience store robber who was representing himself in a Virginia court a few years ago. He was cross-examining the investigating officer, who repeatedly referred to the store clerk as "the witness" during his testimony Finally, the exaperated defendant/lawyer genius said to the officer "What's this you keep saying about a WITNESS. There wasn't anybody there but the cashier and me!"

At the risk of soundig like a broken record, I'd suggest you give your email address as a part of your answering machine message. Tell them to email you their question and you'll send info back to them concerning their rebate. You can then email them the link to the "Where's my stimulus payment" page on the IRS website. This will serve to steer them toward sending you emails rather than calling on the phone in the future, thus lessening the burden on your phone system regarding stimulus payment questions or any other type of question. If only half of them take you up on it, you've greatly reduced the hassle from phone calls of all types, plus you've streamlined your services considerably.

Back when this string was going, Kerry emailed some of us the pdf factory software. I somehow managed to delete mine and now I want to install it on antoher computer. Does anyone have a copy they can email to me? Thanks

I want to be buried in Cook County when I die. That will enable me to continue to vote after I'm gone.

I've had a few clients complain about getting 1099's for interest on tax overpayments from time to time. I always tell them the same thing - I can work it out so they don't have to pay any tax on it. Just give me the interest and I'll pay the tax on it . Nobody has ever taken me up on the offer.