Terry D EA

As you said, it maybe a OneDesk thing. I too received good service from OLT Pro. But that was a little to late. If you have the OLT PRO version, check AZ state and see if it has 2011 instructions. I just did a NR AZ return this evening and the instructions were from 2011 in OneDesk. That is totally unacceptable. They did this with NC as well. I caught that in January. I have had the non-transmit thing happen twice with no answers from OLTPro as to why. No follow-up either to see if the return actually got filed, which it did. Personally, I can't deal with this any longer. It is embarrassing. I don't try to figure problems out in front of clients, but it is hard to make-up some excuses for some of this stuff. When I was with ATX, had to rehang ACKS every year. So, I agree with Judy that each program will experience this. None of them are 100% perfect but there are no excuses for the trouble I have had this year. I may do a wider variety of returns than most which could be why I faced so many issues.

I haven't used ATX for a number of years. I thought then and still do now that the shipping fee is ridiculous. At one time, you received a catalog or depreciation master manual or other items that may have made up the cost of shipping. But now with all the downloads, 39.00 for a disk is really out there. Drake had no shipping charges for the downloaded version. You have a choice as to whether you want to receive a disk or not which you will pay shipping for. Automatic inclusion is a rip-off. As far as I know, ATX is the only one who does this.

It does have the number one drawer which is the manual paper feed. You can adjust to fit the #10 envelopes or place them in the paper drawer. I am pretty sure it will handle the 6x9 as well. So far, I think this is a pretty good printer for the price. $229.00. You can add an additional 250 count paper drawer as well.

In this case I would probably accept the brother's (fiduciary's) permission. If you don't see the will, how else can you verify the person who claims they are a beneficiary really is? The will was used as an example in the IRS manual. I suppose any letter from a probate court or other legal document showing who the beneficiary(s) are would also be a means of verification.

Here it is day 2 of this dilemma. I can pass this on. If you still plan on using OLT next year, I wouldn't go with the OneDesk software. Don't know for sure what happened to Dan. OLT has told me that problems with Dan were recognized back in January with numerous complaints of him not returning phone calls. This was only one of the issues. So, without taking time to identify other problems I will let sleeping dogs lie. If you have any needed support, call OLT, they will help.

Rita, I did come to the same conclusion. However, and as I read all of this, the brother or the fiduciary would have to present the will to me for verification prior to the release of any information. I think that is pretty straight forward.

Have a 2015 return that is stuck in "queued for transmission". Has been there since 4:43 PM. I called OLT because as usual, Dan won't answer the phone, and they said it would go sometime before the end of the day. What the heck, anyone else experiencing this? I transmitted a 2014 on Drake and it was filed and accepted within two minutes. Man am I glad I switched.

Just bought and installed a new HP M402dn Laser Jet Pro printer. Spec say it will print 40 pages per minute. Anyone have any experience with this printer? This has been the year for equipment failures in my office. It started with the router deciding on its own to scramble all the IP addresses while the office was full of clients, modem failure, and finally the ten year old+ HP 2015dn printer decided it would only print one page at a time and go back to sleep. Kind of like me by April 10th just old and has seen it's better days. I babied it through as long as I could. With any luck, no problems next year.

Thank you Sara for this post. I have gotten this situation handled for now. Thanks to everyone who responded.

Can't do this as one lives in NC and the other is in Alabama. As for the other comments, the beneficiaries due to pay the tax as Roberts has stated that income passing through to them is very routine. The estate is NOT closed but according to the will these are the only two beneficiaries awarded anything. These brother don't appear to be too trusting of each other which is why I questioned this and will not proceed until I have the permission to do so. Thanks,

I prepared a 1041 for my client who was the fiduciary of his mother's estate. His brother was a beneficiary. I sent him the K-1 showing his share of income that passes thru to him. He is calling me asking for an explanation. The brother is not my client, the fiduciary was. So, should I talk to the brother or should I get a signed information release form from the fiduciary first?

The 2015 version Drake will not be in Demo until December. They will give me access when it goes to Demo. So, I think your statement is incorrect. So, far, I really like the program. Now it is on to entering all previous client information manually into 2014 and hope I can carry them to 2015 and on to 2016 when December rolls around. I will wait to do my clients with large depreciation schedules in December just to be safe. If any experienced Drake users here want to give me some pointers or comments. Feel free to do so.

Thanks for this heads-up. I have done a 2014 and 2015 NY return with the Harlem location. My client is a non=resident so I don't know if the same situation applies. I haven't transmitted these returns yet and will review them again. I wish you the best of luck with this program. The fact you discovered this really doesn't surprise me any more. I did not and will not renew with OLT or OneDesk. Cannot afford things like this.

I just purchased the Drake package today. From what I have played with so far, it seems as though I won't have a major learning curve and am looking forward to a smooth well supported tax season next year. One thing we, or at least I, didn't consider when purchasing a tax package is the ability to convert your tax files from one program to another. Olt Pro is so small that Drake doesn't offer a conversion so this is something that I will have to overcome and will be a factor each time I consider a software change. From what I hear, I will probably stick with Drake for a long time. I was with ATX when it was Sabre Pro all the way thru to the CCH buyout. Thanks to all of you who have recommended this change.

>>>>>But yesterday, my first ID Theft of the year,<<<<< I had the same thing happen Friday. Met with the folks yesterday to have them sign form 14039 and gave them a handout showing what they must do next.

First time for the last couple of years that I have been done before the last day of season!! All extensions filed. Hooray heading for the deck, sunshine and some good old NC sweet tea!! Another tax season behind us and I hope it has been a prosperous one for all. Mod edit - I merged this post and its topic into this one by the same name.

I'm going to attempt to weave thru this with the hope that it helps. >>>>So, $5,000 taxable to daughter? Where on return?<<<<< The 5,000.00 if taxable goes on line 7. Did the daughter receive cash for the balance of the scholarship??? >>>>1098-T in daughter's SSN with $5,000 scholarship<<<<<< Was any of the scholarship withdrawn for personal use? Can this be used against the student loan? It would be helpful to know what the details of the scholarship were or was this a government grant? >>>>She can't use books, fees, living expenses, food, against any of it, no?<<<<< books, fees (yes) housing, food (No) >>>>Daughter started repaying her student loan during 2015 when she was still a dependent. She can't take that adjustment, correct?<<<<< What is the adjustment?? >>>>Can mom take the student loan interest with the 1098-E in daughter's name and SSN?<<<<< Yes, if she claims the dependency You might want to take some time and play with the dependency to see where and who benefits the most. Maybe one could be used to help pay the other. Just a thought. I can't comment on the kiddie tax question as I don't know all of the particulars with the daughter's return.

I am definitely switching this week. What are the prices now? I suppose I have to be a customer of Drake to get on their discussion board???

Judy all of your statements are possible. I agree this could be IRD. But, they had the timber company hold off on the payment until the estate was closed. I don't know what the inventory was and the sale was just the timber but they or one of them now owns the land. Done properly through the estate? Again I don't know. The attorney told me the sale was not used to settle the estate. That's all I got from him. The contract to sell was originated by their mother, signed and agreed, and then she died supposedly before the contract was paid. This in of itself leads me to believe again IRD. All I wanted to do is determine basis, did they inherit at DOD? do they get mom's basis and possibly step up in basis? Again all unanswered. None of the other kids who received checks would say anything other than "we got a guy to do the taxes, and have to report it as income but pay no tax on it". It is too late in the season to deal with this, my client wanted no part of it so I thought it best to run away. Thanks for the pub reference Judy and I do appreciate your attempt at trying to be helpful. If I sound short, it is purely unintentional. Like others, I am completely worn out. I think I am finished, filed all my extensions and will finally make it to bed before midnight for a change.

Watch out for this. This damned program will not let you file a State extension past the 15th. A huge red flag comes up and says "the time has expired for filing an extension" and WILL NOT let you complete one. Maybe it was just me this season but I have had nothing but trouble with OneDesk. Continuous exception errors, slow printing, miss calculations initially only to correct themselves later, the MFS vs MFJ is totally useless. Had to fight like hell to get the program to accept 179 depreciation deductions. To say lack of support, is an under statement. Dan must have decided to ignore some of us as far back as February. I remember reading that someone else on this board could not get return phone calls. Lately, I have had to contact OltPro to get help. Had a return stuck rejected cause of a misspelled name. Called Dan, and he has never returned the phone call. Olt support did but couldn't fix the other errors, seemed to make it no big deal and said something else on my machine was accessing their files which was the reason for the errors. Now this mistake with NC extensions. Just to verify I checked with the NC website and you can file an extension up till midnight on the 18th. I mean really, this is totally inexcusable. I wish I could say thanks to OneDesk for a good experience but I cannot. So adios OneDesk and, Drake here I come. Well I guess I could say thanks for pushing back to a quality software package and reinforcing the old saying that you get what you pay for. Ok rant over!

Well here is what I now know. The family chose to have the timber company withhold payment until they closed the estate. I agree totally this should have gone thru the estate. My client whose father is their dependent was one of the kids that received a check. We held things up to see if she could still claim him or not. My client has chosen to back out completely and not claim her father because one of the other kids who got money said they would handle this because the rest of them had to claim this as income but did not have to pay any tax on it. Really???? This whole thing does not pass the smell test. My client has made the right decision and I agreed to back out and take no fee for what research and time I had invested. None of this sounds like anyone involved is doing things the proper way. As Jack would say "run forest run".

Does anyone send out thank you cards or letters to the folks for whom you prepared returns for during the tax season? I was thinking this may be a good idea because I am adding a PO Box among other thing to provide my clients a better service and have been thinking of sending the thank you with the information.

The attorney who prepared this POA has covered virtually everything. This POA literally allows me to act as though I am her and have control of virtually everything. We had a durable in place and changed it to the one we have now while she is still competent. The attorney required a medical evaluation and had her doctor complete a document attesting to her competency. Just to follow-up with what Judy said, she can make a mark but mostly a signature is really not legible anymore. For selfish reasons, it would be easier for me if I would just sign the return. Saves a lot of hassle.

This question is for me personally. I am my mother's POA. The POA is a full general POA. She is getting to the point where she can no longer sign anything including writing a check. I prepare her return each year simply because she does get some investment income that the IRS may question if they don't get a return. With that said, I think I should mail in form 8453 with a copy of the POA. Any other suggestions?

Thank you!! I agree totally that I don't have all the information and the fact the checks were paid to her children bothers me as well. Keep in mind her children are 60 plus years old which is not all that important for this scenario. The task today, is to extend these returns which can present another problem as I don't know if anyone owes anything and I sure hate to ask them pay an amount they may not owe to begin with. I guess if they experience any penalties from filing a zero extension, it is on them cause they brought this to me Tuesday of this week. Here is what even makes this better, their attorney(s) told them it wasn't taxable. The attorney who handled the sale told me they wouldn't comment and left it up to them to talk to their accountant/tax advisor. The attorney did, however, verify this was not a sale to settle the estate which I can tell that as none of the checks went to the estate of....... Just a mess