Terry D EA

I did take the plunge for a binding machine. I have quite a few returns that this would be useful for. I am giving a travel drive or CD with the same so hopefully no requests for additional copies. One guy asked for three years worth last summer that I refused to print and send to his bank. That would have taken almost a ream of paper and who knows how much toner. I with you all on the secure file. I too have a program for that, that no one appears to be able to open with out signing up for a continuing education class to do so. It is so simple and if you take your time and apply some common sense it will open.

Thanks Judy and I did talk with Drake today. They mentioned the pay per return as well to get me out of the woods. Drake does not have the capability to convert the files from OLT or OneDesk. I have about 50 returns left. Some are easy and some are really involved. It would cost right at 800.00 to switch over for the rest of the season. While I can cover that easy enough, it is an additional unplanned expense. Then in May take another 1100.00 hit for next year. I will try on Monday to get some support from OLT. I asked for this before due to the none support received from OneDesk and they agreed to support the product as they admitted it is theirs anyway. I got the same error above just a while ago while working in form 1095-A. Program shut down, didn't keep any entries. It is nothing less than hair pulling to put up with this crap. Especially when a client is sitting on the other side of the desk and they want to know why you are staring at the screen and it appears you are doing nothing but in reality you are waiting on the program to re-boot.

Since the last update which I believe was yesterday, the program has thrown an error of some sort three different times when trying to open a State return, throws up another message stating the application will be terminated and then it shuts down. After reopening the program I get another error stating I am trying to open a return that is either already open or has been terminated due to some other reason I can't remember. Never seen this before, anyone else experiencing this? Of course I called Dan and no return phone calls. I am calling Drake to find out if they can help me finish the year. This stuff is driving me nuts. I have zero confidence in the program left.

The only potential problem I see is the signature and privacy of the information. While you both appear to be sharing the same office I don't know if that is an issue or not. How would your associate sign the return? Just wondering.

I like this idea but don't have the machine. Wondering if my local Office Depot has that ability. I'll get the flash drive for this one as well. Thanks!

I got one last week from a company trying to sell me products for the EA exam. One would think these people should be smart enough to know there is no such thing as "free time" in this business.

Just wondering what others do with this. I will be printing a tax return that is well over 100 pages, plus statements, depreciation schedules, and other associated worksheets needed to complete the return. A return of this size will not fit in the Tennez folders that I use. I am thinking of a notebook with dividers to organize this. Any other suggestions? This guy is a real estate investor and gets into many other investing activities. Can't wait till the bank asks for this one.

Yep, do this all the time. It is nothing less than amazing how rapidly a decline in health occurs due to a medical condition or simply aging. I have one couple who I have literally watched decline in health each year. Last year they could climb the steps to my office. This year they couldn't navigate one 6 inch step coming through the door. The gentleman is legally blind but can see objects with little or no clarity. Was a great golfer. The ball looked like the size of a soccer ball to him so he would never miss it but had no idea where he was aiming or where it was going. Now, they are both plagued with the gambit of medical problems. My wife assisted and escorted them down the one step and to their car. No he doesn't drive but his wife does which is probably the one last thing she has left. Like you said, they are more than clients or tax returns.

I am looking at Drake now. I did download the 2014 as a demo and when I get time, I will try a simple return and then a complex return to see how it handles both.

I don't know. The 1099 was issued from a company in Maryland. The software opened a MD tax return. I deleted it and that problem still existed.

Came really close to getting burned on a NC return. The program picked up an address from a 1099 issued from another State and automatically opened that State return and calculated it along with the NC. The program did give credit to NC for the tax paid to another State. However, no tax was due the other State. When I deleted the other State it took four times to delete that State return. The program kept the credit for taxes paid to the other State. This client did not return until today to finalize the return. The incorrect figures stayed in the tax return even upon completing the return. Today when I opened the return the tax refund for NC was still way overstated and then finally the program caught on and calculated the correct amounts. CAN"T AFFORD this kind of stuff with any program. I am now calculating every return for NC manually. NC is easy due to a flat .0575 tax for everyone. Had I not calculated this manually and transmitted the return it would have been wrong. The client would have loved me until they had to pay it back. I have the printed copy to fax to Dan to see if they will do anything about this. OneDesk does have a calculation guarantee. I almost lost a client and still may have and I guarantee OneDesk and OLT have lost me for good.

I started the thread below a couple of weeks ago. The client's spouse was upset at the amount do and asked for a second opinion. I graciously gave them the go ahead to get a second opinion and offered to refund their money should they find I made an error or missed a permissible deduction. Of course, they paid me and I asked for the right to review the findings of another preparer before I would issue the refund. Well, the TP called this evening and scheduled an appointment to sign the 8879 and provide the bank info for their State refund. So, all is well and apparently no one was able to help them any further than what I did. Good to know!!!! So, I guess they will be back next year.

I bumped this back up as someone in the thread asked me to post the outcome of this situation. Well here it is, the client TP called this evening and made an appointment to sign the 8879 and provide bank account info for the State refund. Apparently, they had no luck at finding someone who could do any better with their return. As I said earlier, I stand behind my returns 100%. I arrogantly admit that I knew this would happen so I guess they will be back next year.

It is necessary. First, I want my clients to have the benefit of every deduction they are entitled to. Second, I want them to know that depreciation the home for the home office deduction constitutes a gain for that portion when and if the house is sold as well as the pros and cons. Third, we are required to file an accurate return and have to be very careful of the information the client presents to us. Simply put, some of them don't know when to keep their mouth shut. For example, I had a client this year ask me how to receive funds for some property that was sold to avoid paying any taxable gains. Before I could tell them anything, they informed me they received xxxx in cash and the rest via check so the cash wouldn't be traceable and that it shouldn't be included in their income and how would I handle this. My response: FIRED and I gave them the reasons. Next statement was for me to forget everything they just told me. No can do still FIRED. We can only take what our clients tell us or present to us at face value. Yes extensive questioning is needed from time to time but who can tell with any certainty they are being told the absolute truth. What I don't have knowledge of won't hurt me. What I do have knowledge of can be very costly.

Jack is the answer NO to the installation I asked or NO to everything. ATX did populate the 9325 for mailing to clients.

BTW, when I mentioned earlier the MFS vs MFJ has been fixed???? I was wrong. It still does not calculate correctly. I have made my mind up that I will not use OLt or OneDesk after this year. Too many short comings and features that it is lacking. Most of the time I don't trust the calculations and spend too much time double checking everything. One example, I don't even begin to trust the depreciation. I usually create my own depreciation sheets in excel to verify the software calculations. I know I will do this regardless of what software I am using but any more, OneDesk makes me too nervous.

Eric, I would be careful here. Pub 587 is pretty straight forward on the repair expenses for the room used for business are direct expenses. I do agree with Judy that some of those she mentions you may be able to use. Again the chimney maybe because the furnace is used to heat the entire house. Same with the electrical. But... repairs to the other rooms don't qualify.

Where are you finding information on the home office safe harbor election? I was just looking at Pub 587 for 2015 returns and found no mention of this. Resources please.

Eric you mention a lot of repairs. Only those repair expenses directly related to the space used as your home office are deductible. These would be your direct expenses. The remaining repair are not for business use and cannot be deducted. The indirect expenses such as the mortgage interest, utilities, insurance; etc are indirect expenses and deductible by the percentage of the home used. Hope this helps. As you stated, the expenses added to basis is useless unless of course the IRS changes the 121 exclusion rules.

Considering returning to ATX at the end of the season. Can ATX still be installed to an external drive and operated from the PC? I used to do this so I could take the external out of the office and put it in my safe. My current software has to install to the root C: drive to work. Also, and if I remember correctly, ATX will populate form 9325 correct? My current software doesn't even have this form in it. I have purchased an external drive with one TB capacity and want to use this as the main backup due to it's size both dimensionally and storage. I am an old Max user and got out after the CCH take over so I suppose I should go back to MAX due to the various type of returns that I process. I have looked at Drake and while it seems good, I don't want nor have time for the learning curve. ATX had a couple of dark years but it appears from the discussions on this board, they have overcome those problems. Opinions please.

I got it but in 2016 is when he is going to replace the roof. There aren't any other previous roof repairs during the time he has owned the property. So, I cannot write off something that hasn't existed. There is only one of my clients this may have affected and I looking at his records, there is nothing I can do either. So, once again, this is a mute issue for these folks. You win some you loose some.

Thank you for all of the sound advice everyone has given. I have taken the time to research circular 230 as well as the AICPA regarding this subject. There are differences between the AICPA policies and circular 230. However, both suggest not moving forward until there is a signed conflict of interest disclosure in place. I collected several sample disclosure documents and will follow the guidelines set forth in circular 230. If either of them chooses not to agree to or sign the conflict of interest disclosure (waiver) one of them or both will have to seek help somewhere else.

This topic has been hashed around quite a bit lately. The advice you have been given you should follow. If this is a multiple member LLC then form 1065 is used with rentals being reported on form 8825. Joan is correct. Use separate columns and don't lump them together. Lion is correct as well regarding the treatment for different entities.

This election has been made by all of rental clients. Honestly, I forgot about this part and had to look at the election methods document was created. With further research, the election can be made with a timely filed tax return for years following 2012. Thanks for the reminder.

Pacun I understand perfectly that a roof replacement is a capital expense. However, this topic has been tossed around from several angles. In past years there has been discussion regarding identifying the useful life of a roof. Any roof on any building will eventually need to be replaced. It fails to make sense that it is a "Capital Improvement". Replacing a roof doesn't add to the value of the property if the roof is replaced with materials of similar kind. I would agree the value would increase if a metal replacement roof were installed. Bottom line, there is no choice but to capitalize. I guess I shouldn't try to make anything that resembles common sense out of this.