Lee B

Nineteen years ago, my clients sold a deli and a small meat processing plant, business plus real property. The buyer's attorney set up a S Corporation and put the real property into the S Corporation. Afterwords, the buyers decided to keep me as their accountant. The real property is still in the S Corporation. No audits yet, however the owners are now trying to sell the business. So the sale will finally bring this to an end.

Oregon also starts with Federal AGI

Yeah , I forgot about CFS Tax Tools. I am going to download the demo software and try it out. They are California based and have a good reputation on the West Coast.

I interpreted this as asking whether Officer's compensation still needed to be paid ?

Yes, the ATX Payroll Compliance program does the Efiling, but it doesn't generate payroll reports, keep track of overtime, vacation, hours worked etc etc.

There are a number of programs out there, but i am not aware of one that will efile the 94x forms for a reasonable price. If someone else knows of one, I would also like to know.

i wasn't aware that you could use check the box on a S Corp that was already in existence ?

K C, This reinforces what you have been saying ! Thanks for bringing this to my attention Lee Barckert FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa — For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her checking account, almost $33,000. The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the money was seized solely because she had deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid triggering a required government report. “How can this happen?” Ms. Hinders said in a recent interview. “Who takes your money before they prove that you’ve done anything wrong with it?” The federal government does. Using a law designed to catch drug traffickers, racketeers and terrorists by tracking their cash, the government has gone after run-of-the-mill business owners and wage earners without so much as an allegation that they have committed serious crimes. The government can take the money without ever filing a criminal complaint, and the owners are left to prove they are innocent. Many give up. Photo The I.R.S. seized almost $33,000 from Ms. Hinders. Credit Angela Jimenez for The New York Times “They’re going after people who are really not criminals,” said David Smith, a former federal prosecutor who is now a forfeiture expert and lawyer in Virginia. “They’re middle-class citizens who have never had any trouble with the law.” On Thursday, in response to questions from The New York Times, the I.R.S. announced that it would curtail the practice, focusing instead on cases where the money is believed to have been acquired illegally or seizure is deemed justified by “exceptional circumstances.” Richard Weber, the chief of Criminal Investigation at the I.R.S., said in a written statement, “This policy update will ensure that C.I. continues to focus our limited investigative resources on identifying and investigating violations within our jurisdiction that closely align with C.I.’s mission and key priorities.” He added that making deposits under $10,000 to evade reporting requirements, called structuring, is still a crime whether the money is from legal or illegal sources. The new policy will not apply to past seizures. The I.R.S. is one of several federal agencies that pursue such cases and then refer them to the Justice Department. The Justice Department does not track the total number of cases pursued, the amount of money seized or how many of the cases were related to other crimes, said Peter Carr, a spokesman. But the Institute for Justice, a Washington-based public interest law firm that is seeking to reform civil forfeiture practices, analyzed structuring data from the I.R.S., which made 639 seizures in 2012, up from 114 in 2005. Only one in five was prosecuted as a criminal structuring case. The practice has swept up dairy farmers in Maryland, an Army sergeant in Virginia saving for his children’s college education and Ms. Hinders, 67, who has borrowed money, strained her credit cards and taken out a second mortgage to keep her restaurant going. Their money was seized under an increasingly controversial area of law known as civil asset forfeiture, which allows law enforcement agents to take property they suspect of being tied to crime even if no criminal charges are filed. Law enforcement agencies get to keep a share of whatever is forfeited. Critics say this incentive has led to the creation of a law enforcement dragnet, with more than 100 multiagency task forces combing through bank reports, looking for accounts to seize. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, banks and other financial institutions must report cash deposits greater than $10,000. But since many criminals are aware of that requirement, banks also are supposed to report any suspicious transactions, including deposit patterns below $10,000. Last year, banks filed more than 700,000 suspicious activity reports. Owners who are caught up in structuring cases often cannot afford to fight. The median amount seized by the I.R.S. was $34,000, according to the Institute for Justice analysis, while legal costs can easily mount to $20,000 or more. There is nothing illegal about depositing less than $10,000cash unless it is done specifically to evade the reporting requirement. But often a mere bank statement is enough for investigators to obtain a seizure warrant. In one Long Island case, the police submitted almost a year’s worth of daily deposits by a business, ranging from $5,550 to $9,910. The officer wrote in his warrant affidavit that based on his training and experience, the pattern “is consistent with structuring.” The government seized $447,000 from the business, a cash-intensive candy and cigarette distributor that has been run by one family for 27 years. There are often legitimate business reasons for keeping deposits below $10,000, said Larry Salzman, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice who is representing Ms. Hinders and the Long Island family pro bono. For example, he said, a grocery store owner in Fraser, Mich., had an insurance policy that covered only up to $10,000 cash. When he neared the limit, he would make a deposit. Ms. Hinders said that she did not know about the reporting requirement and that for decades, she thought she had been doing everyone a favor. Photo Jeff Hirsch, an owner of Bi-County Distributors on Long Island. The government seized $447,000 from the business, a candy and cigarette distributor run by one family for 27 years. Credit Bryan Thomas for The New York Times “My mom had told me if you keep your deposits under $10,000, the bank avoids paperwork,” she said. “I didn’t actually think it had anything to do with the I.R.S.” In May 2012, the bank branch Ms. Hinders used was acquired by Northwest Banker. JoLynn Van Steenwyk, the fraud and security manager for Northwest, said she could not discuss individual clients, but explained that the bank did not have access to past account histories after it acquired Ms. Hinders’s branch. Banks are not permitted to advise customers that their deposit habits may be illegal or educate them about structuring unless they ask, in which case they are given a federal pamphlet, Ms. Van Steenwyk said. “We’re not allowed to tell them anything,” she said. Still lawyers say it is not unusual for depositors to be advised by financial professionals, or even bank tellers, to keep their deposits below the reporting threshold. In the Long Island case, the company, Bi-County Distributors, had three bank accounts closed because of the paperwork burden of its frequent cash deposits, said Jeff Hirsch, the eldest of three brothers who own the company. Their accountant then recommended staying below the limit, so for more than a decade the company had been using its excess cash to pay vendors. More than two years ago, the government seized $447,000, and the brothers have been unable to retrieve it. Mr. Salzman, who has taken over legal representation of the brothers, has argued that prosecutors violated a strict timeline laid out in the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, passed in 2000 to curb abuses. The office of the federal attorney for the Eastern District of New York said the law’s timeline did not apply in this case. Still, prosecutors asked the Hirsch’s first lawyer, Joseph Potashnik, to waive the CARFA timeline. The waiver he signed expired almost two years ago. The federal attorney’s office said that parties often voluntarily negotiated to avoid going to court, and that Mr. Potashnik had been engaged in talks until just a few months ago. But Mr. Potashnik said he had spent that time trying, to no avail, to show that the brothers were innocent. They even paid a forensic accounting firm $25,000 to check the books. “I don’t think they’re really interested in anything,” Mr. Potashnik said of the prosecutors. “They just want the money.” Bi-County has survived only because longtime vendors have extended credit — one is owed almost $300,000, Mr. Hirsch said. Twice, the government has made settlement offers that would require the brothers to give up an “excessive” portion of the money, according to a new court filing. “We’re just hanging on as a family here,” Mr. Hirsch said. “We weren’t going to take a settlement, because I was not guilty.” Army Sgt. Jeff Cortazzo of Arlington, Va., began saving for his daughters’ college costs during the financial crisis, when many banks were failing. He stored cash first in his basement and then in a safe-deposit box. All of the money came from paychecks, he said, but he worried that when he deposited it in a bank, he would be forced to pay taxes on the money again. So he asked the bank teller what to do. “She said: ‘Oh, that’s easy. You just have to deposit less than $10,000.’” The government seized $66,000; settling cost Sergeant Cortazzo $21,000. As a result, the eldest of his three daughters had to delay college by a year. “Why didn’t the teller tell me that was illegal?” he said. “I would have just plopped the whole thing in the account and been done with it.”

Since the corporation is generating passive income, my educated guess would be, "no."

"The future ain't what it used to be" - Yogi Berra

If the IRS follows the pattern of the last two years, the Friday before Thanksgiving, it may be November 21st or ? This is for 1040 efiles. Business entity efiling has a shorter shutdown period.

One hour ago Customer Care said it will be released later this afternoon

from Stephanie B Director of Customer Care 13.7 will be released tomorrow- Oct 23rd. I just blogged the information and posted another thread to the community board as well. 1040 Organizers An Organizer is a pre-assembled packet of worksheets that can help you and your 1040 clients organize tax information for the upcoming tax season. When you add an organizer to the client's return, information from the client's previous tax year return is populated in the organizer worksheets. Send the worksheets to your clients so they can provide you with the new numbers for the upcoming tax year. The organizer includes three questions related to ACA: 1) Was there any month in 2014 where the individual health insurance mandate was not met for you or your dependents? 2) Did you receive Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement? 3) Did you have a Health Insurance Marketplace granted coverage exemption or are you claiming a coverage exemption? For more information, see the Organizers Overview in Program Help

Based on the ATX posts that I have read the last two days, I believe that ATX has not finalized the 2014 organizers. From ATX Kristin : " I would recommend waiting to make changes to your Organizers until the 13.7 program update is released. The program update enables many of the Organizer features that are not currently available " As far I can determine 13.7 has not been released yet.

I think most people are to the point of ignoring this stuff: Staples investigating possible data breach Oct 21, 11:42 AM (ET) (AP) In this Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011, file photo, customers enter Staples office... Full Image NEW YORK (AP) — Staples is looking into a potential credit card data breach and has been in touch with law enforcement officials about the issue. The office supplies retailer said Tuesday that if it turns up any data discrepancies during its investigation, customers won't be responsible for fraudulent activity on their credit cards as long as it is reported in a timely manner. "We take the protection of customer information very seriously, and are working to resolve the situation," spokesman Mark Cautela said in a statement. Earlier this month Sears Holdings Corp. reported a breach at its Kmart stores that started last month, saying some customers' credit and debit cards may have been compromised. Other breaches have occurred at retailers including Target Corp., Supervalu Inc. and Home Depot Inc.. Shares of Staples Inc., based in Framingham, Massachusetts, slipped 3 cents to $12.27 in midday trading. Its shares have fallen 23 percent over the past year.

Also, you don't have the requirement of an annual meeting and Board of Director Minutes.

MORE FROM ATX : Re: Great Season The majority of the Network users that had issues with our ATX software this year is because they did not allow the Program CD/DVD to set up their server first and then let the Program set up their network. Clients that followed these steps in the setup process had little to no issues this tax season. David Uitermark Lead Customer Service Representative CCH Small Firm Service

PER ATX: from Stephanie B Customer Care We have focused our efforts on stability this summer, along with speed of certain tasks and simplification of certain tasks (such as backup and restore and client letters). When I have the final list of enhancements, I will post to the board and blog- I want to make sure the enhancements are properly documented before I try posting partial lists here. Note- 13.7 version of ATX 2013 comes out this week and includes the organizers. We have a few ACA health insurance questions in those organizers as well

I haven't had to look at this in a while, but the rules vary some depending on which part of the Tax Code is in play. In other words be careful, because what may be OK in one scenario may not be OK in another scenario.

Reply Quote Favorites Copied from the ATX Board: Good afternoon, Changing the backup/restore server under the Admin Console is not the same as browsing to a different backup location within the Backup utility in prior years. It can lead to other issues potentially, especially at this time in the season, therefore I don't recommend that. If you want to make a literal "Backup" rather than manually copying folders you can go in the program to the Returns Menu, and Backup Returns, and click the button to "Copy Backup to Local Storage". We put that button in the program to make it easier for customers than going into Explorer and manually moving around files, and having to worry about the hidden folders. It does the same thing as jmdaviscpa states as far as copying the backup folder - but without the manual steps which some users may not be comfortable with. All that said, the best way for 2013 is actually to go through each page of returns, mark all on each page (using the Mark All button at the top), and then going to Returns -> Export Marked Returns. The export will create 1 file for each customer so you can see each name, and also is much easier to "restore" from than the literal backup, as you can specify the location to Import from, whereas you have to manually move the backup back into the proper folder to restore. Jon C. Jon Conner CCH Small Firm Services Lead Customer Service Representative

See discussion beginning October 7th, "Cosmotologist Chair Rental" which covers most of the issues.

Follow up post from the same poster on the ATX Board : Ps. I put the extra 16 GB in the new server in Feb. 14. I just got done with Tech support again. At 2:30 the last tech said everything was good to go. Notice I wrote at 3:03. Well by 3:30 I was pulling my hair and not being able to open returns. Error said I had newer versions of forms on the program..wtf? I even got a bigger surprise when in frustration I had my assistant call ATX. that's 6:30 pm their time, Holy Crap someone answered the phone. I just got off the line with them. Yep 2 1/2 hrs more to get the program up and running with new forms. 7068 of them. Now it is 6:19 and I will work for 3-4 more hours trying to get done what I was finishing at 10 am this morning. Lacerte is starting to look cheaper all the time. Barry"BigBear"Schweiger

Copied from a post on the ATX Board this AM : Barry here, We have a network with 5 w/s. We have had problems keeping the server communicating with the w/s.'s. I saw Donnie P's response to network memory. I started to write him on this forum, but also called ATX, and OMG guess who answered the phone... Donnie P. He didn't know too much about networks but after I explained that we have had trouble with our system he called the tech's in the back and let me talk to them. I had them remote into my server to look it over. I had to add 16GB memory to my new (Jan 14) server to get program to quit bombing out. My IT guy could not believe my server was almost blue screening while running ATX. So I had this guy look it over to see if it looked alright. He spent about 2 hrs cleaning deleting rebuilding ATX directory's. To delete one of the directory's it took 3 1/2 hrs and is still working and not finished yet. So go figure about 2014 Barry"BigBear"Schweiger

I ran into the same thing last year. Finally to get the return out the door, i deleted the 4868 and it went through. After all the IRS already has the extension info.

Michael, I agree with you. The last several years I have waited until January to renew.