Kea

I've been seeing some strange things with CTC and exemptions. Not sure if they are my new "dummy" test returns or on proformaed. But hitting the green dot (recalculate button) next to the date at the bottom right of the screen seems to help (sometimes).

Just curious - are there any default customer letters already in the program? I haven't found them. Not sure about setting up my own. I just want something basic with the instructions for signing / mailing check / or whatever action they need to take or not take. (like DON'T mail the forms).

A few other things I've found so far. Maybe something I'm doing wrong? I'll get y'all's input here. I'll also keep testing and adding to my list. Then I'll send these to Doug tomorrow or Monday. Sch B Interest There are 1099Int that have only tax exempt interest - say from bonds. It shows the first interest column as a red requied field. Sometimes it's $0. Sch B Div missing box for foreign tax paid I would like to see qualified div next to total div for easier data entry Sch A Now that we have a sales tax worksheet (down at the bottom of Sch A - took me a while to find it), I'm not sure how it works. Line 6 is for "state rate" which shows the (correct) calculation for the state sales tax $ amount (not a % rate) Line 7 if for "local rate" and is blue for user input - but what goes here? 2nd line of Line 7 shows "local sales tax amt" and is yellow for a calculated field. No matter what I put in the "local rate" box, the amt does not calculate. I can overwrite the "local sales tax amt" line and the rest of the calculation is correct. HOWEVER, if a change is made anywhere else in the return the overwritten field will need to be updated. And if the Rate lines are ever corrected, will we enter 2% as 2 or .02 or something completely different? Vehicle depreciation - I'm getting the same double depreciation + mileage rate mentioned earlier. I also tested adding parking, tolls and interest. Parking and tolls seemed to be OK. Not so much for the interest. It calculates on the worksheet OK, but carries some bogus amount to the interest line on Sch C. In the example I tried, I ended up with $155 in business interest. The amount on Sch C was $155,000! After trying to clear some things out, I ended up with $300,000 on this line - even after I deleted the vehicle depreciation worksheet. Sch D & 8949 I wasn't sure what to do if I had multiple transactions and they weren't all the same code (a / b / c - basis reported or not). If you click A - then all sales get reported as A. So I added an 8949. I put one transaction on the first 8949 and chose A and put it in short term. On the 2nd 8949 I chose B and short term and entered one transaction. Result - I got 2 8949s - one for A and one for B. BUT they both had both transactions listed. The total at the bottom of the form was correct and only included the one that was supposed to be on that form. So Sch D was showing the correct amounts. Various and Inherited did work. But it does use the short / long term based on where you enter it. So when I put inherited under short term the program carried it to short term. I would like to see them put a net gain / loss field on each line. I use that to check for typos as I enter.

I put my PTIN in the Preparer TIN box. That's what the P stands for (I guess). I don't like the SSN showing on the Return Info sheet, but I don't really plan to use it. At least it's not printing on the 1040 (page 2 bottom).

Agreed!

Thanks. I would never have found that!

Where do you enter the "Notes"?

Hi Crank, I agree that is a significant issue. I'm holding off on my program testing until it sounds like most of the bugs are out. Have you tried e-mailing Doug? Sorry I couldn't be much help.

I sent my comments to Doug right after I posted them here -- just after midnight (central time). He responded at 3 AM and gave me permission to post his response: -------------- Proforma Question: what's the secret? Do we need to proforma twice for all of them? Honestly we did a very poor job on proforma and we are continuing to enhance the proformance now. The theory is that we did not want the clients all in the open return client grid incase the tax payer did not come back this year and the client would only show once you went to new return and typed the SSN in then you would be asked if you would like to proforma this client from last year. The other way you could have gotten all your client to show instead of doing proforma twice is to have gone to User Return Maintenance and clickedon Reindex and this would have made all the returns show in the Open Return Client Grid. As far as the W2 we are working to bring the EIN over and the W2 is only auto filled one the EIN is typed into the W2. I will have to check with my conversion developers to see what the plan is on having the W2's show up when you click on line 7 of the 1040 and allow you to choose the W2. Schedule A: Problem: The optional sales tax table option is grayed out. Also no links for adding vehicle sales tax. I know this has come up before and had hoped it would be fixed by update 12. When do you anticipate this will be fixed? This is one of the highest prioirty issues we are working on and I am anticiapting it be corrected by .13 release, however I had hoped to have had this done in .12 but it was not corrected. Comment: When this form is active, it would also be nice to show detail of which mortgage companies are included (as mentioned previously). Would be nice if it could bring in prior year detail to make sure all 1098s are received. Many of my clients have more than one 1098. I cannot promise this for this tax season but I can tell you it will be this way next year. If throughout the tax season you find additional items that would help us all please email me these so we can compile a list of enhancements for us to do through the off season. I am working on getting the Sales tax issue fixed and as Texas, Tennessee is the same with no State Income tax but sales tax is a big deal. This will be corrected. Sincerely, Doug Hughes -------------- He brings up a good point about not wanting all the proformaed returns to be in the return manager in case that client doesn't show up this year. Once more of the bugs are worked out of the proforma I do plan to start on this for all clients to make sure I have all the info. I know from previous conversions that the asset history is always a nightmare. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do to separate the proformaed returns from the ones I'm actually working on. When converting to TaxWorks, I could use a separate folder. I no longer remember what I did for previous conversions. When I commented back to him that I was surprised he responded at 3 AM, he said they are currently working 24 hours per day and that he somehow managed to work 25 yesterday.

I just started working on my first real return. MFJ, one child, 2 W2s, 2 1098s, RE tax, sales tax, vehicle sales tax, amortized points. When I proformaed, I could not find it in the client list. I proformaed again and said "yes" I want to overwrite. That time it was in the list. Question - what's the secret? Do we need to proforma twice for all of them? Names, SSNs, phone #s, address all came over correctly. New return did show 2 W2s, but employer info did not come over. Inputting EINs did bring in employer info. Another note - both blank W2s defaulted to taxpayer, when one is for the spouse. Comment - while it's not too big a deal to enter EIN, I would like it to bring in the prior W2 info as a double check to make sure client has all W2s. (When there is one in the prior year not in the current, I ask if they still worked for them the next year.) Schedule A - Form defaults to income tax. I can select sales tax, but only for Actual receipts. The optional sales tax table is grayed out. Also no links for adding vehicle sales tax. When this form is active, it would also be nice to show detail of which mortgage companies are included (as mentioned previously). Would be nice if it could bring in prior year detail to make sure all 1098s are received. Many of my clients have more than one 1098. Pleasant surprise - it brought in the amortized points!!! I have very few of these and would probably have not thought to check and entered. So, for this fairly easy return, my only big issue is the sales tax. That is a MUST HAVE in Texas since we don't have an income tax. All my itemizers use this. I read Terry's note that Doug has stopped responding to this board. I'll say I'm disappointed but that I do understand his reasoning. I really appreciated his input to our questions and concerns. Now I'll go mail my post to Doug.

I haven't "peeked" at many forms yet, so not sure how the address is printing. But if you are referring to the zip code first on the input screen, that's the same as TaxWorks. You enter the zip code and it populates the city, state. If you are talking about how it's printing, then please disregard my comment.

I'm not sure I'm up to the task of finding all the hidden jewels. I think I just got lucky on that one since it was where it was in 2011 TaxWorks. I spent HOURS (seemed like) looking for it in the 2011 program. Tech Support found it pretty quickly. I haven't used the user manual yet. I've only just started doing my basic testing. I tried to do a rough draft of my own return so that I could send in my quarterly estimate. No go. I ended up using the 2011 package. Hey, it's just an estimated payment. On the plus side, the other 2 estimates I did for clients (with returns less complicated than my own) gave me total tax amounts exactly equal to my spreadsheet. That made me feel pretty good about both the spreadsheet and the program. (No, my basic spreadsheet doesn't do all the stuff I need for my own return, either - I guess I need to work on that - or - simplify my own life and return.)

Exactly my point.

I had one last year. I searched all over for it and finally called TRX. That one was near the signature line # (obviously not the actual signature line!!). So I tried that in 2012. I was actually a bit surprised that it was in basically in the same place - what with all the other changes this year.

I haven't tried it yet, but check the very bottom of the 1040 input form. The last line is "In the IRS sent you an identity Protection PIN Enter it here (See Inst):" Then there is a entry blank after it. (Note: the first word of that line does say "In" not "If" -- their typo, not mine)

But a 1099 Misc is for contract labor, not employees. No EIN required.

I agree with Taxed regarding the list sorting. I might also be helpful to have the search box look at the "whole name" not just the first letter. That way, when you type in "K" it will pull up all forms that have K in the name anywhere. Typing "K1" would reduce that list down. OK, there might still be the problem of figuring out if you need to seach for "K1" or "K-1" but we can narrow that down with just 2 searches. Thanks

Yeah!! Congrats! I'm sure I'll need to practice again before I have to use it in front of a client (and have them laugh at me for not getting it to go through). It's been a few months but I think they do just total every transaction for the day and process the next day. But even when I tested my own card there was no actual monetary value. I used some kind of test mode. Why pay a fee for testing?

I am in the process of going paperless, but not sure if I'll ever get there. I still work better with paper while I'm working on the actual return. I have a fire-proof safe where I keep manilla envelopes for each client. They are stacked by year and then each client is alphabetized within that. In 2009 my husband started scanning all my documents. And my safe is rather full. So, I'm going through the oldest years and checking that everything in the envelope is in the scanned file. Then I shred the paper. When I get caught up, I'll probably still have 2 or 3 years of paper in the safe. On my computer I have a folder for each client. Then within each client folder I have a folder for each year. I have to admit that having everyting on the computer is a faster way to look up stock basis info or other things I've used in a prior year - and just don't remember which year. I'm finding some things now just belong in a client's root folder if it may apply to multiple years. I am now spending a lot of time travelling in the off-season. And there is no way I can get my big safe in the RV! So now I have everything with me and if I get a call or e-mail from a client, they don't have to know I'm out of town!

With most of the smart phones you need your finger or a special stylus (capasative?). I tried pencil erasers and Nintendo styli, but no go. I finally just got a 5 pack at Amazon or Buy.com for around a dollar. (Or, you can pay $15-20.) No expert on the volume thing, but I guess it's related to going into the earphone jack?

Glad I could help. We all have to stick together here!

Thanks for the "head's up." I've had a handful of clients ask about credit cards over the last few years, primarily when they realize they didn't bring their checkbook with them. I've always just asked them to mail a check after they get home. (I'm pretty understanding on this one since I never carry my checkbook with me, either.) I considered getting a PayPal account and Square seemed easier. I considered putting a note in my New Year's cards letting my clients know that I now take credit cards. I decided against it and just have it as a backup for those who forget to bring their checkbooks. We'll see if I end up having any regrets.

I've debated about passing on the fee. It does cost me a bit extra to accept cards, but it also means I can get paid faster. It seems like I heard that there were rules against adding credit card fees, but I know some businesses (i.e. gas stations) that charge more for credit cards.

I had this same problem again this year & remembered that we discussed it last year: Note that Don's link no longer works. I did a search there and found this "fix": http://support.taxprepsoft.com/?p=9179 It does require you to unlock all clients, which I found you can do all at once. When you are in "Clients" click the check box next to each client you want in your labels report (or use the box at the top to check all of them). Then right click and choose "lock / unlock." In the next box click "unlock." It will then come up and warn you about losing ALL SIGNATURES. I don't know what that meant, so I made sure to have a clean backup of my client folders, closed my eyes and clicked "OK." (Granted, that was probably not a smart thing to do, but I wanted to finish my New Years cards mailouts - only a week and a half late thanks to waiting for e-file start date.) Then I did the Batch Process and everybody was in my label report. All that seemed to work OK, but I'm still not sure what effect (if any) there was by deleting all signatures. Good luck. I wonder if we will be asking this question again next year with Tax Exact?

It plugs into the earphone jack.