Kea

There is a significant advantage to having the client folder inside the year folder. It makes manual backups MUCH easier. Almost all your changes are being made in the 2010 folder & you know which clients you've just worked on. At this point, my regular backups are made to an external drive with some program that just backs up the changes. I still occasionally manually back up to a thumb drive and it takes a long time.

I *believe* (but don't have a cite for) that IRS recognizes common law marriage. If the couple considers themselves married, the IRS does, too. Would not be eligible for Single. And MFS in a community property state is a pain & should be avoided. I have a client that is common law married and been filing MFJ for years. Now that they broke up, they need a REAL divorce. Apparently, there is no such thing as a common law divorce. (I learned that last year from a lawyer in Texas.)

I think their answer to your question then stays about the same, except that it applies to the 2010 tax return. Without the capital loss carry forward: would you client have had any taxable income? If after the deductions and personal exemptions, they had no taxable income, then they really aren't "using" any of the $3000 capital loss -- even though it is still on the front of the 1040. It that case, it doesn't reduce the carry forward to 2011. I had this a couple of years ago, and it confused me at first, too. Good Luck.

Thanks Pacun. I may not be in trouble after all. But I guess I'd better ask a few more questions. (I know I asked some of them last year, but, ... )

I think I messed this one up! Client came in last year with her brother's Social Security benefits statement. She has POA for him. He lives in the Philippines & received Social Security. Since that is his only income, I filed to get him a refund of all withholding. It was already April & I did not notice that the form was an SSA 1042S and not a SSA 1099. I did not realize it should have gone on a 1040NR. I've never prepared a 1040NR, but looking (briefly) at the instructions, it appears that the regular social security rules do not apply. If that is his only income, he should be taxed at 30% on 85% of that income. Or, are there some exemptions or other modifications I can / should make? Since this is what was withheld, does a return need to be filed? Brother had gone to someone in the Philippines to get file prior years to get refunds. I guess that's why I didn't question my assumption at the time. (And, it was April!) Thanks!

My client & her siblings inherited their parents' house. 1/2 from Dad 20 years ago & 1/2 from Mom in 2008. They sold it in 2010. When determining their basis, I know I can include the costs of sale. Can that include the legal fees they paid to get Affidavits of Heirship paid in 2009? (The parents' had wills but neither were ever filed.) I'm thinking that is more of an estate type cost, but I'm not sure. Also, if any of the siblings had to travel to Austin to clean out the house to prepare for sale, can any of those costs be included? (Again, I think not, but just trying to add whatever I can legally.) I have FMV from both years and closing document from 2010 sale. Thanks.

Here's a link to the TRX portion: My link And, "RGFan" has been monitoring the board and has been a great help. But, he works for Red Gear, not TRX. Of course, we also try to help each other just like with the ATX questions here.

I started scanning in all my files last year. I'm not paperless, yet. I still plan to keep the current and last couple of years, because that's what's more comfortable for me. But the directory structure I set up is: CLIENTS folder Within CLIENTS, l have a folder for each client -- past and present. Within Client Name (say, DOE_JANE), I have a folder for each year that I have prepared a return. I also keep spreadsheets and other info that apply to multiple years. Those stay at the top level of that particular client's folder & not in a specific year. Within specific year (say, 2010), I have files for all my notes and tax documents from the client. I'm also starting to save e-mails to these folders, too. And I also print tax returns to .pdf and save in this folder. I don't know that this is the best system, but I have too much in here to change it now. Hope it helps.

Is there a way to change the Spouse & Primary taxpayers, either in an open return or during the 2009 - 2010 update? On a return I did last year, the Primary Taxpayer died in 2009. So when I do the return this year, I will only need the spouse. Can I rollover & delete taxpayer & move spouse to primary? On another return, clients divorced in 2010. The spouse is self employed. So, if he remains a client this year, I would like to be able to roll over all his assets and depreciation and move him to the Primary taxpayer. If not, that's a lot of typing to move everything into a new return. I'm guessing these are not possible since everything seems to be based (saved) by SSN. (That could also cause a problem if you enter a wrong SSN and don't catch it until after everything is entered.) Thanks.

Found it. In the 2010 TaxWorks program it's: Workbench --> Support Tool (enter password) --> Registry --> Register all Files. Wait for it to register It said "There were errors registering the files", so I did it again. 2nd time is said "All files have been registered." Yay! Let's see if that helps. Thanks so much, Ryan. Much less painful than calling in to support! Kea PS I agree that Win 7 is much better than Vista. (At least so far.)

Thanks, that makes sense. I think I can find how to disable UAC. But, how do I register all files? I turned UAC on in my Vista machine to make my OLD tax programs work. I did the same for Win 7 "just to be safe." But I don't use the old years' programs much anymore & will be quite happy to disable UAC. And maybe the old programs will play better with Win 7 than with Vista!)

We can create the e-files with TRX's TaxWorks software. Not ATX.

I get the Microsoft .NET error messages, too. I also get lots of errors when I try to correct any differences in depreciation in the 2009 TaxWorks files converted from ATX. Like DonnaA, they don't seem to be causing any problems so I haven't done much about them. I got them a lot at first and decided to uninstall & reinstall 2009 & 2010. Seemed to get a little better & then started getting the errors again. I kept an extensive log for a few days and e-mailed to TRX. Never heard back (maybe the 16 page attachment scared them off?). But, as I said, the error messages don't seem to be causing any problems so I haven't pursued. I do remember getting an error a couple of times that a client file might be corrupt & to rebuild (?) all my .DLL files. (Sorry, I don't have my notes in front of me.) I'd be happy to send you my notes if you are really bored and have the time. Or, I can continue to blow it off (until something truly fails)! Thanks

Hi Ryan, Thanks for checking on it. I'm glad to know it's an option if I have a client who really wants it. I know the acknowledgment report has all the same info. I'm just used to the other. Your report is probably easier for the client to read! Thanks again.

Thanks so much Ryan. I agree completely that we should be going to TRX before we go to Red Gear with our problems. They are the company we purchased from and they should be responsible for our support. BUT... I (personally) hate to call tech support (not company specific) and wait on hold for someone to help. And they always seem to want to take over your computer. I would rather them tell me what I need to do, so I can learn how to fix it myself the next time. Also, they have uninstalled and deleted software from my computer and I could not stop them (I could not get control of my mouse and they had me on hold so I couldn't ask them to stop.) And there are privacy issues. I much prefer this forum where I can post a question and check back later. Especially when an issue might be something simple. Frequently we users are able to help each other thus avoiding wasted phone time (on hold). And I do really appreciate your offer to watch our forum and help us out when you can.

Good to know. I'm sure I'll get my 1st state in the next couple of weeks.

I don't do many state returns, so I can't claim to be an expert. I will typically piggyback just to make my life easier. Just send it once per client like all the others. But the primary advantage I see to holding the state is in case the Federal rejects. If you have to fix something on the federal it could cause a change to the state. If the state got accepted based on the original Fed, then you have to amend the state. We can still piggyback with TRX, though, right?

Thanks Mike for working on this. And thanks to Ryan for his past and future help.

But how did he get all those Social Security cards? I have clients that would like to know. They have pets to claim!

I'm running 1999 to 2009 ATX on my Win 7 computer. (2010 is TaxWorks.) So I can't confirm the 2010 ATX program will run, but I would assume so. I do run them in XP mode just to be safe. Actually, I think 1999 might be in 98 mode. Anyway, mine is not on a network and is not 64 bit. I've heard some people have problems running ATX on 64 bit computers, while others are not having that problem. Good luck. And I hope you don't have to change computers during the season.

Did you ever find an answer for this? I would like to do something similar, but not related to e-filing. I am now in a partnership with my aunt. She is the tax matters partner and always does the taxes by hand. (I will probably take this over at some point but I've never done a 1065.) I was going to print the forms for her with all the header info already filled in. But I'm not the preparer and so I don't want my info to show at the bottom of the form. How do I remove it? It does look like I can now print without the warnings of all the forms still being Draft!! Did you get your info removed from the paid preparer section of the 1040? Thanks

Glad you could find it from my vague description!

Stockpiling requirements are waived for the delayed forms.

Yep. I got around it by unchecking the box to print duplex. I don't remember exactly where that was, but it was one of the print options. But I still tell my printer what pages to print because it doesn't print in the order I want. I have the software print to .pdf and then I pick and choose what (if any) pages to physically print. Typically I e-mail the .pdf to the client for review. Once it is accepted I snail mail them a signed paper copy.

I haven't checked the box in 2009. I haven't even looked at the comparison in 2009. Maybe it's carrying over from the ATX comparison. Now I know to keep an eye open for it!