Kea

If you log into your MyATX account, you can get the install codes for the 2008 Archive CD they sent. It turns out the login is the same we used last year to get into the TRX Taxwise support site. We kept the same customer number. The conversion for 2008 (so you can pull it into 2009) is on that site as well. I don't remember if the conversion from last year is there, too or not. Be careful when following their conversion instructions. It looks like they edited the instructions from the prior year but there were one or 2 places where they didn't change the year. I hope that helps.

Gee, it already says "No longer available." Maybe it's just busy???

So many of my clients are amazed at my Civil Engineering diplomas on my wall. "Why would someone with an engineering degree be preparing taxes?" We all travel our various paths. Glad I'm not the only one who made such a career change. I feel my degree comes in handy in this profession -- it helped me hone my problem solving and logic skills.

I keep the old software loaded because occasionally I'll get a new client who needs to file many years of back taxes. As long as I have the software, I might as well keep the (computer) files as well. As for paper files, many will get shredded soon since I now have everything on .pdf. Perhaps I do keep too much old stuff, but I tend to be a little paranoid. I had a client a few years ago tell me that the California tax folks were saying she never filed a tax return from 1983. They said she now owed several thousand $$. She knew she always got a refund from CA, but no longer had her tax records from that far back and could not prove or disprove she filed it. There's no statute of limitations on a return that wasn't filed. (I never did find out what happened. She was someone who typically filed her own return but had a couple of unusual issues one year. So that was the only year I saw her.)

I had a similar problem with Taxwise last year. I was running it on a 32 bit Vista machine. At first it worked fine. But by early February it would only print to my OLD HP and to its internal .pdf writer. (Rebooting didn't help.) No printing issues with any other software, either. I'm moving to a 32 bit Windows 7 machine this year. I hope I don't have printing issues - or any other compatibility issues. I'm not really looking forward to moving 11 years worth of software and tax files over to the new machine. I had several issues when I moved to Vista.

Well, I was really hoping the house would sell within a year so I could use that price for the basis -- high or low. One year is the "rule of thumb" I've heard, but wasn't sure if there was anything official. All I remember from the IRS instructions is "reasonable time." I'm still hoping it will sell soon. How long can I stretch that "reasonable time"? I'm willing to go the certified appraisal route, especially since it's been so long. Thanks to all.

I just figured those estimates to be too high since it couldn't sell for that - even in July or August. While having a perpetual capital loss carryforward is helpful, I just figured that big a loss would seem unrealistic to IRS. I really want to stay under their radar.

If I use any of the figures available for 2009 as the FMV, I would most likely have a very large loss -- most likely over $100K. If I had taken the one offer that came in, that would have been $170K less than the county appraisal / real estate agent's estimate or Zillow.com (that's why I didn't take it).

Zillow.com, the real estate agent and the county appraisals were all had similar values. That is what we used when we listed the house in July (DOD = 1/5/09). The price has been reduced 3 times since then and there has still not been any interest. So I feel that value is way too high. Of course if I do use that as my basis, I'll have carryforward losses for many years or decades.

I know that part. It's just that typically you can use the selling price as FMV if it is "soon enough." Since it didn't sell in one year, do I need an official appraisal? Or, do I have a few month leeway to still use the selling price? Thanks.

I've been trying to sell my late father's house since last July. (I would have put it on the market sooner, but I was kinda busy the first few months of the year.) Since it has now been a year since his DOD and there are no "nibbles" yet, do I need to get an official appraisal? I know if it sells reasonably soon after DOD, you can use the selling price as the basis. I've always understood that to be one year. Or, is some other time-frame more appropriate? I do have the real estate agent's estimate of FMV on DOD, but that is now much higher than the current offering price. Thanks.

Thanks so much for the suggestions.

Thanks -- that's a good idea.

Perhaps this is not appropriate to post -- feel free to delete if you want. I promise I'm not trying to turn this forum into Craig's List. I just saw there were some Burns fans here. When cleaning out my Dad's house we ran across Selections from Burns from the Athenaeum Press Series from 1898. If you want to read all about Burns, this book is in the Google library: http://books.google.com/books?id=zk9LAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR5&lpg=PR5&dq=the+athenaeum+press+series+selections+from+burns&source=bl&ots=fSG9qPUv4w&sig=uWRFgJEaQVCdDW08kVke1t7cJw8&hl=en&ei=XmQ6S86zGYS0tgeetqmUCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false Also, I am trying to figure out what to do with this book (and several other old books). They aren't worth a lot of money, but I don't want to just toss them or give them to Goodwill. Thanks.

Best of luck on the surgery.

I've used Quickfinders for the past 10 years and have been happy with them. Last summer I wanted to get the small business edition and they still wanted the full price. I checked with The Tax Book and they were willing to sell it for $18. It's been a good reference. I'm now spending a lot more time traveling and don't really have the space to carry 10 old books with me. I checked with both companies about getting the old CDs and found I could only get 2008. Does anyone have old CDs that I could get a copy of? I would want to check copyright laws, first. But if neither company has them available, I don't see how they could complain too much. Thanks

I agree completely about having a Mac version. Tax software is the only reason I own a PC. It seems I read somewhere that ATX had a Mac version until the year before I switched -- how's that for timing? I believe that was around 1998. Since ATX is Excel based, I wouldn't think it would take that much extra programming to have both Mac & PC versions. They both use Visual Basic for their programming. It seems the main difference would be in how to code the directory / folder structures.

My parents had 78s. And my portable record player could play 16s, 33 1/3s, 45s & 78s. I never saw a 16, but I could have played it.

There are regional differences. I still use the word "supper" & I still hear it used -- although not as often as I used to.

The poll ones show up every time someone votes on it, even if they don't add a reply.

I'm finally getting around to installing the 2008 archive disk. I see the customer ID on the envelope, but I don't see the installation codes anywhere in the envelope. So, I tried to log onto MyATX to find them. But it says to log in the 1st time, you use the installation code as the password. So, I guess I'm stuck. Is there some other way to log on or to find install codes before calling ATX on Monday? Thanks

Yep, at the conversion, everything became "unread." I just went back through the messages until I knew they were familiar. I also used the date and my memory (sometimes a bad move) to figure out out far back to go. Then I clicked on "Mark this forum as read." -- top right, in the same bar as "General Chat." I repeated for the other groups. Hope that helps.

I was pleasantly surprised to get the archive disk without requesting it. I've been with TRX for 2 years. Even though I bought early enough to get TRX / ATX for next year, I didn't think ATX would just send it. Now I just have to get around to installing it, playing with it and then getting the conversions done.

I will vouch for Ting. I have enjoyed it since our Jamaican honeymoon (24 1/2 years ago). It can be found in the US (with some effort), but it tends to cost more than other sodas.

I, too, have been keeping all info indefinitely. This came in handy when I had an NOL this year that I carried back 5 years. That said, my fire-proof safe / file cabinet is now full. My husband (now co-owner of the tax business) is currently scanning all my old files on to a back-up disk. Once I go over all the files (oh joy), we'll start shredding the old stuff. I'm not sure I'm really ready to go completely paperless. I'm still more comfortable using the paper from the previous year and current year while I'm working on the return. So I may keep 2 years of paper. I'll see how it goes next season and re-evaluate. The timing of scanning in all old documents is working well. We're hoping to spend a lot more time traveling now that he's retired from his W-2 job. And there was no way I could put that fire-proof safe in our 5th wheel. Now I can have client history wherever I go!