Medlin Software, Dennis

Thanks for the mention...

Remember one oft forgotten "bit", if you never try to restore, you have no backup to rely on. Take the backup out for a "drive" once in a while so you can be somewhat confident it will work, contains what you need, you have the tools to restore, etc. At least one backup should be off site, say on a cloud service or in a different location (not next door or in another room, but somewhere different, where you could actually work from). Multiple backups. Have only one? Hardly worth the bother as it will no doubt fail when needed. Have a rotation of many, so if the most recent fails, you can go back a short time and try another. For tax prep, I would not want to repeat more than a day's work, so I would probably have at least 14 backups in rotation, so I can go back day by day for the last two weeks. Write out and practice a disaster recovery plan. How will you get another computer/printer. Another internet connection. Another phone line, with forwarding your current number. How will you handle mail forwarding. What happens if you are unable to continue working.

Programmer by day, baseball official for avocation. http://www.naso.org/Resources/TaxTips/Expenses.aspx http://www.naso.org/Portals/0/TravelExpenseConsiderations.pdf No home office, no transportation deduction when leaving from home. If one leaves their primary location/job for a second location, you can deduct transportation expenses. The only time I do not leave my first job for my avocation is for training meetings, although that is changing after reviewing this information...

The NY State Withholding Identification Number is "based" on the FEIN. NY can add a branch code suffix, or an alpha prefix.

I am rooting for the umpires... What happend last night is almost exactly what should have happened, except the umpire at second should have announced he had decided to change his call, not the crew chief. Technically speaking, no umpire can overrule another, but an umpire can take information from the others and change their own call...

Absolutely not advice... the only info I can remember about payments from a pre-tax plan was when the amount could be considered reimbursement (such as for medical expenses). But, it not something I deal with often so my memory is not fresh.

Aflac is a company name, not really something one can say is a specific plan type, or what tax reg it falls under. Consulting the plan docs will be best. The quick answer is usually based on who paid the premiums, and how. If the employer paid, then it is likely taxable. If the employee paid with after tax money, then it is likely not taxable. If the employee paid with pre-tax dollars, it is likely taxable. But, consult the plan docs...

Our payroll software is strictly for payroll (excluded 1099's). W-2's on plain paper or fills in forms. If required by your state and/or SSA, you can efile W-2. No support for W-2c Our AP program can be used to fill in 1099-MISC forms No support for efiling 1099's No support for and c forms

Thanks for the kind words!

One can accomplish something similar by leaving the "home" computer on, and using off the shelf (free) remote access software. Prevents the data from residing on some unknown server(s) you have no control over, which in itself, may violate privacy laws in your state.

If what I have read here is correct, the new program uses the .NET framework. I do not, so I am no expert in that area. Personally, I gave up using any MS shared runtime libraries (meaning I do not use any MS programming tools) as they are filled with things I never will use, and which I have ZERO control over. Looking at some wiki information on .NET, there are comments about there being performance issues with "garbage collection". "In large applications, the number of objects that the garbage collector needs to deal with can become very large, which means it can take a very long time to visit and rearrange all of them."

Probably makes no noticeable speed difference either way. The slowest part of your computer, besides the display process, is the file process. When the delays (for safety's sake) added by having a network / multi-user data setup, the using of the data becomes the bottleneck. What data from a file? Have to read the file, see if is in use, get any unsaved changes, increment the use count, etc., etc. Want to add/change something? Have to change the file, stop all uses of the file, update the data in all uses, restart all uses, let the others know you changed something, etc. Whether or not you actually use a network is a small factor, as the software has to assume you are until it can be proved otherwise... A single user program is like a parent doing a chore themselves. Gets done properly, at the needed time. A multi-user/network program is like asking your child to do something. Eventually it may get done, maybe properly, assuming you remind, remind again, nag, check, recheck, instruct on how to do it correctly, then redo it properly yourself. Both ways can get the job done, but with differing levels of complexity and elapsed time.

It could be the provider wants to make all business accounts static. Sometimes they like to use a static IP to make it easier to monitor your activity, such as if you are hosting a site on your own computers, which might not be allowed. So you may have no choice unless you can drop the business account and go to a personal account. Tech wise, if they called you to let you know, they should be able to handle the change easily, probably a one or two click setup change in your router, and a router reboot. It should cause you no problems - if you were doing something which made the IP matter for your needs, you would already know it, and how to handle it on your end.

From the RR, for those not wanting to use the link: "Whether amounts paid to employees for employee-provided equipment, including vehicles, that are used by the employee to provide services as an employee are wages subject to federal employment taxes?" "Situation 2 – Business A also hires laborer D to perform services as an employee. Employee D uses D’s pickup truck for transportation along the pipeline. Employee D is paid an hourly wage of $X for the performance of services as an employee and is also paid an additional amount of $Y per day for providing the pickup truck. Business A does not require D to substantiate mileage or actual employee business expenses incurred while performing services as an employee of A. Employee D is not required to return any of the daily amounts paid for the pickup truck if the amount paid exceeds the employee business expenses D incurred in connection with the pickup truck while performing services as an employee of A. (Laborer D is not an independent contractor.)" "Under the facts specified in Situations 1 and 2, the amounts paid to employees B, C, and D for providing equipment, including vehicles, used in performing services for the employer as an employee are not paid under an accountable plan. Each arrangement fails the business connection requirement because in each situation the employer pays an amount to the employee regardless of whether the employee incurs (or is reasonably expected to incur) business expenses that would be deductible under §§ 161 through 198. Each arrangement fails to require the employee to substantiate employee business expenses, as required by § 1.62-2(e). Finally, the arrangements do not require the return of excess as required under § 1.62-2(f)." "In Situations 1 and 2, because the amounts paid to the employee for providing equipment, including vehicles, for use in performing services as an employee are not paid under an accountable plan, they are wages subject to the withholding and payment of income and employment taxes." (THE ONE EXCEPTION I SEE, WHICH WOULD NOT APPLY TO OP:) "Under the authority of § 7805( , a taxpayer that actually paid amounts separate from wages for the use of employee-provided equipment (such as described in Situation 1 and the truck described in Rev. Rul. 68-624) and reported these payments on timely issued Forms 1099 for calendar years beginning before January 1, 2002, may continue to report these payments on Form 1099 for periods ending on or before December 31, 2002." "Situation 1 – Business A is engaged in pipeline construction and repair. A hires welder B and heavy equipment mechanic C to perform services as employees in connection with the construction of a pipeline. Business A requires B to provide and maintain a welding rig for B=s use in providing welding services and requires C to provide and maintain a mechanics rig for C=s use in performing repair and maintenance services at the work site on the employer=s heavy equipment. B and C are required to provide rigs sufficient to perform the required employee services. (Neither employee B nor C is an independent contractor.) A welding rig consists of a truck equipped with a welding machine and other specialized welding equipment required to perform welding services. B is paid an hourly wage of $X for the performance of services as an employee. In addition, A pays B an hourly amount of $Y per hour for providing the welding rig. This rig reimbursement is only paid for those hours that B performs services as A’s employee."

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rr-02-35.pdf (edited to an irs.gov link) This is the ruling I gave to the employer the one time I ran into this. If this is still the law, the OP is in a tough spot. The proper way to file is to show it as income, pay the employee part, and let the IRS deal with the employer. The client/employee may not want to "rock the boat", and want you to treat it incorrectly (according to the ruling) as a proper 1099.

Not an expert on this...Saw this once, from a payroll perspective. The employer changed (properly IMO) to adding the amount as part of their pay, and paying all employer taxes on what used to be "rent".

I thought that might do the trick. I "wish" there were a driver flag to indicate a PDF or other "printer", as opposed to a piece of hardware you load paper into, but there isn't. Many (including myself) are left with only scanning the printer name (which can be edited by the computer user) when it might be better to use (or not) certain types of "printers".

Just thinking. How is ATX hiding primo as an option? What if you went into control panel, and changed the name of the primo pdf "printer" to something else, say "HP LaserJet II" (a known name) or "HP LJ 9999" (a fudged name)? Won't work if ATX forces final printing only through their own driver, but if there is a printer selection dialog of some kind, maybe they are simply scanning the printer names and not including known PDF drivers...

needmoreupdate, Something wrong with saving with each bit of data entered? I think not. What if there is a power outage? A network glitch? Imagine filling out a long form, the software does not save each field, and you have to give your computer a three fingered salute, the power goes out, or whatever. A SSD for active data is not the best use (at present). SSD's are currently best used for static things, like your OS and program files. At some point in the future, after years of real world use, then maybe a SSD for heavy changeable data.

Forgot to add, seeing more cases of incorrect SSN on W2 this year, as states stop allowing the full SSN on the pay stub.

A common misunderstanding, both employEE and employER, is believing when the money was earned matters. One or both may be thinking the W-2 should include wages "earned" during the year instead of the proper wages "paid" during the year.

Multi purpose printers can do many things, none of them excellent. Jack-of-all-trades, master of none. While I have one for fax, copy, and color, my main printer is a b/w laser printer. I like the high page per minute count...

Not a user or developer of ATX. WIth that said, I bet the default setting is taken from the printer's software. It would be poor programming to change your default setting, but is proper to show you the setting and allow it to be changed for the current job. There are also bad printer drivers, which show an incorrect setting, do not respect a program's request to change a setting, and so on. If you cannot get the printer's defaults (using Windows) set to not mirror, and there is no physical setting for mirror on the printer, then delete the printer (from Windows), then reinstall it. For the reinstall, use the manufacturer's web site, not a CD you got with the printer. If that does not work, see if the manufacturer offers a generic driver to try. Sometimes the less "features" in the printer software, the better the printer software actually works.

State forms are a tough nut to crack. CA forms are stable from year to year. We also prepare NYS45, which is the opposite of stable. Many states have a fill in the figures online setup. We could buy a state form add on to incorporate, but our price would have to go up a large amount. Most of the vendors want a large license fee, and some sort of per customer fee. I also LOATHE having to depend on some other vendor for what would become something I would have to support. Forms don't work, call me, then I would have to call someone else and hope they fix the problem quickly. So, as of this writing, we have not added other state forms. I thought about creating a separate state add on, priced by the number of forms and the frequency of changes, but I suspect most of our customers would rather prepare those forms manually versus paying more than the program price for state specific forms. I literally could have ended up with a program (state forms) that only a couple of people used.

KC, Your statement "This is true for almost every program" is not true. I would not even say it is a majority of programs, and could easily be a small minority. The major cause of leaks is more likely to be Windows itself. Properly coded programs close every file they directly open. If the program is using any shared resources (implicit loading), like a system DLL, Windows manages the shared resource, unloading it when the "count" of uses of the shared file is zero. Some programs do have resource "leaks", but they usually will not cause a major issue unless you start, stop, and restart the offending program a very large number of times without running much else. There are programs (MS office and open office come to mind) which have a preloader. Such a preloader opens when the computer starts, and preloads certain files, usually dll files. The reason is to make it "appear" the application loads faster, when the reality is it shifted some of the load time to computer startup. Sometimes software does not have a preloader, but after first open, does not clear all resources, on purpose, usually via an option in the program's setup. One tip, counter intuative, is to turn off disk caching. Developers are well aware file writing is the slowest part of a computer, and optimize when and how to write files. Using caching means Windows controls the file write timing (which opens a real can of worms safety wise). Caching was a valid tool back in DOS 5 (when it was introduced) and we were dealing with 640k of memory and data on floppies, but is not needed, and can be dangerous, on a modern computer. Anther tip, check the task scheduler to see what things are automatically happening and when. You may have something set to run right in the middle of your heavy use times.