rfassett

I used it two seasons ago to print the 2012 tax returns to as a pdf so I could print them to paper more efficiently. I had quite a set up here. I had my multi monitor computer here at my desk doing tax returns and another computer on a table here in my office with paperless plus open and I would print a return to it, run over and print the return to the printer from there. It solved the slow printing problem in the 2012 software. I liked Paperless Plus and would be using it today except that we already had been using a paperless software package which my staff really likes and I could not justify teaching them the new package. But again, I liked what I saw.

NECPA - I get it. You are being hammered from a number of different directions. And your husband's health is not the least of those. You know that he and I are somewhat alike - but his issues are more serious than mine. I cannot image the stress that puts on you. After last tax season, I told my wife that I honestly did not think I had another tax season in me,. I did not say that to put more stress on her, but to vent like you are doing now. Well, here we are on the cusp of another season. My feelings are the same as when I voiced that comment, but I will not burden her with that stress again. That was not fair. If your husband has not yet checked out www.pacemakerclub.com he should. As to meeting clients in the store, a few years back I went to a high school play that my son was in and ran into a client whose information was setting on my desk. The husband questionrd why I was not at work. Fortunately, before I could raise my fist to punch him in the face, his wife takes him by the arm and says, "leave him alone, he needs time off too." Well, in retrospect I realize the guy was just making conversation but I took it personal. We all need to guard against taking it personal. Now here comes my most potent advice I can give - BREATHE! That's right, take a deep breath. OK - do it again. And again. Are you feeling better yet? Sometimes we forget to breathe.

Naveen, First and fore most - I pray to the Living God that you and your wife will find peace in your situation. I pray to the Living God for a very special blessing upon your wife and you and ask that He will hold you and your wife in the palm of His hand at this - your hour of need. I will pray for you and her. As to cancelling Drake - at whatever the cost, you are better off staying with something you know at this time. I speak from experience, somewhat. I left ATX last year and on February 6th, 2014 my wife's step-dad (who was much more like an extremely very, very dear friend to both her and I) lost his battle with cancer and passed on. Frankly, my life would have been somewhat less stressful at that time had I not also been learning a new software. And with all of the extra nuances in the preparation stage this year, I would strongly encourage you to avoid a change right now with all the other things going on in your life. For the record, I would think that Drake would be the last company to hold your feet to the fire. Call them - and let us know how it goes. But more important, keep us in the loop about your wife! God Bless, my friend!

Clergy and Church tax law is, as Jack states, different but not necessarily difficult. If you are going to go down this path, I would suggest you get a copy of the Richard R Hammar's Church and Clergy Tax Guide. I don't disagree with Jack about the W-2 / 1099 issue, but the fact remains, many Churches still do the 1099 thing. You will need to counsel your Pastor client to get his Church on board with doing it right. He is in a very good position to steer that ship. Clergy law, again, is very different and just cannot be addressed in this small a space. I have about twenty or so Pastor's and Churches that we do work for. Good luck! But for starters, google Hammar and his book. It is the bible of the clergy and church tax world. (Every pun intended.)

Your concern is valid. Property appraisals are very subjective. And if the two appraisals are done by different appraisers, the second one could very well be different, and significantly so. I work closely with an attorney on a lot of different things and this past summer he needed to get an appraisal for an inheritance tax return for a mutual client. We questioned the value on the appraisal so requested another from a different appraiser. The second appraisal came in 30% less than the first. The two were done just four weeks apart by professional appraisers with very good reputations in the area. So yes, they could be different because appraisals are unlike tax returns are not a finite art. Wait, that isn't right. Tax returns are the same way. Not necessarily as subjective - but professionally subjective none the less. But I digress. Yes, they could be different. Is the second warranted? Apparently the bank thinks so.

I always check the box and have been able to talk to the IRS with check box authority probably about 60% of the time. I do believe it will be a mute issue going forward because of the derelict nature of the notices that will be coming out in the future. We will not have time to communicate with the IRS before the authority expires. On the issue of getting 2848 for all clients, I have a colleague that does that religiously. The problem I have with it is the size of my client base. His practice is about a fifth of the size of mine. I shutter at the thought of how many times I would have to answer the question "why do I have to sign that?" and "tell me again why I need to sign that?". So we just keep a stack of blank ones out front and have the client sign one on an as need basis. They never ask those questions when they are holding an IRS letter. And on yet another note, I was just reading the instruction regarding the check box authority and it states that the authority expires no later than the due date (without extensions) for the next tax return. For the 2014 tax returns, the instructions go on to say that that date for most people will be April 18th 2015. WWWWHHHHAAAAAATTTTTT?????????????????????? THREE EXTRA DAYS OF TAX SEASON NEXT YEAR? In the nomenclature of my 24 year old: UGH!

cred65 Ask the bank how they expect you to attest to such a thing? Seriously! How do YOU know, anymore than the client, what sort of affect such a move would have? On a similar note, a few years back, I had a CALL from one of the local banks that said they were updating their files and needed me to tell them if a particular client was still in business. I told the caller, "grab your coat and car keys, run out to the parking lot, jump in your car, and drive the ten minutes to the customer's business and see for yourself". The banker was not impressed. The fact of the matter, my firm does the monthly write up work for the client and it certainly was and is still in business. But I did not tell the caller that. Some of these request no longer border on the ridiculous. They ARE ridiculous.

Just a thought, did you rollover your companies and whatever else should be rolled over?

As a reminder, I turned tail and ran after the ATX 2012 fiasco, which in a large way contributed to my now walking around with a piece of titanium in my chest that goes thump thump thump. I used ProSystem fx Access (another CCH product) last year and although it is billed as a "cadillac" package, I was not all that impressed. So after some thorough analysis and study of the 2013 and early 2014 ATX package, I have decided to return for another go. So far I like what I see. It is going to be a very long season though, I feel. And gratefully, with anticipated limited software issues. Anyway, it is good to be back. I was back to the Doc for my pacemaker checkup yesterday and he was surprised that my battery life is down to 3.5 years (having been initially implanted just 15 months ago). So he reduced my heart rate (I am 100% dependent on my pacemaker) by 5 beats per minute and a very unexpected consequence of that move is that I can not get warm today. I guess this too shall pass. I look forward to working through this season with you folks. Have a Great Weekend! We will be here part of the day tomorrow working on payroll reports and take Sunday off. We will work on payroll reports and 1099's until the end of the month by which time I expect you all to have ALL of the bugs worked out of the software. Later Ron

I have been issued a warning due to a comment I made to one of Jack's comments. I hereby express my deepest apologies to Jack since it has been determined that I was out of line. That said, I made a comment a month or so ago that I was through with this forum and in a weaker moment I came back to it. So, since I am not the least bit interested in dealing with some of this absolutely incredibly immature postings, I am hereby officially through with this forum. Period! I have nothing else to gain from or to give to it. I will miss most of you, but I will from this time on share with much more professional forums than this. I sincerely wish you all the best of luck now and in the future. Good bye! Now if the moderator who issued me a warning while stating total agreement with my posting will PM how to remove myself from this forum, it will be totally done. Good bye!

If it is not true, then explain. These kind of holier than thou comments are not helpful and have a tendency to incite. I agree with jshtax, when I look at the ATX database in the formsets formset folder all I see is folders with jumbled numbers and letters. The files inside that folder lends no further identification. Is there a way to identify which client owns which file?

I fear this is the mindset of many of the tax software companies as well. The reality, not all of us are sitting on our thumbs for the next two months waiting for tax season to begin. My practice for example, is a year round practice with tax season being just a blip in the schedule. We do not have the luxury of taking the next "2 months to sort things out". And none of us should have to.

ProSystems fx converted mine with several issues. I had instructions to convert them on my own but could not find my tax files database. I contacted ProSystems fx and they gave me additional instructions and I found the database but it would not populate in the conversion program. They remotely took over and tried several things that did not work but never gave up. The programmers got involved and it was learned that the database would not populate in the conversion file because of some "bad" ATX files (which did not affect the underlying tax returns). They resolved that and they were able to then convert all but five (mine) that I had password protected. We will get that fixed today. I am ready to begin working on organizers.

If you are looking for a fight, you have picked the wrong person. Go back and read my post and then your comment and see if this was not a political posting. My statement said that ANY CNN article (one side) or ANY FoxNews (side two) article would contain those things. Yes - this one does too. But so would the same article printed by FoxNews. And this will be my last posting on this thread.

"I don't consider this article politically motivated..." My wife has a saying that goes like this - "I know it is true because I made it up myself". Anything CNN or FoxNews sourced, in the current political climate we reside, is wrought with political under tones, mis-leading information, and out right lies. And this article is no exception. And please take note - I am not taking sides. Each side is as guilty as the other.

Agreed! I will move on. Thank you, good luck and good bye.

Well I have done pretty well over the years without having you tell me what to do, so I guess I can continue in that mode. Which software I do or do not use is not a concern of yours. We will continue to have differing opinions about what should be or should have been ATX's response to the 2012 debacle. Stay well my friend.

I never expect anyone to bow at my feet and kiss them. That is not my style. But I do think some communication that is not in the form of a sales pitch would be in order. If I did to one of my clients what they did to us, I would be bending over backward early and often to convey my remorse. You know, again, as I have stated before, it cost a great many of us lost clients, lost hours, lost revenue, and some of us even took a hit to our health because of the added stress. For all of those reasons and the fact that ATX will not own up, I will have a very difficult time trusting them. The fact that the beta testers were sworn to secrecy speaks volumes, in my opinion. Good luck. I hope it works for you.

So do tell. The first day of beta testing is behind us. What do the early returns indicate? If I remember correctly, ATX was long on talk short on substance last year. So far this year all I have heard about is the long own talk. Time will tell about the substance. Still waiting for that moment when they (the ATX folks) do the right thing and own up to the issues of last year. That little fact indicates not much has changed corporate-wise. That and the fact that the sales rep I have had for the last two years called a month ago to introduce himself as my new ATX sales rep. Mind you, I have bought just about everything with the ATX name brand on it for many, many years.

I truly and sincerely hope it works for you and ATX. But as I stated a couple of months ago and still believe, for the one man, one computer shop, ATX will be a great program for 2013. For those of us running a network environmnent, I have not seen or heard anything that convinces me that ATX has corrected the issues that plagued 2012. That is why I chose to leave. And the question did pop into my mind as I was typing this, I wonder if any of the beta testing is being done in a network environment. Anyway, thanks for sharing and I do hope ATX gets it together.

I am curious about the beta testing start date. I see that some are starting to test on September 9th. What are you testing? Is it the 2012 software with 2013 enhancements? Or is it the 2013 software? The reason for my confusion is that we normally do not get a release of the software until December - and then it is a very watered down version. How can we believe that anything tested now will resemble the December release? I pose this question simply because I am curious about the system. It really does not matter one way or the other to me since I have severed my ties with the ATX tax software and moved on. Just curious.

I agree - and I do not walk on water either. But the mistakes that I have made and learned from over the years did not affect the number of lives and livelihood that this person's did. Yes, I agree that there others involved and I think all of the decision makers should be tarred and feathered. And it is not just the fact that the mistakes were made - I have yet to see anyone owning up to it and putting any meat behind any sort of apology. No remorse whatsoever. Gramlich was the fall guy but that goes with the territory. He was at the top of the CCH Small Services organization when the systematic problems grew to the point they are. Those kind of problems start at the top and trickle down. He should remain out of executive positions forever in my opinion. And that is only because I care for the unsuspecting victims. I agree with Lynn - I am very glad I do not use any Accountants World's products.

Wow - and not about the article per se. I just had finger lock. So much I wanted to say but my fingers just would not move. So all I can say for Accountants World and its customers is good luck. For all of those credentials that Gramlich brings to the table, how could he allow the melt down of ATX? OK - I will stop there. Momma said if you do not have anything nice to say, say nothing at all. Wow!

There are a great, great number of gullible people looking for that pie in the sky windfall. I dealt with one this past tax season. An older gentleman whom I thought would know better was scammed by one of these get rich bogus lottery deals. He had sent them upwards of $100,000 before he brought it to my attention and I stepped in and put a stop to it. His sob story - "they promised me money that my son needed for a brain operation". There will always be someone at the intersection of where need meets greed that is going to be sucked in - hook line and sinker. And it will not always be the dullest tool in the shed. As to these preparers, hang 'em and burn 'em. They need to be made an example.

I believe in keeping my life as simple as possible. I would extend this return and prepare it with the 2013 tax software when it comes out. The shareholders shouldn't care because they are not going to report the K-1 until then anyway. That would be my choice of action barring any compelling reason to make my life more miserable by trying to force the software to do something it is not designed to do. Should I have to take that approach, for whatever reason, my hourly rate would double or maybe even triple.