gfizer

I had this problem very early on but it was corrected by one of the various updates along the way.

This has been my experience as well.

Ditto, Tom. I am hoping that they will be able to iron out the kinks during the off season and come back strong next year. I really do think there are some great features lurking under the bugs. I've looked at several other packages and ATX is the best value for the type of practice I have. I just hope they are able to survive. Gina

I received an email from ATX yesterday telling me that update 12.11 was now available but I'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole until I have no other choice. 12.10 is working marginally well for me right now and I see no reason to tempt fate.

I would dump him. If he really didn't report the 1099-C income last year, either by finding a less than honest preparer or just failing give the information to another preparer, then he wouldn't have any qualms about lying to you if he felt it necessary, especially since he knows you are playing strictly by the rules. I would have a hard time trusting him again so he would get my "I'm sorry but I'm not accepting anymore clients at this time." Just my two cents worth....

If you type "elections" in the form search it will come up "elections/statements". Add the form to your return. When you open the form click on the tab at the bottom of the page that says "1040". It is the first check box on the page.

I beat my last wireless keyboard to death. My oldest son looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Mom, I don't think that will help." Luckily he had pity on me and bought me a new one for Christmas.

Ken, I'm not sure I understand your question, but apparently your client works in the city of Georgetown which is located in Scott County and they have both a city and county payroll tax. You don't have to do anything with the amounts shown on the W-2 for local tax except use them as a deduction on Schedule A. Hope this answers your question. If not, let me know.

Doesn't the payment have to be officially designated as housing allowance by the employing church or organization before the payment is made?

At least in our area the attorney who is handling the estate also takes care of arranging for the filing of the fiduciary returns. I would ask your client if he knows who the attorney for the estate is and then contact him/her to inquire as to whether or not a return has or will be filed.

I agree with Jack. Only the person entitled to claim the dependency exemption can claim the education credit regardless of who actually paid the expenses.

"Sometime walk down to the Math wing, and see if there are any coaches down there teaching Math with waivers. We had one that liked kids so much, he made them run till they threw up. He treated the cheerleaders better, not sure what that was about. Also, ask the Algebra II teacher if she ever has to teach behind a crappy Algebra I teacher. That is a special kind of misery. I mean reward." Rita - This describes my freshman and sophomore year Algebra I and Algebra II experience to a "T." It's uncanny really. Our football coach was our Algebra I teacher. Couldn't teach his way out of a paper bag. Sat me on his desk during the middle of class one day and rubbed my calves because the girl's basketball coach told him I was having trouble with shin splints. Can you say embarassing....not to mention wrong! Fortunately my Algebra II teacher was awesome. He knew what he was up against and basically taught two years of Algebra in one.

Yesterday I went to church, came home and spent the day painting my foyer and stairway. May not sound like fun but it was something I WANTED to do for a change. Today I spent the biggest part of the morning looking at cabin rentals online for my 25th wedding anniversary coming up in May. It can't get here soon enough! I will pay for my selfish pursuits tomorrow!

Taxpayers have a daughter who was 23 and a full-time student who resided with the taxpayers in 2012. Daughter married in June of 2012 but she and her husband lived (and continue to live) with the taxpayers for the remainder of the year. Daughter and her husband had very little income and filed a joint return for the sole purpose of receiving a refund of income tax withholding. Daughter did not claim her own exemption on her jointly filed return. I read through the EIC instructions and it appears to me that the taxpayers should be able to claim the EIC for 2012 but when I filed the return it was rejected and the reject explanation said that the child's SSN on Schedule EIC could not be that of a spouse on another accepted return for the same period. I went through the questions on the EITC Assistant on the IRS website and it said that they should be eligible as well. Am I missing something? Should I just paper file the return?

Basis for new vehicle would be the cost of the new vehicle after trade-in allowance plus the adjusted basis of the traded vehicle. $25000 - $11000=$14000 + $8000 = $22000

Thanks, Lynn!

Refunds on amended returns cannot be direct deposited. The taxpayer will receive a paper check in the mail. Processing of amended returns can take up to six months. They shouldn't expect their refund anytime soon.

I just went to import the K-1 data from the partnership return I prepared earlier today into the partner's individual return and the link is grayed out and inactive. I've done several of these imports already this year but I think this is the first one I've tried to do since installing the 12.10 update. Anyone else having trouble with this, or know of a solution?

Bump! I'm probably over thinking this but I could really use some input. Thanks!

I am loving the new print manager as well. It is a big time saver to be able to print both paper copies and pdf copies at the same time. I am not having problems with anything printing that I didn't ask to print unless I forget to uncheck some of the boxes. The one thing that frustrates me is that I wish I could figure out how to keep the "federal attachments for state" from being checked on every return.

After installing the 12.10 update many (not all) of my completed returns were unchecked. I re-checked them all and they remained checked the next time I opened the program. I have had no problems printing letters and the "print page" icon is working properly.

I installed it this afternoon on my stand alone system. So far I have had no problems. Opening returns is somewhat faster and I haven't had any crashes since the update. All in all, it seems much more stable. Keeping my fingers crossed.....

I am preparing a partnership return for a law firm. One of the partners passed away in February of 2012. He had earned fees prior to his death and the remaining partners have agreed to split fees that come in on his ongoing cases equally between the deceased partner's estate and the partner who took over the case at his death. Obviously, this situation could continue for at least a few years until all of the cases that were ongoing at the time of his death are finalized. How would you guys handle this situation both for 2012 and for the years to come?

I charge by the hour for these as well. My time is too valuable to just give it away for a flat fee.

I don't really get that much either except from clients who will sometimes call and say, "I think my income is up/down by $x. How do you think this will affect me?" Most of my clients have been with me 15-20 years or more so in these cases I am familiar enough with their situations and have a good enough relationship with them that I am comfortable giving them an idea of what to expect. I've led a pretty sheltered tax preparation life. Prior to the 2011 filing season I prepared taxes through a local attorney's office for 25 years. They did not allow me to advertise so any new business I got was from word of mouth and client referrals. However, now that I am out on my own, advertising for new clients, I am constantly getting calls wanting to know how much I charge. I always tell them that my fees are based on the complexity of their return. I will have them tell me what forms they ususally file or what sources of income/expenses they have and then I will try to quote a fee based on their answers. What I am finding out with most of these though is that when the rubber meets the road there is usually always more to the return than what I based my quote on. I guess I either just need to start tacking on a little padding to my fee quote or just stop quoting all together. It has been a real eye-opener. Having had an established client base, most of whom have been with me for as long as I have been preparing taxes and who I consider friends, it has been difficult to get used to being lied to and taken advantage of by a few less than honest taxpayers.