Tax Prep by Deb

Same here on everything you said! I have dreaded the start of tax season this year for a number of reasons. But I have had several of my clients come, some already setting appointments, but I am sure hoping for more than what I have gotten so far. My dad passed away in September, and he was my right hand man! Every time a client comes through the door they ask about him and I have to tell them and watch their shock over and over again. Fortunately they are very understanding, but it causes me to dread them coming in because of having to repeat everything over and over. I knew this would be a tough year for more than one reason. Always in the past my Tax season money was what I would call my play money and what I made through bookkeeping paid the monthly bills. When my dad passed away our family budget was reduced as well as many of my bookkeeping clients either folded their businesses or dropped off the face of the earth, so needless to say this year I will be living off what I make doing taxes. So even though I am having trouble getting going this year, I know I must! I share a home with my parents and we all pulled our resources to stay afloat, but now it's mainly my income and what social security my mom gets that keeps us going. I keep telling her it is expensive to live! I hope everything goes well for you this filing season! Deb!

I have tried to stay away from preparing any type of corporate or partnership returns because of lack of experience. I was wondering if anyone could recommend any book or publication that would be helpful in understanding the in's and out's of preparing these types of returns? I do have some accounting experience, but would appreciate help especially in preparing the schedule's dealing with balance sheets. If anyone has suggestions would you please share these with me? I've turned work down because of this, however with the economy the way it is I hate to send anyone away. Thanks, Deb!

Tom, I have a feeling it's like last year. The same things happened. They allowed us to send them but ATX held them until as they told me, California turned on there machines. If I remember correctly it was almost two weeks after the federal returns started flowing that I received any CA acknowledgments. This year with the budget mess it could be who knows when they will even start receiving the returns let alone issue refunds or IOU's. Because of that I'm not overly concerned as my clients know they won't be receiving their state refunds any time soon, it's just a bit annoying in that we can't hold them, we have to process them when we receive the doc's signed but now they sit in limbo! Oh well, I will keep checking and as soon as I get something back I will let you know! Deb!

Not mine. I froze my prices this year and sure hope my clients appreciate it and refer others to me. With the economy the way it is I felt that if I froze my prices they would still come instead of trying to do them themselves. Only the next three months will tell if it was a smart decision. Deb!

If you have been on hold for 9 hours I would assume something is not right. The longest every, which was last year in the middle of transfer of support I was on hold for about an hours. Never ever, ever, ever, would I wait for 9 hours. Something must be wrong. Deb!

Thanks for the info! Deb!

Sorry, I don't know what else to try, but maybe someone else will. Deb!

Wendy, Have you been able to open any returns? Is it limited to just this one? The reason I ask is that maybe you can import the file from your backup (if you backed the return up) and get it to open that way. It could be that something has happened to just the one particular file. Deb!

Wendy, If you already have the program installed, but are having trouble opening the return go to the MyATX website go to the tab that says download, look on the left hand side and you should see prior year updates. Select that and you will find an update tab for your 2006 program. I am quite sure you will have to down load the update and save it to your desk top then install it from there. But I checked and it is available on the regulary MYATX website. I'm here messing around, so I will check back and see if you were able to locate it. Hope this helps, Deb!

Jainen, don't give up. Even though what you say may not get through to the ones you are posting to, there are many like myself who have learned a great deal from you expertise, and who truly value your opinion! Deb!

Already this year I have answered many calls asking me if I could do their tax return with just their last pay stub. I politely tell them that by law I can not and you can almost hear them say well HR Block says they can. I explain to them that these are loans, that HR Block cannot submit the e-file without the proper documents such as W-2 and 1099's. These people rarely bring me their work. Well today I got a notice from IRS that is reminding me of this very point and also indicates what could happen if they do a monitoring visit and I do not have the W-2 1099's ect. I thought about framing it so that all my clients can see it, but then again my clients already know I will not do that, so they never ask. The ones who do ask don't come in. So I guess it's just for my own peace of mind that I am doing things correctly! Deb!

The IRS Stimulus Payment Website is back up and running. Just wanted to let anyone who has been waiting know! Deb!

This is just off the MyATX website: Fee Collect returns with EFC Rej 15 01/19/2009 Problem: You attempt to efile a Fee Collect return, and you get EFC reject 15 for fee mismatch. Solution: This is a problem here in our system. We are working to correct this error and should have a resolution later today. For now, please hold these returns until this message is changed to advise you to send; or you could take the Fee Collect off the return and send as a regular efile, but holding the returns for a few hours is probably the better solution for most EROs. Deb!

This is just off the MyATX website: Fee Collect returns with EFC Rej 15 01/19/2009 Problem: You attempt to efile a Fee Collect return, and you get EFC reject 15 for fee mismatch. Solution: This is a problem here in our system. We are working to correct this error and should have a resolution later today. For now, please hold these returns until this message is changed to advise you to send; or you could take the Fee Collect off the return and send as a regular efile, but holding the returns for a few hours is probably the better solution for most EROs. Deb!

Has any body receive acknowledgments from California yet? I sent a return off this morning, but have not received ack for it. I'm not concerned, just curious. Deb!

Looks a 100% better than first filings for last year! Maybe a smooooooth year is ahead? We can all hope! Deb!

That has also been my experience. They have had the knowledge and are able to help quicker. I was promised a call back and they actually did it. My experience so far this year equals what it was until last year. Deb!

Thanks for the reminder that tomarrow is a holiday. I had completely forgot about it! Deb!

Same problem here. I think it might be down or they are doing maintenance on it. Just keep checking back, however I suspect nothing will change until tomarrow. Deb!

Looks like your files may be among the 500 that they are waiting for. With the exception of Austin, so far it seems better than last year. Deb!

Same here, only in the year the distribution was returned he will also receive a 1099R that should be coded that the distribution was a return of investment for a prior year, this is very important because if not coded correctly one might assume that it is a taxable distribution. But obviously you knew that and that is why you were asking about ammending the 2007. Deb!

According to MYATX they should begin receiving acknowledgments Sunday afternoon. RAL acknowledgments however will not be till later in the evening. Deb!

Your very welcome! I remember getting caught up in that last year, so I asked my clients to patiently wait till Monday to e-file. I don't do any bank products so it really doesn't matter, except that if I sent it now and it got clogged, we might miss this weeks deadline and that would delay their refund. They were agreeable, so I will transmit on Monday. Hope you have a busy and successful year too! Deb!

My experience this year with tech support has likewise been worth what ever wait I had. Fortuntely I only have had to call twice, the first time it took less than 30 minutes to get me up and running. The second time it took around 4 hours, but it ultimately was traced back to an issue with my laptop. What was so neat about that experience is that I was promised a call back because I had to leave for an appointment, I was asked about a time convenient for me which was two days later, and lo and behold I got my call back, and the problem was easily found that time around. I really have nothing but praise for ATX this year. They really have stepped up their support over last year. Deb!

I had a client recently ask me if HR opening up at our local Walmart was hurting my business. I told her no, actually HR has helped me grow my business. Each year I get new clients that have just come from HR upset because of their mistakes, and pay me to redo their returns. They love the personal attention, my willingness to sit down and discuss things with them and the fact that I can quote them a price over the phone. In defense of HR there are some who work for them, at least in the past, that are very competent. I took their basic training course years ago and the lady teaching our class was excellent! To put it to you this way, after leaving her classs if I needed my taxes done by someone I would definitely go to her. I have never had any doubt that she knew what she was talking about. Sadly she is the exception! Deb!