BulldogTom

It is pretty simple to roll the returns, so I don't think that would be a premium feature. Besides, trying to keep all the information for each year in a single file is hard enough. Imagine if you had 10 years of 1099's for a client and had to make sure you put them all in the correct years in one input setting. Sorry Kyle, I think I would prefer one year at a time. Tom Lodi, CA

@JohnH - You might be on to something. @Zeke - No skin off my nose. @ Jainen - I love Panetta. He is a good guy. Tom Lodi, CA

From MSN earlier today. Sen. Dianne Fienstien (D - CA) wants them to seat Burris. Looks like the Senate is going to be forced to do so. The Illinois Supreme Court is being asked to immediately hear Burris' case. The pressure is mounting and it looks like the Dems will have to take him. Obama says he is willing to accept him too. Score one for the Governor. He is going to thumb his nose at the Dems in Illinois and just do what he wants. Tom Lodi, CA

If you don't get your disk, you can borrow mine. We can meet in Elk Grove tomorrow to get it. Just sent me a PM if you really need the disk. I know it works because I loaded it twice this year. Tom Lodi, CA

I like your governor. Straight up and honest. "I want money for this appointment". It is the same thing every politician does, he just did it in the open. I like a man who tells it like it is. We need more pols like him. Tom Lodi, CA

Actually, this is an old story. The state has passed a budget, but the revenue projections were whacked out. So the state does not have enough cash to operate. They have shut down some construction projects. The State Controller says he does not have enough cash in the bank to make the refund payments. I had a client in my office the other day looking to make a final estimated tax payment. I told him not to make it and to pay the penalty instead. When I ran his preliminary state return, he won't owe a penalty anyway, so he will just mail a check with his return. Wait until they actually start showing "poor" people on the news who can't buy groceries with the IOU's. That is going to be interesting. I am pretty pissed off, I did not get my withholding down low enough when this possibility was first mentioned in November, now I am going to get an IOU from the Governator. I wonder if you can send back the IOU as your first estimated tax payement? Tom Lodi, CA

We had a great Christmas and New year. I hope everything is working out for you. You are in my prayers my friend. Tom Lodi, CA

I think what he is getting at is the old problem that always happens when you call tech support - they blame it on hardware and tell you to call your tech. Your tech cannot find a problem with the hardware, and says it must be the software. You are now stuck in the middle of the blame game trying to get each side to work on your problems while the time slips away. Wouldn't it be nice to have an expert on BOTH the hardware AND software available to you? I think that is what Kyle is asking - would you be willing to pay for support if it was for BOTH sides of the equation. Interesting concept, but as always, price is the over riding concern. As billy said, why would I pay for support that is included in my software. On the other hand, it might make me decide to use a certain hardware tech if I knew they were competent in my software applications. Tom Lodi, CA

Eli, Good to hear from you on the board. You need to read your contract. SBBT will not be separately adding the doc fee this year. You will need to add it into your invoice. If you go into billing, you can add a fee when you pull that form into the return if you are billing by the form. If not billing by form, you can just add it manually when you create the invoice. Hope this helps - and don't be such a stranger. Tom Lodi, CA

I could not find it on-line. Can someone confirm the first day to transmit is 1/16/09? That is the first day indicated on the Refund Cycle Chart. Thanks. Tom Lodi, CA

Actually, I am suprised no one has tried this. Take the taxpayer's 2008 return, then fill out a 2009 W4 with Advanced EIC payments for the client. Calculate the amount of the Advance EIC and CTC, Loan it to the client at 19-29%, prepaid, and they don't have to repay the loan until next year when you file their 2009 tax return. Don't you think clients who have "people" wouldn't be signing up like crazy? Tom Lodi, CA

That is hillarious. Does that mean ERC is Jeff Probst? Tom Lodi, CA

Does that mean the are in line for a federal Bailout? I wouldn't put it past them. Tom Lodi, CA

Interesting. HSBC is still providing RAL banking for HRB but not for anyone else. HRB must have some kind of insurance on their RAL business to keep HSBC as their bank. At one point they owned a big chunk of Household, but I thought they divested that holding. Thanks JRS. Tom Lodi, CA

I was sitting in my office when a bus went by with an HRB advertisement on it for W2 Loans. Some crap like "I got my money with only a W2 because I got people". The bank I am using (SBBT) strictly forbids W2 Ral's. So who is HRB working with that allows them to make this loan? or are they making this loan themselves? After Household got out of the RAL business, who is HRB going to use for their bank? Are any of the Banks that ATX is partnered with allowing W2 loans? I don't want to do any of them, I am just asking. Inquiring minds want to know. Tom Lodi, CA

I have been trying to modify the billing master and it just isn't coming out the way I want. I came to the same conclusion you did, but I was hoping someone would figure out a better way. Thanks KC Tom Lodi, CA

Use the annualization method on the 2210 to try and reduce the penalty for underpayment if you don't get enough paid in. Tom Lodi, CA

No. I think I saw part of it one time. Not my style of TV. Tom Lodi, CA

I love the new feature that allows line item billing in the Sch D and in the 4562. Of course, I want my cake and to eat it too. I would like to be able to charge for the form AND each line item. Has anyone figured out a way to do this? For example - I have a client that has 4 trades and another that has 40 trades. I want to charge each $10 for adding the form to the return AND $1 for each line item. First client pays $14 for his Sch D and second client pays $50 for his. Any Ideas on how to make that happen? Thanks. Tom Lodi, CA

Aha! It is the Bunny. It is always the Bunny that has the answer in ATX. If they ever got rid of the Bunny, the software would be useless. Thanks for the proceedure Dan. Now - if I can just figure out how to charge for the Stimulus Payment, I would be on my way. Tom Lodi, CA

Taxbilly, you are ruining my fun. I figured that is what Jainen meant, but because it was not the most precise sentence he has ever written, and could be twisted a little bit, that is what I was doing. What do they call it - trying to get his knickers twisted? Now, back to the original intent. Do you think that is why they left it that way? We are talking about a very small amount of returns that would have a foreign property tax for their main home. I think the majority of us are looking at the personal residence tax amount and comparing it to the standard deduction plus the 500/1000 amount. I know what I need to look for. I am just wondering if this is how the software is intended to operate this year? Or am I missing something (like a new check box) that will make the software do this for me? Tom Lodi, CA

No - you can deduct the amount of property taxes you paid on your personal residence on your Schedule A, and it does not have to be FOREIGN. The new change this year is you can deduct up to $1000 of your personal residence property taxes as an additional amount of your standard deduction. Since we are already filling in the amount of the personal residence property taxes on the Sch. A worksheet, it seems to me that amount should flow to the worksheet for the additional amount on the standard deduction. The software already makes the choice of which option is best (std vs itemized), so it should make the std deduction plus the amount of prop taxes paid versus the sch A amount part of the decision process, don't you think? Tom Lodi, CA

I have been playing with the software, and I found two things I don't really like this year. #1 - If the property taxes are filled in on the schedule A, but the amount of Schedule A is less than the Standard Deduction, the amount of Property taxes does not flow to the new worksheet for the Standard deduction. You have to go manually to the worksheet and fill in the amount again. Am I doing something wrong? Wouldn't it seem that if there is an amount added to the Sch. A for property taxes, it would flow to that worksheet when it realizes that the Standard deduction is better? #2 - Stimulus Refund Recovery Worksheet. This thing takes a little bit of time to get through. I want to charge for it, but I can't find a place to add the charge in the billing rates? Am I just missing it, or are we not able to charge for this? I only want to charge if I have to fill out the forms. If anyone out there has some time to check these out and see if the problem is with me (most likely) or if this is in fact the way the program operates this year? Tom Lodi, Ca

Good call KC. It is not a real bother. He is not selling anything (yet?) and it may work out for us in the long run. If there are too many of these type of posts, then start putting them in the round file. Tom Lodi, CA

There is another way - similar to the others - if the two computers are networked. Create the file like Kyle said, export to it, and then on the new laptop, import from that file across the network. Tom Lodi, CA