BulldogTom

@Yardley CPAWould you be so kind as to provide a review of the enhancements after you get a chance to try them out? Tom Modesto, CA

I know. I am very careful about that. Tom Modesto, CA

Everything I send outside of the organization (banks, insurance companies, etc.) is labeled "Unaudited". I have a good idea of what I am and am not allowed to do in my position in the company. I don't sign on the bank accounts (especially payroll) because I do our internal audits and bank recs. I don't make any assurances that the work I have done can be relied upon for credit or lending decisions. In fact I always state that the financial statements are not to be relied upon for any reason and I reserve the right to revise or correct them as needed without notification. Hey, maybe I could be a CPA. I think this is what the 4 page engagement letter they send me every year says. Tom Modesto, CA

My 8 year old Canon Imageclass 1350 is dying and it is discontinued by Canon. I need a new printer/Copier/Scanner. I would like something similar and I came across this Brother while searching online. Anyone using this model? Thoughts? Thanks in advance Tom Modesto, CA

California Card Rooms. Gambling and attached restaurant. Think Casino without the slot machines. Tom Modesto, CA

Sorry in advance for the long post. This is for my CPA friends on the board. My day job is controller for a partnership. I am not a CPA, even though my degree is in accounting. I keep up "generally" with the FASB and AICPA requirements for financial statements, but only as it pertains to posting transactions to stay in compliance with GAAP (revenue recognition, lease accounting, etc). Otherwise, I don't really pay much attention to the reporting requirements. That is what we pay the CPA firm 60K per year to do - right? So anyways, when I came to work here, the books and records were a mess. I went through the prior year financials and I found all kinds of errors that the CPA passed on the prior year, though they did mention the items in the management letter. The 2018 management letter was about 9 pages long. I came on board late Oct 2019 and by some miracle, I got the balance sheet back in balance and had a pretty solid handle on the Balance Sheet accounts. The income statement was a little rough as to the accounts used to post the expenses, but the most important ones were pretty well dialed in. In January 2020 I revamped the entire accounting scheme and reporting, and now I have a pretty solid set of books for the company. Divisional Accounting, back up schedules for all the balance sheet accounts, proper monthly accruals, labor that ties out to the 941s, Monthly bank recs, daily cash transactional posting, etc. When we went through the 2019 audit with our CPA firm, they included 4 items in the management letter - 1) SOP's not up to date (OK, that is true, I did not have them at the audit, but I do now) 2) They want separate cash accounts for the various divisions, which ownership will not do 3) They want us to implement purchase orders, which ownership does not want, and 4) The controller does not know how to draft complete financial statements including footnote disclosures. Number 4 is correct. I don't do the footnotes enough (ever!) to be good at it. I have always had the CPA firm draft them. We discuss the things they want to know, I give them the info, and ta-da! they show up in my financial statement. Now the owner wants me to learn how to do the footnotes. He wants a clean management letter. I told him that I would need to learn how to do it. Is there a "Footnotes for Dummies" book out there that I can get my hands on so that I can write the footnote disclosures for this jerkwad CPA firm? I need to be an expert by 12/31/20. Otherwise I will be reduced to copying and pasting the prior year footnotes, changing the dates and crossing my fingers. Thanks for reading. Tom Modesto, CA

Actually, the things they have on there are not included in Max. Normal Education Credits are in MAX, but the optimization of them is not. The 2 year comparison will show the net income from Sch C, E or F, but not the details of the forms. The other states tax credits do not automatically populate in MAX. To me, with my clients, there is not enough of these returns to justify the extra expense of the functionality. I only have 3 clients with other state tax credits. I can print out the prior year C, E or F if I really need to drill into it. I have 1 client with a child in college and a 529 plan in place. If I did more multi-state returns or had a younger, wealthier client base, then these things might make sense. Just my opinion.

That is what I have. It has a good portal, but the app for phones is a little clunky. My millennial clients don't like the app. Tom Modesto, CA

It was actually not that hard after I fiddled around with it. Actually, I duplicated the return and fiddled in that one until I had it right. I prepared the 8824 first, then went to fixed assets, disposition tab, type exchange. Once I completed the disposition a new asset was created, but I was able to edit the activity. Everything flowed smoothly through to the Sch. E. It is pretty slick. Reminds me why I stick with ATX. This was one of those transactions I don't do very often, so I needed a quiet time to play with it. Tom Modesto, CA

Nope. Read the Master Tax Guide, but not the form instructions. Do I feel stupid.... Thanks Lion. Tom Modesto, CA

Parents have a 529 plan with son as designated beneficiary. He is not a dependent on their return. Distribution taken from the 529 plan to pay for his college education. How do I report the 1099Q in ATX to reflect this fact pattern. I went Add Forms and selected1099Q and I got a sales pitch for and upgrade (which pisses me off). Since it was all used for the designated beneficiary's education, do I need to report this on the parent's return? If so, where? How? Thanks Tom Modesto, CA

I have Max. Client exchanged out of a rental into another rental. I have all the numbers and I know what the answer is. I don't know how to enter it in ATX. I have been playing around a little bit with the Fixed Assets and the 8824 but I am not comfortable with what it is doing. Fixed assets is trying to do a straight asset for asset swap and keeping it in the same activity. Is this the way it is supposed to work? If it is, how do I break the depreciation between the 2 activities on the E if they are both looking to the same activity for depreciation? The 8824 does not seem to pull anything from the fixed assets, unless I am missing something. I am just very confused on how ATX expects me to execute the exchange in the software. Should I even be looking in Fixed assets to do this or should I just override the hell out of it to muscle it to the right answer. I hope that is not the way this should go. Here is what I have right now in ATX: Sched E activity #3 is the exchanged from rental. It has 3 assets associated with it, 1) house 2) land 3) replacement water heater. I need to create a new Sch E activity (#5) for the acquired rental with 2 Assets, 1) house and 2) land. The old rental closed on 8/23/19 and the new rental closed on 9/13/19. I need the Sch. E to stop depreciation on Activity #3 on 8/23 and start depreciating Activity #5 on 9/13 (the property came with a renter in place). The old rental was on much more valuable land and the house was not as good as the new rental, which is in a more affordable location with a nicer home, so I want to re-allocate basis of the home and land to reflect this. The new property is also more expensive than the old property (my client paid an extra 15K). That is why I don't like the straight depreciation swap on old home/new home, old land/new land, and what to do with the water heater? Can any of you walk me through the steps to get this return moving through ATX in the most efficient way? Like "start on this entry sheet on this form..." It has been a decade since I did a 1031 exchange in the software. Thanks in advance. Tom Modesto, CA

I think they can use a 529 plan for those expenses, but that is just off the top of my head. You would have to research it more to be sure. I don't think there are any federal tax credits allowed for home school expenses. Tom Modesto, CA

The term I was taught many years ago was "ticked and tied" - as in you ticked off all the numbers you added on the 10-Key tape, and tied the totals to the GL. Damn, I must be gettting old. Tom Modesto, CA

^^^ Yes! Exactly! grandmabee has it exactly correct. Tom Modesto, CA

Thats what I read. Just seems weird. Thanks for the confirmation. Tom :Modesto, CA

I am not very well versed in EITC. Taxpayer had a business that went under. Asset repossessed resulting in a loss on the 4797. Schedule C shows a profit, and that profit qualifies client for EITC according to ATX. Just want to make sure this is correct. ATX is ignoring the loss on the sale of the asset from the schedule C business. It makes sense, because ATX is ignoring the loss for the purposes of the SE tax as well. So it is consistent. Just looking for some affirmation that this is correct because it just turns out that it makes a pretty big difference when that loss on the 4797 is excluded from the EITC calculation. BTW, there is no way this client planned it this way, it is just the way it fell out when we got the information about his tax situation. No fraud concerns on my part. Thanks Tom Modesto, CA

Got it. Thanks guys. Tom Modesto, CA

Can you do it through the FA module? Won't it record depreciation? Tom Modesto, CA

Client started his trucking business in Jan. Purchased a truck and started hauling loads. By Oct, the truck was repossessed by the lender. I know there is no depreciation allowed, it is a purchase and sale in the same year resulting in a short term ordinary loss. How do I process this transaction in ATX to make it all flow without going through the fixed asset module? Thanks Tom Modesto, CA

I would wait. At some point the IRS will get to that mail and process. When that happens, if the amended already happened you could possibly really gum up the system. Just my opinion. Tom Modesto, CA

What I read must not have been what I thought you meant because I went back and read it again and now I think I know that I did not know what I thought you meant when I read it before. (lol) Anyway, CA thinks they are employees, even if they can prove in federal tax court that they are IC. CA law AB5 says they are employees, regardless of the facts and circumstances. Tom Modesto, CA

Agree with most of what you say, except the hours. The driver can turn off the app any time they want. And that is the big difference. Tom Modesto, CA

Yup. A judge has ruled that Uber & Lyft must immediately classify their drivers as employees. No stay of the order until they appeal. Proposition 22 on the November ballot would undue AB5 if passed and allow people to go into an independent contractor relationship with a company if they choose to do so. Authored by Uber and Lyft. The politics are getting ugly on it. I won't go into it, but if you look at the original title of the proposition, and the one the state just replaced it with, you will see what is going on. CA wants everyone to be an employee. Tom Modesto, CA

There is a move in the Senate to make the expenses paid by the PPP loans deductible. Apparently, the senators did not know the tax rules they passed and when Treasury issued guidance based on the tax rules as written and applying the rules that have been in effect since the tax law was born, these senators were shocked that Treasury did not know that the law they just passed should be interpreted the way they intended it and not the way they wrote it. (much sarcasm intended). I think the only way to do it is to make it a credit for 2020, like they did with the EIP they gave to the individuals. But they may be able to write something else to get them there. Tom Modesto, CA