JohnH

Back in 2013, Charles Krauthamer wrote the best article on this issue that I've ever read. It's entitled "Hail Armageddon". (I'm going to miss him tremendously)

Pretty soon they'll develop a way to tweet your tax return in.

I'll risk stepping over the line, but this truly is an equal-opportunity political rant. It applies to all political parties and politicians, regardless of the jersey they wear. Whenever a budget problem arises, the politicians wring their hands and tell us the ONLY way out is to reduce services that directly affect the public. The solution is always "we're going to be forced to sell the firehouse !, lay off police officers !, etc". There's never any thought of looking at city hall to see if there might be a little fat to be cut, or maybe a slew of non-essential bureaucratic positions to eliminate.

Next tax filing season is going to be "interesting". I'm already working through a scenario with an extension client who has a HELOC which is partially acquisition debt and partially not. Ironically he is hit by AMT in 2017, so I'm having to explain how the loss of part of the interest on the HELOC in 2017 will also be an issue in 2018 even though AMT won't be an issue for him then. In the past few days, another client asked a seemingly simple question about the tax benefits they would realize via a charitable donation of a car. The opportunities to mess up that answer were almost unending, and trying to logically explain all the permutations made it sound as though I was deliberately trying to obfuscate the issue. We really are going to need to rethink the stock answers we're been able to offer in the past to a number of fairly routine questions.

I trust that everyone on this forum knows their client base and how the changes to the tax law might affect their behavior. But HRB is a large company with numerous resources to evaluate their business potential going forward. I doubt they are making the decision to close those offices on a whim. If I were following a business model which paralleled that of HRB in any meaningful way, I'd feel compelled to consider the implications of their business decisions and what their conclusions might suggest for my own future prospects.

Does this mean I can complete the NC return I’m holding for an over-65 client who has deductible medical expenses? I’m on vacation this week and can’t check to see if Drake has removed the caution about this.

With all due respect, it seems to me to be something just slightly less complicated that a MLP, but with a mind-boggling holding period before any real benefit MIGHT be realized. Anything that appeals to perceived tax savings to make it somewhat profitable isn’t an investment - it’s another form of gambling. But it will likely appeal to people who will jump on almost any financial scheme (no matter the risk) if it mentions any prospect of escaping taxes.

Of all people, how to accountants and tax preparers fall for these scams? Aren't we always warning our clients about this sort of thing? If not, we should be. That alone should raise our own awareness. The sneakiest thing I've seen was a "Docusign" document I received via email. If I had been in the process of completing a real estate transaction, insurance, or other activity which involved exchanging e-signed documents, I might have fallen for something like that.

I bought two of the Brother HL-5470DW printers a couple of years back after hearing about the earlier versions on this forum. They've become my workhorses. Had been buying toner at list from Office Depot, but thanks to the comments on this thread I'm going to look for discounted toner and stop throwing that money away.

Does the client have a 10-12 year-old child, grandchild, niece, nephew, or neighbor?

Looks like there's a way to request an extension, but it requires signing in first. https://www.commerce.gov/news/blog/2018/04/economic-census-goes-online-data-provide-timely-information-health-us-economy

Over the years, I am certain I earned more by extending credit that by having a firm policy against doing so. I'm convinced that the few losses were more than offset by the additional revenue, especially at times when I was building my business. I've always tried to let my business judgement take precedence over emotions & ego, and this is certainly one of those areas where it's easy to get the two mixed up. Now that I'm approaching retirement, my attitude is more along the lines of "Rather than work for free, I'd just as soon take the time off."

At the bottom of my statements, I enter the following verbiage: "Pay Pal available: We can send you a statement via email which you can pay via PayPal if you prefer. Just call nnn.nnn.nnnn or email me at xxxx@xxx and I will follow up. If you can't pay all at one time, you can make partial payments." If they use PayPal, I just increase their fee the next year by double the PayPal transaction charge. If they don't pay, I forget about them. It was worth the fee to get rid of them. If they pay via PayPal but don't come back, it was worth the PayPal transaction charge to shame them into going somewhere else. It's silly to have to do this, but sometimes it works. I even have one client who earns over $250K but pays an average annual bill of just under $500 each year by sending me 2 - 4 PayPal payments. Some people just live their lives this way. You're not going to change them.

Switching between any input screen and the form view, as well as the reverse, can be accomplished via a mouse click or a single keystroke (whichever you prefer). Switching back & forth is virtually instantaneous - no delay for calculations to take place. As an added plus, Drake is so efficient you don't need a computer capable of launching the space shuttle in order to run it.

My journey was somewhat similar to yours (but with an ATX interim added). I was a Microvision customer until the Ultra Tax buyout. Stayed with UltraTax for the 2 or 3 years they discounted the software to stay in line with Microvision cost. But then they jumped the price considerably, so I evaluated Drake and ATX. I originally went with ATX because the "forms based" product intrigued me, but I gave up many of the features Microvision/Ultra Tax provided. During the 2012 ATX debacle, I finally took another look at Drake and realized it was actually closer to Microvision/Ultra Tax in terms of its flexibility, features, and efficiency. Although ATX worked fine for me until it didn't anymore, I now wish I'd skipped the ATX detour and had gone straight to Drake. I wasted lots of time with ATX - time that could have been better spent becoming more proficient with Drake and running more efficiently (profitably).

Well stated.

I've always considered the Royals to be on roughly the same level of irrelevance as Hollywood types & professional athletes. They are all actors playing various roles as they sit in their positions of wealth & the influence it gives them. Yet they have the audacity to frequently lecture the rest of us on how we ought to conduct our lives. They confuse themselves by thinking recognition confers competence. At least the public support of actors & athletes comes from those who voluntarily pay for the entertainment services they provide to us. But in the case of the Royals, their subjects are required to support their playacting & posturing through taxes and the force of law. Hence, they epitomize the ultimate welfare family. "We are not amused."

Rita, you're a very wise person.

I'm convinced they think of lots of things when legislation is drafted, but the timing of their thinking has a strong correlation to when & in what amount the campaign contributions come rolling in. Technical corrections become somewhat of an annuity stream for campaign financing.

But for the present, just one more addition to the most expensive welfare family in the world.

But in the snow it's smart to wrap some barbed wire around your bare feet, just to get a little traction.

Do you have the link to the Drake Forum? If not, here it is: https://forums.drakesoftware.com/forums/ Be sure to post your ATX-to-Drake questions on the sub forum here. Several of us switched over in the past few years and can probably be of help. I predict that you won't have any questions after the first season, provide you actually spend the time to learn Drake. You'll probably decide to switch to Drake completely and not look back, if your experience is like mine.

Can't fix that. When you develop a workaround, you often have to make allowances for extra input. The key question is, does the extra input produce a worthwhile result out of proportion to the benefit gained. If so, then it's critical to develop the discipline to use it wisely.

Well, as long as the note stays with the individual file, you're accomplishing what you want. The presence of an entry in that field alerts you to the fact that there's an ITIN on the return that needs attention.