Late-filing penalty bug in ATX 2008 & 2009

[TaxCPANY]

ATX confirmed that in BOTH its 2008 and 2009 Form 1040 software (including the Archive Disk, that I got, today), returns filed over 60 days late still default to the pre-12/31/2008 $100 minimum, not the $135 minimum since in effect. Please check any returns you know will be that late; I've embarrassed myself, twice, now.

VTY, TaxCPANY

[JohnH]

Why embarrass yourself? Consider thie - just estimate the P&I, tell the client it's an estimate, and then tell them to expect a bill about 30-45 days after they file which will make all the final adjustments. I do this and never have any complaints - they usually give me the bill to check over for accuracy, but they expect to pay more based on what I told them at the outset.

They're filing late, do they really care about a hundred dollars or so one way or the other? Not if you set the expectation correctly.

But it is good to know that ATX isn't getting it right, so thanks for the heads up.

[TaxCPANY]

I'm still living in the good ol' days, John, when, if the remittance were accurate within a few dollars, there wouldn't be a followup from the feds (albeit NYS & NYC always nickel & dime). Most of my late- and previously-non-filers are rather phobic about notices, too. Kurt

Why embarrass yourself? Consider thie - just estimate the P&I, tell the client it's an estimate, and then tell them to expect a bill about 30-45 days after they file which will make all the final adjustments. I do this and never have any complaints - they usually give me the bill to check over for accuracy, but they expect to pay more based on what I told them at the outset.

They're filing late, do they really care about a hundred dollars or so one way or the other? Not if you set the expectation correctly.

But it is good to know that ATX isn't getting it right, so thanks for the heads up.