The grass isn't greener on the other side of the septic tank

[IRonMaN]

For the folks up in arms about Intuit not having forms ready early enough, just a couple of latest tidbits from the Ultra Tax community:

2018 1065: Connecticut -

It's 2/22/19 and we still don't have Connecticut forms to prepare partnership tax returns. Does anyone know when Connecticut will be available? I have contacted the State of Connecticut and were told GoSystem has been approved so why the hold up?

FARMER TAX RETURNS DUE AND ULTRA TAX ISN'T READY TO FILE THEM -

What are other firms doing for farmers whose tax returns are due March 1st? I'm from Minnesota and Ultra Tax is not ready and I cannot file farm returns yet. DO WE NEED TO PURCHASE OTHER TAX SOFTWARE? WHAT IS THOMSON DOING TO HELP US?

[TAXOH · Accepted solution]

It sure doesn't seem any greener over there.

[IRonMaN]

If it's greener, it's only from the algae.

[TAXOH]

:joy:

[itonewbie]

Having too many lakes apparently causes problems with tax software development and update.  Doesn't matter if it's Intuit or Ultra Tax.

[IRonMaN]

Some folks don't realize that, so I thought I would share exhibit A.  
Did I forget to mention that Intuit paid me a bonus for posting that equal to the annual salary I earn here?  

[itonewbie]

Well, I'm not envious of your bonus.  My basic pay alone before bonus already matches yours ***including*** bonus and I'm a relatively new kid on the block. :smiling_imp:

[TAXOH]

That's true and a good way to see it

[itonewbie]

:joy:

[IRonMaN]

That is odd though.  Every year since I have been here they have agree to double my salary.  So maybe I need to check the calculations.  Let's see -
Year 1               $0.00
Year 2               $0.00 X 2 = $0.00
Year 3               $0.00 X 2 = $0.00
On second thought, I guess I can stop there.

[itonewbie]

Incidentally, that's my salary too.  That's equal pay for equal work, I guess.  Can't go wrong with that. :smile:

[TAXOH]

It looks like they're doing what they promised.

[itonewbie]

Imagine telling your shareholders that you double your C&B expenses each year while keeping price increase on the products in the teens to minimize impact to customers but yet profit per employee still rises YOY.

[IRonMaN]

All I can say is numbers don't lie, but don't put too much lye in your lutefisk ----------------------- or something like that, at least for a Friday afternoon anyway.

[itonewbie]

I think I'd stick to my Spam frosting...

[IRonMaN]

Aaaah, Spam.  Now I'm getting hungry.

[itonewbie]

Looks like CCH just bested UltraTax...

Have not been able to access CCH resources for almost 24 hours as various online products (including Axcess Tax and client portal) were taken offline yesterday with no communication from Wolters Kluwer other than a self-complimentary post on FB and Twitter that they made the decision to take those down "out of an abundance of caution".  There is no ETA for resolution nor are they responding to user comments on FB and Twitter.  Many are now stuck unable to support clients in the midst of the filing season.

Sure looks like there is keen competition for poor services and client communication.

[IRonMaN]

I saw on the NBC evening news last night that Intuit and Block were making friends in high places by hiding FREE filing when folks potentially qualifying for free services were doing Google searches.  FREE always has been a four letter word for the high muckety-mucks at Intuit.

[itonewbie]

I read that last week as well.  The way it's structured and programmed is indeed deliberate and sneaky, or so it seems.  Will find the article and post it here.  It's an interesting read, to say the least.

As for CCH, there's news that the outage was caused by a crypto ransomeware.  Guess nobody is immune and you do get targeted when you're big.  You'd think they have a contingency plan that would be put in place immediately and there would be better communication...

[IRonMaN]

They are using their contingency plan.  Run and hide and hope nobody notices :wink:

[itonewbie]

https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-just-tricked-you-into-paying-to-file-your-taxes
https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-deliberately-hides-its-free-file-page-from-search-engine...

[itonewbie]

"They are using their contingency plan.  Run and hide and hope nobody notices" :joy: :+1:

[rbynaker]

Drake also finally released the 8903 this week.  So I'm guessing that was an IRS hold up.

[IRonMaN]

So, was it just late in development or were they planning on not providing the form until their users complained?

[taxiowa]

But when did Drake have the B-2 and Alabama filing permission?

[IRonMaN]

Looks like everyone needs to keep better notes for comparison shopping.

[rbynaker]

No idea why the 8903 took so long.

B-2 has been around since at least mid-January.

AL corp & pship forms were approved yesterday for printing (prior to that they printed with a required watermark).  I looked at the forum though and there were zero complaints about AL individual returns.  So either there are no Drake users in AL or they had nothing to complain about.