User talk:MilTaxEA

From TaxAlmanac

EA Exam

Hi,

I've been reading the Enrolled Agent Exam thread for awhile now. Conratulations on passing the first part of the exam! I'm planning on taking part 1 by the end of July, part 2 by the end of August, and 3 by the end of September.

I was wondering if you purchased all three parts from pheonix at once, or in seperate parts? I'm on a budget and don't want to buy more than I have to.

Thanks for your time.

Matt

That last message was from RadoTax 10:46, 22 June 2010 (CDT)

EA Exam

Thanks for the quick response.

I'm scheduling my part 1 for next month. I was wondering how long you studied for before you took the test? I've completed about 400 tax returns and feel I have a solid knowledge of individuals. Approximately how many hours/days did you spend spend studying?

RadoTax 12:46, 23 June 2010 (CDT)

Thanks for the input

Actually, I had read TaxAlias's profile, and noted that it was quite vague about any level of experience or background as a tax pro. In fact, it doesn’t even mention working in taxes at all.

That kind of profile, combined with a question that could have been answered with a search of the archives (since a tax pro would/should know the search terms to use) and the mention of consumer tax software, was what triggered my question to TaxAlias. As you (probably) know, I’m supposed to move the non-pro questions out of the pro tax forum, and sometimes the info provided on the profile/user page isn’t really enough to make the determination.

In this case, there was enough justification to remove the question from the pro forum, but I decided that it’d be worthwhile to get a clarification first, and I hoped that my post might elicit more info from TaxAlias (which it did).

Generally, we do all the clarification/asking for more info behind the scenes, after moving the discussions out of the pro forum, and I guess your reaction to my post confirms that that may be a better way to deal with things. I'll keep that in mind for the future - after all, the reason I'm supposed to be doing all of this is to improve the user experience for the actual tax pros that use the site.

Thanks,

Trillium 15:48, 6 September 2010 (CDT)

Gleim Online

Miltaxman,

Thanks very much for your response! I really appreciate the info.

Taxlady313 09:32, 20 September 2010 (CDT) Peggy

Rating people's posts

See How to add a Forum Award to somebody's user page - MWPXYZ doesn't yet have this forum award. If you feel that Mike is a consistent contributor of high-quality replies in the TaxAlmanac Discussion Forum, then go to his user page, click edit, and add the award content as shown on the "how to" page.

Trillium 14:21, 16 October 2010 (CDT)

I think your offer seems fine

If you posted that link to your own website without having participated so much lately (or, horrors, without user page info!), I might have made a different determination, but as I posted just now on the discussion, it seems okay to me, and we'll see if others seem to feel otherwise (I doubt it). But I did move the discussion, as you may have noticed. It's a great practice management/business growth topic, and not so much of a tax question. Unlike 2007, when Kevin started the discussion, the PM/BG is a very active forum now, and I think it'll get more positive play there.

Trillium 03:46, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Your Practice

Hey, I couldn't help but browse your website when you posted the link for the download. How well does that model of having people send you their information work or is this going to be your first year? After selling my practice which started from home and then moved to an office I am starting up a new one (in another state) from home as well. In my last home I had a lot of space so I had an office where I met clients and I still didn't like it so I ended up renting an office. Now I don't have an extra room so I don't want people coming over. I was thinking about meeting them at coffee shops and places like that to pick up their docs and then mailing them the return when it's done. I'm just curious because I would think that most people would be skeptical of just mailing/emailing someone so much private information without knowing if they really are who they say they are.

NewYorkEA

[[1]]

Sure, but...

Are you sure you want to just follow the crowd? (I'm mainly kidding - I am, perhaps, jaded by the many DIYs who add "credentials" to their user names in hopes that a blank or vague user page might then not be noticed, not to mention the heavily-credentialed but research-challenged souls we see every day. Better to be so good at what you do that you don't have to wave the credential in people's faces, right?)

At any rate, it does look like that name is available (MilTaxEA).

Once you confirm that you want to go ahead with the name change, here's the process from there:

• Since it's best that you're logged out completely (log out and quit your browser) when the name change is done, I'll wait until late at night (or earlier if you let me know when you're logging out for the day) to do the change.
• When it's done, I will let you know by posting a note on your talk page (it's same page for old name as new name, so bookmark it in your browser before you log out, to get back to it easily...it should automatically redirect you to the renamed talk page, but if it doesn't, please click on the link where it names the new page).
• To log back in, use the new name and your current password.

The name change will transfer your user page, history, and preferences to the new user name. It will not change the name used on any posts made prior to the name change. Also, you need to be very careful not to log in again later with the old name, as it still exists and will "resurrect" itself and - like many zombies - won't necessarily work just right.

So - let me know that you want the name change, for sure, and if you also mention when you'll be logging out, I'll do the name change at that time.

Trillium 03:02, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Your name change is complete

If you have any issues or questions about it, please let me know.

Trillium 03:37, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Your Practice Response

Thanks for the response. Like I said, I ran a home based practice before that became successful enough to move to a rented office. I'm hoping I can do the same again. I think you'll find that most new clients will want to meet you. A word of advice- do not under price your services (ie don't tell clients you are passing on the savings from your office situation). The day you do get an office and need to charge them more they will not want to pay the higher fees. Good luck!

Thanks, that would be great!

I also appreciated that you created a redirect at the end of that old Tax Planning rep letter discussion, when you set up a new discussion just for the most recent posts, yesterday. (By the way, if you had just wanted to improve the title on that old discussion, you could have done that via the "move" tab at the top of the page - click the tab, put your new desired title in the lower of the two "title" boxes, making sure to leave "Discussion:" at the start, and then click move page. That might not have applied in that case, but could come in handy for you in the future.)

The date color/size change seems to do the trick most of the time. The font color change for the OP is a more extreme edit that I usually only bother with if the new post really doesn't rely on the original post to be valuable (like yours, or also when the new question at the end doesn't have much similarily with the OP).

Trillium 18:18, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

COD Income Question

Thank you for your kind words. DaveFogel 23:17, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Thank You

Michael

Thank you for moving it.

Where do I learn how to place things in my "box" like you have

Congratulations!

Volunteer at your local Miltary Base, former GI?

me vietnam 1968, still defending my friends from enemies.

I will find you some excellent S-Corp sources

-- BruceH

Questions

Michael

A Lot I don't understand here: 1) Anyone can edit anything anywhere, even members profiles and posts WHY? 2) Anyone can "say" they are any designation they Want-To-BE???5) 3) There is NO spell checker in this massive tool site, WHY everywhere has one? 4) NOTHING is private, then why have member to member discussions? 5) Seems to be a lot of anti-bias towards CPA's here by certain members, WHY? 6) A CPA designation does infer Accounting Knowledge, not Tax knowledge therefore CPA/EA why care both here are involved in taxes.

As I said I am Army 66-69, 1968 in vietnam. I have a client who just came back from vietnam, the vc tunnels are now tourist attractions, No Thanks!

QBooks is a very good accounting learning tool, using all the tutorials!

I will search for good S-Corp materials for you.

Bless you for VITA.

I had a lady who worked for me in the 80's with only a HS education. I tought her accounting, she got her College GED, she got her college accounting GED, she passed the CPA Exam, I provided her the "Working for a CPA doing Audits. SHE IS A CPA (with no college diploma). After 1990 yo9u have to have the college degree.

I now have a young man helping me, who I will train to be an EA "With Accounting Knowledge

Any questions you have you can post here, soon I'll put up an email address for men like you!

Semper Fi (yea its Marine- but one long ago said I could say it ANYTIME, sonething I did!)

It really is quite simple, it simply means ALWAYS Faithful, Not Sometimes, Not Maybe, Not What's-in-it-For-ME! Just "always" that simple!

Few in this current "American" society have any concept of that core human belief!

Bless you, your wife and daughter- always find time for her, my son is now 33! just yesterday he was 10!

Bruce

Thank You

Hi MilTaxEA

I just wanted to thank you for providing me the information regarding pub 17 and The Tax Book. I felt a little shy at first asking others to help me out being that I'm so new and most of you are soooo experienced. This forum is awesome and the people here make it that much better. Thanks again, I really appreciate your experience and sharing. I wish you the best in all that you do!

ShurayShuray101 00:43, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

Accounting

There really is no difference between GAAP and tax accounting.

GAAP merely is accrual basis, with accounts receivables and accounts payables et al which many use for tax purpose also.

Tax allows CASH BASIS, but it is still all of the debits and credits, just without accruals.

All accrual basis ultimately goes through the bank accounts.

GAAP is what is actually happening, Revenue & Expense wise by period while CASH BASIS is just the part when payments are exchanged

Probably my last posting here.

Still thank you for taking the batten, whether there is the same US Constitution to defend or whether the most direct enemy is not now domestic vs foreign only time will tell.

From where i sit there is no more USA but the new USSA, with a totolitarian socialist government.

The old story about how to boil frogs, put them in a bucket of cold water and SLOWLY turn up the heat, they will all die. Throw them into a pot of boiling water and thsy will jump out to safety. -- BruceH It has taken 50-80 years of slowly turning up the heat!

Formatting...

Thanks for the formatting help. If I knew how, I would do it myself; I'm glad I *don't* know how...

Harry Boscoe

Spam Post

I didn't post spam and I am a CPA. The discussion was about direct mail and getting new clients. The link was to a blog post I wrote for accounting professionals. The post explains how you can use a database called ReferenceUSA from a public library to create your own mailing list for free. Did you even look at the blog post? http://longforsuccess.com/2010/08/18/find-new-clients-for-free-through-your-library/

Thanks. Sorry I didn't take the time to fill out the profile initially. :)

MichelleLongCPA

Your input, please:

Hi, Michael: could you provide me with some input, please, since you've read MichelleLongCPA's blog post and seemed to think it was pretty much on point to the discussion she posted to earlier today?

I think that her post is probably not in compliance with the TA Advertising Policies and rules on no vanity pages or advertising. I also completely agree with you, by the way, that it originally looked like spam when it was posted prior to any other user participation, and particularly prior to adding any user info. And I also concur with your decision to restore it, as "not spam," once Michelle updated her user page and it became more apparent that her motives for posting were not spam-like in the least. As I mentioned to her on her talk page earlier this evening, once we had all the facts, it was clear that it wasn't spam. But beyond the no-spam policy, what about the policies that limit self-linking? Is that blog post one that a neutral independent person would have linked to from a discussion about direct marketing? (For example, as a hypothetical question: now that you've read it, would you link to it from that discussion?)

These policies are hard to enforce, because the value of the linked website/blog post/article is subjective. In general, the more participation a user has on the site, the less likely they're going to get "dinged" for self-linking, because we've gotten familiar with their level of expertise on a given subject. I'm thinking of Tax Writer, for example, who's been very careful to limit her mention of her own publications and course materials. While there are posts where she might say something about them, or refer to the links on her user page, without looking I'd say that those posts are fewer than 1% of her total participation, and that she has only rarely linked directly to one of her own websites from within a discussion. IIRC. So it's unlikely that anybody's going to see her occassional links as a violation of the policies, or unwelcome. But it's entirely different when the link is on a new user's very first post.

I'm ambivalent about this, and would welcome any comments and feedback. I did remove the post again, but if you feel confident that it is in compliance with the limitations on self-linking, please just restore it again, as I will only be checking in on the site on the fly tomorrow, i.e., not as frequently as usual, and without as much available time as usual. As you can see from her note to me earlier (on my talk page), she doesn't seem to mind whether or not the post is ultimately restored, as long as we don't tag her as a spammer (she's safe from that IMO).

Thanks,

Trillium 05:24, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

volunteering

Kevin's gathering up the names and communicating w/Tim Doyle on that, so you contacted the right person first with regard to vounteering. You also had already started pitching in with site admin things not long after you started - helping people use the site, getting rid of spam or resolving other policy violations, etc.

We're working on a page to be added to the site that provides a list of many of the things that volunteers would/could do, with some basic "how-tos," but while that's being hammered out, please just keep on doing the stuff you're already doing, and we'll try to phase in more activities ASAP.

Thanks!

Trillium 12:33, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Michael. I need to read more about the 'community rules' -- when answering a question, is it ok to post a link to the QuickBooks support website (KB articles)?

Nicely handled

There are two schools of thought on the investment advisors (in general): my thought is, if they don't have some tax experience along the way, it's probably not a good idea to leave the posts in the tax forum as they may get input that's beyond their ability to understand, and misapply it (following the idea that "a little knowledge is dangerous"). Not to mention, they're taking advantage! Kevin is much more willing to extend professional courtesy to CFPs, non-tax-pro CPAs, etc. Kevin has, over time, talked me into giving this type of non-tax-pro a little slack. I think of it as giving themselves enough rope to hang themselves with, which I think Bob managed to finally do today - and the timing of your moving his discussions to the consumer forum would have been pretty much in line with where I would have drawn the line, too.

Bob is also among the group I like to classify as "very careful in how they phrase their user pages and their questions," to make it appear they're a pro w/tax experience asking about a client, when they really are here to get free advice about their own situations. That's actually a little different from actual CFPs with clients. The not-really-pros at all don't always get as much leeway. Enforcement does vary, though.

I also think your notes to Bob, and your response to/on his discussion that was all about you, were just right.

Also, good decision on removing Unethical's post. I'll see if I can follow up on comparing to other user, but with IP addresses refreshing more often than not, it's generally easier to recognize aliases (secondary user names) by posting style rather than by IP address, especially after some time has gone by since the person you think it is last posted.

Trillium 01:47, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

CAF / EA

Michael,

Thanks for all your help on getting that CAF number...the IRS site doesn't make things all that clear.

Congrats on getting your EA last year. I like your little timeline grid, but have no clue how to do that on the user info page. I'm about to go for my 3rd exam (I left Business Taxation for last), and I really enjoyed this one the most. You said you used Phoenix; I used TaxWriter's Passkey book and FasTax for the repeated testing. After what I've learned, I can't see how you can properly do returns without passing the EA, or at least heavily studying the material. Your website is nice..reminds me I still need to do one.  ;) thx! chris OCNumberz 19:48, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Nice introduction. I would like to network with you. My data is on my page. Cheers. Dave aka Suomalainen

Welcome back!

I'd noticed you were missing, and was hoping you'd be back after whatever you were busy with passed. Looks like it was a cross-country move, which would be quite an undertaking - congrats on the move, and glad to have you back.

Trillium 17:57, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Looking for 2010 Phoenix Study Cards

Hello! Am taking all three parts of the SEE before the end of this month (Feb 2012). I was looking for the Phoenix Tax Group Study Cards, but they are all sold out on their website. Was wondering if anyone has all three sets of study cards that they would be willing to part with? Below are my scheduled test dates and below that is my TaxAlmanac profile. Thanks! ~Elizabeth

Feb 12, 2012: Part 1 - Feb 19, 2012: Part 3 - Feb 21, 2012: Part 2

Hello my name is Elizabeth. I am a sole proprietor offering business and taxation services since April 2000. I have offices in San Francisco, CA and Utah.

I passed the old SEE exam back in 2006, but did not file a Form 23. I am retaking all three parts before the end of this month, Feb 2012, hoping that the new test is similar and that I am able to pass. I am also a CPA candidate needing to take the exams. My plan is to begin studying for them in March 2012. And aim to complete them within the year. Am finally biting the CPA bullet, as I have been able to take them since Aug 2004... Have been and am currently struggling with the 2000 hours of slave labor...

My main taxation interests are individuals and small businesses.

RE: Looking for 2010 Phoenix Study Cards

Thanks for the info!

Tax almanac puts in standard lines for a profile, and I didn't realize that. I've tried to change it. thanks for your answer.

End of the forum

You may have heard by now that the Tax Almanac ( www.taxalmanac.org ) web site forum is permanently closing its doors effective June 1. Perhaps you have seen the pink bombshell “Important Service Announcement” when logging in.

Long-time TA user ChrisV2 has volunteered to set up a new website where TA users may continue the discussion. The site is up and running now and has an active base of contributors.

We invite you to take a look www.taxprotalk.com and join your fellow TA refugees.

Frankly (TA member and new member of TaxProTalk)