Ranches work as retreats for rich – It’s not just a great environment for the wealthy.  Having lived full time on rural properties for the past 17 years, I can’t imagine ever going back to living where the roads are paved and we can see any of our neighbors.  

Don’t Forget April 15 on Election Day – A good idea that pops up every so often, moving the tax filing deadline to election day.

Employers expected to be responsible for 401(k)s – Another good look at costly admin fees that erode retirement savings.

Sherry found this Christmas card for sale on the web.

“Girls of the IRS” Calendar a Hit With Male Taxpayers – Obviously a spoof.

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Unfortunately, our rulers’ resolve to fix the tax system in this country has always been as fleeting as…

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Upset Over Tax, Man Throws Coffee In Clerk’s Face – Shooting the messenger doesn’t accomplish anything constructive.

To Capitalize or Deduct Property Improvements? – Good article from the latest issue of Intuit ProConnection, includes sample doc file you can download and send to clients.

Working with Lacerte and QuickBooks

Having been a user of the Lacerte tax programs since 1985, I wasn’t a big fan of the company’s purchase by Intuit a few years back because I was afraid they would dumb the program down and merge it with Intuit’s ProSeries program.  Luckily, that hasn’t happened, and Lacerte has been maintained as its own separate division and style. 

At the time of the acquisition by Intuit, the one benefit I had been hoping to see was an easy way to import data from QuickBooks into Lacerte, a feature long available with ProSeries. It looks like that capability may finally be available for Lacerte with this new SmartMap feature. I haven’t tried it yet on an actual client’s data yet; but I should be able to give it a spin within the next few weeks. Since we require all corporate clients to use QuickBooks, this could be a big time save when it comes to tax return preparations, and a money saver for the clients, since we charge for all work based on time spent.  I’ll try to post the results of my work with this feature.