Another Thread on Software

[LawrenceGR]

Cch

I'd like to hear from someone that uses CCH, I have heard that it's pretty expensive, I just wonder if it's worth it.

[JohnH]

You can go directly to Drake's web site, enter some info, and they will send you the program - fully functioning. Filing a few extension returns would be a nice way to evalute the program. It only takes a minute or so for the entire process.

[geekgirldany]

I just looked at the web video for Drake. I am pretty impressed with all that is offered for the price. I am with Taxwise now and I am okay with it. They don't have a document manager included. I pay $2.00 per efile and pay extra for some return types.

As stated before the only thing about Drake that is putting me off is forms entry. I am so use to Taxwise form entry this will be a huge change for me if I go with Drake. I am going to give them a call for a demo and see how it works out. Do some test returns. Taxwise again called before the end of the tax season to renew. I told them to wait until later in April when I finished.

[erchess]

Dennis

My only critique of Drake so far may be enough in and of itself to stop me from using it. Drake has very little Forms Entry. In UT if I can't recall where is the worksheet I need I go to Forms Entry and find the place on the form then switch back to Worksheet Entry and I come up on the correct Worksheet.. Obviously if I don't know what Form I want then I have the added step of consulting TTB or asking here or just thumbing through the list of Forms because even that is easier than thumbing through worksheets.

Further thought

However I have to say that the worksheets in Drake are more to my liking than those in Ultratax. I personally find things easier to locate. I won't pull the trigger until May but I am leaning heavily toward Drake.

[erchess]

Ed how easy is a K1 in Tax Act?

Can you make most or all of the entries on the K-1 Screen and have the software take them where they need to go or do you have to carry many of them to other places? How many K1s do you see each season?

[ED SMITH]

I have used TaxAct for years and it gets better every year. Everything is in modules, so you can order whatever you need. You can get all the states for $80 or individual states for $20.

You can also download the software multiple times on different computers. They offer a low priced bulk rate for e filing or individual efiling fees. I only had to call cust service once and only in relation to their 1st year, 1998.

Check 'em out at taxact.com.

[DTS]

Erchess

Thank you for your offer! That's very nice of you to do so.

I will contact you later and we can discuss your experience with UT. I believe I can gather enough info from you so I will know what look for when I demo the program.

So many people use UT and love it, as do the Drake users. So, on my end, I'm really curious about both.

Dennis

[erchess]

Dennis a question and a proposal

The question is why are you giving up Tax Works?

Background to Proposal - I had ultratax for complex 1040s for almost exactly a year and I am trying out Drake O6 as we speak and Drake 07 is on the way.

Proposal - PM me for my new fax number and send me (with names and ssns falsified) a complex 1040 return and I will work the return in both and perhaps Crosslink as well and give you an opinion. If you feel like getting a version of VNC and MSN Messenger we could chat online and I could show you screenshhots. We could work as though we were colleagues and I think we would both benefit.

[DTS]

Drake vs. Ultra Tax

Besides the obvious price difference, would anyone who has recently tried both be willing to give a fairly detailed opinion on how they pair up against each other? I just want to see which one seems the best regarding ease of use, working seamlessly, reliability, ablility to show detail on the return, constant areas of concern to you, etc.

I'm using TaxWorks now, but no longer, so I need to look into these two.

Thanks,

Dennis

[JON]

Sales Tax

If your not paying sales tax on the purchase you are still subjuect to USE tax. Minnesota years ago went after the professionals and won. If your state has sales tax it has use tax-it is your choice to ignor. In Minnesota the state won big. If you do not file sales/use tax report their is no statute that ever starts running. So they examined a year came up with a number multiplied it times 10 and said do you want to settle for that or should we keep looking. Every year we file the annual with amounts for use tax-we want the statute to be running. Numbers are not big anymore since software and suppliers in most cases charge sales tax, but there are a couple small ones. Thompson, our main vendor, has a big time location in this state.

[thomtax]

I don't know

How can the states do this if it currently unconstitutional without nexus? Drake is in NC, and has representatives in 5-6 other states. At most, I would think only 5-6 states could get to them, and that assumes that their representatives are not independent.

In a letter from the company president, he stated that they have an Atlanta law firm looking into what they can and can't do in the various states, but it looks as if they will have to start collecting until maybe something is resolved.

As far as constitutional, there is a particular tax collected in this town. My understanding of things are that 1/2 of the tax is actually being used in an illegal manner. However, it is being used for something needed so everyone justs turns a "blind eye" to it.

LT

[DonPriebe]

Sales Tax Nexus

How can the states do this if it currently unconstitutional without nexus? Drake is in NC, and has representatives in 5-6 other states. At most, I would think only 5-6 states could get to them, and that assumes that their representatives are not independent.

Apparently we don't worry about nexus anymore. The new plan in New York is to close our budget gap by forcing Amazon.com to collect NY sales tax. But it works both ways. We have court decisions mandating the collection of sales tax on gasoline and tobacco sold to non-Native Americans on the reservation stores, but we don't attempt to collect it for "political" reasons.

[Snaggletooth]

The states are now coming back on them, as I am sure that they will the other software vendors, to force them to collect sales tax.LT

How can the states do this if it currently unconstitutional without nexus? Drake is in NC, and has representatives in 5-6 other states. At most, I would think only 5-6 states could get to them, and that assumes that their representatives are not independent.

[JohnH]

I ignore the early renewal offers. The most you save on an early renewal is less than the charge for a single return, so why sweat that amount of money when making a decision you'll have to live with through hundreds of return preparations?

I would only renew early if I knew absolutely that I intended to stay with the current software I'm using. Since that is ATX, I definitely can't say I will. As a matter of fact, after listening to the comments on this forum and others concerning Drake during the past year, I'm going to try them out during the extension season. They seem to be in the lead concerning program stability, support, and price. I really like the forms based layout of ATX, but I can live with input screens since I originally moved over to ATX from UltraTax. I ordered the demo from Drake this evening just to get started.

One other thing worth mentioning for what it's worth as a future consideration. There's talk on the Unofficial ATX Community about a new program which may be developed by some former ATX'ers. Don't know if it will go anywhere but there are some positive signs. I'm sure it will create a buzz if it takes off, but it is probably a couple of seasons out from implementation (if it even happens)

I don't want to violate any rules of this board by commercializing, so it won't hurt my feelings if the moderators decide to edit this post.

[KBTS]

Drake

I also use ProSeries Basic and like the program, but the extra charges for e-filing over the initial 100 plus PPR for business returns really adds up. I don't do quite enough returns yet to justify buying the 1040 Professional with unlimited e-file, so I am kind of stuck in the middle. I called a couple of years ago when they reduced the number of e-files included with the Basic program from 200 to 100 and expressed my displeasure. I was pretty much told that was the decision they made after "customer feedback" said that the 200 was too many and that I really should be using the Professional version since the Basic was for small time preparers.

So based on that and the whole Turbo Tax issue, I thought it could not hurt to look around at some other options. I watched the Webinar at the Drake website today and decided to call and get a demo from them. Sales rep said they would be sending the full 2007 version out within the next couple of days. I'm not too sure if I like the look of the input screens I saw in the presentation, but I guess I will reserve judgment until I get to play with the software some.

Any PA preparers out there that use Drake? What is your impression of how it handles PA returns?