In article <17f92d01-2024-4e19-b456-52d0b7ee6044[at]t11g2000yqg.googlegroups.com> ,
<KEBSCHULLW[at]aol.com> wrote:
- quote -


Ohio handles this by still requiring the return be MFJ, but if one
spouse is a full year nonresident and has no Ohio source income,
a certificate of non-domicile (military or nonmilitary versions exist)
has to be filed and that spouse dos not have to sign the tax return.



- quote -



ArtKamlet at a o l dot c o m Columbus OH K2PZH

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

On Nov 27, 10:38�am, Mark Bole <ma...[at]pacbell.net> wrote:
- quote -

Virginia has a requirement that a non-resident with Virginia source
income file married filing separately if spouse has no Virginia.
This requires that a married filing separately federal return be
constructed as the starting point for the Virginia return. I wonder
how Turbotax will handle that. Will there be a fee for the dummy
Federal return that has to be prepared.

There is a strong argument that Virginia's MFS requirement is
unconstitutional under the Priviliges and Immunities Clause of the
United States Constitution. If you read between the lines of a letter
that I received in October from the Virginia Tax Commissioner it
appears to confirm the Virgina's statue is unconstitutional. After
citing Lunding v New York Tax Appeals Tribunal, 522 S 287 (1998),
which provided that a state may defend its position by demonstrating
that (i) there is a substantial reason for the difference in
treatment: and (ii) the discrimination practiced against nonresidents
bears a substantila relationship to the state's objective, she stated,

"The General Assembly has not explaioned it reason for not granting a
similar filing election to nonresidents, but a rational can be found
in divorce law... YADA, YADA, YADA.

As noted in another thread on the board, Virginia cannot require a
nonresident spouse to file MFJ because of the Due Process provision in
the US Constitution. Combine that with the Privileges and Immunities
Clause and the non resident taxpayer can chose between filing MFJ or
MFS.

Both North Carolina and South Carolina eliminated similar MFS
requirements in 2006, about a year and a half after I asked a
prominent North Carolina politician a rather pointed question
regarding the MFS requirement. The bill that eliminated the
requirement passed the NC senate with a vote of 45-0. Unlike
Virginia, NC did not have a specific statue for the MFS requirement
prior to passage of the statue that eliminated the requirement. The
regulation that required MFS was a fabrication of the NCDOR.

Cheers,

WDK

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article
<674cd04f-db76-4fc7-9dac-5766a8bcbe2a[at]j32g2000yqn.googlegroups.com> ,
joy <joyriet[at]verizon.net> wrote:

- quote -

According to the "experts" on the TurboTax forums, once a tax file has
been marked as 'paid' you can then print at will and/or e-file without
limitation. Note that I said 'tax file' which is where the 'paid'
indicator resides. To TurboTax a tax file == tax return.

[Also note that you can have as many tax files as you like but when you
choose your 'free' tax file (or purchase another) by printing for
filing, be sure to *save* that file before quitting TT, or the free/paid
status will be lost -- TT does issue a warning to save but the warning
does not explain why you would want to save a file that you have made no
changes to, only printed.]

--
-Ernie-

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

On Nov 29, 6:32*pm, Ernie Klein <eckl...[at]pacbell.net> wrote:

- quote -

If I "print for filing" so that I can then print my worksheets to
review them, I wonder if I'll still be able to efile the same return
when it really is final. Or is it really print OR efile.

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article <gh1hqb$aaf$2[at]reader1.panix.com> , sethb[at]panix.com (Seth)
wrote:

- quote -

That's not the actual site that is contacted. The actual site is
"turbotax.iniuit.com". What happened if it is blocked altogether? I
don't know, but I suspect that it would prevent e-filing and or affect
the ability to update the software which is required.

I suggest that PC owners read the license agreement that speaks to
updates for windows. It says in effect that when TT for windows is
installed, a windows service is _also_ installed which will run in the
background regardless of whether TT is running or not..."In addition,
non-personally identifiable information about your computer system and
the update process will be sent to Intuit."

The license agreement states that that does not apply to Macintosh which
I can verify that no background processes were installed or are running
on my Mac, only the attempt to phone home every time TT is started. That
"phone home" might be for the Mac version only to provide the same data
collection as the background process in windows.

If I were a Windows user I don't think I would like having a background
process running all of the time, using memory, processor time, and other
resources even when TT is _not_ running.

--
-Ernie-

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article <gh1hqb$aaf$2[at]reader1.panix.com> , sethb[at]panix.com (Seth)
wrote:

- quote -

That's not the actual site that is contacted. The actual site is
"turbotax.iniuit.com". What happened if it is blocked altogether? I
don't know, but I suspect that it would prevent e-filing and or affect
the ability to update the software which is required.

I suggest that PC owners read the license agreement that speaks to
updates for windows. It says in effect that when TT for windows is
installed, a windows service is _also_ installed which will run in the
background regardless of whether TT is running or not..."In addition,
non-personally identifiable information about your computer system and
the update process will be sent to Intuit."

The license agreement states that that does not apply to Macintosh which
I can verify that no background processes were installed or are running
on my Mac, only the attempt to phone home every time TT is started. That
"phone home" might be for the Mac version only to provide the same data
collection as the background process in windows.

If I were a Windows user I don't think I would like having a background
process running all of the time, using memory, processor time, and other
resources even when TT is _not_ running.

--
-Ernie-

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article <ecklein-1CC9EF.15084627112008[at]news.newsguy.com> ,
Ernie Klein <ecklein[at]pacbell.net> wrote:

- quote -

What happens if that site is unreachable? (E.g. put it into your
hosts file with an unrouteable IP address)

Seth

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Ernie Klein <ecklein[at]pacbell.net> wrote:

- quote -

A member of my local Mac user group said that TurboTax 2008 for Mac does
not use a serial number. That raises the question of how Intuit tracks
the activation of a particular copy of the software and the number of
returns that are filed using it.

If this isn't a true activation scheme -- and TT for Mac has not used
activation before -- this seems to be creating additional complexity for
users with little benefit for Intuit. Some people will still pass the
disc on to their friends after they've used it, but now those friends
may also be able to get a free efiling. Combining such a freebee with a
higher purchase price for the software only increases the incentive for
such abuse, not to mention complicating how Intuit must account for each
software sale. What a mess.

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article
<63b0a91b-46e6-44e1-92e2-1a0d1925aa4f[at]x14g2000yqk.googlegroups.com> ,
JGE <jge[at]cs.unc.edu> wrote:

[Sorry for the top-post but I want to prefix this post]

John, and others. This is getting far OT and not tax related so I won't
post further in this regard.

I have no intention of providing information on how to override, defeat,
or bypass the pricing policy of TT (I don't know if that is what this
post is asking but I don't want to go there). If you are asking because
you want to make your own tests, I would recommend against that, unless
you _really_ know what you are doing, but the nature of your question
suggests that you do not - or you wouldn't need to ask the question.

I have only made and reported on some simple tests that I preformed on
a Macintosh platform to learn what TT actually does. What it does in a
PC and how it does it might be very different. I will say this, simply
blocking your network connection by itself will not defeat the mechanism
-- remember the TT product is not even complete yet -- you still need to
download many updates before filing time, and that requires a network
connection.

------------------

- quote -

Macintosh System OSX is a unix based system that has the standard unix
firewall built in that allows one to allow of disallow particular
internet connections.
- quote -

Same thing. That disallows all network connections. But don't get the
idea that you can defeat TT's pricing policy simply by disconnecting
your network connection -- there is much more to it -- see below.

- quote -


All this does is to prevent any external server from becoming aware of
any change that has been made. This does not mean that there are not
other records of changes internally kept on the computer. In order to
make a test that leaves no traces, in addition to blocking network
access, any and _all_ internal changes to any file, anywhere on the hard
drive must be restored to the exact state as before the test - then, and
only then are there are no traces of the test.

There is a big difference between testing what a particular feature of
software does using methods like this and actually _using_ the software
this way in real life to produce a finished tax return.

--
-Ernie-

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

I don't have a firewall, but can I do this ? Can you describe it
briefly ?
Thanks !

What about simply unplugging your internet connection when you fire
up TT ?

John

- quote -

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article <1ir7tvv.p7pfi81covkhfN%nmassello[at]gmail.com> ,
nmassello[at]gmail.com (Neill Massello) wrote:

- quote -

The license agreement explains it this way:

"Financial Reporting.** To comply with financial accounting or
regulatory reporting requirements, Intuit may collect information
associated with non-fee based transactions and activities.* In the case
of non-fee transactions, such as a non-fee E-file or non-fee first
Print only activity, a transmission may be sent to our payment system as
a zero dollar based transaction.* This transmission does not contain any
and is used strictly for Intuit-internal reporting purposes"

- quote -

My current understanding (Mac version - PC version may be different) is
after you "Print for Filing", even if you do that long before you are
going to file, like right now for example, then that action identifies
that particular return as your "free" return and is saved in the tax
file for the return that you printed. After that you can print, edit,
add, etc., to that return (tax file) as desired. Only if you attempt to
print for filing a different return (tax file) are you required to pay
again.

I have no idea what happens or how TT prevents editing every form,
including the taxpayer information. The license agreement says that no
"personally identifiable information or tax return information" is sent.

It would be interesting if this entire mechanism could be worked around
or defeated simply by using a single tax file and then modifying it for
each return. I have no desire to find that out myself because TT stated
up front what the costs would be. What they didn't say up front is that
you can not make readable printouts of your work in progress by printing
selected forms for your records. Now it seems that you can, simply by
printing a "Final Return" early, that is not obvious or stated in any of
the TT help or support help that I could find.

--
-Ernie-

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Ernie Klein <ecklein[at]pacbell.net> wrote:

- quote -

In other words, it's not just registration but activation. It is
unfortunate that Intuit essentially prohibits any modification of the
file after it has been printed for filing, but I suppose that's
necessary to prevent somebody from "editing" everything but the SS
number and then changing that number on the return after it's printed.
Does TT put up an appropriate warning about this when "Print Returns for
Filing" is chosen?

- quote -

Any activation scheme requires phoning home. There's no way around it.
My objection is not to paying more for additional returns. After all,
each additional return that's filed increases Intuit's risk of having to
pay up on their calculation guarantee. My complaint is that those who
don't want to efile are now, in effect, being forced to pay for it. I
suppose that's a way for Intuit (and the IRS) to "encourage" electronic
filing.

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article <Xns9B659103D5791spamtraplexregiacom[at]130.133.1.4> ,
"Stuart A. Bronstein" <spamtrap[at]lexregia.com> wrote:

- quote -

It appears that there is a way to print all for the forms, worksheets
and supporting data without the banner and that is to print for your
records only _after_ "Print for Filing". It seems that once you "Print
for Filing" it toggles a switch that then allows print for your records
without the banner so maybe this isn't quite so bad after all. It does
mean that you can't make printouts of your work in progress though
without the banner.

--
-Ernie-

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article <Xns9B659103D5791spamtraplexregiacom[at]130.133.1.4> ,
"Stuart A. Bronstein" <spamtrap[at]lexregia.com> wrote:

- quote -

It doesn't matter. Print to a PDF, save as a PDF, be viewing a form in
a 'form window' using form view instead of EasyStep and attempt to
"print front window" _all_ put the "DO NOT FILE" banner across the page.
The _only_ print that does not put the banner is "Print Returns for
Filing" which only prints the forms required for filing and does not
print the worksheet, or supporting data which I (and I assume most
people) want to keep on a paper copy for future reference when I may not
have access to a computer.

--
-Ernie-

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

"Stuart A. Bronstein" <spamtrap[at]lexregia.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9B659103D5791spamtraplexregiacom[at]130.133.1.4...
- quote -

I bet not. Or, I bet that pdf file will have a legend "DO NOT FILE".
Somebody give it a try . . .

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Ernie Klein <ecklein[at]pacbell.net> wrote:

- quote -

There are programs (I have a free one for the PC and I've seen them for
the Mac) that, when you tell it to "print" will make a pdf. I imagine
you'd be able to print all the copies of the pdf you want without
intuit being notified.

This does not solve the error correction problem, of course.

Stu

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

On Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:08:57 EST, Ernie Klein <ecklein[at]pacbell.netwrote Re Re: new pricing models for 2008 DIY tax software:

- quote -

I dumped TT for TaxAct five years ago (when they tried to implement
that hideous copy protection scheme) and haven't looked back. For my
needs TaxAct is much easier and less intrusive to deal with, and
continues to improve each year.

The only Intuit product I allow on my computer is Quicken v6.0 which
runs just fine on WinXP.
--
At first they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they fight you, then you win.

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Arthur Kamlet <-To[at]panix.com> wrote:
- quote -

Looks like he thought he was marrying to get another
four-letter word "Maid".

If he thought she was a maid who does taxes, this won't
be off-topic.

Dick

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article <ecklein-E9B5B1.21414927112008[at]news.newsguy.com> ,
Ernie Klein <ecklein[at]pacbell.net> wrote:

- quote -

One more thing---

When you print the return for filing the software only prints those
forms required for filing. It will not print worksheets, supporting
details, etc.

You can only print that information if you choose the "Print Returns for
your Records" or "Print Selected Forms" options which both put the large
(1 1/2 inch high), block, "DO NOT FILE" message diagonally across the
page.

What I didn't note before, because I didn't look close enough at the
printed page, is that the DO NOT FILE message is not transparent. It
obscures the data under it. I defy you to tell if the entry 17056 is
17656 or 17856 because I can only make out part of the '0'. It could be
a 0 or a 8 or a 6. I sure can't tell. Thats just one example - I can't
be sure what much of the data was. And this is the _only_ paper record
of your return and supporting data that TurboTax will allow you to
print. It is useless if you can't read the numbers. If this is what
Intuit intended, it is as useless and as unreadable as a blank page.

--
-Ernie-

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article <FRBXk.45148$_Y1.40452[at]bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net> ,
"Gil Faver" <rowdy'sboss[at]xxyz.com> wrote:

- quote -

Keep in mind that I am using a Mac so the operation on a PC may be
different. I am not saying that the software is defective, I am only
reporting the tests that I made and the result that I observed. There
will probably be several updates to TT before April, and the State
returns will not be released until January or so, so the following
observations may be different by then.

1. I installed a firewall block to prevent any connection from TT to
"test.intuitempowers.com" so that any test action I took would be
unknown to that server.

2. I made a dummy 1040 and tried to print a return for filing which
printed with a big red banner saying "FORM NOT FINAL - DO NOT FILE"
which I knew would happen because at this time of year nothing is final
and cannot be filed.

3. I quit TT then restarted, made a 2nd dummy 1040 return, and tried to
print for filing. I got a message "How do you want to pay your
preparation fee? - Before filing your tax return for mailing, you must
pay a preparation fee. Please choose a method of payment. - [Pay by
phone] [Pay Online] [Cancel]"

4. I again quit TT, restarted with dummy return #1 that printed the
first time and tried to print a second return for filing, i.e., as in
"real life" I found a mistake and wanted to redo before mailing. As
expected I got the _same_ pay up message as in #3 above so once you hit
the print for filing button, you can't even _reprint_ the first return
after correcting an error without paying.

5. I deleted the Mac file
(~/Library/Preferences/com.intuit.TurboTax.2008.plist) which put
everything back to normal. (I have no idea how you would get out of
this on a PC nor do I know if I could have backed out had I not blocked
the outgoing connection in step 1).

6. In case you are wonder what happens if I print the forms "For your
records" instead of "for filing" -- there is a big blue "DO NOT FILE"
message diagonally across each page.

Personally I think Intuit is in for a lot of flack and negative
publicity because of this choice. There is lots of room for honest
error and mistakes -- hitting the wrong button to print a return for a
pre-check and then learn you can't print again without paying, needing
to reprint to correct an error but can't without paying, etc.

The inability to print a "copy" of my return for my records that does
not have a big blue "DO NO FILE" printed across it, is not, in my
opinion, a real "copy" of my return. I would not want to walk into an
audit with it. Legally it might not matter but I prefer an actual look
alike, exact copy, of what I filed with the IRS, thank you. I am sure
that if I had to produce my return to obtain a loan or for other legal
reasons and I produced a return that said "DO NOT FILE" I would be told
that they want to see a "real" copy of the return that I did file.

--
-Ernie-

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >