Jimmer's Colossal Waste of Time

 

 

I use Quicken for my record keeping and have used the Intuit TurboTax line of products, for many years. Once a year I am presented with, what I think, is an unreasonable value decision. A dilemma based on the fact that,at sometime in the past, I decided to use Intuit products. I must buy the Business variety of their software and at better than $110 and it grinds my twig to shell out that kind of cash just to calculate my taxes.

I decided to switch it up a little this year, and purchased HRBlock's @Home Premium & Business  which only cost $79.95. The primary reason being, besides the price, the packaging "appeared" to say that the software imported last years' data, directly from the my TurboTax files.

Yippee!! I was no longer handcuffed to Intuits' software. Or so I thought.

To my surprise the Business version contained more than just the 1120s, W3 and corresponding forms. It had all of the forms that are required to keep a corporation up to date with the IRS. VERY NICE! But it wasn't long before ran into problems.

While the personal version does as is advertised, the Business version didn't...or so I thought. I discovered this and made a phone call to H&R Block believing that I had found a bug in the software. The tier one customer support specialist, who answered, was just as perplexed as I. He read the packaging and sales information on the website and was at a loss to explain the failure. So he escalated my call to a 'Supervisor'. This is where things got dicey.

The woman who came on next, listened to my problem and began to parse what the packaging said about their product. Her line of reasoning was as accurate and as infuriating as any tax agent or lawyer with whom I have ever had the displeasure of dealing. The short answer is no matter what the packaging appeared to say or no matter how misleading it was, Block had not designed the product to import from TT Business. The description on the box applied only TT Personal. She presented me with a 'take it or leave it' option. Her demeanor was nasty and designed to just make me go away.

I hung up and never called back.

Since then I have had to deal with multiple un-resolved bugs in the software, ranging from incorrect forms, blank pages, little or no real interpretative support of tax fields along with coding errors that can only be resolved by deleting a form and re-entering the information from scratch.

Two examples:

• In the Business software /Select the Type Return/Payroll Return/941 Return. When I first installed the software there were no forms available for 2011. When I attempted to file my last quarter return it didn't work. "I just checked it and it seems they have finally gotten around to repairing the problem. Good on them, Too bad it took so long."
• In  the Personal Software /1099-B/Tell Us About This Sale/Special Type. If you tick any choice in this field the software will not recognize if this is ever changed to something else later. This is whether you make the change using the Assistant or the direct entry method. I have not checked other similar fields (on other forms) to see if there is a problem, but I would caution you to be aware that this is a possible issue and to be alert for it.

Compared to TurboTax; @Home Premium & Business is a clunky red headed step child.  The help system in both Personal and Business do nothing more than download the IRS Directions forms. And the software is non-Intuitive. I suppose I could call Block but after my last experience I would rather not.

One other thing!  Beware Selection #2 in the file online option! "Take the fee from my refund" contains the $9.99 filing fee along with a $32.95 fee that is in very small font. You can easily miss it If you aren't paying attention.

If you choose Item 3 the charge is only $9.99, but you have to charge it to a credit card.

Get your act together Block. I hate to return to Intuit but...

This is the text of my response to the Universe Today Video of the interview with Mr. Mann concerning his perspective on Climate Change caused by Man.

I do agree that the world is undergoing climate change and that it is quantifiable; from my limited perspective.  Yet, I still hold some skepticism to what degree man is responsible. We live in a dynamic environment, which is effected by unlimited variables.

That being said, there is vitriol and name calling on both sides.

There are absolutists who insist that the evidence is incontrovertible and there are contradictists (yeah, made up word) who are intent on being contrary; just to be contrary.  Most of the latter's arguments are based on a misunderstanding of the difference between scientific theory and scientific fact. The former's arguments are sincerely based on their perceptions and interpretation of available data. Clearly, when a theory is  99.9...% true, it is as good as a fact. But the data must be nearly complete to rise to that level.

Some people would not be convinced until it is declared a law and we both know that physical laws are hard to prove and even harder to maintain.

I refuse to use the pejoratives "*Deniers" to classify people who are as yet unconvinced by the evidence, or at least unconvinced to my satisfaction. The use of the term *Deniers compares people who remain unconvinced of the current 'Theory of Climate Change' to 'Holocaust Deniers',  which appears to be an ball faced attempt to place them in the same dimension as Nazis and Radical Islam. It is becoming a 'talking point'. I consider myself a critical thinker and speaking from that perspective 'Talking Points' tend to turn off my 'Listening ears'.

I have heard the phrase 'there is no longer room for debate' too many times to take seriously. There is always room for debate in an intellectually free environment. Debate ends with the declaration of a Physical Law or Scientific Totalitarianism.

Some would argue the that there is no difference.

This argument is too important to let politics and personalities dictate its course.

My response is too broad to write 500 characters at a time.

I read a headline today that made me feel all warm and fuzzy about the future of our country, until I got to the meat of the article.

"House Passes Small Business Bill with WIDE Bi-Partisan Support" screamed the Times New Roman Bold Font!

"Well" I thought to myself "Is this an indication of a thawing in the war between the Dems and the Reps?"

Could it be? Might the politically charged cold war in DC finally be coming to an end? Have our representatives decided to bury the hatchet, roll up their sleeves, knuckle under, dig in, get to it (yeah, I know) and start digging us out of the mess which they have created?

The short answer is no. 

The story goes on to spell out that the bill has nothing to do with Small Business and everything to do with capital investment.

eh? What do I mean?  Capital investment? Well isn't that a good thing? Business' do need money!

I can see your eyes glazing over at the mere thought. I will try to keep this concise.

The way that our capitalist system operates is through investment. When a small business person decides to open a new enterprise the first thing on the agenda , after writing a business plan and researching the governmental hurdles that they have to clear, is to find funding. This is done through investment. Well, you might say "All they have to do is get a loan" and I would reply that, in the purest sense, a loan is an investment by the bank or any entity into the entrepreneur's  idea.

Another way that a company can raise capital is to and sell stock in itself. They can sell private shares to investors. They can sell public shares individually, this is known as the grey market, or Over the Counter (OTC).  Or they can "Go Public" and get listed on a stock exchange. About 1/3 of all capitalized companies are traded on open exchanges. For the sake of argument the law changes only apply to these exchange traded funds and the OTC.

There are a number of requirements that the Federal Government imposes on companies that take the latter path. First; they must do business in an open forum and file timely statements, usually quarterly, with the Feds and the exchanges. These statements are open to public examination and must contain all information about the general health of the company, as well as any events in the life of the company that can have a material effect on the company. These reports (10Q, 10K and assorted disclosures about buying and selling of stock by the company and its insiders) are sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) who has the ultimate power to fine and/or revoke the stock of companies who don't follow these rules.

Even with this system in place there are plenty of companies, usually small (less that $1 million dollars total market cap (TMC)) who game the system. There are con-men who follow all the right steps, create a company and issue publicly traded stock, mostly traded on something called the pink sheets(OTC) or the NASDAQ.  Their only motivation is to take all the money that they can gin from the process, run the stock price into the ground, reverse split the stock, change the name of the company and repeat. Don't believe me look here?

Yeah, so what does this have to do with this great bipartisan jobs bill!?!

I'll tell you. This bill makes it easier for those cretins.

Emerging growth stock
The common stock of a relatively young firm that is operating in an industry that has very good growth prospects. Although this kind of stock offers unusually large returns, it is very risky because the expected growth may not occur or the firm may be swamped by the competition.
the freedictionary.com

SEC. 101. DEFINITIONS.
(a) SECURITIES ACT OF 1933.—Section 2(a) of the
Securities Act of 1933 (15 U.S.C. 77b(a)) is amended by
adding at the end the following:
‘‘(19) The term ‘emerging growth company’
means an issuer that had total annual gross revenues of less than $1,000,000,000 during its most recently completed fiscal year. An issuer that is an emerging growth company as of the first day of that fiscal year shall continue to be deemed an emerging growth company until the earliest of—
text of HR3606

Enron was an emerging growth company. So were all of the companies who crashed during the dot com bubble.

And this exemption is not just limited to the small number of shady lowlifes who currently are exploiting the loop holes in the existing law. No, this bill opens the playing field to companies valued up to $1 Billion Dollars TMC. The good news is that the changes are limited to new companies who have only recently filed for public offerings.

$1 Billion TMC and less are considered to be Mid-Cap stocks. Most of these are companies which your average managed fund have no problem investing. And now thanks to a Congress which has no remorse about letting its members engage in trading on insider information, these companies aren't required to do business in the clear light of day. 

So in these days where we all are treading water trying to preserve our limited resources. Our friends in Washington have passed legislation by overwhelmingly bipartisan numbers to allow the sharks in the business world to feast on what is left of your retirement nest eggs.

Nice.