Questions & Answers

You can still get the stimulus payment. From the IRS website: Stimulus Payment Timing Updated July 18, 2008 If You Haven’t Yet Filed For those filing solely to claim the payment If you normally don’t file a federal tax return but must file one this year solely to claim your economic stimulus payment, you should file by Oct. 15, 2008, to ensure that you receive the payment this year. It will generally take a minimum of eight weeks after you file your return to get your stimulus payment. Also, here's some information about missing W2s. Missing Your Form W-2? IRS TAX TIP 2008-24 Did you get your W-2? These documents are essential to filling out most individual tax returns. You should receive a Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, from each of your employers each year. Employers have until January 31, 2008 to provide or send you a 2007 W-2 earnings statement either electronically or in paper form. You should allow two weeks to receive your W-2 from employers who send them by mail. If you do not receive your Form W-2, contact your employer to inquire if and when the W-2 was mailed. If it was mailed, it may have been returned to your employer because of an incorrect or incomplete address. After contacting your employer, allow a reasonable amount of time for your employer to resend or to issue the W-2. If you still do not receive your W-2 by February 15th, contact the IRS for assistance at 800-829-1040. When you call, have the following information: * Employer's name, address, city, and state, including zip code. * Your name, address, city and state, including zip code, and Social Security number, and * An estimate of the wages you earned, the federal income tax withheld, and the period you worked for that employer. The estimate should be based on year-to-date information from your final pay stub or leave-and-earnings statement, if possible. If you misplaced your W-2, contact your employer. Your employer can replace the lost form with a “reissued statement.” Be aware that your employer is allowed to charge you a fee for providing you with a new W-2. You still must file your tax return on time even if you do not receive your Form W-2. If you do not receive the missing information in time to file, you may use Form 4852, Substitute for Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. Attach Form 4852 to the return, estimating income and withholding taxes as accurately as possible. There may be a delay in any refund due while the information is verified.

I dont know how things work in California, but here in Texas (just west of Houston) our property taxes are around 4% and I challenge my assessment every year - the county seems to automatically increase our assessed value by 10% each year (thats the max they are legally allowed to raise it) and if it goes unchallenged, the assessed values vs market values would get seriously out of whack. When we moved into our new house 3 years ago, the county had it recorded as a builders model home, which it wasn't, but it automatically gave it a 10% uplift for that, then we had another 10% uplift for unspecified reasons...I challenged both and got both removed. That was close to a 100k redcution, which at 4% was worth the 2-3 hours it took. But to keep it in line with current resale values and also current assessed values in the neighbourhood, we need to challenge it every single year..its a bit of a pain, but if we didn't do it, we'd end up like our neighbour over the road who is in a smaller house, smaller yard, non-lake lot and his assessment is now almost 200k higher than ours and the rest of the neighbourhood because he "doesn't have time to challenge it...." I have one friend who never challenges, and frowns on us for doing so saying we should pay what we are due to pay. My view is that I'm not trying to avoid paying my dues, but I dont think I should pay more than my due, so by challenging it, I make sure that I stay in line with (most of) the rest of the neighbourhood.

If you work in Mass, you have Mass-source income. So, yes, it's taxable to Mass (and it's the one you should be withholding for on your paycheck). New Hampshire, if it has an income tax, would give you a credit for taxes paid to Mass. (Since it doesn't, too bad.)

It probably depends on who you are talking about - large accounting firms or small independent preparers? Most smaller software companies have been swallowed up by larger companies who now offer different levels of programs with different levels of service, options and pricing. Thompson Go System is used by 8 of the top ten acounting firms according to The CPA Technical Advisor July 23, 2008 issue http://www.cpatechnologyadvisor.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=31&id=1504 The market is now dominated by three players: Wolters Kluwer/CCH/Taxwise/ATX Thompson/UltraTaxCreativeSolutions/GoSystemTaxRS Intuit/Lacerte/ProSeries Alot of the independent CPA's I know of prefer CCH Pro Series. Drake is the only independent tax software with a solid 10% of the market. Drake users are extremely loyal. This is the software our office uses. Somewhere towards the bottom is H&R Block/TaxWorks I have seen a review of tax software in the past couple of years that listed estimated users, but did not find such information in a Google search. You might try an internet search and see if you can find the information you are looking for.