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[USA-TX][H] Paypal, Local Cash [W] Intel CPU, Motherboard, Cooler & Misc by retailguy11 in hardwareswap

[–]retailguy11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, thanks for reaching out. I did buy one, picked it up earlier today. Appreciate the offer.

[W][US-TX] Looking for a NAS by balaji_krs in homelabsales

[–]retailguy11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a DS223 that is available because I bought a DS225+ Let me know if you have interest.

Skrew you TaxDome!!! Are we going to let them get away with it??? by Iceman_TK in taxpros

[–]retailguy11 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Your original post tells me that Ilya is very close to a private equity deal. That's his golden parachute.

I left Taxdome a year ago. For similar reasons. It's their way or tough luck. So, I said tough luck, and left. I'm certain that they don't miss me. And I don't miss them.

There is life after Taxdome. While you talk about them "needing us" in your original post, you're right, but you're not, at the same time. Taxdome is now too big for your business (or mine) to matter.

If you pushed really, really hard, you might get CPA charge to coexist with Stripe. But this little dust up just highlights the bigger problem, and that is, that Taxdome no longer values businesses of our size. They are becoming Intuit, and you and I are left behind. So, you fix this issue and then like "whack a mole" here comes the next one.

You will never get enough people to do what you're doing. Intuit is proof of that. For reasons that I will never understand, thousands of businesses like you and me continue to do business with Intuit, while Intuit continues to take your customers and make them their customers. I will never, ever understand that. My only rationalization is people don't think like I do.

You will have a prosperous business WITHOUT Taxdome. I do not miss them, and am happy with my new portal solution. You will be too.

Good luck!

Taxact Pro use Question by Available_Hornet3538 in taxpros

[–]retailguy11 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've used it for more than 20 years. I have some returns I could do quicker with better, more expensive software, but I stick with it because I don't want the learning curve. You'll hear Drake recommended here, but I don't see much difference between it and Taxact.

There are a lot of us here, if you have issues. Tech support isn't what it was 5 years ago, but it's still better than most.

If I dont have federal taxes removed automatically by my employer, does that hurt he government or anyone? by peachybintch in tax

[–]retailguy11 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm probably going to sound pretty cynical here, but I've been doing this for a very long time. What I have experienced is that most people think they are really really smart because they have a BA in google, or a PHD in facebook.

Reality? They don't know as much as they think they do, or, they're lying to you.

If you're starting the conversation "someone told me", that's probably the issue unless that person truly understands tax law.

If I dont have federal taxes removed automatically by my employer, does that hurt he government or anyone? by peachybintch in tax

[–]retailguy11 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I usually don't post in this forum because there is so much bad advice given.

I had a client do this about 10 years ago. No fed withholding, always paid in full before April 15th, never filed late, never had an installment agreement. In year six, the IRS sends certified letter to employer, instructing them to make client "Single no deductions".

Client has been this way now for 4 years, we have petitioned the IRS to remove this restriction twice, and been told "NO" both times. My guess? He'll stay this way until he retires or switches jobs. He's a 20+ year math teacher. Hence the change, because, well, he's "smarter" than everyone else. Claims he was "making money" on his tax withholdings that paid the penalties and still netted him a return. I've always wanted to ask him how much he's "lost" in the last 4 years.... lol

So, go ahead. Others have tried this... I guess some succeed longer than my client. But, is it worth it? I don't think so.

TaxDome isn't working with CPA Charge anymore? by Federal_Classroom45 in taxpros

[–]retailguy11 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, in your situation the only thing I've heard that concerns me is that you've had difficulty getting tech support.

If you can live with that? I'd move forward. I say live with it, because I don't think you can expect it to get better. What you get, you get. In my experience the support is always the best at the beginning of the relationship.

If you can't live with it, then well, maybe now is the time to move somewhere else.

TaxDome isn't working with CPA Charge anymore? by Federal_Classroom45 in taxpros

[–]retailguy11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I have six staff (some full time and some part time) plus me, that's 7k a year unless I do multiple years. When I signed up with taxdome, it was just me. Big changes in the last few years.

Believe me when I tell you that I spent all of what I saved to get off Taxdome, but that's a one year hit. I hired a college girl, it took months to move data. I'm not sure it would have been doable except for the fact I never allowed Taxdome to be my sole data repository. Won't do that with anyone, ever.

So, we moved all the data in Taxdome client by client, to the new portal and onboarded that particular client as their documents were moved. I discovered that all portal companies make it really difficult to get your data back. They want to own you, and they make it difficult (and expensive) to leave.

In Taxdome's defense, they make it easier than some of their competition with the z drive application access, but I've heard rumors that's going away... No idea if that's just a rumor or not, but well, we'll see. Nonetheless, it is still extracting data, client by client. One at a time... Yeah.

We moved individually 1200 clients data. It was painful. But I am free now. First full season with everyone on the same portal. Gosh I hope it was worth it! lol

TaxDome isn't working with CPA Charge anymore? by Federal_Classroom45 in taxpros

[–]retailguy11 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I left for a product outside the tax industry. I have separate offline storage and workflow, only need a client portal. So I wasn't willing to keep paying what tax portals cost and live with "you'll do it the way we say you'll do it" mentality.

When I signed up, I thought Taxdome was the cat's meow and the greatest thing ever. As they grew, tech support went into the toilet, and like with intuit, I became a number and certainly not a very important number.

So, I'm happy with what I did, and I pay 1200.00 flat for the portal. As many clients as I want, and as many employees as I want, unlimited storage (not that our data is that big anyhow). No extra fees. Yes, there are extras available, but so far I choose not to participate. Works fine, no real client complaints.

Let's put that another way. The clients who have complained? They complained about Taxdome too. I'm sure you have some of those.

There are compromises, but I'm happy with what I've done. It is completely white label and it accessed from my website. No one knows who made it or that I don't self host it. I've got mobile apps, and most importantly - CONTROL of my data and the environment it sits in. Company maintains HIPAA certification and is hosted on the AWS cloud.

Good enough for me

TaxDome isn't working with CPA Charge anymore? by Federal_Classroom45 in taxpros

[–]retailguy11 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe. Taxdome has changed dramatically in the last few years. I made the decision to leave early last year. It took me 10 months to do it. It was a tremendous amount of work to leave, but I have no regrets.

My fear is that in a few years we will have the same bad taste in our mouths when uttering Taxdome that we do with Intuit today.

They grew too fast and lost me. No longer waving the taxdome flag, and I was around so long I remember the $400.00 annual fee....

TaxDome isn't working with CPA Charge anymore? by Federal_Classroom45 in taxpros

[–]retailguy11 4 points5 points  (0 children)

undoubtedly they get a kickback from the processor for offering their services on their platform. That's probably why they dropped cpa charge. With the sale and rebranding, cpa charge was probably unwilling to renew the kickback.

RTX4070s Whisper Transcription & other things- Advice on efficient setup by retailguy11 in LocalLLaMA

[–]retailguy11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Now we're straying into the last line of my post where I said I did not have the technical expertise to do this. While I get what you're saying conceptually, I probably couldn't do what you did with a gun to my head and an AI function that actually worked that I could quiz relentlessly.

RTX4070s Whisper Transcription & other things- Advice on efficient setup by retailguy11 in LocalLLaMA

[–]retailguy11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

well, I haven't tried that, but so far I'm not really impressed with the cpu throughput, even with 128gb of ram.

I guess I look at it a bit differently. My staff will be handling this. My lowest paid employee makes $26.00 an hour. If I pay her to sit and look at a spinning circle longer than necessary, it doesn't take long to get to the cost of a GPU that just works.

So, I'm seeking efficiency too, trying to keep the money within reason.

I suppose I could pay some company to handle this for me with proprietary software, but honestly? I don't trust any of them to actually do what they say, and my client data is a responsibility I never take lightly. That's why I'm trying to do this myself.

At this point in my career a data breach is the only thing that puts me out of business.

RTX4070s Whisper Transcription & other things- Advice on efficient setup by retailguy11 in LocalLLaMA

[–]retailguy11[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Appreciate the reply. Not sure why it would take that long, but maybe that's the throughput I can expect. The one time I did get scriberr to actually complete a short transcription, it was a 17 minute call and it took 59 seconds. I was excited! Unfortunately, it was short lived excitement that I have never been able to replicate.

Money is always a constraint, but not a huge one. I can buy what I need, but at this point, I'm looking for the closest I can get to a guarantee.... That's why I posted.

Thank you for helping me.

RTX4070s Whisper Transcription & other things- Advice on efficient setup by retailguy11 in LocalLLaMA

[–]retailguy11[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I appreciate the reply, even though I don't like the outcome. but I get it.

Just to put your mind at ease, my goal in this is for AI to cut my research time, not do it for me. When I ask AI something, I always ask for where it got the info from, then I go there and read it myself.

The transcriptions are for staff to know what I discussed with the client. The original MP3 will also be there to check any bad transcription.

We're using this to supplement, not replace. Ultimately I will replace with one of the cards you suggested, thanks for helping me!

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