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John Warren is an Enrolled Agent, photogaphed here inside his Medford office. Enrolled Agents are federally licensed tax professionals who are allowed to represent taxpayers before the IRS for audits and collections.

Around 2,100 Massachusetts residents received one of those chilling notices that says you owe the taxman some money. But it turns out to have been a false alarm.

After receiving calls from confused taxpayers and tax preparers, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue said it found a fault in a commercial software program called TaxAct that some professionals and individuals use to file returns.

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The program had incorrectly coded payment vouchers from those customers to 2017 instead of 2016, so their checks were applied to the wrong year.

A DOR spokeswoman said the agency received payments from fewer than 50 taxpayers, all of whom should receive a refund by next week. The 2,100 affected taxpayers will also soon receive a letter to let them know that the issue has been resolved, although the spokeswoman said many had already learned of the mistake by calling into the agency.

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John Warren, president of the Massachusetts Society of Enrolled Agents, said he began hearing of the problem last week from members.

We found out about it by just networking with each other, and taking the initiative to contact the right person at DOR, Warren said.

The DOR spokeswoman said that the mix-up was due to human error: Upon receiving the specifications for state forms to prepare its program, TaxAct put the wrong year in the barcode, and the DOR did not catch the mistake when the software was reviewed.

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In a statement, TaxAct said it became aware of the problem on Monday through the DOR. It added that 5 percent of TaxAct filers in the state were affected .

We have a good working relationship with the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and are working quickly and diligently with them to rectify the situation. We apologize to those impacted for the inconvenience and concern this has caused, and we will be contacting those filers impacted, TaxAct wrote.

The issue affected a relatively small portion of the approximately 3 million taxpayers in the state, but may make some question the accuracy and security of software like TaxAct. Last fall, Massachusetts decided to forgo its free online tax-filing system and encouraged residents to use commercial software programs. It joined the Free File Alliance , which offers software such as TurboTax for free to people with an income of less than $64,000. Only 2 percent of Massachusetts residents had used the states own system, and officials said at the time that commercial software is more secure.

But in 2015, Massachusetts and Vermont withheld almost 170,000 tax returns to investigate potential identity theft and fraud for taxes prepared through TurboTax. The company temporarily suspend its filing program because of suspicions that identity thieves were filing false returns using stolen identities.

TaxAct itself said a small number of accounts were affected by a data breach in late 2015, according to SC Media, a tech-industry publication. The next year, problems with TurboTax and other software was thought to cause up to 19,000 Vermont residents to pay less than what they owed the state government. H&R Block and Intuit, which makes TurboTax, paid nearly $2.5 million to the state tax agency to cover the arrears of their customers.

Amy Pitter, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Society of CPAs, said national tax software companies tend to wait to the last minute to get updated versions of their programs approved by local tax authorities, which can cause problems for tax preparers. While the TaxAct issue seems like a minor fluke, Pitter said Mass DOR should have been able to detect the mistake.

The more you have automation, the more you need to put in checks to make sure the automation doesnt run away with itself, Pitter said.

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Over 2000 Massachusetts taxpayers billed incorrectly due to software error - The Boston Globe

BOURBONNAIS, Ill. The two Bears players representing the offense who met the media Wednesday at the start of camp are the two most important on the team this season.

They also werent even in the picture at this time last summer, and will be receiving more attention than they ever have in their football careers.

Jordan Howard and Mike Glennon will be two of the focal points all season long, and it starts with camp. John Fox reminded us Wednesday that no one was talking about Howard at this time last year. He was a fifth-round pick then and the third-string back. Glennon was in Tampa Bay as Jameis Winstons backup quarterback, and now hes the Day One starter something Ryan Pace reiterated multiple times for the first time in his NFL career.

I think its just what Ive dreamed of my whole life, to be a starting quarterback in the NFL and to enter the season as that guy, said Glennon. Its what Ive worked for; Ive prepared for it ever since I was a kid and all the way through college and into the pros, to get to this moment. So its going to be a great opportunity.

When practices get underway Thursday, Glennon will be under the microscope as an unknown commodity to Bears fans, and as someone who will have to fend off any conversation about No. 2 pick Mitch Trubisky.

Glennon knows that itll be natural for observers to compare his play in Bourbonnais to that of Trubisky, a feeling hes quite familiar with from his previous football stops.

Ive dealt with plenty of situations in my past where theres comparisons, dating back to when I was in college and Russell Wilson left, people were comparing us all the time, he said. When Jameis got to Tampa, I was dealing with a similar situation. I know thats going to happen but I dont really pay attention to it. Within the building, within the organization, were just trying to get better as a team. Hopefully Mitch improves, I improve. Competition makes us both better.

Pace would not get into any hypotheticals regarding a potential quarterback controversy.

Glennons here for a reason. We evaluated him over the years. Were very confident in him, he said. Glennons our starter and were confident with that.

Howard doesnt have to look over his shoulder, he needs to set his sights on continuing to be the go-to guy in the Bears offense.

I dont feel any extra pressure, said Howard, who worked on his speed this offseason and cut his body fat from 15 to 13 percent. Im just going to handle it the same way I did last year take it one game at a time, keep the same mindset. But the running game can definitely help out the quarterback, especially a quarterback thats new into the offense. But the running game can also help with the play-(action) pass. So I can help him do better.

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The price of free software? - Kokomo Perspective

Buildshop Launches Free Building and Remodeling Software Builder Magazine Software company Buildshop will now provide web and mobile apps that will allow homeowners to plan, budget, find, and connect with building professionals. In an article for sister site REMODELING, Symone Garvett reports on how the app which makes the ...

Read more here:
Buildshop Launches Free Building and Remodeling Software - Builder Magazine

BBC News

Premier League wins anti-piracy court order BBC News Kodi is free software, built by volunteers, that is designed to bring videos, music, games and photographs together in one easy-to-use application. Some shops sell set-top boxes and TV sticks known as Kodi boxes, preloaded with the software. The ... and more »

Excerpt from:
Premier League wins anti-piracy court order - BBC News

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab on Tuesday announced it was rolling out a free version of its antivirus software across the globe, a product launch that comes amid mounting suspicion in the United States that the cyber firm is vulnerable to Russian government influence.

Kaspersky Free was immediately available in the United States, Canada, and several Asia Pacific countries and would launch in other regions in the coming months, Eugene Kaspersky, the company founder, wrote in a blog post. (bit.ly/2uXnsVQ)

Kaspersky said the free version was not intended to replace the paid versions of its antivirus software, describing it as offering "the bare essentials," such as email and web antivirus protection and automatic updates.

But the free software would benefit all of Kaspersky Lab's customers by improving machine learning across its products, he said.

The company has been working on Kaspersky Free for 18 months, a development phase that included pilot versions in several markets including Russia, Ukraine, China and Scandinavian countries.

Founded in 1997, Kaspersky Lab grew rapidly through the 2000s to become ow of the world's leading anti-virus software companies. (Graphic of Kaspersky's global reach tmsnrt.rs/2uWTQoV)

But the company has faced suspicion for years about its ties to Russia's Federal Security Service or FSB.

Concerns about the company have metastasized in the United States in recent years due to the deterioration in U.S.-Russia relations following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014 and later when U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had hacked the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Moscow denies the hacking allegations, and Kaspersky has repeatedly denied it has any untoward relationship with any government, saying the accusations against it lack evidence.

Last month FBI agents visited the homes of Kaspersky employees as part of a counterintelligence probe, and the Trump administration took steps to remove the company from a list of approved vendors who sell technology products to federal government agencies.

There is also a bill in Congress that would explicitly prohibit the Department of Defense from using Kaspersky products.

Privately held Kaspersky said its U.S. revenue, most of which comes from selling anti-virus software to consumers and small businesses, slipped from $164 million in 2014 to about $156 million in 2016.

Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Cynthia Osterman

Originally posted here:
Russia's Kaspersky Lab launches free antivirus software globally - Reuters