The 2025 Site Administration OnDemand webinar for the 2026 Filing Season is now available. The direct link is available below and also accessible under Section 6 in the Practice Lab.

• Site Administration – Click Here

Remaining OnDemand Webinars: The remaining OnDemand webinars (Return Preparation I & II) will be made available prior to Thanksgiving. Additional blog posts will be published with direct links when available. Under Section 6 of the Practice Lab, the 2024 versions are still available for viewing.

The 2025 Enhancement Webinar (2026 Filing Season) will also be OnDemand this year and available mid-December.

The 2025 Desktop/Contingency Software OnDemand webinar for the 2026 Filing Season is now available. The direct link is available below and also accessible under Section 6 in the Practice Lab.

• Desktop & Contingency Software – Click Here

Remaining OnDemand Webinars: The remaining OnDemand webinars (Site Administration & Return Preparation I & II) will be made available prior to Thanksgiving. Additional blog posts will be published with direct links when available. Under Section 6 of the Practice Lab, the 2024 versions are still available for viewing.

The 2025 Enhancement Webinar (2026 Filing Season) will also be OnDemand this year and available mid-December.

A deployment is scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, November 12th to release the below update(s). Access to the program may be limited during a deployment.

1040 VIEW

• Various 2025 updates on the 1040 View on the Summary/Print page (Update)

SCHEDULE A – TAXES YOU PAID

• Update “Taxes You Paid” Text for Large Purchases – Schedule A (Update)

Message From SPEC

In order to increase awareness and provide information to SPEC partners, on Wednesday, November 5th, IRS SPEC hosted their monthly Employee and Partner Joint Webinar Session. The session was recorded, and we want to make sure it is available for our partners and volunteers who were unable to join. All partners and volunteers are invited to view the recording. If there are any questions or concerns, please reach out to your Relationship Manager and SPEC will address your concerns and provide answers to your questions.

Joint Webcast Recording – CLICK HERE

Practice Lab 2025 is now live! Please keep in mind that the Practice Lab will be updated twice a week as we receive finalized forms and instructions from the IRS. With that, we ask volunteers to not report calculation issues to support. We also ask to not report forms where the PDF may still display 2024 instead of 2025.

With the Practice Lab 2025 release, you will have access to PL 2025 and PL 2024.

When you log in to your Production Sites, you will see the following TaxSlayer 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020. You do not have the ability to create new returns in 2025, but you can still prepare returns in all of the available prior years. You will be able to electronically file 2024, 2023 and 2022 until the IRS shuts down their MeF system (Date TBD).

States will not be available in Practice Lab 2025 until closer to the filing season in either late December or early January. You can use PL 2024 to have your volunteers train or practice with state returns.

10/29/25 – 3:55pm ET: Access to 2022-2024 e-file menu has been restored. Once Microsoft corrects their issue with their Azure infrastructure, 2021 e-file menu access will be restored as well (ETA by tomorrow).

10/29/25 – 2:00pm ET: Microsoft is currently experience a global issue in their Azure environment, creating issues within certain areas of TaxSlayer applications. Our team is continuing to work with Microsoft for updates.

10/29/25 – 1:25pm ET: We are currently investigating an issue where users are receiving an error page when accessing the e-file menu in years 2021-2024.

Message On Behalf Of SPEC

In preparation for the 2026 Filing Season, SPEC provided training on Intake/Interview and Quality Review. These are key components to ensuring that our VITA/TCE sites maintain the highest standards of quality and accuracy when preparing tax returns. The Intake/Interview and Quality Review Training is based on the Publication 5838, VITA/TCE Intake/Interview and Quality Review Handbook. If there are questions concerning intake, interview and quality review or Form 13614-C in reference to this training, they can be submitted to the SPEC Relationship Manager for your organization.

Joint SPEC Webinar – October 22, 2025 – CLICK HERE

Message On Behalf Of SPEC

In order to increase awareness and provide information to SPEC partners, on Tuesday, October 7th, IRS SPEC hosted their monthly Employee and Partner Joint Webinar Session. The session was recorded and we want to make sure it is available for our partners and volunteers who were unable to join. All partners and volunteers are invited to view recording. If there are any questions or concern, please reach out to your Relationship Manager and SPEC will address your concerns and provide answers to your questions. Note: The first five (5) minutes of the session was not recorded due to technical difficulties, we truly apologize for the inconvenience.

Joint SPEC Webinar – October 7, 2025 – CLICK HERE