The site will be placed in maintenance on Wednesday, March 20th to release the below software updates.

ARIZONA

• Correct print issues related to Arizona Form 203 for Injured Spouse (both Spouses were being marked as injured spouse) (Issue 3224)

CONNECTICUT

• Correct a calculation issue for MFS returns where they should be receiving a value on Line 41 for Social Security Benefit Adjustment but were not (Issue 3166)

MINNESOTA

• Add a Company Name entry field for the SP within the Long Term Care Insurance Premium Credit menu (Issue 3249)

MONTANA

• Correct an issue where the MT Standard Deduction was being applied to a return instead of Itemized Deductions (Issue 3142)

NEW YORK

• Correct an issue where moving expenses listed on the Federal return were not carrying to Form IT-225 (Issue 3161)

SIMPLIFIED METHOD WORKSHEET

• Correct a print issue on Line 10 of the Simplified Method Worksheet where it was being left blank in error (Issue 3175)

*Click here to download a PDF of our Cumulative Release Notes.

Below are the questions and answers recorded from the All Partner call on Thursday, March 14th. We are posting questions most applicable to all sites.

Q: Looking for reports to access specific dollar amounts for both fed and state returns.

• We recommend taking advantage of the Site Production Detail Report (Electronic and Paper) to drill into TP data at your site. There are also various other reports available within Management Reports to assist.

Q: Question about for carryforward data, why does a state with no income tax show as an optional carryforward item.

• Recommended to the volunteer to request an enhancement via the Suggestion Box to adjust the way carryforward data works in relation to states without income tax.

Q: When suggestions are submitted via the Suggestion Box, would like to receive an automated e-mail referencing the enhancement entered.

• All requests entered into the Suggestion Box are  responded to by Kim or Craig along with regular updates based on status changes with submitted enhancements. Since all suggestions are manually reviewed, it can take a little time before we are able to send out acknowledgement e-mails.

Q: Volunteer was asking the IRS if there was an income limitation for assisting taxpayers in their community.

• IRS representative indicated there is not an income limitation but the most important item to note is the volunteer must have the appropriate certifications to complete the tax returns.

Q: Question about a 1040-NR/EZ return getting rejected by the IRS due to $0 AGI.

• The IRS does not accept any 1040 return with $0 AGI via e-file and that these returns should be paper filed. Alternatively, sites have indicated they enter $1 in Other Income in order to e-file a return.

Q: Why does a 1040-NR return for a married nonresident require spouse information?

• We have opened Issue 3239 to remove the current validations requiring spouse entry when no longer applicable for 2018 1040-NR returns. For the time being, enter all spouse information but if a SSN/ITIN is not known, volunteers can enter 111-00-1111.

Q:What SSN do you enter when needing to apply for an ITIN?

• Enter all zeros (000-00-0000) to get access to the W-7 menu for the applicable individual on the return needing an ITIN.

Q: Can you electronically file Form 8843 for 1040-NR returns?

• The IRS still requires Form 8843 be paper filed if being filed by itself. If also preparing/filing the 1040-NR/EZ, Form 8843 will be included in the transmission.

Software vendors received the below messaging from the Nebraska Department of Revenue.

“It appears Nebraska set rejects for NEHeader-0020 between March 15^th and March 17^th in error.  If you received a reject acknowledgment for NEHeader-0020 please resubmit the return.  Please let me know if you have any questions or issues.“

We have received a few sporadic reports of inconsistent behavior related to the 2015 and 2016 programs. We wanted to identify what we know below in relation to this reports from the field.

2015-2017 HTML Plain Text Issues (Issue 3290) – We have heard reports of users opening returns in 2016 and 2017 and ultimately seeing a white screen load with all menu options showing on the left-hand side of the page. This is generally due to the screen loading as HTML Plain Text and not downloading graphics properly. You can press CTRL+F5 to re-load the page but certain functionality icons may not load such as the “EDIT” and “DELETE” icons. The 1040 View may also not load properly after selecting CTRL+F5.

• (RESOLVED) The issue with the prior year programs loading in HTML Plain Text has been resolved. If you still see this, please refresh your page by selecting Ctrl+F5 to recycle the page.

2015/2016 State Menu Issues (Issue 3243) – Using Internet browsers, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, the state menus are missing the “Continue” button to advance or exit the state menu. Also, attempting to open sub-menu’s does not allow entry. At this time, we advise impacted sites to utilize a different Internet browser such as Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer.

2015/2016 Functionality Issues (Issue 3257) – We have received various reports of users, when inside the 2015 program, having sporadic issues of trying to save W-2 entries, various checkboxes not staying marked, and unable to adjust taxable amounts in 1099-R(s) among other odd behavior. This does not appear to be related to specific Internet browsers. If you are seeing this behavior, we recommend closing all browser windows (not just the window tab), clear your cache, and start a fresh session until we are able to determine what may be causing this behavior.

• (RESOLVED) This issue appeared to be related to Issue 3290 from above. If described issues still exist in the prior year software, clear your cache and start a new session by closing all browser instances.

The site will be placed in maintenance on Monday, March 18th to release the below software updates.

GEORGIA

• Added an entry field within Subtractions from Income menu for “Income received from deceased veterans by surviving family” (Issue 3138)

MINNESOTA

• Add a subtraction field on the MN Nonresident program for National Guard income (Issue 3169)

OHIO

• Correct an issue where the OH Lump-Sum Retirement Credit was not calculating for a return (Issue 3141)

PENNSYLVANIA

• Correct an allocation issue where Federally reported Seller Financed Interest was only allocated to the TP (Issue 3150)

*Click here to download a PDF of our Cumulative Release Notes.

The site will be placed in maintenance on Friday, March 15th to release the below software updates.

APPLICATION OF EXTENSION

• Correct an issue where the “File My Extension” button was missing when an extension was present in a return (Issue 3162)

MONTANA

• Correct an issue in the Payments menu where “Overpayment applied from 2017 return) entries were not being applied to 2018 MT return (Issue 3151)
  • This entry is to made in the Federal Section > Payments & Estimates > State Estimated Payments

NEW YORK

• Correct an issue where unused union dues as an itemized deduction were not being applied to Line 44 of NY return (Issue 3132)

OREGON

• Correct an issue where the OR Schedule A was not included when generating a PDF from the State PDF View (Issue 2563)

STATE AND LOCAL REFUND WORKSHEET

• Correct an issue where the full state refund was being included as taxable income when only prior year sales tax was provided (Issue 3076)

VIRGINIA

• Add the ability for MFS VA returns to allocate dependent exemptions between TP/SP within VA Basic Information menu (Issue 3113)

*Click here to download a PDF of our Cumulative Release Notes.

The site will be placed in maintenance on Wednesday, March 13th to release the below software updates.

CALIFORNIA 

• This issue specific to a CA return being created with a Federal 1040-NR. Correct an issue where Scholarship and Grant income was carrying over as Alimony Received on the CA return (Issue 3120)

CONNECTICIT (PART-YEAR)

• Correct an issue where allocated Dividends and Capital Gains were not carrying to Column B of the CT-1040AW (Issue 3093)

DELAWARE

• Correct an issue on the DE Amended Return where the additional standard deduction was being limited to $1,000 (Issue 3124)

FORM 8962

• Correct an issue where an added household member in the Health Insurance questionnaire was not being included in the family size shown on F8962, Line 1 (Issue 2839)
  • On the “Household Member” page, there is now a “Override Tax Family Size” option to manually enter the family tax size

HAWAII

• Update the HI State Tax Refund Worksheet to update the entry field label for “2017 Credit for Res Construction” and remove the entry field for “2017 Credit for General Tax” (Issue 3118)

MICHIGAN

• Correct an issue where Federal returns with only 1099-R income reported were not properly carrying to the MI Schedule W. The overall calculation was always correct and included MI withholding from 1099-R (Issue 3123)

MINNESOTA

• Correct a MN E-file Block prompted for missing M1-LTI information when needed information was provided inside the state return (Issue 3092)

OLD IRS ACK REPORT

• Correct a display issue where the Taxpayer name for a return where an extension was filed was showing as an encrypted hash (Issue 3117)

OTHER CAPITAL GAINS DATA

• Correct an issue where the BEGIN button was not changing to EDIT after data was entered into the “Other Capital Gains Data” menu (Issue 2848)

OTHER DEPENDENT CREDIT

• Correct an issue where ODC was not calculating when the qualifying dependent relationship to TP was “Other” and months lived with TP was 12 (Issue 3126)

WISCONSIN

• Correct a display issue where Part-Year WI dates of residency were not carrying to the WI return (Issue 3128)

ZIP CODE DATABASE

• Add zip code 19176 for Philadelphia, PA to the zip code database (Issue 3109)

*Click here to download a PDF of our Cumulative Release Notes.

The site will be placed in maintenance on Monday, March 11th to release the below software updates.

ISSUE 3062

• Correct the printing issue certain Security Templates are experiencing described here (Issue 3062)

KENTUCKY

• Correct an entry when data entered in the 2nd entry menu for “Retirement Income Schedule P, Part 1” was duplicating into the 3rd entry menu and vice versa (Issue 3070)

MINNESOTA M1X

• Correct a display issue where the originally reported K-12 Education Credit entry was not correctly carrying to M1X, Line 19, Column C (carrying to Column B instead) (Issue 3097)

*Click here to download a PDF of our Cumulative Release Notes.