The IRS released a Quick Alert titled, “Extended Maintenance Window for both MeF ATS and Production Environments”.

“The MeF maintenance build window is being extended on Sunday, March 18, 2018. Both ATS and Production systems will be unavailable from 12:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. Eastern.  The build will deploy critical system updates.

Thank you in advance for refraining from accessing the MeF Systems during this period.”

This means that any returns e-filed on Sunday, March 18th from 12am-11am ET will not be transmitted to the IRS until after their maintenance window has closed.

3/19/18 – This is now resolved. For any existing RRB-1099-R entries that may have been impacted, you will need to edit each entry to re-enter the Box 7a amount to save.

We opened Issue #1640 for taxable amounts entered within the RRB-1099-R not carrying to Line 16b as taxable on the 1040. This is only occurring if Box 7a is manually entered by the user. If entering a RRB-1099-R and determining the taxable amount either by using the Simplified General Rule Worksheet or applying a PSO exclusion, the calculated taxable figure is carrying to 1040 as expected.

If needing to manually enter the taxable amount in Box 7a for a RRB-1099-R, we recommend holding those returns until this post is marked as resolved. We also recommend utilizing Return Tags to track any impacted returns your site(s) may have.

We received a request to highlight a VITA/TCE out of Massachusetts, Springfield Technical Community College, that was recently highlighted on a locally produced TV show in the area, Mass Appeal. To check out the interview and learn how this site is spreading the VITA word around their community, click here.

Thank you for sharing, Deyanira!

We will be placing returns in maintenance on Tuesday, March 13th at 5:00am ET to release some updates.  This updated included the following:

• Ohio RITA 37 – You can now load and calculate the form (Issue #1557)
• Rejected Returns button — Reduced to one Call to Action blink
• Form 8941 – Added the ability to enter a marketplace identifier if eligibility is answered yes to calculate Form 3800 (Issue #727)
• Zip Codes – The following zip codes now auto-populate (Issue #1565)
  • 85755 – Tucson, AZ
    60403 – Crest Hill, IL
    60404 – Shorewood, IL
• PA — Corrected an erroneous validation error for ‘ForeignAddress’ in namespace (Issue# 1583)
• OH — (Desktop) Corrected an erroneous validation error for “Donation, TotalDonation, Refund’ in namespace (Issue #1588)

MA DOR released a message on Monday, March 12th at 11:35am ET stating, “If you have been incorrectly rejected by reject code F1-0141, please resubmit the return”. If your site has any MA returns rejected with this code, MA has requested they be resubmitted for processing.

We will be placing the site in maintenance on Monday, March 12th at 5:00am ET to release a series of updates.

• CA – Fixed the issue where the “Other Additions” and “Other Subtractions” sub-menus were loading blank (Issue #1536)
• CO – Fixed an issue for the CO Amended Return where the entry for original refund received was not carrying to the PDF (Issue #1515)
• AL – Fixed an issue where Schedule D entries within the Part-Year AL return were not carrying to the PDF (Issue #1476)
• CT – Fixed the incorrect page validation within the CT Property Tax Credit menu (Issue #1453)
• IA – Added the ability to allocate dependents between TP/SP on IA MFS return when Federal is MFJ (Issue #1369)
• MO – Property Tax Credit menu > Basic Information for “Select if you are a Renter or Owner” now defaults to “Select” (Issue #1507)

03/11 — Resolved with Monday updates

Issue #1536 for the California sub-menus of “Other Additions” and “Other Subtractions” opening a blank page has been reported. The fix should be deployed early next week. If your site is preparing CA returns needing either of the below menus, we recommend creating a Return Tag to track these CA returns to update once Issue #1536 is resolved.

California > Additions to Income > Other Additions

California > Subtractions from Income > Other Subtractions

3/12/18 – RESOLVED

Reported Issue #1453 for an incorrect page validation when attempting to claim the CT Property Tax Credit for either the Primary Residence and/or Automobile is scheduled to be resolved the morning of Monday, March 12th by 8:00am ET. We apologize for the continued inconvenience for the impacted site(s).