The site will be placed in maintenance on Friday, March 2nd at 5:00am ET to release a series of updates.

• Zip Code Updates (Issues #1436 and #1449)
  • 98087 – Lynnwood, WA
  • 85396 – Buckeye, AZ
  • 62711 – Springfield, IL
  • 62712 – Springfield, IL
  • 06824 – Fairfield, CT
  • 06825 – Fairfield, CT
  • 06828 – Fairfield, CT
  • 06890 – Southport, CT
• Kentucky – Fix an issue where dependents not being included in Personal Credits and Family Size Tax Credit (Issue #1420)
• Connecticut – Update text on the CHET  menu for account number entries (Issue #1329)
• W-7 – Fixed an issue where taxpayers needing to renew their ITIN’s were not able to access the W-7 menu

RESOLVED 3/1/2018 – 3:54 pm ET

UPDATE 3/1/2018 – 2:40 PM ET —  The correction has been finalized on our internal system. We will be making the correction shortly.  This should have no impact on users.

UPDATE: 3/1/2018 – 12:40PM ET –  The correction has been made to the code.  We are in the process of deploying the changes to our internal systems for testing purposes.

UPDATE: 3/1/2018 – 10:35am ET – This appears to be impact any date entry field for any state return menu where they are available. We are actively investigating.

We have opened Issue #1442 to review an item that popped up today with preparing a Resident New Jersey return. Within the Resident New Jersey return, specifically the “Basic Information” menu, at the bottom of the screen, there is the option to enter Part-Year residency dates.

The Issue:

If preparing a Resident NJ return and Part-Year residency dates are not needed, when clicking “Save” to continue from the Basic Information menu, a validation shows as “Invalid Format Date” for Part-Year residency even though dates have not been entered and are not required for the Resident NJ return.

What to do now:

At this time, in order to save the other data entered within the Basic Information menu and continue with preparing the  Resident NJ return, we recommend entering residency dates of “01/01/2017” to “12/31/2017”. We also recommend holding impacted NJ returns until this blog post has been updated as RESOLVED. At that time, access any impacted Resident NJ returns and remove the Part-Year residency dates entered. We recommend using a Return Tag to mark impacted NJ returns.

RESOLVED as of 3/2/18

We have opened Issue #1420 to review an issue where dependent(s) are not being included when calculating the Personal Tax Credit (Form 740, Line 17) and Family Size Tax Credit (Form 740, Line 21) on KY returns.

Example Scenario for Personal Tax Credit:

Head of Household Federal return (Single for KY purposes) with 1 qualifying dependent.

• Per KY instructions, this return is allowed a Personal Tax Credit of $10 per qualifying individual on the return. This KY return should receive $20 Personal Tax Credit on Line 17 but is only receiving $10 on Line 17 because the qualifying dependent is not being included.

Example Scenario for Family Size Tax Credit: DOES NOT impact any KY return with a KY AGI $32,718 or higher based on KY qualifications for the Family Size Tax Credit

Same return as above – Head of Household Federal return (Single for KY purposes) with 1 qualifying dependent with a KY AGI of $16,800.

• Per KY instructions, this return would be considered a Family Size of 2 for determining the Family Size Tax Credit. With a KY AGI of $16,800 and Family Size of 2, the Family Size Tax Credit should be 90% of the value listed on Line 19 (Total Tax Liability) of Form 740. The Family Size Tax Credit is used to lower the KY tax liability, possibly increasing a KY refund or lowering an amount owed.
  • However, because the qualifying dependent is not being considered when determining the Family Size Tax Credit, this KY return is showing as a Family Size of 1 instead of a Family Size of 2. Per KY instructions, for a Family Size of 1 with a KY AGI of $16,800 is over the highest threshold to qualify for the Family Size Tax Credit ($16,040 and under for Family Size of 1) and does not receive any Family Size Tax Credit on Line 21. This is then incorrectly lowering a possible KY refund or incorrectly increasing an amount owed to KY.

Q: What do you do if you have an impacted KY return that has not been filed?

A: We recommend holding these KY returns until this blog post as been marked as RESOLVED. At that time, any impacted KY returns can be transmitted for processing.

Q: What do you do if you have an impacted KY return that has been filed and accepted and did not receive the correct Personal Tax Credit or Family Size Tax Credit?

A: TaxSlayer VITA/TCE Support is in the process of contacting each site that may have impacted KY returns with further instruction. Attempts to call each site will take place on Thursday (3/8), Friday (3/9), and Saturday (3/10). If we are unable to speak with the site admin, we will follow up with an e-mail. Note:  If your site does not receive a call or e-mail from TaxSlayer VITA/TCE Support regarding potentially impacted KY returns, your site DOES NOT have any impacted KY returns.

2/28/18 – 8:30am ET

The slowness in states loading and states just not loading in general should now be resolved.

2/28/18 – 8:13am ET

We are seeing issues with some state returns loading slowly when first attempting to access. We are currently looking into these concerns. In the meantime, if you have a state return that is not loading or possibly loading a little slow, press CTRL+F5 on your keyboard to reload. You may need to press CTRL+F5 more than once if your state return does not initially load.

Update 1:26 pm EST — Resolved

Update 12:44 pm EST 

We are still investigating why it is taking a longer than expected time to get from Summary/Print to the e-file section.

2/23/18 – 11:44am ET

We have received reports of slowness in the online application that is specific to accessing the “E-file” menu from the left navigation menu. We are currently investigating what may be causing this slowness. When selecting “E-file” from the left navigation menu, you may see a white screen while it loads (that is normal). It may take up to 40 seconds for the first “E-file” menu to load but it will load. DO NOT close the window.

*Resolved as of 2/28/18*

We have received some reports and have been able to replicate the behavior inside of the state returns. We have opened Issue #1308 for development to review and resolve.

What is the issue?

• When attempting to enter a percentage value (i.e. 100%) into a state return entry field that asks for a percentage to be entered, I am not able to enter a value when I click (using your mouse or mousepad) into the field.

How do I enter a percentage value at this time?

• Until the fix is live, using your mouse or mousepad, click into an entry field that is before the percentage entry field and TAB down to the percentage entry field. You will then be able to enter the appropriate value.

NOTE: The percentage entry will save with the state return and carry to the PDF, however, the value is not staying inside the state return. This means that when the Quality Reviewer is reviewing the state entries, the percentage field will be blank again. Repeating the steps outlined above will remedy the issue until the permanent fix is live.

We will be placing the site in maintenance Friday, February 23rd at 5:00am ET to release a series of updates.

• Add the State and Local General Sales Tax Deduction worksheet as an option to add to a custom print set (Issue #972)
• Add the MO-PTC as an option to add to a custom print set (Issue #1132)
• Add the IL Schedule EIC as an option to add to a custom print set (Issue #1135)
• Fix an issue that allowed M1PR’s to be transmitted after receiving an E-file block that was not corrected prior to submitting
• Fix an issue with the Validation Errors report that was incorrectly showing some returns that had been accepted (Issue #1260)
• Various text updates for the Louisiana Donations menu (Issue #1273)
• Fix an issue where some entries were not saving within the MN Part Year “Income Subject to Tax” menu (Issue #1275)

With adding back the Tuition and Fees Deduction, the “1040 View” display for Line 34 currently shows as “Reserved for future use”. This will be updated in a future release. Tuition and Fees Deduction claimed carries to the 1040 PDF and is included in the calculation of the return.