Inside the Income section, directly under “Profit of Loss From a Business“, you will now see a menu for “Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions” shown below. Opening this menu will provide guidance of where to report 1099-K income. If adding 1099-K entries on a return where a Schedule C already exists, you will have the option to either add the 1099-K income to the existing Schedule C or create a new Schedule C.

Note: If a 1099-K is provided for rental income received from services such as AirBnB, this income should be reported on a Schedule E.

Purpose:  The Office Identifier is a number generated by TaxSlayer.  This is a Vendor Control Number required for electronic filing.  The field must be present in the-e-file for acceptance.  The goal is for the IRS to validate the number in the e-file with the number uploaded by the software vendor.

Question:  Where is this located?

Answer:  The field will be displayed on your Office/Firm Setup screen where you enter your Firm Information.

Question:  How do I find the office identifier

Answer:  Login to My Account from the VITA/TCE Springboard with the username and password you established via the User Information email link once received after your order is processed.  Once you are logged in, select Account History on the left navigation bar.

Question:  Is this  number unique to my site?

Answer:  Yes, it is unique to the EFIN.

Question:  Will this number ever change?

Answer: The number will change if the EFIN associated with your site changes

A production update is scheduled for deployment on Tuesday, December 19th at 6:00am Eastern. A couple items included in tomorrow’s update listed below will be pushed live.

• Minnesota – Adding M1PR to a MN return has been relocated to the “Localities” menu accessible from the main state return grid. The wording “Localities” will be updated to reflect “Property Tax Refund”

• Schedule K-1 – A fix will be released to properly save Schedule K-1 entries and carry the data to the 1040.
  • An issue existed where if you entered income, saved that entry, then exited the Schedule K-1 menu without continuing through (i.e. exited using the left navigation menu) the remaining sub-menus, the data entered as income was not carrying to the 1040.
• State Returns– The issue requiring two-clicks within certain state sub-menus to navigate forward or back has been resolved.

A new feature was released for sites that will be offering the 8888. Now, when entering direct deposit information inside the E-file menu, if your site is set up to offer the 8888, you will be required to verify both the RTN and ACCT numbers provided. This will work just as the current Direct Deposit entry functions for sites that do not offer the 8888 at their sites. After entering the initial RTN/ACCT number information, it will be masked requiring the preparer to verify the confirmation entry by referring to the documents in hand. Adding this new feature for the 8888 will go a long way in ensuring the correct direct deposit information is entered the first time by the preparer before moving to quality review.

As we continue to receive and process orders from the IRS, we wanted to post a reminder of how setting up your site works if you are simply renewing for the upcoming tax season and the Site Administrator has NOT changed.

When we receive an order for a site that existed this past tax season and the Site Administrator has NOT changed, the existing Site Administrator (listed on the order) will receive one (1) e-mail from TaxSlayer Pro. The Site Administrator will receive the “Site Processed Notification” e-mail with the message body shown below. Notice a link to activate your site is NOT included. This is because your site was previously activated around this time last year (2016) and is still active. Since you are the existing Site Administrator, use your existing login credentials for the site listed in your e-mail to verify the entries in the “Configuration” menu are accurate and make adjustments if needed.

A production deployment is scheduled for Thursday, December 14th, at 6:00am Eastern. This update should be complete prior to 8:00am Eastern.

The “View Form” feature is now live after completing the Health Insurance menu to view either F8962 or F8965.

Form 8965: If a return has an exemption claimed, the “View Form” option is available directly on the Health Care Exemption screen after adding the first exemption.

Form 8962: If the return requires Form 8962, the “View Form” option is available on the first page of the Health Insurance Questionnaire AFTER the Health Insurance Questionnaire has been completed. This location was chosen primarily for quality review. When the Quality Reviewer is going back through a return, they will be able to generate the PDF at the beginning of the Health Insurance section prior to checking entries.

Note: Utilizing the “View Form” feature from the above screen will only generate Form 8962 if it is included with the return based on how the Health Insurance section was completed. Otherwise, a blank page will show.

One of the common questions received yesterday (9/7/17) after launching MFA was from site administrators or volunteers with a security template allowing access to Configuration>Preparer Setup.

Scenario: I have multiple volunteers at my site that also volunteer at other sites. When I access my own Preparer(s) Setup Menu page, I can see the checkbox to allow my e-mail address to be used across multiple accounts. However, when I access the Preparer(s) Setup Menu page for other volunteers at my site, I do not see the checkbox under their e-mail address entry field.

Q1:  Why can’t I see the checkbox for my volunteers?

A1: The reason you are able to see the checkbox under your Preparer(s) Setup Menu page is because you completed the Account Update screen after MFA was launched.  As each volunteer completes the Account Update screen for their username, the checkbox will be available within their Preparer(s) Setup Menu page.