The site will be placed in maintenance on Friday, February 11th, beginning at 5:00am ET to release the below update(s). Note that deployments may take up to 3 hours to complete. During this time, access to the program may be limited.

FSA

• Update FSA PR program to allow QW and HoH filing statuses for 1040-PR/SS (Issue 6641)

LOUISIANA

• Nonrefundable child care credit not calculating (Issue 6637)

NEW YORK

• EIC calculating for a TP over age 65 (Issue 6653)

Click here to download a PDF of our Cumulative Release Notes & Program Enhancements.

New for TY2021, the IRS adjusted the age requirement for a taxpayer with no qualifying child when determining EITC eligibility as it relates to students.  A taxpayer that is considered a “specified student” must be age 24 before they are eligible to receive EITC with no qualifying child.

Within the Personal Information of the application, making the highlighted selection shown below will not allow EITC unless the taxpayer, identified as a specified student, is at least age 24 and meets other EITC qualifications. You should refer to IRS guidance on how to make the appropriate vetting process to make the determination if the selection should be checked or not.

Steps for identifying any returns that may have already been prepared and filed prior to the new tax law being implemented into the application.

• Navigate to Reports
• Select Management Reports
• The following reports include Filing Status, Taxpayer Date of Birth, AGI and EIC
  • Site Production Detail Report – Electronic
  • Site Production Detail Report – Paper

You can utilize the built-in filters to narrow your taxpayer results to those born no later than 1998 (under age 24) and who have AGI less than the EITC threshold for taxpayers with a filing status of Single

There are two different entry points for Form 8915-F within the 2021 TaxSlayer Pro Online software. Depending on what you are trying to report will determine which F8915-F entry point to access.

• If, in 2020, on Form 8915-E the election was made to spread the taxable amount of a distribution over 3 years, use the “8915-F” menu on the Income section (shown below) to report the next 1/3 that is taxable on the 2021 return. Primary reason for making the election to spread the taxable amount over 3 years was due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

• The second access point is a question presented to the preparer after adding Form 1099-R to a return. You will see the question below for Form 8915-F. The primary reason for selecting YES here will be for qualified 2020 disaster distributions made in 2021. Note: Coronavirus-related distributions can’t be made after December 30, 2020. A list of qualified disasters can be found in the Form 8915-F instructions HERE.

Software vendors received the below messaging from the Ohio Department of Taxation.

“The Ohio Department of Taxation would like to communicate to taxpayers the anticipated processing times for paper returns for tax year 2021. It may take several months for your paper return to process. For faster processing, the Ohio Department of Taxation recommends you submit your return electronically using this commercial software product.”

The site will be placed in maintenance on Wednesday, February 9th, beginning at 5:00am ET to release the below update(s). Note that deployments may take up to 3 hours to complete. During this time, access to the program may be limited.

CONNECTICUT

• Line 48b is calculating a pension or annuity deduction for a non-qualifying return (Issue 6621)

EITC

• Updated the program to not calculate EITC for a “specified student” triggered by the over age 18 and a full time student checkbox in personal information (Issue 6334)

FORM 8915-F

• Add F8915-F as a selection for print sets (2021 Update)

IOWA

• MFS Return the TP is listed as SP (Issue 6595)

NEW JERSEY

• Line 28a calculating incorrect subtraction for a return (Issue 6624)

WEST VIRGINIA

• Senior Citizen Tax Credit not calculating for a qualifying return (Issue 6605)

Click here to download a PDF of our Cumulative Release Notes & Program Enhancements.

From the IRS:

If your site filed a NC return and it is rejected with Reject Code X0000-005, we will resubmit impacted returns by the end of this week. No action is required on your end. North Carolina updated their schema to a new version not yet in production. Any currently e-filed NC returns have the old (now outdated) schema and will reject.

Note: NC will not begin processing acks until sometime in February. The exact date is not known at this time.

The site will be placed in maintenance on Monday, February 7th, beginning at 5:00am ET to release the below update(s). Note that deployments may take up to 3 hours to complete. During this time, access to the program may be limited.

1040-PR

• Update 2021 PR program to allow HoH and QW filing statuses for 1040-PR/SS returns (2021 Update)

Click here to download a PDF of our Cumulative Release Notes & Program Enhancements.