5:05:pm ET – Issue 4670 has been resolved. You should no longer see any blank pages at this time.

We were made aware of an issue that was introduced through this mornings deployment as it relates to our State Program. We have opened Issue 4670 to resolve an issue where users are attempting to access a state menu, but instead see a blank page. This occurs only on state menus where either the Taxpayer Picklist or W-2/1099-R Picklists exist. We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible.

Examples of impacted state pages include:

• CA – Form 3532 to add an individual
• MI – Retirement and Pension page to choose a 1099-R
• PA – Adding a 1099-R to Income Subject to Tax page
• PA – Adding a Schedule UE when needing to choose a W-2
• PA Local – Adding a W-2 within Income page

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

GAMBLING WINNINGS (W2-G)

• Remove the limitation of only allowing 30 separate W-2G entries (Issue 4571)

MASSACHUSETTS (Part-Year/Nonresident)

• Correct an issue where the “Massachusetts Taxable Pension Income” field within Additions to Income was not pulling to PDF (Issue 4617)

MICHIGAN

• Correct a saving issue when utilizing Firefox browser within the MI-1040CR-7 menu (Issue 4186)

OHIO

• Preparers name was displaying on the City of Cincinnati return (Issue 4618)

SCHEDULE K-1 (1065)

• Remove Form 8582, Worksheet 3, Column C entry from being pulled forward as a carryforward item (Issue 4611)

WEST VIRGINIA

• Rents, Royalties, and Gambling Winnings being included as earned income when calculating the Low-Income Earned Income Exclusion (Issue 4625)

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

The site will be placed in maintenance on Friday, March 6th beginning at 5:00am ET to release the below update. Note that deployments may take up to 3 hours to complete. During this time, access to the program may be limited.

FORM 2441

• Correct an issue to allow for EIN entry in Part 2 for prior year expenses (Issue 4492)

MASSACHUSETTS

• Correct an issue where taxable IRA’s not earned while a resident MA were being included on Line 2 of Schedule X (Issue 4559)

MICHIGAN

• Part-Year return, Form 4884, Part 2, Line 8 not using value from Schedule NR, Line 10 (Issue 4604)
• Removed e-file block when Form 4884 has more than 10 entries (Issue 4614)

PENNSYLVANIA

• Correct a calculation error related to Exception 2 for REV-1630 (Issue 4495)

VIRGINIA

• PMI not carrying to VA return (Issue 4606)

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

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

ARIZONA

• Correct an issue resulting in AZ Reject Code 713. After deployment, impacted returns can be resubmitted (Issue 4585)

MASSACHUSETTS

• Adding menu to input principal address within Schedule SC (Issue 4590)

MARYLAND

• Correct an issue causing the calc to break when a MD return is added to a Federal return (Issue 4603)

MISSOURI

• Correct an issue where MO-CR is not available on Part-Year returns (Issue 4594)

WEST VIRGINIA

• Correct an issue where Cap Gains from 1099-DIV are being included as earned income on the Earned Income Exclusion Worksheet (Issue 4582)

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

The site will be placed in maintenance on Wednesday, March 4th beginning at 5:00am ET to release the below update. Note that deployments may take up to 3 hours to complete. During this time, access to the program may be limited.

DELAWARE

• Correct a calculation error where Column A, Line 5 of Form 200-01 was not populating when applicable (Issue 4568)

NEW JERSEY

• Correct an issue where the Other Retirement Income Exclusion was calculating for a TP under age 62 (Issue 4575)

OHIO

• IT/SD 2210 Line 1 not including estimated state payments from IT-1040, Line 15 (Issue 4588)

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

The site will be placed in maintenance on Tuesday, March 3rd beginning at 5:00am ET to release the below update. Note that deployments may take up to 3 hours to complete. During this time, access to the program may be limited.

MARYLAND

• Correct a calculation error where the Long-Term Care Insurance Credit was calculating for an ineligible taxpayer (Issue 4564)

MICHIGAN

• Correct a display issue where the age was not showing on Line 13 of MI-1040CR-7 when applicable (Issue 4556)

NEW YORK

• Correct a display where both the TP and SP name was showing on Form IT-272 (Issue 4561)

NORTH CAROLINA

• Correct a calculation error on Line 20 of D-422A (Issue 4565)

SECURITY TEMPLATE

• Correct an issue where applicable security templates could not change a return from “Complete” back to “In Progress” (Issue 4374)

STUDENT LOAN INTEREST DEDUCTION

• Correct an issue where the deduction was not applied when TP marked as CAN BE claimed but IS NOT claimed as a dependent on another return (Issue 4560)

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

The site will be placed in maintenance on Friday, February 28th beginning at 5:00am ET to release the below update. Note that deployments may take up to 3 hours to complete. During this time, access to the program may be limited.

ALABAMA

• Correct an issue where Form 40, Part 1, Line 5b was not pulling taxable portion of retirement income (Issue 4549)

ARIZONA

• Correct an issue where Form 131 was not generating in the PDF (Issue 4518)

PENNSYLVANIA

• Correct an issue where royalty income was not pulling to PA-40, Line 6 (Issue 4553)

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

Below are bullet points from our opening presentation of the All Partner Call before opening up for Q&A from the field.

• E-file volume remains up by approximately 2% year over year for the VITA/TCE Program
• We have some outstanding CA acks.  Our development team is working with CA on this (Issue 4550)
• Changes to the Kiddie Tax have been deployed for TS 2019
  • Taxpayers can now choose to elect to use their Parents Tax Rate when calculating the Kiddie Tax
• We do not have a deliverable date on when the retroactive extenders will be added to the prior year application
• MO acks were delayed earlier this week, but should be resolved now
  • Check the blog for this type of information
• We launched the new FSA Kiosk landing page this morning for those on the call with Fusion and Stand Alone URLs
  • If you start from the URL we sent you, this page displays and allows you to more easily use bookmarking and creating desktop shortcuts
  • If your taxpayer does not see this page, then you are starting from the wrong URL
  • Put the Best Practices guide and other FSA guides on the blog and under User Guides on the left navigation panel when you are logged into TaxSlayer
• Updated the 1042-S to the 2019 form
• Updated the User Interface on some of the pages outside of the return, but did not change the functionality

Q1: Any update on Strike Benefits and how to report in the software properly?

• Software vendors are still waiting for additional guidance from the IRS to ensure there are no issues in the MeF (electronic submission) sent to the IRS.

Q2: Kiddie Tax ready for 2019?

• Yes, the extender update for Form 8615 was delivered to the 2019 software this morning.

Q3: Will preparers be notified of when kiddie tax may be applicable in a tax return?

• Currently, no warning is prompted. We do have a suggestion logged for this to assist the preparer when Form 8615 may be applicable.

Q4: Is there still an e-file block for Kiddie Tax?

• No, the e-file block has been removed.

Q5: Is there a way to assign a preparer to multiple returns at one time?

• No, there is not. However, with the intent of filtering Client List so your preparers no longer see accepted returns, they can select “Do Not Show Accepted Returns” from Client List menu.

Q6: Has Alimony Paid always required the Recipients SSN? What if no SSN is available?

• Yes, to deduct Alimony Paid, the SSN for the recipient is required. If no SSN is available, use 111-XX-1111 (X=0) and be sure to paper file the return. Also include a statement with the paper filed return to support why no SSN was available.

How do we file a MFS return when we don’t know spouse SSN?

• If no SSN is available, use 111-XX-1111 (X=0) and be sure to paper file the return. Also include a statement with the paper filed return to support why no SSN was available.

When will extenders be applied to 2018 program?

• Prior year extender work is captured in our backlogs, but we do not have an ETA when these items will be available in the prior year programs.