Fact Sheet Edition:  November, 2018

Update

The initial release of the tax year 2018 Practice Lab will not have all the new tax reform changes programmed because the final IRS forms are not yet finalized. We have evaluated the impact to individuals taking the VITA/TCE Certification test. Volunteers should still be able to certify but you should proceed with caution when selecting answers as the Practice Lab may provide tax year 2018 calculations on 2017 forms. TaxSlayer will update the Practice Lab as final forms are approved.

Background

The Practice Lab is tax software that is integrated within Link & Learn Taxes. A link connects students to the 2018 tax preparation software which allows hands-on practice in preparing tax returns.

Click here to download a PDF of the Fact Sheet

The Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIGs) requires the following change to our idle timeout period policies:

The application must automatically terminate the non-privileged user session and log off non-privileged users after a 15 minute idle time period has elapsed.”  In order to comply with this requirement we must decrease the idle timeout period from 20 minutes to 15 minutes

When will this be implemented?

This change is scheduled to be implemented by the end of November, 2018.

Blog posted 11/05/2018 9:21 AM EST

We would like to extend an invitation for you to participate in our stress test events.   Our goal is to have 12,000 -15,000 concurrent users during this period, so we can closely simulate our peak hours during the season.

Stress Test 1

When:  Thursday, November 15, 2018

Time:  12:15 PM – 1:30 PM Eastern

Where:  TaxSlayer Practice Lab 2018 from anywhere with an internet connection

Stress Test 2

When:  Saturday, December 8, 2018

Time:  11:00 am – 12: 15 PM Eastern

Where:  TaxSlayer Practice Lab 2018 from anywhere with an internet connection

Please take a moment to RSVP via our Survey Monkey Stress Test Survey

https://www.research.net/r/TaxSlayer2018StressTest

Thank you in advance for your participation.

We would like to extend an invitation for you to participate in our stress test events.   Our goal is to have 12,000 -15,000 concurrent users during this period, so we can closely simulate our peak hours during the season.

Stress Test 1

When:  Thursday, November 15, 2018

Time:  12:15 PM – 1:30 PM Eastern

Where:  TaxSlayer Practice Lab 2018 from anywhere with an internet connection

Stress Test 2

When:  Saturday, December 8, 2018

Time:  11:00 am – 12: 15 PM Eastern

Where:  TaxSlayer Practice Lab 2018 from anywhere with an internet connection

Fact Sheet Edition:  October, 2018

Click here to download a PDF of the Fact Sheet

Click here to view PDF

Click here to submit a suggestion

There are three attachments

• Attachment #1:  Dedicated to application and federal suggestions
• Attachment #2: Dedicated to State suggestions
  • Sorted by State
• Attachment #3:  TaxSlayer Suggestion Status
  • Broken into categories
  • Duplicates have been removed and only list the TaxSlayer Responses
  • Column indicating when the item is expected to be delivered (TS 2017 or TS 2018)
  • Column indicating if the item was added or updated since the last document (as always…prone to human error!!)

An example of the status column can be found by Tracking ID 269372 (Ctrl+F allows you search in the document)

Check out Attachment 3 to see the rest of the new and/or update items.

More exciting changes to come.

We are still reading through and analyzing the suggestions.  We are also beginning to update the Status column as we commit to implement a suggestions.

Click here to view PDF

The link will launch a Brainshark video with instructions on how to view the file.

The following items have been released to Production:

Client List:

Added the ability to exclude accepted returns from the client list for sites that have less than 500 returns (this will be coded for sites over 500 returns prior to tax season).

Select the checkbox 

The below example shows a list with 252 returns filtered down to 9 returns when this option is selected.

Reports

Added the Preparer Name to the Fees Charged Report to assist the Military sites and other sites that track fees saved to the taxpayer.

*Click here to download a PDF of our Cumulative Release Notes.

We will be placing returns in maintenance on Tuesday, September 10, 2018 at 5:00 am EST to perform a series of updates.  The update is scheduled to include the following:

Federal

• Summary/Print — Added Taxpayer, Spouse and Dependents Age to Summary/Print

Carry Forward

• Include unallowed loss on Schedule E

States

• Rhode Island (RI) — Resolved an issue with the saving and printing of 1310 (Issue ID 2109)

Setting the stage for TS 2018

• New York (NY) — Adding the ability to allow for PDF attachments
• Pennsylvania (PA) —  If a deduction exists on the Federal return for the Early Withdrawal Penalty of CD or Savings, have a prompt when creating the PA return telling the user they have XXX amount on the Federal and to enter the amount, if any, on the PA return.

*Click here to download a PDF of our Cumulative Release Notes.