Software vendors received the below message from Louisiana today.

“Good morning,

The Louisiana acknowledgements are delayed due to a web service issue.  Once the issue is resolved, I will send out an update.“

Software vendors received the below messaging from CO late yesterday evening. For your site(s), you can still transmit CO returns to us as normal.

“Colorado has not retrieved MeF income tax returns since mid-day Friday while a system issue is being corrected.  We anticipate this stoppage will go until midnight on Wednesday, April 22nd.  We apologize for the inconvenience.“

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service, working in partnership with the Treasury Department and the Social Security Administration, announced today that recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will automatically receive automatic Economic Impact Payments.

SSI recipients will receive a $1,200 Economic Impact Payment with no further action needed on their part. The IRS projects the payments for this group will go out no later than early May.

Moving SSI recipients into the automatic payment category follows weeks of extensive cooperative work between SSA, Treasury, IRS as well as the Bureau of Fiscal Services.

“Since SSI recipients typically aren’t required to file tax returns, the IRS had to work extensively with these other government agencies to determine a way to quickly and accurately deliver Economic Impact Payments to this group,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “Additional programming work remains, but this step simplifies the process for SSI recipients to quickly and easily receive these $1,200 payments automatically. We appreciate the assistance of SSA and the Bureau of Fiscal Services in this effort.”

No action needed by most taxpayers
Earlier this month, the IRS took a similar action to ensure those receiving Social Security retirement or disability benefits and Railroad Retirement benefits can receive automatic payments of $1,200. While these groups receive Forms 1099, many in this group don’t typically file tax returns. People in these groups are expected to see the automatic $1,200 payments later this month.

Eligible taxpayers who filed tax returns for 2019 or 2018 will also receive the payments automatically. About 80 million payments are hitting bank accounts this week.

For benefit recipients with dependents, extra step needed to claim $500 for children
The law provides eligible taxpayers with qualifying children under age 17 to receive an extra $500. For taxpayers who filed tax returns in 2018 or 2019, the child payments will be automatic.

However, many benefit recipients typically aren’t required to file tax returns. If they have children who qualify, an extra step is needed to add $500 per child onto their automatic payment of $1,200 if they didn’t file a tax return in 2018 or 2019.

For those who receive Social Security retirement or disability benefits (SSDI), Railroad Retirement benefits or SSI and have a qualifying child, they can quickly register by visiting special tool available only on IRS.gov and provide their information in the Non-Filers section. By quickly taking steps to enter information on the IRS website about them and their qualifying children, they can receive the $500 per dependent child payment in addition to their $1,200 individual payment. If beneficiaries in these groups do not provide their information to the IRS soon, they will have to wait until later to receive their $500 per qualifying child.

The Treasury Department, not the Social Security Administration, will make these automatic payments to SSI recipients. Recipients will generally receive the automatic payments by direct deposit, Direct Express debit card, or by paper check, just as they would normally receive their SSI benefits.

For those with dependents who use Direct Express debit cards, additional information will be available soon regarding the steps to take on the IRS web site when claiming children under 17.

Update:

The MeF Production and Assurance Testing System (ATS) environments are fully operational. The unscheduled maintenance is complete.

Thank you for your patience. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Please monitor the MeF Operational Status page  for any future updates.

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The MeF Production and Assurance Testing System (ATS) environments are currently unavailable due to unscheduled maintenance.

A follow-up Quick Alert will be issued when both environments are fully operational.

Please refrain from accessing the MeF Systems during this maintenance.

Please monitor the MeF Operational Status page  for any future updates.

What does this mean to you?

You can send us returns, but they will not be processed until the IRS MeF system comes back on line.  We also cannot receive any outstanding acks.  This includes the transmission of EIP2020 returns.

Many people are receiving Economic Impacts Payments to help with the effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Among people getting payments for $1,200 are those who receive Social Security retirement, disability (SSDI), or survivor benefits and Railroad Retirement benefits. This includes those who don’t normally file a tax return and are not claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return.

Here are some things for these folks to know about the payment:

• Eligible Social Security (including SSDI) and Railroad Retirement beneficiaries whose benefits are reported on a Form 1099 SSA or RRB will not need to file a tax return or provide information to receive a payment. However, those recipients who have qualifying children under age 17 must provide information through the Non-Filers: Enter Payment Info tool to claim the $500 payment per child.

Note:  You can assist your taxpayers using your TaxSlayer application

• Even though these beneficiaries are not typically required to file a tax return, they will still receive a payment.
• Social Security (including SSDI) and Railroad Retirement beneficiaries who don’t file a tax return who have qualifying children under age 17 must use Non-Filers: Enter Payment Info to claim the $500 payment per child.
• Economic Impact Payments will be sent automatically to this group of people the same way they receive their Social Security retirement, disability (SSDI), or survivor benefits or their Railroad Retirement benefits.

The IRS continues to explore ways to see if Economic Impact Payments can be made automatically to SSI recipients and those who receive veteran’s disability compensation, pension or survivor benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs and who did not file a tax return for the 2018 or 2019 tax years. People in these groups can either use Non-Filers: Enter Payment Info option now or wait as the IRS continues to review automatic payment options to simplify delivery for these groups.

*States in red indicate a different filing/payment date than the Federal extended deadline.

4/9/2020

Software vendors received the below messaging from New York this afternoon. They state they can begin accepting New York returns with direct debit dates scheduled to process after 4/15/2020 on Monday, April 13th.

“NYS has completed its testing of the Extended due dates.  The code will be in our production environment tomorrow Friday 4/10/2020.  We ask that you hold off from submitting your files until Monday 4/13/2020, so that we may ensure the code migrated correctly on our end.”

Software vendors received the below messaging from New York this morning. Their MeF system is not currently able to process payments received with a Direct Debit Date past 4/15/2020. For any taxpayers wishing to make a payment with their New York return past 4/15/2020, we recommend holding these returns until this post has been updated. We recommend using Return Tags to help identify impacted returns at your site(s).

“Submissions with ACH request dates after 4/15/2020. This change has not been implemented in production yet so any return received with an ACH request date past 4/15/2020 will be processed on 4/15/2020. We will send a follow up email to all developers when we are able to properly process these submissions and can warehouse payments out until 7/15/2020.”

Please see this page from the NY Department of Taxation on how to cancel or reschedule a payment – Click Here