North Carolina Department of Revenue issued the below update to software vendors and on the NC DOR website. Updates specific to individual income tax are in BOLD.

NOTE: This does not impact when sites can transmit NC return to us. We will just hold the NC returns until NC says we can transmit to them.

NCDOR Announces Opening of Business and Individual Income Tax Seasons

Raleigh, N.C. — The N.C. Department of Revenue (NCDOR) will begin accepting both business and individual income tax returns over the next few weeks.

• The NCDOR anticipates accepting 2022 Corporate Income and Franchise, Partnership Income, and Estates and Trust Income tax returns by Friday, January 27.
• The NCDOR anticipates accepting 2022 Individual Income tax returns by Friday, February 3.

Although the Department anticipates that we will begin accepting returns by February 3, it will be early March before we can begin processing and validating return information and issuing refunds.

This delay is necessary as we complete updating and testing of the refund fraud validation system, a measure that protects taxpayer identity and ensures that the appropriate refunds get into the hands of the right people. Once we begin processing and validating the returns, we will post the “Where’s My Refund” application on the NCDOR.gov webpage that allows taxpayers to check the status of their tax refund.

For calendar year taxpayers, the due date to file income tax returns is April 15. By law, North Carolina considers income tax returns with a due date on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday as being timely filed if delivered in person or mailed or electronically submitted to the NCDOR on or before the next business day after the Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.

In 2023, April 15 falls on a Saturday, and Emancipation Day, a legal holiday for income tax purposes, will be observed on Monday, April 17. Therefore, if a taxpayer files their 2022 calendar year income tax return on or before April 18, 2023, the NCDOR will consider the return timely filed.

Taxpayers are encouraged to file their taxes electronically; it is safer, more convenient, and will move through our process faster than traditional paper filing. Free and low cost online filing (eFile) options for qualified taxpayers are available through the NCDOR.gov website. Taxpayers may even file their taxes electronically before the official opening dates as a way to prevent tax fraud schemes.

The Internal Revenue Service recently announced that it will begin accepting individual income tax returns on Monday, January 23: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-sets-january-23-as-official-start-to-2023-tax-filing-season-more-help-available-for-taxpayers-this-year.

The NCDOR funds public services benefiting the people of North Carolina. The NCDOR administers the tax laws and collects the taxes due in an impartial, consistent, secure, and efficient manner.

Friday, January 20th

4:05 PM:  28 additional returns were received that did not get sent during Controlled Launch.  These returns will have a status of “Transmitted” on your client list.  Once we start sending returns on Monday, these returns will be sent to the IRS.  No action is required by you.

3:09 PM:  We have turned efile off.  Thank you to everyone that participated.  This allowed us to identify some unexpected items.

1:27 PM:  We have sent 29 e-files and received 29 acks.  We are currently seeing some unexpected things with the acknowledgements from a software perspective.

• If your return was rejected, it will show on the client list as rejected, but you currently cannot see any reject details.
• The IRS Ack reports are not rendering any data (assuming the same thing is happening for accepted returns)
• The client status does not seem to be updating to appropriate status

We are researching these issues in order to get them resolved prior to opening day.

10:05 AM:  E-file has been turned on to transmit from the Submission page from inside the return.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

We will be turning on the ability to submit 2022 e-files for a few hours on Friday, January 20th from approximately 10am – 3pm Eastern.  Our goal is to send around 100 VITA/TCE returns during controlled launch.

Will I get an IRS acknowledgement?

Yes

Does this speed up the process of the taxpayer getting their refund any earlier?

No

What happens if I submit a return and it is not sent during Controlled Launch?

We will hold the return and submit it on Monday, January 23rd when e-file opens.

All electronic files need to be submitted to TaxSlayer by 9:00 PM EST on Saturday, November 26, 2022

Shutdown begins on Saturday, November 26, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time, in order to prepare the system for the upcoming Tax Year 2022 Filing Season.

Shutdown Deadlines on Saturday, November 26, 2022

Transmitters:

Transmitting Submissions (State & Federal) 10:00 p.m. Eastern  time.

Note: Our applications will still be available, but if you prepare returns, you will need to file them via paper until the IRS brings their 1040 MeF system back online in late January. When the 1040 MeF system comes back online, you will be able to electronically file the following years: 2022, 2021, and 2020.

Software vendors received the below messaging from MA DOR.

“Massachusetts will not be issuing MeF acknowledgements for a limited time period starting Friday, October 21, 2022, at 11:00 PM EDT and ending Monday, October 24, 2022 at 6:00 AM EDT. Any outstanding MeF acknowledgements will be issued on Monday, October 24, 2022, after 6:00 AM EDT. We anticipate being current within a few hours after production resumes.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.“

Software vendors received the below message from CT Department of Revenue. From 9/1 – 9/12 no acks will be received, however, e-files can still be transmitted.

“The Connecticut Department of Revenue Services will be having an MeF outage for Individual Income Tax starting at 11:30am on Thursday, September 1, 2022 so that we can convert over to our new system.  We are anticipating turning on our new IND gateway on Monday, September 12, 2022 in the early afternoon.“

Software vendors received the below messaging from Pennsylvania.

“MeF was shut down on the PA side on Thursday, May 26th due to an expired security certificate. We are trying to resolve this as quickly as possible (hopefully in the next day or so), but in the meantime we are not bringing in new submissions.”

There is nothing for you to do at this time. Acks will start appearing once PA resolves their issue.

Software vendors received the below message from CA FTB this morning.

“Greetings,

The State of California, Franchise Tax Board’s e-file program is currently experiencing a high volume of traffic due to the upcoming April 18, 2022 filing date. This can extend the timeframes of our 3^rd party software vendors receiving the return acknowledgments back.  Currently, it can take up to 72 hours to return back acknowledgments, once the return is received during this peak filing timeframe.“

With the upcoming filing deadline of April 18th, we wanted to provide a quick guide to adding then e-filing an Application for Extension in case any of your clients will need one. Please note that regardless of filing an extension, all balance dues must be paid no later than April 18th to avoid penalties and interest.

If starting a new return, complete the return through Basic Information. Then, go directly to the Miscellaneous Forms section > Form 4868.

Complete the Application for Extension then “Continue” to save. Next. navigate to E-file and click “File Extension”.

Follow the prompts to successfully e-file the Application for Extension.

There will be a couple additional screens to complete. Client List will display the accepted or rejected status of the extension e-filed.