VITA/TCE partners and volunteers,

Congratulations on completing another filing season. This filing season was longer than we expected and was filled with unexpected challenges. But I’m very impressed with the ways you overcame those challenges.

Your VITA and TCE sites started out very strong this filing season. Unfortunately, everything changed in March as sites began to close. We appreciate the care you took in deciding what was best for the health of your volunteers and the taxpayers you serve. We also thank you for keeping in touch with your IRS-SPEC contacts so that we could be sure that IRS.gov accurately showed which sites were open.

I’m happy to report that VITA/TCE sites still submitted nearly 2.4 million returns. That’s 2.4 million individuals and families who received free, quality tax return preparation. And we know that these were “quality” tax returns because the reviews performed by our employees showed an accuracy rate was 94%.

I especially want to thank those of you who used alternative filing methods to continue helping taxpayers. Whether you offered Facilitated Self Assistance, Virtual VITA, a safe drop-off method or some combination, your willingness to try new approaches shows just how dedicated you are to serving your communities.

Finally, I’d also like to thank you for helping us spread the word about Economic Impact Payments. Many of you reached people who don’t normally file a tax return, including people experiencing homelessness. Through this outreach, you were able to positively impact the lives of many Americans.

As we set our sights on next filing season, we look forward to working with you to expand our cause to even more people. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Thanks again for your efforts this filing season.

Frank Nolden

Director, Stakeholder Partnerships,

Education and Communication (SPEC)

The 2020 IRS Nationwide Tax Forums will be held virtually beginning this July.

The Forums will begin on July 21 and continue through August 20. Webinars will be live streamed each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Registered attendees can participate in all live webinars and earn up to 30 continuing education credits at one price.

The agenda includes tax law and publication updates, as well as multiple sessions on qualified business income, exam and enforcement priorities, due diligence, cybersecurity and more. Presentations will be made by both IRS experts and partner associations. This year several seminars will be available in Spanish.

Additional details, including course titles, dates and times, will be available in early June.

Registration and fees
Tax pros who register by June 15 at 5 p.m. ET qualify for an early bird rate of $240 per person. The price will then go up to $289. 

Those who registered for the live forums can transfer their registration to the virtual format at no additional cost. Refunds are available for those who choose to cancel.

Visit the IRS Tax Forum website for details about registration, transfers and cancelations.

Discounts for national association members
If they register by June 15, members of partner associations listed below qualify for an additional $10 off the early bird rate. These include: 

   •  American Bar Association, Section of Taxation
•  American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
•  National Association of Enrolled Agents
•  National Association of Tax Professionals
•  National Society of Accountants
•  National Society of Tax Professionals
•  Low Income Taxpayer Clinics
•  Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program

Participating members should contact their association directly for more information.

Many of you have received and read the following IRS Newswire regarding the announcement about electronically filing the 1040X and have already reached out to VITA/TCE support wanting to know when this will be available and how will it work.  As of today (May 29, 2020), the IRS has not released the updated schema to software developers to begin the planning stages of how and when the 1040X will be supported electronically.  As the IRS releases this information to the industry and releases a timeline of when the MeF system will be updated to receive the 1040X electronically, we will keep our volunteers informed via the blog.

WASHINGTON- The Internal Revenue Service  announced today that later this summer taxpayers will for the first time be able to file their Form 1040-X, Amended U.S Individual Income Tax Return, electronically using available tax software products.

Making the 1040-X an electronically filed form has been a goal of the IRS for a number of years. It’s also been an ongoing request from the nation’s tax professional community and has been a continuing recommendation from the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council (IRSAC) and Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC).

Currently, taxpayers must mail a completed Form 1040-X to the IRS for processing. The new electronic option allows the IRS to receive amended returns faster while minimizing errors normally associated with manually completing the form. 

“This new process is a major milestone for the IRS, and it follows hard work by people across the agency,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “E-filing has been one of the great success stories of the IRS, and more than 90 percent of taxpayers use it routinely. But the big hurdle that’s been remaining for years is to convert amended returns into this electronic process. Our teams have worked diligently to overcome the unique challenges related to the 1040-X, and we look forward to offering this new service this summer.”

About 3 million Forms 1040-X are filed by taxpayers each year.

The new electronic filing option will provide the IRS with more complete and accurate data in an easily readable format to enable customer service representatives to answer taxpayers’ questions. Taxpayers can still use the “Where’s My Amended Return?” online tool to check the status of their electronically-filed 1040-X.

When the electronic filing option becomes available, only tax year 2019 Forms 1040 and 1040-SR returns can be amended electronically. In general, taxpayers will still have the option to submit a paper version of the Form 1040-X and should follow the instructions for preparing and submitting the paper form. Additional enhancements are planned for the future.

“Adding amended returns to the electronic family also complements our partnership with the tax software industry, which continues to work with us to provide better ways to help taxpayers,” said Ken Corbin, Commissioner of the IRS Wage and Investment division.  

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced the 2020 IRS Nationwide Tax Forums will be held virtually in 2020 with a series of live-streamed webinars beginning this July.

“Given restrictions on large gatherings and difficulties with travel, we’ve made the decision to present the IRS Nationwide Tax Forums in a virtual format this year,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said. “While we’re unable to meet in person, tax professionals will still be able to choose from a wide variety of virtual seminars on tax law.Many will be able to fully satisfy their annual continuing education requirements by registering and attending.”

Held each summer for the past 30 years, the IRS Nationwide Tax Forums are the IRS’s marquee outreach event to the tax professional community. The forums were scheduled to take place in six cities around the country this summer. Those in-person events are canceled.

However, the change to a virtual format allows experts from the IRS and its association partners to still educate and update the tax professional community on tax law, cybesecurity, ethics and other topics.

Seminar dates and agenda
The 2020 Nationwide Tax Forums will begin on July 21 and continue through Aug. 20 with live-streamed webinars broadcast on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Registration enables attendees to participate in all of the live webinars and earn up to 30 Continuing Education Credits at one price.

As in previous years, the Nationwide Tax Forums agenda will feature a plenary session with tax law and publications update, as well as multiple sessions on high-interest topics such as qualified business income, exam and enforcement priorities, due diligence, cybersecurity and more. Presentations are made by both IRS experts and partner associations.

This year several seminars, including the plenary session, will be provided in Spanish.

Further details, including course titles, dates and times, will be available beginning in early June.

2020 registration and fees
Tax professionals who register by June 15 at 5 p.m. ET qualify for an Early Bird rate of $240 per person. The standard rate, starting June 16, will be $289.

Initial registration for the in-person 2020 forums began in March. Those who have already registered may transfer their registration to the virtual format at no additional cost. Refunds are available for those who choose not to participate.

Registration information, as well as information on transfers and cancelations, is available at www.IRSTaxForum.com.

Discounts for national association members
Members of partner associations listed below qualify for a discount of $10 off the Early Bird rate, but only if they register by June 15. Participating association members should contact their association directly for more information:

• American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Taxation
• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
• National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA)
• National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP)
• National Society of Accountants (NSA)
• National Society of Tax Professionals (NSTP)
• Low Income Taxpayer Clinics (LITC)
• Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA)

IRS.gov has answers to many questions people may have about their Economic Impact Payment. Here are answers to some of the top questions people are asking about these payments. 

Is this payment considered taxable income?

No, the payment is not income and taxpayers will not owe tax on it. The payment will not reduce a taxpayer’s refund or increase the amount they owe when they file their 2020 tax return next year. A payment also will not affect income for purposes of determining eligibility for federal government assistance or benefit programs.

Can people who receive a Form SSA-1099 or RRB-1099 use Get My Payment to check their payment status?

Yes, they will be able to use Get My Payment to check the status of their payment after verifying their identity by answering the required security questions.

If someone’s bank account information has changed since they filed their last tax return, can they update it using Get My Payment?

To help protect against potential fraud, the tool also does not allow people to change direct deposit bank account information already on file with the IRS.

If the IRS issues a direct deposit based on the account information that the taxpayer provided on their tax return and the bank information is now invalid or the account has been closed, the bank will reject the deposit. The agency will then mail payment as soon as possible to the address they have on file. Get My Payment will be updated to reflect the date a payment will be mailed. It will take up to 14 days to receive the payment, standard mailing time.

WASHINGTON – With a variety of steps underway to speed Economic Impact Payments, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service urged people to use Get My Payment by noon Wednesday, May 13, for a chance to get a quicker delivery.

The IRS, working in partnership with Treasury Department and the Bureau of Fiscal Services (BFS), continues to accelerate work to get Economic Impact Payments to even more people as soon as possible. Approximately 130 million individuals have already received payments worth more than $200 billion in the program’s first four weeks.

Starting later this month, the number of paper checks being delivered to taxpayers will sharply increase. For many taxpayers, the last chance to obtain a direct deposit of their Economic Impact Payment rather than receive a paper check is coming soon. People should visit Get My Payment on IRS.gov by noon Wednesday, May 13, to check on their payment status and, when available, provide their direct deposit information.

“We’re working hard to get more payments quickly to taxpayers,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “We want people to visit Get My Payment before the noon Wednesday deadline so they can provide their direct deposit information. Time is running out for a chance to get these payments several weeks earlier through direct deposit.”

After noon Wednesday, the IRS will begin preparing millions of files to send to BFS for paper checks that will begin arriving through late May and into June. Taxpayers who use Get My Payment before that cut-off can still take advantage of entering direct deposit information.

We know there are lots of questions about the Economic Stimulus Payments, filing deadlines, changing direct deposit information, etc.  We are committed to keeping you up to date with any information we receive from the IRS or other federal/state agencies.

• Click here for IRS Coronavirus landing page
• Click here for Economic Impact Payment Information
• Click here to see Covid 19 State Information

As you service your taxpayers who are requesting their return be filed when they normally do not meet the filing requirements, please remember that the IRS MeF system will reject returns for F1040-065-04 which states that at least one of the following must have a non-zero value on Form 1040:

• Total Income Amount
• Adjusted Gross Income
• Tax Amount
• Total Tax Before Credit and Other Tax Amounts
• Total Credits Amount
• Total Tax Amount
• Total Payments Amount

Special alert for benefit recipients who don’t file a tax return and have dependents

SSA, RRB recipients with eligible children need to act by Wednesday to quickly add money to their automatic Economic Impact Payment; IRS asks for help in the ‘Plus $500 Push’

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service today issued a special alert for several groups of federal benefit recipients to act by this Wednesday, April 22, if they didn’t file a tax return in 2018 or 2019 and have dependents so they can quickly receive the full amount of their Economic Impact Payment.

Their $1,200 payments will be issued soon and, in order to add the $500 per eligible child amount to these payments, the IRS needs the dependent information before the payments are issued. Otherwise, their payment at this time will be $1,200 and, by law, the additional $500 per eligible child amount would be paid in association with a return filing for tax year 2020.

Following extensive work by the IRS and other government agencies, $1,200 automatic payments will be starting soon for those receiving Social Security retirement, survivor or disability benefits (SSDI), Railroad Retirement benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Veterans Affairs beneficiaries who didn’t file a tax return in the last two years. No action is needed by these groups; they will automatically receive their $1,200 payment.

For those benefit recipients with children who aren’t required to file a tax return, an extra step is needed to quickly add $500 per eligible child onto their automatic payment of $1,200.

For people in these groups who have a qualifying child and didn’t file a 2018 or 2019 tax return, they have a limited window to register to have $500 per eligible child added automatically to their soon-to-be-received $1,200 Economic Impact Payment. A quick trip to a special non-filer tool on IRS.gov by noon Eastern time, Wednesday, April 22, for some of these groups may help put all of their eligible Economic Income Payment into a single payment.  (NOTE:  This is available for you to assist your taxpayers with your TaxSlayer application or your FSA Kiosk link)

“We want to ‘Plus $500’ these recipients with children so they can get their maximum Economic Impact Payment of $1,200 plus $500 for each eligible child as quickly as possible,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “They’ll get $1,200 automatically, but they need to act quickly and register at IRS.gov to get the extra $500 per child added to their payment. These groups don’t normally have a return filing obligation and may not realize they qualify for a larger payment. We’re asking people and organizations throughout the country to share this information widely and help the IRS with the Plus $500 Push.”

To help spread the word to recipients with children about this special “Plus $500 Push,” the IRS has additional material available on a special partners page that can be shared with friends, family members and community groups. This effort will focus on the initial April 22 deadline and continue this spring to reach as many people as possible since the child payments will continue to be made in the weeks and months ahead.

Have a child but don’t file a tax return? Visit IRS.gov now

Those receiving federal benefits – including Social Security retirement, survivor or disability benefits (SSDI), Railroad Retirement benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Veterans Administration benefits – who have with children and who weren’t required file a tax return in 2018 or 2019 should visit the Non-Filer: Enter Payment Info Here tool on IRS.gov. 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 automatically in addition to their $1,200 individual payment. Otherwise, their payment at this time will be $1,200 and, by law, the additional $500 per eligible child amount would be paid in association with a return filing for tax year 2020. (NOTE:  This is available for you to assist your taxpayers with your TaxSlayer application or your FSA Kiosk link)

First window affects SSA/RRB recipients with children; SSI and VA recipients have slightly more time to add $500 to automatic payments

For certain SSA / RRB beneficiaries who don’t normally file a tax return and do not register with the IRS by April 22, they will still be eligible to receive the separate payment of $500 per qualifying child. For those who miss the April 22 deadline, their payment at this time will be $1,200 and, by law, the additional $500 per eligible child amount would be paid in association with a return filing for tax year 2020. They will not be eligible to use the Non-Filer tool to add eligible children once their $1,200 payment has been issued.

SSI and VA beneficiaries have some additional time beyond April 22 to add their children since their $1,200 automatic payments will be made at a later date. SSI recipients will receive their automatic payments in early May, and the VA payment schedule for beneficiaries who receive Compensation and Pension (C&P) benefit payments is still being determined. If they have children and aren’t required to file a tax return, both groups are urged to use the Non-Filer tool as soon as possible. Once their $1,200 payment has been issued, they will not be eligible to use the Non-Filer tool to add eligible children. Their payment will be $1,200 and, by law, the additional $500 per eligible child amount would be paid in association with a return filing for tax year 2020. (NOTE:  This is available for you to assist your taxpayers with your TaxSlayer application or your FSA Kiosk link)

No action needed by most taxpayers

The Treasury Department will make these automatic payments to SSA, SSI, RRB and VA recipients. Recipients will generally receive the automatic $1,200 payments by direct deposit, Direct Express debit card or by paper check, just as they would normally receive their benefits.

For information about Social Security retirement, survivors and disability insurance beneficiaries, please visit the SSA website at SSA.gov. For more information related to veterans and their beneficiaries who receive Compensation and Pension (C&P) benefit payments from VA, please visit VA.gov.

General IRS information about the Economic Impact Payments is available on a special section of IRS.gov.