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

• Discussed the challenges we experienced with the software on February 5^th, 11^th and 12^th
• We currently have web reports turned off so we can make sure they are optimized and do not have a negative impact on the system.  We hope to have them up soon, possibly after our maintenance window on Sunday.
• If you do get an unexpected error at any time, we strongly recommend you close the browser (not just the tab) and start a new instance of the browser.
• Watch the blog for state announcements regarding delays in acknowledgements and rejects
• The “Back” button is once again available at the state level, replacing the “Cancel” button
• Still getting some IRS 905 and 202 rejects.  If something changes with your EFIN, you need to notify your SPEC RM and TaxSlayer support rather than just changing it in the software.
• If your site is experiencing slowness loading the list of customers on the Client list page, you can go to Office Setup and lower the number of returns to display from 999 to something lower.  This will change your client search to only display the last 100 returns instead of all returns.
• The error links on the e-file page now take you to the error
• Selecting the Ready to Re-transmit button on the submission page in the e-file section when working rejects will automatically add the return to the transmission list.

The following are questions and corresponding answers that we received on the Partner Call that was held on Thursday, February 1st.  We are posting the ones that are most applicable to all sites.

Q: We are seeing PA Local Return issues with wages not carrying from Federal entry nor performing any calculations.

• We have asked this volunteer this volunteer to e-mail [email protected] with an EFIN and last 4 so we can review.

Q: Do rejected transmissions that are resubmitted stay as rejected until the accepted ack comes back?

• Yes, when rejected returns are resubmitted for processing, their status will not change until a different acknowledgement is returned (an accepted acknowledgement).

Q: How long do transmitted returns that have been stuck take to get their ack once issue is resolved?

• When stuck transmissions become “unstuck”, it can take up to several hours before a site may see acknowledgements because the queue requires time to release the number of returns that may have been stuck.

Q: Recommended browser to use?

• We personally use Google Chrome (Kim and Craig) but we always recommend to volunteers to use the latest version of their preferred Internet browser.

Q: Update on 2015 returns issue when trying to access E-file?

• This is reported as Issue 2705. It is currently being worked and we have asked that the priority be updated with development for a quicker resolution. Once fixed, it will be posted in our Release Notes on the VITA/TCE Blog.

Q: Reject Clients number not lowering when fixing returns?

• As returns listed in the Reject Clients menu are corrected, resubmitted, and accepted by the IRS and/or State, they will be removed from the Reject Clients menu.

Q: ETA on web reports (Management Reports) being turned back on?

• We do not have a specific ETA as our engineers and IT staff continue their investigations, but we are hopeful, web reports will be turned back on soon.

Q: Federal 1099-R information not transferring to MI, Schedule 1?

• We asked this volunteer to e-mail [email protected] with the EFIN and last 4 of a return that we can further review.

Q: When will printing MA returns not include the water mark “Do Not Mail”?

• Each software vendor must have their forms approved by each state for paper filing. Until these approvals are received, vendors must watermark their forms. Once we receive forms approval from MA, the watermark will be removed from the PDF’s.

Q: Issues with Transmissions from Transmission Menu not filing every return marked for e-file?

• This is specific to attempting to file returns using the limited return view per page. We recommend they expand the Transmission menu to show 100 returns per page. We have also opened Issue 2620 to review the root issue.

Q: Why do Print Sets not show EIN for 1099-R?

• We have asked this volunteer to contact support at [email protected] to provide additional information related to their question. We also noted that the Quality Review print set available to all sites includes the 1099-R and also includes the EIN.

Q: Status on Issue 2480 with MFS question being added back to the software?

• Issue 2480 is currently being tested within our pre-production environments. Assuming it passes all levels, the fix could be pushed live as early as Monday, February 18^th (note: not a hard delivery date).

1:38pm ET – We have been continuing to monitor and investigate internal systems and performance has maintained consistent.

1:08pm ET – Management Reports are still turned off at this time.

1:01pm ET – Real-time calculations (Refund Generator) are now back on in 2018 and normal program behavior has been consistent.

12:40:pm ET – Real-time calculations (Refund Generator) will be turned back on over the next several minutes. We have consistently seen normal operations for the past 30 minutes or so but are continuing to investigate.

12:26pm ET – No additional updates at this time as investigation continues.

12:11pm ET – No additional updates at this time. Still continuing to investigate while Real-time calculations are turned off.

11:54am ET – Real-time calculations (Refund Generator) has been turned off at this time.

11:49am ET – No additional updates at this time as investigation continues. Real-time calculations (Refund Generator) may be switched off but will update if and when that is the case.

11:35am ET – “Management Reports” have currently been turned off while our engineers continue to investigate sporadic reports of slowness.

11:27am ET – If experiencing slowness, you may also see delays in Summary/Print loading. If your Summary/Print menu appears to be spinning and not loading, click “Basic Information” from the left-hand navigation to exit the loop.

11:08am ET – We have received sporadic reports of slowness on the site and are beginning to investigate. If you are experiencing slowness, we recommend logging out and closing all browser windows (not just your current tab) and open a fresh session.

Update 11:00 pm EST  The time out messages going between Summary/Print and e-file has been resolved

Update 9:45 pm EST  We have received reports and duplicated in house getting a “time out oops” message going between Summary/Print and e-file

Update 8:05 pm EST  The process of rolling out the changes has completed.  We will be leaving the Forms Completed (on the left navigation panel when in a return) off for now.  We are evaluating the code stream to see if we need to make any optimizations, as this is the primary area that was generating the errors today.

Update 7:10 pm EST  We are seeing calculations being rendered.  We are still pushing to all servers, which means you may hit a server where the change has not been made yet.  This process to roll out the changes can take up to an hour

Update 7:00 pm EST:  We have identified the issue with the calculations not rendering.  We are making another deployment to resolve this.

Update 6:25 PM EST — We have  brought the servers out of Maintenance mode, however, the calculations are not rendering.  When you open the return and appear to be stuck on calculating, remember you can click on Basic Information to break the cycle.  This allows you to input the data, but it will not render a calculation.  We are not seeing the errors we were experiencing earlier.  We are still working to resolve this for you.

Update 5:42 PM EST — We are putting the site in maintenance mode for approximately 20-30 minutes.

Update 10 5:37 PM EST — We know that the majority of you online are having challenges with the returns calculating.  If you are stuck with the returns

Update 9  5:17 pm EST — We are continuing to work to resolve the errors and the slowness in calculations.

Update 8:  4:25 PM EST — We have turned off Forms Complete on the left navigation bar, as it seems to be generating the most errors.  We are investigating why that code stream is generating errors.

Update 7:  4:15 PM EST — We have the code change deployed to the first set of servers.  We are monitoring those now to determine the impact of the code change.

Update 6: 4:05 PM EST — We are in the process of rolling out a code change.  We are doing this on a few servers at at time.

Update 5 3:58 PM —  We have a code change in QA. Once it passes on our Pre Production system, we will begin rolling it out to each server.

Update 4:  3:15 PM —  We are seeing some errors on the site again, but not as widespread as earlier.

Update 3:  We are back up to approximately 7700 users on the site.  If you are having problems accessing the site to login, close all instances of your browser and open a new one.

Update 2:  We are aware that you are getting kicked out and not being able to connect.  We are working to determine the cause.

Update:  We are now seeing a decrease in errors being generated by the application.  We will continue to monitor.

We have received reports of sites getting Unexpected Errors.  We currently have our engineering team reviewing these errors.  If this occurs, please log out and open a new instance of your browser.

The below screenshots highlight how Issue ID 2230 was resolved.

For 2018, the “Full-year Health Care Coverage or Exempt” checkbox should be marked when the below scenarios are presented on a tax return:

1. Every household member has full-year health insurance coverage
2. Every household member has full-year health care coverage exemptions
3. Every household member has a combination of health care cover and coverage exemptions that cover every month of 2018.

With 2018, if the “Full-year Health Care Coverage or Exempt” checkbox is marked, the IRS does not require Form 8965 to be included with the return. This means the IRS does not require specific health care coverage exemptions to be reported per household member. The below screenshot is an excerpt from Page 18 of the 2018 Form 1040 instructions on irs.gov.

For this reason, we were able to add text to two (2) existing Health Insurance questions to satisfy this new checkbox. Below highlights the new two questions that now have added text to support marking the “Full-year Health Care Insurance or Exempt” checkbox on the 1040 and will not generate Form 8965 with the return since would not apply.

We have processed all orders submitted to us by the IRS prior to the government shut down and submitted to us through our interim plan during the government shut down.

If you have sites that are not active or new sites that have not been created and activated, you will need to reach out to your SPEC Relationship Manager.

Thank you for your patience and working with us under alternate plans.

We have processed all orders submitted to us by the IRS prior to the government shut down.  The IRS and TaxSlayer has put an interim plan in place for sites that have not been activated for TY2018.

Non AARP/TCE Site instructions

1. Send an email to VITA/TCE  Support      [email protected]
2. Subject must be:  Site Activation Request
3. The body of the email must include:  EFIN, Site Name and SIDN

TaxSlayer will perform its agreed upon due diligence with the limited IRS staff and correspond back with the sender.  If multiple sites are impacted, you may include them in a single email.

Note:  If this is a new site, we will need additional information as they  have to go through additional due diligence:

• Site contact Name
• Site Physical Address
• Site Shipping Address
• Telephone number
• Email address

AARP/TCE sites

Any AARP/TCE sites will need to reach out to AARP Foundation via your existing ticketing system

Scenario:  An existing Pro Online site from 2017 now has a new Site Admin for 2018

Question:  How does the new site admin gain access to the site if they do not already have a login?

Solution:  Send an email to vita support ([email protected]) with the following information and subject line:

Subject Line :  New Site Admin

Body:  I am the new site admin for the following site and need the link sent that allows me to create my admin credentials

EFIN: {Enter six digit EFIN}

Site Name: {Enter Site Name}

Site Admin Name: {Enter your name as the new site administrator}

Site Admin Phone: {Enter your phone number)

Site Admin Email: {this is the email address the link will be sent to}

TaxSlayer Pro Online will be placed in maintenance for a brief period (couple minutes) within the next hour while “Start New Return” for 2018 is activated for live 2018 sites.