Message From SPEC

In order to increase awareness and provide information to SPEC partners, on Wednesday, November 5th, IRS SPEC hosted their monthly Employee and Partner Joint Webinar Session. The session was recorded, and we want to make sure it is available for our partners and volunteers who were unable to join. All partners and volunteers are invited to view the recording. If there are any questions or concerns, please reach out to your Relationship Manager and SPEC will address your concerns and provide answers to your questions.

Joint Webcast Recording – CLICK HERE

Practice Lab 2025 is now live! Please keep in mind that the Practice Lab will be updated twice a week as we receive finalized forms and instructions from the IRS. With that, we ask volunteers to not report calculation issues to support. We also ask to not report forms where the PDF may still display 2024 instead of 2025.

With the Practice Lab 2025 release, you will have access to PL 2025 and PL 2024.

When you log in to your Production Sites, you will see the following TaxSlayer 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020. You do not have the ability to create new returns in 2025, but you can still prepare returns in all of the available prior years. You will be able to electronically file 2024, 2023 and 2022 until the IRS shuts down their MeF system (Date TBD).

States will not be available in Practice Lab 2025 until closer to the filing season in either late December or early January. You can use PL 2024 to have your volunteers train or practice with state returns.

Message On Behalf Of SPEC

In preparation for the 2026 Filing Season, SPEC provided training on Intake/Interview and Quality Review. These are key components to ensuring that our VITA/TCE sites maintain the highest standards of quality and accuracy when preparing tax returns. The Intake/Interview and Quality Review Training is based on the Publication 5838, VITA/TCE Intake/Interview and Quality Review Handbook. If there are questions concerning intake, interview and quality review or Form 13614-C in reference to this training, they can be submitted to the SPEC Relationship Manager for your organization.

Joint SPEC Webinar – October 22, 2025 – CLICK HERE

3/6/25 – This bug has been resolved. The QCD entry within the 1099-R menu now subtracts from the Box 2a taxable amount. DO NOT manually reduce Box 2a prior to completing the QCD menu.

2/28/25 – A bug was introduced this morning and is expected to be resolved Monday, March 3rd.

Issue: Adding the QCD within the new 1099-R QCD menu is locking Box 2a and is not allowing the preparer to manually adjust out the QCD.

Workaround: Go back to how QCD’s were reported prior to the new 1099-R QCD menu. Go into the Nontaxable Distributions menu and check the QCD box. Then, go into the 1099-R and adjust Box 2a accordingly.

In this mornings’ deployment, a popular suggestion is now live in the software! Reporting a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) can now solely be handled within the 1099-R entry! You no longer also have to visit the Nontaxable Distributions menu separately. Below is how it works currently.

Within the 1099-R, the link below Box 2a, where the Simplified Method Worksheet and PSO menus are, now also has a menu for Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD).

To add your QCD, select the “Click here for options” link.

Next, select the “Qualified Charitable Distribution” menu.

Here is where you will enter the QCD amount. The QCD indicator will automatically carry to Form 1040 and the existing QCD checkbox will be automatically be marked within the Nontaxable Distributions menu.

Note: You will still need to manually reduce Box 2a by the QCD amount currently. A future update in the next week or so will allow for the QCD entry to automatically adjust the taxable amount in Box 2a as well.

1/30/2025: All practice exercises are now updated to reflect current 2024 calculations accessible within The Practice Lab.

• Practice Exercise 1
• Practice Exercise 2
• Practice Exercise 3
• Practice Exercise 4
• Practice Exercise 5
• Practice Exercise 6
• Practice Exercise 7
• Practice Exercise International
• Practice Exercise Military
• Puerto Rico Practice Exercises

To help set expectations in the field, the practice exercises under Section 6 of the Practice Lab will be updated to 2024 in January 2025. This article will be updated when 2024 Practice Exercises are live in the Practice Lab. We want to provide extra time for additional updates to be applied to the 2024 software before updating the exercises. This time of year both the IRS and State Departments are continually releasing and finalizing forms, schedules, and instructions to software vendors. As mentioned in a previous blog post, regular updates will be implemented into the software as information is released/provided to software vendors over the next several weeks leading into the upcoming filing season.

At this time, the practice exercises are still based on the 2023 application.

MYTH: The screenshot below shows the total amount of Lifetime Learning Credit (LLC) and/or American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) a return is eligible to claim (i.e. the actual calculation of the education credit).

MYTH BUSTED: The screenshot (and intent of the “We Recommend…” page) shows how each eligible education credit will impact the amount owed or refund due as indicated in the highlighted text below. In many cases, the total calculated education credit amount and the impact the education credit will have on the balance owed/refund due is the same, however, that is not always the case. The “We Recommend…” page is designed to only show how much a balance owed will decrease or how much a refund will increase.

For any assistance or questions with the IRS Link & Learn Certification platform, volunteers/sites should contact your SPEC Relationship Manager. The L&L platform is not owned, managed, or operated by TaxSlayer and VITA/TCE Support is unable to provide any assistance with any questions regarding L&L.

The 2024 Desktop/Contingency Software & Site Administration OnDemand webinars for the 2025 Filing Season are now available. The direct links are available below and also accessible under Section 6 in the Practice Lab.

• Desktop & Contingency Software – Click Here
• Site Administration – Click Here

Remaining OnDemand Webinars: The remaining OnDemand webinars (Return Preparation 1 & 2) will be made available after Thanksgiving (early December). Additional blog posts will be published with direct links when available. Under Section 6 of the Practice Lab, the 2023 versions are still available for viewing.

The 2024 Enhancement Webinar (2025 Filing Season) will be presented live the week of December 8th. Please contact your SPEC Relationship Manager for additional information.