Phase I of the new Health Insurance redesign has been released. Phase I incorporates the new flow users will see when preparing 2017 returns starting next week (this is also live in the Practice Lab). Phase II will incorporate the addition of the Affordability Worksheet which is expected to be in production prior to turning on “Start New 2017 Tax Return”. The intent behind the redesign of the flow is to first allow users to claim qualifying exemptions before presenting the option to determine affordability. Assuming the household does not qualify to claim the “Household or Gross Income below…..” exemption, did not receive a Marketplace issued exemption certificate, or does not qualify to claim a coverage exemption, then and only then will the user be presented the option to determine affordability.

The first visible change you will see will be on the “Household Income” screen. This used to be the “Dependents’ MAGI (if filing requirement)” screen. An entry field for “Premium amount paid through salary reduction agreement” has been added. This will be the first step in determining affordability as this entry will be in included in the Affordability Threshold (Line A of Affordability Worksheet).

The second change will be when a user clicks “Continue” on the “Household Income” menu. Clicking continue here is where the automatic determination of “Household or Gross Income below Filing Threshold” exemption will occur. If the return qualifies for this exemption, the exemption will be applied to the return and the Health Insurance menu will be complete. If the return does not qualify for the above mentioned exemption, the user now has the option to claim either a Marketplace issued certificate exemption or another coverage exemption for each household member. They will answer “YES” when asked “Did you qualify for an exemption due to circumstances or receive an exemption certificate from the marketplace?”.

If a user answers “NO” to the above question, “Did you qualify for an exemption…..”, the user will be then asked if they wish to complete the process to determine if the affordability exemption may apply (Phase II coming soon). More details will be released once Phase II has been rolled into production.

Inside the Income section, directly under “Profit of Loss From a Business“, you will now see a menu for “Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions” shown below. Opening this menu will provide guidance of where to report 1099-K income. If adding 1099-K entries on a return where a Schedule C already exists, you will have the option to either add the 1099-K income to the existing Schedule C or create a new Schedule C.

Note: If a 1099-K is provided for rental income received from services such as AirBnB, this income should be reported on a Schedule E.

A new feature was released for sites that will be offering the 8888. Now, when entering direct deposit information inside the E-file menu, if your site is set up to offer the 8888, you will be required to verify both the RTN and ACCT numbers provided. This will work just as the current Direct Deposit entry functions for sites that do not offer the 8888 at their sites. After entering the initial RTN/ACCT number information, it will be masked requiring the preparer to verify the confirmation entry by referring to the documents in hand. Adding this new feature for the 8888 will go a long way in ensuring the correct direct deposit information is entered the first time by the preparer before moving to quality review.

The “View Form” feature is now live after completing the Health Insurance menu to view either F8962 or F8965.

Form 8965: If a return has an exemption claimed, the “View Form” option is available directly on the Health Care Exemption screen after adding the first exemption.

Form 8962: If the return requires Form 8962, the “View Form” option is available on the first page of the Health Insurance Questionnaire AFTER the Health Insurance Questionnaire has been completed. This location was chosen primarily for quality review. When the Quality Reviewer is going back through a return, they will be able to generate the PDF at the beginning of the Health Insurance section prior to checking entries.

Note: Utilizing the “View Form” feature from the above screen will only generate Form 8962 if it is included with the return based on how the Health Insurance section was completed. Otherwise, a blank page will show.

The following feature is now live in production.

Scenario:  When I click the Printer icon on the menu, it gives me a page that looks like a print of the menu.  How do I fix this?

Solution:  Clear your cache or press Ctrl+F5 to reload.

Scenario:  I printed a single form (Schedule C as an example) and then went to immediately print the entire tax return and it is only generating a Schedule C.

Solution:  You can make a change in the return on any screen to render the entire PDF or close the return and print from the client list.  We are going to make a change to the configuration to eliminate this in the morning.

Feature:  Give the volunteer the ability to view the information on specific forms without having to render the PDF for the entire tax return

Example: The preparer completes a Schedule C for the taxpayer and wants to quickly view the information entered for it.  When the preparer clicks continue from the Schedule C summary page and returns to the Income Menu, a print icon will be available.

This will render a PDF of the Schedule C(s) in the return for review or for print.

Forms that will be available to view/print for TaxSlayer 2017:

• Schedule A
• Schedule B
• Schedule C
• Schedule D
• Schedule R
• W-7
• Form 1116
• Form 2441
• Form 5329
• Form 5405
• Form 8606
• Form 8863
• Form 8880
• Form 8962 in the Health Care Section (Still in Progress)
• Form 8965 in the Health Care Section (Still in Progress)

Blog Posted 11/10/2017

The Due Diligence pages are no longer in TaxSlayer Pro Online 2017.  This is now live in production.

The Non Resident Alien question has been moved to the Basic Information section.  Prior to the beginning of e-file, it will disqualify the return from calculating EITC when selected for the appropriate circumstances.

Note:  This change is not applicable to prior year software.

Blog Posted 11/16/2017  11:50am Eastern

Scenario:  The tax return has a balance due and a federal return option for Direct Debit is used.

The direct debit information prints on the Client Form Listing Summary in the Quality Review print set.  You can create a custom print set at your sites and include this form.  If the return falls into this scenario, you can select the custom print set that will print the information with the return.

An alternative solution would be to generate the Quality Review PDF and print the page that displays this information and give it to the client.

Blog Posted  11/15/2017  1:02 PM Eastern

The taxpayer’s age is printing on the Client Form Listing Summary that prints with the Quality Review print set:

Blog Posted 11/15/2017  12:58 PM Eastern