Tag: IRS News Release

For Tax Year 2017, e-file closes on Nov. 17; After that, disaster victims, others need to file on paper

WASHINGTON —The Internal Revenue Service today reminded people, including those in disaster areas, who want to file a 2017 tax return electronically to do so by Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018. Filing of paper tax returns will remain available after that date.

IRS Modernized e-file, the system that processes electronically-filed individual returns, will shut down after Nov. 17, enabling the IRS to perform annual maintenance and to reprogram the system for the upcoming 2019 tax-filing season.

As a result, any taxpayer needing to file after Nov. 17 will need to do so on paper.

While the vast majority of individuals have already filed their tax year 2017 federal tax returns, victims of Hurricane Michael, Hurricane Florence and other recent disasters qualify for an additional extension. This includes taxpayers who live, work or have a business in a federally declared disaster area, have a U.S. tax filing obligation and had previously obtained a valid 6-month extension of time to file their federal tax return. Extended deadlines vary by locality and range from Dec. 17, 2018, to Feb. 28, 2019. Currently, parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin and the Northern Mariana Islands qualify.

Note:  TY 2016 and TY2015 returns will also have to be paper filed during the cut-over period

The MeF maintenance build window is being extended on Sunday, September 09, 2018. Both ATS and Production systems will be unavailable from 12:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. Eastern.  The build will deploy critical system updates.

Impact:  We will not be sending returns or receiving acknowledgements during this time.

For sites that have an opportunity to communicate with taxpayers that will be impacted by Tax Reform, remember there is a link to the IRS withholding Calculator on the left navigation panel when you login to your site or to the Practice Lab.

The following article was issued by the IRS as part of an educational series:

Taxpayers who have children and other dependents should use the Withholding Calculator on IRS.gov to perform a “paycheck checkup.” The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was passed late last year, includes changes that will affect 2018 tax returns that people will file in 2019.

Doing a checkup ASAP will help taxpayers determine if they need to adjust their withholding on their paychecks. The earlier they do this, the better. The sooner someone checks it, the more time there is for withholding to take place evenly during the rest of the year. Waiting until later in the year means there are fewer pay periods to make the tax changes.

The new law made changes to the child tax credit and personal exemptions. Taxpayers should do a “paycheck checkup” to determine if the tax law changes could affect their tax situation this year. Here is an overview of the changes to the law that could affect the withholding of parents and caretakers:

Child tax credit

• The maximum child tax credit increased from $1,000 to $2,000 per qualifying child.
• Taxpayers whose income was too high to benefit from the Child Tax Credit in prior years may now find they qualify.
• The credit now phases out at $400,000 for couples and $200,000 for singles, compared with 2017 amounts of $110,000 for couples and $75,000 for singles.

Additional child tax credit

• The maximum additional child tax credit increased from $1,000 to $1,400.
• The ACTC is a refundable credit for taxpayers who owe little or no federal income tax.

Credit for other dependents

• There’s a new $500 credit that can benefit taxpayers who support other dependents.
• The taxpayer will claim the credit when filing a tax return.
• For purposes of this new credit, other dependents include qualifying children or qualifying relatives, such as a college student or an elderly parent.

Personal exemption

• The new law removes the personal exemption that taxpayers formerly claimed for themself, their spouse and dependents.

The Withholding Calculator allows taxpayers to enter their expected 2018 income, deductions, adjustments and credits – including the child tax credit. Users can click on definitions in the calculator for help in figuring out who qualifies for these expanded credits.

If you have an active e-file application on file and have made changes such as adding a provider option, principal or responsible official and it has not been resubmitted it will be deleted in 90 days.  If the application is not resubmitted and the 90 days has not elapsed since the changes were made, the application can be resubmitted by an authorized individual.

If 90 days has elapsed and your application has been deleted, contact the e-help Desk at 866-255-0654 for assistance with resubmitting your application.

The IRS posted the following news release:

R-2018-146, June 29, 2018

WASHINGTON – As part of a larger effort to help taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service plans to streamline the Form 1040 into a shorter, simpler form for the 2019 tax season.

The new 1040 – about half the size of the current version — would replace the current Form 1040 as well as the Form 1040A and the Form 1040EZ.  The IRS circulated a copy of the new form and will work with the tax community to finalize the streamlined Form 1040 over the summer.

This new approach will simplify the 1040 so that all 150 million taxpayers can use the same form. The new form consolidates the three versions of the 1040 into one simple form. At the same time, the IRS will still obtain the information from each taxpayer needed to determine their tax liability or refund.

The new Form 1040 uses a “building block” approach, in which the tax return is reduced to a simple form. That form can be supplemented with additional schedules if needed. Taxpayers with straightforward tax situations would only need to file this new 1040 with no additional schedules.

Since more than nine out of 10 taxpayers use software or a tax preparer, the IRS will be working with the tax community to prepare for the streamlined Form 1040. This will also help ensure a smooth transition for people familiar with software products and the interview process used to prepare tax returns.

Taxpayers who file on paper would use this new streamlined Form 1040 and supplement it with any needed schedules.

Submitting Comments on the new 1040

Tax professionals can review a draft copy of the new Form 1040 and submit comments regarding the draft to [email protected]

What are the next steps?

• The new 1040 building block approach (along with new schedules) have to be finalized by the IRS
• The IRS MeF (modernized efile) team has to accommodate and issue any business rules associated with the new 1040 approach
• Estimated pre-release of the new 1040 instructions is mid-October
• TaxSlayer representatives are members of several IRS working groups and state working groups.  As we receive additional data on these changes, as well as the instructions and guidance on the Tax Reform, we will continue to update the blog.

Combat zone tax benefits now available to Armed Forces members who served in the Sinai Peninsula; IRS accepting retroactive tax refund claims back to 2015

IR-2018-95, April 13, 2018

WASHINGTON — U.S. Armed Forces members who served in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt may qualify for combat zone tax benefits retroactive to June 2015, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) enacted in December 2017, members of the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marines, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Coast Guard who performed services in the Sinai Peninsula can now claim combat zone tax benefits. Eligible service members should review Publication 3, Armed Forces’ Tax Guide, available on IRS.gov.

Among other benefits, eligible service members may be able to exclude part or all of their combat pay from their income for federal income tax purposes. Excluding combat pay from a taxpayer’s income can result in lower tax.

How Armed Services members can claim a refund

Service members who previously paid tax on this income may be due a refund. They may file an amended tax return, Form 1040X, if they already filed a tax return for tax years 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Combat pay received on or after Jan. 1, 2018, will be correctly reported on any W-2 forms issued to any service member who serves in the Sinai Peninsula. Service members who served in the Sinai Peninsula in 2015, 2016, or 2017 can provide documentation of their service to their finance officer and ask for a Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement.

However, an eligible service member who is unable to secure a corrected Form W-2c may still claim the combat pay exclusion by attaching to their Form 1040X copies of official documents showing they served or worked in the Sinai Peninsula. These documents should indicate the area, theater or military operation and the approximate entry date. Acceptable documents include military orders, letters of authorization (civilians), hospital discharge papers, discharge from active duty, official letterhead memorandum from a military department or civilian employer, or a request and authorization for temporary duty travel of Department of Defense personnel (civilians and military).

Amended returns can only be filed on paper (electronic filing is not available) and can take up to 16 weeks to process. Within about three weeks after mailing an amended return, taxpayers can track the status online using Where’s My Amended Return?

For more information about requesting a refund based on service in the Sinai Peninsula, see the Form 1040X instructions, available on IRS.gov.

We’re in the home stretch!

For the week ending 4/08/2018, we were just shy of the 3.0M cumulative mark, but we will pass it for sure next week! We prepared 305,634 returns, with a cumulative total of 2,958,004.

Many of our partners have extended their hours, added additional days, and planned special events to help this valiant effort of touching more lives!

Hats off to everyone!

Update 2 (April 3)

Stay the Course!

With just a little more than two weeks before April 17^th, we are steadily moving towards our 4.0 goal, as reflected in our numbers for the week ending 3/25/2018.  We will stay the course until the job is done!

Kudos to everyone for helping prepare 293,008 returns! Yes, we are a little short of our weekly projection, but compared to last year, this represents a 2.3% increase. As you can see below, we are quickly approaching the 2.5M cumulative mark. Hats off for achieving a 0.1% increase above last year!

Even with the continued weather challenges in some areas, we continue to see increases in our FSA and prior year return preparation numbers, 5.9% and 53.3% respectively.  We’ve also seen a 1.9% increase in our state tax return preparation. Keep it up!

Update 1

Halfway There!

Keep up the good work!

~~~  Original Message ~~~

First, we want to thank each of you for your dedication and commitment to make this a banner year for return production.  SPEC’s goal is not only to reach 4 million returns for Filing Season 2018, but also serve more taxpayers and touch more lives by offering as many free tax preparation options as possible.  We are confident and poised to accomplish great things this filing season with your assistance.

To help track our progress, we have developed weekly projections to determine where we should be in relation to our 4.0 goal.  Each week this message will be updated with our progress and promote SPEC’s theme: SPEC 4.0, Watch us Grow!

For the week ending 3/4/2018, 356,317 returns were projected to be completed.  We reached an actual count of 313,542 and are almost at the 1.5 million mark. Our cumulative return count is 1,468,961.

While the actual count is below the SPEC projection, there is still time to narrow the gap!

If you have any ideas on ways to help this initiative, we would love to hear from you! Some of you may consider extended hours or days.  Every little bit helps!

Thanks for your engagement and all you are doing to provide free tax assistance to the taxpayers in your community!

SPEC Headquarters

Halfway There!

Keep up the good work!

~~~  Original Message ~~~

First, we want to thank each of you for your dedication and commitment to make this a banner year for return production.  SPEC’s goal is not only to reach 4 million returns for Filing Season 2018, but also serve more taxpayers and touch more lives by offering as many free tax preparation options as possible.  We are confident and poised to accomplish great things this filing season with your assistance.

To help track our progress, we have developed weekly projections to determine where we should be in relation to our 4.0 goal.  Each week this message will be updated with our progress and promote SPEC’s theme: SPEC 4.0, Watch us Grow!

For the week ending 3/4/2018, 356,317 returns were projected to be completed.  We reached an actual count of 313,542 and are almost at the 1.5 million mark. Our cumulative return count is 1,468,961.

While the actual count is below the SPEC projection, there is still time to narrow the gap!

If you have any ideas on ways to help this initiative, we would love to hear from you! Some of you may consider extended hours or days.  Every little bit helps!

Thanks for your engagement and all you are doing to provide free tax assistance to the taxpayers in your community!

SPEC Headquarters