A. TaxSlayer’s on-screen Refund Summary
This year (TY2019), Vermont has removed the Renter Rebate Amount from Forms IN-112 and IN-111. An immediate consequence is that a taxpayer’s renter rebate will never be included in TaxSlayer’s on-screen Refund Summary. To see the Renter Rebate Amount (PR-141, Line 11), you must look at the tax return (PDF or paper). B “Do you wish to use your rebate to pay your Vermont Income Tax liability?” This year, Vermont will be processing Renter Rebate Claims and Income Tax returns separately and the payments/refunds will be issued as separate checks or direct deposits (PR-141 instructions for Line 11). Recommendation In general, answer the above question NO Answer YES only if (a) the IN-111 has an Amount Due (Line 31) AND (b) the taxpayer wants to use their Renter Rebate Amount to pay the Amount Due. The TaxSlayer consequences of answering YES to the above question: (1) The value on IN-111 Line 31 will not change (2) The value displayed in the Refund Summary will not change (3) The value on IN-116 will not change and a new IN-116 may be needed. Either (a) Create a new IN-116 on myVTax for the adjusted Amount Due (preferred) OR (b) Write the adjusted Amount Due on the IN-116 If the Renter Rebate Amount fully covers the Income Tax Amount Due, discard the IN-116. (4) Explain the changes to the taxpayer and write a note on their IN-111 return, and (5) Add a Note to the return in TaxSlayer as a reminder C. Behavior in previous years In tax years prior to TY2019, answering YES to the question in B (above) would result in the renter rebate amount being included in the value shown in the Refund Summary. Not so this year.
1 Comment
Issue There is an error on the 2019 Estimated Tax Payment Voucher IN-114 in TaxSlayer. The tax year shown in the Tax Year box is 2018 and not 2019. The incorrect year (2018) is also part of the OCR strip at the bottom of the voucher. These vouchers probably should not be given to taxpayers until TaxSlayer corrects the error. This is TaxSlayer Issue 2852.
Workaround Use the IN-114 Voucher on the Vermont Tax website. The form can be filled in on-line and printed for the taxpayer's use. You will probably want to print four copies. This issue appears to have been corrected. However, continue to monitor HI-144 Line i whenever you have ST or LT Capital Loss Carryforward on the federal return. And, remove any workarounds you may have created.
Summary. Line i on Vermont Sch HI-144 is incorrect under certain circumstances. This error was reported to TaxSlayer on Feb 9th and has been assigned Issue 2693. From the instructions for HI-144 Line i (in part): A capital loss carryforward cannot be used to offset a current year capital gain. Add back federal Form 1040, Schedule D, Lines 6 and 14 to Line 16. This cannot be less than zero (0). It appears that when the Capital Loss Carryforward (CLC, a positive number, entered in the Federal section) is greater than the sum of the CGs (excluding CLCs), the value on Line i is incorrect (in fact, it is the value of the CLC). If the CLC is less than the sum of the CGs, the calculation appears correct. Workaround. Vermont does not permit you to use a capital loss carryforward to offset your capital gain on the HI-144 Line i. Line i = Sum of (Sch D Lines 16 + 6 +14) [thus eliminating the capital loss carryforwards] Calculate the required Adjustment for TaxSlayer Adjustment = (TaxSlayer incorrect Line i) - (the correct value for Line i) Enter the Adjustment as a NEGATIVE number on the Homestead Decl... > HI > TP/Joint...Adj page in the field titled "Enter Capital Gain from the Sale of a Residence in Not Included on Federal Return." This should result in the correct value appearing on Line i (but VERIFY). Caveat. If you use the workaround, then add a Note to the return detailing the workaround, because when TaxSlayer fixes the problem, you will probably need to remove the workaround or your return will no longer be correct. When you create a return, TaxSlayer will often assign a state return based on the taxpayer's address or the state on a W-2 or 1099 for which there was withholding. Usually you will get a Resident state return. What if that is not what you need? Perhaps the taxpayer only lived in Vermont for part of the year (a Part Year resident) OR lived in Vermont all year but worked the whole year in New York (VT Resident and NY Non-Resident returns).
TaxSlayer has the answer for you at the top of its State_Section > State_Return page: If you need to change your state residency status just delete the current return and start again. State forms differ by the type of residency you select. So..., for multi-state returns, get the state return types correct first--then enter the state data. Otherwise, you'll have to do it twice. Exotic Vermont forms you may encounter in multi-state returns. IN-113 This form reports the amounts of income that are taxable in Vermont. You make that allocation on the Income Subject to Tax page on the main menu of the Part Year or Non-Resident return. IN-117 This form assigns Vermont Credit for income tax paid to another state. TaxSlayer "will automatically calculate this credit for your Resident return if you have a NonResident return created on your account." If you have a Part-Year return, you may need to complete TaxSlayer's Credit for Taxes Paid to Another State form. The state of Vermont has (finally) approved the "substitute" (paper) forms for a number of vendors, including TaxSlayer. This means that the "DO NOT MAIL" watermark should disappear from Vermont forms in a few days.
The IN-116 (payment voucher) and IN-114 (2019 estimated tax vouchers) in TaxSlayer have not been approved yet. Do NOT use any with the "DO NOT MAIL" watermark. You can prepare the IN-116 and/or the IN-114 forms on the Vermont Department of Taxes web site OR pay from myVTax using the ACH debit option, which is free. Of course, you can also use the Direct Debit option within TaxSlayer to pay a balance due. If you pay by check, you should always note the Tax Year and type of payment (IN-116 or IN-114) in the memo section of the check . We (Rutland) almost had a return go in with the HS-122 Homestead Declaration but without the Property Tax Adjustment claim. If this return had gone in, the taxpayer would not have received any PTA--possibly a loss of thousands of dollars. In TaxSlayer, on the Part B: Property Tax Adjustment Claim page, the first question (Will you be filing a Property Tax Adjustment Claim...now?) had either not been answered or it had reverted to "--Select--" (we have had some trouble with pull-down fields not "sticking" or changing value if the mouse/cursor passes over them).
To the casual QRer, the page looked OK. The three values (Housesite and taxes) were all correct and the ensuing three questions were all answered correctly. The clue that there is a problem is on the HS-122 PDF; the fields for the housesite and taxes will be blank. Quality Review Recommendations The QRer and/or ERO should always review the Vermont PDF as well as the input pages in TaxSlayer. For Homestead returns in particular, I always look at three things on the PDF. 1. 8879-VT, Part III. Is there a check in the box for "Check here if Property TaxAdjustment Claim filed"? 2. HS-122, Part B. Are the three questions B1,B2,B3 answered correctly (Yes,No,No)? 3. HS-122, Part B. Are there 'reasonable' values on Lines B4,B5,B6? If these lines are blank, there's a problem unless the taxpayer is not filing a PTA claim. and for mobile homes, is the Lot Rent shown on Line B10 or the allocated taxes shown on Lines B11 and B12 of the PDF? Warning TaxSlayer will NOT update existing addresses to the NEW address entered on the Personal Information page for documents (W-2s, 1099s) carried forward from the previous year. They will retain their OLD address. Only 'new' documents (this not carried forward) will get the new address.
Good practice Always (move or no move) confirm that the addresses on the document for the Taxpayer and the Employer or Payer are the same as that in TaxSlayer. If the change is within the same ZIP code, it probably doesn't matter. If it has changed to a new ZIP code, the mismatch may result in a rejection of the return. Issue If a Part Year resident has moved to Vermont and purchased a property that is to become their homestead, there is no HS-122 in the Part Year menu to use to prepare the Homestead Declaration (HS-122 Part A). Part B (Property Tax Adjustment) and HI-144 are not required because they did not live in Vermont all year.
Workaround File the Vermont Part Year income tax return in TaxSlayer and file the Homestead Declaration (HS-122 Part A) on myVTax. Fortunately, you do not need to file an HI-144. This issue (Proposal: Add the ability to complete HS-122 to the Part-Year VT state program) is one of an astronomical number of proposals in the Suggestion Box collection. Its Tracking ID is 280117 and its Status is "X-Pending Commitment" (by the IRS and AARP Tax-Aide). Issue For a Part Year VT return on the Income Subject to Tax page, the entry Pension and Annuities does not transfer to the Vermont form IN-113 Line 4 column B. As a result, the Income Adjustment (Line 37) will be underestimated on the return. This error has been assigned ticket 2814 by TaxSlayer Support.
Workaround Enter the Vermont amounts for both the taxable IRA income and the taxable pension income into the TaxSlayer box IRA Distributions and leave the Pensions and Annuities box empty until the issue is fixed. As with all workarounds, add a Note to the return detailing the workaround, because when TaxSlayer fixes the problem you will probably need to remove the workaround or your return will no longer be correct. And always VERIFY that the workaround worked for your situation. Thanks to Connie for finding and reporting this error. For HS-122 purposes, mobile homes can be considered to come in three types: Those that are in a for-profit mobile home park, those that are in a nonprofit mobile home park, and those that are on land that is part of the homestead. All mobile home owners will receive a property tax bill from the town and must file an HS-122 for the home.
Those that are in a for-profit mobile home park will receive an LC-142 for the lot rent. The lot rent must be entered via the TaxSlayer LC-142 pages (so that a copy of the LC-142 is included in the E-file). TaxSlayer will transfer the Allocable Rent (lot rent) to HS-122 line B10. It will not appear on line B10 of the TaxSlayer HS-122 page but will appear in the PDF. If you enter an amount for the Lot Rent directly onto line B10 of TaxSlayer's HS-122 page, it will be ignored and the LC-142 will not be sent with the tax return. Do NOT file a Renter Rebate claim based on the LC-142. Those that are in a Land Trust, cooperative, or nonprofit mobile home park will receive a statement from the park reporting their share of the Allocated Education Tax and the Allocated Municipal Tax to be reported on Lines B11 and B12, respectively. These values are entered directly into TaxSlayer's HS-122 form. Finally, those that own their land will just file a regular HS-122 based on their property tax bill. "***** DO NOT MAIL *****" watermarks currently are found on some federal and Vermont forms in the PDF. Some watermarks will eventually go away but others will always be there.
Federal: For TY2018, the three pages of "stacked" forms (Form 1040 and Schedules 1 through 6) will always have the watermark; they are not official IRS forms. The stacked forms are in the 2018 TAXPAYER COPY PRINT print set. If you do not want the watermarked forms, use the 2018 PAPER FILE COPY print set. There will be no watermarks, but it will cost you a few extra sheets of paper . Vermont: TaxSlayer cannot remove the watermarks until their substitute forms are approved by Vermont. Apparently printed forms have not been approved for any vendor yet. The list CERTIFIED VENDORS (SUBSTITUTE FORMS) has not been updated to TY2018. After TaxSlayer's forms have been approved by Vermont, the watermark will be removed. In the meantime, you can give the watermarked VT forms to clients as a record of what is e-filed, they just can't file a paper return. For forms IN-114 (VT estimated tax vouchers) and IN-116 (payment voucher), see separate post. Currently, many (all?) sites are receiving two acknowledgements for each Vermont return. If you look up the Client Status (on the Office Client List page) for one of these returns, you will find, at the top under State Information, duplicate sets of Ack info (time sent and received, Submission ID, etc. are all the same).
TaxSlayer Support, via phone since Comcast e-mail wasn't working, said that this is a known, widespread (multiple states) problem that is being worked upon. TaxSlayer is reporting the state acknowledgement twice even though the return was sent to the state only once (the "Times Sent" value of 2 is an artifact of the duplication; the return was only sent once). The "takeaway": Ignore the duplicate acknowledgements (and/or enjoy getting twice as many Acceptances as you deserve). For now: Review all Renter Rebate forms (PR and LC) carefully in the PDF.
Week three of tax preparation and we have our third significant Vermont TaxSlayer issue. It occurs across a variety of OS/browsers [eg, W-10/Edge, W-7/IE-11, W-10/Chrome. W-10/Firefox, and iMac/Safari). Our browsers have been cleared and our cookies deleted. The problems (at least two pairs of them): Problem #1, on LC-142: On the Landlord Certificate (1) page [and also the other four pages (2)...(5)], you can not enter a value directly into the field for the "percent tenant pays". When you click on that field and start typing, nothing happens...the field remains as "0.00". Problem #2, on LC-142: If you succeed in entering a value (typically 100%) into this field (using workaround described below), click SAVE to exit the page, and later return to this page (for QR, perhaps), the value you entered is gone and the "0.00" is there again. Problem #3, on PR-141: The same problem occurs on the PR-141 page for Home Use Percentage. When you click on the Home Use Percentage field, you are unable to enter a value--nothing typed into the field appears in the field, it remains "0.00". Problem #4, on PR-141: If you succeed in entering a value (typically 100%) into this field (using workaround described below), click SAVE to exit the page, and later return to this page (for QR, perhaps), the value you entered is gone and the "0.00" is there again. Workaround We have been reduced to using the following workaround to enter values into these two fields. • Click in the field that precedes the "percent tenant pays" field [that would be "Dollar value of ..."] or the "Home Use Percentage" field [that would be the "Location of Rental Property"] • Click <tab> to move to the desired field • Enter the value [the digits typed will display] • Click <tab> to exit the field * Click SAVE to exit the page Note: Sometimes this procedure has to be repeated one or two times for it to work. Then, do NOT re-open this page. If you do, you will have to redo the workaround to restore the values, because they will have reverted to zeroes. When the workaround is used, the correct values appear on the printed pages in the PDF. If you re-open the page, the values turn to zeroes and appear as zeroes (or an empty field) on the printed forms. These problems affect both Renter Rebate returns and Homestead returns for which there is Lot Rent (the Allocated Rent from the LC-142, which is supposed to transfer to HS-122 Line B10, will transfer as zero unless the workaround is used. The problem has been reported to TaxSlayer. If you are preparing Form 8936, Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit, one of the required questions is "Tentative Credit from your manufacturer's certification."
If the owner doesn't have this information, you can find the amount to enter on the federal FuelEconomy web site. Note that if the taxpayer leased the vehicle, they do not get the credit. If the vehicle is leased, only the lessor and not the lessee, is entitled to the credit. Thanks to Vickie for this link. TaxSlayer has made some progress with Vermont's dual credits for CDC (24% vs 50%). If all of the CDC is from an Accredited VT facility or none is from an Accredited facility, it works. If there is a mixture of Accredited and non-Accredited care facilities, it does not work because it doesn't use the LICDC worksheet for line 31g. TaxSlayer added one question to the Vermont Basic Information page: It's an all-or-none question. If there is more than one facility on the 2441, it does not ask about each one. I will bring this to their attention. Like several of their other 'fixes,' I have not received a formal notice that the issue has been resolved. They are heading in the right direction, though the fix needs a little fine tuning. It should work for most returns.
The fix does take into account the taxpayer's AGI. If the taxpayer's AGI is less than the maximum [$30,000 (S, HoH) or $40,000 (MFJ, CUFJ)] and they used Accredited facilities only, they can claim the 50% refundable credit on line 31g. Otherwise, they get the 24% credit as a subtraction from their VT Income Tax on line 19 (not refundable), even if it's an Accredited facility. You can now get the 50% credit for taxpayers as long as they use Accredited facilities only and qualify income-wise. When there is more than one facility involved and not all are Accredited, you don't have the option to use the LICDC worksheet at the moment. TaxSlayer posted the following on their VITA-blog this morning. Take note of their recommendation and carefully review, before submitting, each return that was held during the 'outage.'
2/10/18 The issue has been resolved where the LC-142 was not generating in the VT return when completed. For any potentially impacted VT returns, we recommend opening each return from the Client List to allow the current calculations/updates to be applied prior to submitting these VT returns. The Issue: As most everyone is aware by now, Renter Rebate claims are not working because the Allocable Rent from LC-142 line 9 is not transferring to PR-141 line 3, thus yielding a rebate of $0. This is TaxSlayer Issue #1055; it's posted on their blog. I think (and have advised TaxSlayer) that this problem is also affecting the HS-122 when there is Lot Rent; the Allocable Rent does not transfer to HS-122 line B10 (see Caveat below).
Status: There is light at the end of the tunnel. In an e-mail this morning (Feb 8), TaxSlayer reported that "the fix has been made and is currently working its way through our internal testing. Assuming it passes each level of testing, the fix should be live early next week." Recommendations: (1) HOLD all returns that require an LC-142 until TaxSlayer has resolved the issue, though you can still prepare them now, using Peter's Procedure below (the preferred method) or the Workaround. (2) Carefully review, with Lisa Pinkus, any returns containing an LC-142 that were e-filed on/after Tuesday, Feb 6. History: I believe that the problem started Tuesday morning, Feb 6. Renter Rebate returns prepared and e-filed on/before Monday, Feb 5, are not affected. Any Renter Rebate or HS/Lot-Rent returns transmitted on/after Tuesday, Feb 6, are probably incorrect (no rent rebate or lot rent) and should be reviewed with Lisa Pinkus. "My 'good' return now shows no rebate": Don't panic. When you generate a PDF of a return, you are using the current version of the software--not the software that prepared the return. Tuesday (Feb 6), I generated a PDF for a return that I know went in with a rent rebate and the new (Feb 6) PDF had an Allocable Rent of zero on line 3 of the PR-141, thus a rent rebate of zero; further, no LC-142 was in the PDF. Caveat re Lot Rent: Lot Rent must be entered via the TaxSlayer LC-142 pages (so that a copy of the LC-142 is included in the E-file) and be allowed to transfer to HS-122 line B10 . The Allocable Rent (lot rent) will not appear on line 10 of the TaxSlayer HS-122 page but will appear in the PDF. If you enter an amount for the Lot Rent directly onto line 10 of TaxSlayer's HS-122 page, it will be ignored and may wipe out the value from the LC-142 as well. Peter's Procedure: This procedure (which is preferred over the workaround below), courtesy of Peter Cottrell, will allow you to keep preparing LC-affected returns while the issue persists. Adapt to suit your needs. Inform the taxpayer that there may be about a week's delay in submitting the Vermont return. Prepare full Federal and Vermont returns. Record the amount of Allocable Rent from each paper LC in a Note attached to the return. Hand calculate the expected Renter Rebate amount and inform taxpayer. File the Federal return only. When TaxSlayer has resolved the issue, return to the Vermont return in TaxSlayer. If the Renter Rebate amount agrees with the expected amount, file the Vermont return; otherwise, advise the taxpayer and decide how to proceed. If the taxpayer wants a printed copy of the Renter Rebate portion of their return, advise them that they can now come back to get it. Workaround: Prepare the Renter Rebate claim on myVTax. It will take extra time, but the taxpayer will not have to return. (Warning: You will need an e-mail address to submit the claim and it doesn't tell you that until you are ready to click the Submit button. Check with the taxpayer before you start to see that they have one.) Prepare full Fed and VT returns (you'll need the HI-144 info for myVTax). Review but do not approve; print the HI-144. Open myVTax.gov and prepare the Renter Rebate claim. Review, print, and submit the claim in myVTax. Return to TaxSlayer, delete the PR-141, review again, and mark Approved. E-file the federal and Vermont income tax returns. Comments welcome. A link to an ACA Exemptions Related to Income Tool can be found at Resources > Links and Tools
The link to a list of the known issues, their status and possible workarounds can be found on the Tax Year 2017 page.
John G reports that 3 of 6 returns that contained LC-142s were rejected with a validation error:
“The 'http://www.irs.gov/efile:CertNumber' element is invalid - The value '-' is invalid according to its datatype 'http://www.irs.gov/efile:CertIdType' - The Pattern constraint failed.” The other three were not rejected. We suspect the ECN field although none of the LC-142s in these six returns had an E-file Certificate Number. Has anyone else encountered this validation error? An update will be posted once the problem is understood. The first release of Vermont state software for TY2017 is available in the Practice Lab now. TaxSlayer says that they "wanted to give you an early look at some of the changes we are making to the state programs for TY2017, even though they are NOT finalized." One improvement I've noticed is that a "No" answer no longer reverts to "Please select."
Please try adding VT returns to the Workbook exercises. Make up numbers as needed. Test rent rebate, homestead, and known weaknesses from last year. Report any problems to me (Jack). Please provide enough information so that I can reproduce the problem. I will report Vermont issues on the blog from time to time. Credit for finding the first flaw goes to Cheryl. If your office never exceeds 499 returns, you can skip this rant. Otherwise, . . .
"The client search will automatically change when your site hits 499 returns. This is to allow for more efficiency when loading the client list and searching for taxpayers." So, the list loads quickly BUT at the loss of usefulness. With < 500 returns, you can sort on most any column and you can search on a part of a name (useful if you are uncertain of the exact spelling), telephone number, or SSN. When you have 500 or more returns, the list shows "the latest 100 returns." The ability to sort on a column is gone. Need to find a specific return? The Search function requires the complete SSN, complete (first or last) name, or complete telephone number. Don't know the spelling of the taxpayer's last name (or is it misspelled?) -- too bad! Much of the utility of the OCL is lost when the number of returns exceeds 500 (last year it was 1000). There appears to be no way for the user (or administrator) to change the cutoff number. TaxSlayer now provides the current (and past) version numbers, dates updated, and the release notes for each version. In TaxSlayer (Practice Lab or production), click on Release Notes in the left menu. To view the federal information, click on Federal, then Individual, and then Individual Core. To view the Vermont information, click on State and then on Vermont.
The NTTC Workbook for Tax Year 2017 is available on the OneSupport Help Center (OSHC) [you do have an account on the AARP Volunteer Portal, right?]. It can be found at
OSHC > Tax Training > Tools > NTTC Workbook - TY17 You must go to the OSHC to download it; it is not posted here (see note below). Follow the "Using the NTTC Workbook" instructions or you may not get the correct answers. Do the problems in the Practice Lab 2016 (PL16) until PL17 becomes available (about mid November--states available mid December, maybe). Answers will be available from the instructors. Note: This workbook is for AARP Foundation Tax-Aide use only and may not be posted on websites or otherwise disseminated to non Tax-Aide volunteers. TaxSlayer has added a new button, Rejected Clients, on the Welcome page to the right of the Message Center button. It produces a list of clients (SSN, Names, Reject Code, and a Select button) whose returns have have been rejected. This page does not indicate whether the Client's return was subsequently accepted, forcing the ERO to go elsewhere to find out, and the list can not be sorted on any of the column headings.
|
Archives
February 2020
Categories |