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.
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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). |
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