TaxSlayer Training Webinar March 1, 2017 NOTE: A recording of this webinar is now available at: http://tinyurl.com/h4cywvm Introduction to webinar and welcome by Jay Wiedwald. A pdf of the slides can be downloaded at the end of this presentation. Link to a recording of this webinar: http://tinyurl.com/h4cywvm Your comments regarding this webinar and suggestions for future TS training can be submitted via a link at the end of the slide presentation. Submitted questions LOGIN PAGE Any problems with counselors logging in to wrong site, wrong account or Practice Lab? Or other log-in issues? Lorraine - We had all of those problems. Login issues. I have had people have to reset logins on every shift, also many ID s. I have no idea what people are doing! Do the counselors have an instruction sheet? Counselors have a paper instruction sheet, but don t always use it. We also had counselors doing practice returns on the production site, so we had to delete them. OFFICE CLIENT LIST PAGE Can you make the Tags more user friendly? Answer: Tags are locally created. Talk to person who does setup. Comment: Jay added ERO question and Practice Return Request: Response: Since not all returns marked complete are ready to be e-filed, we should be able to see a tag by hovering over it. Jay will submit this to TS, but no return should be marked Complete until it is ready to be transmitted. How do we delete (disable) a return that indicates that a client was accepted on a return done elsewhere? Answer: On submission page click on Review Failed, which will let it be deactivated on the Client List page. Things to check: Did the client really file previously? Or did someone else use the SSN? Answer: Is there a way to sort out the client list, for instance, the most recent session? At least you can click on status and move the non-accepted returns to the top of the list. TSO confirmed today that you cannot sort by date COMMENT: Jay said there was an NTTC webinar today that mentioned that when a site reaches 1000 returns, TS does some horrible things. Comment: The ability to archive should be on a list of needed enhancements.
Comment: Some sites move accepted returns to the ERO, or to an archive user name. This only helps those who can only see their own returns. Comment: When setting up the counselors as experienced preparers, I clicked only allow them to see their own returns ; it doesn t seem to work. Suggestion: Make a template that doesn t allow preparers to see all the returns. Comment: I went into each user to eliminate seeing the other returns and it worked for my site. INCOME How to figure out how much of a state refund is taxable? Answer: There are 2 ways now. The Bogart refund calculator and the TS refund calculator. For the TS calculator you must use 365 days for the year. The major drawback is that you cannot see the result until you look at the return. The Bogart Calculator lets you see answer. TS calculator requires looking up 2015 sales tax amount online; Bogart does not.. TS calculator will automatically update if you change the income; Bogart does not. Use TS override for Bogart figure. When you talk about using override, what do you mean? That is the term on the TS page. Enter the figure on the first line. Answer: Bogart Tax Refund taxability calculator asks for state tax withheld. Shouldn t it ask for state tax deducted? It probably should be more like state and local income taxes paid or credited during prior year? Answer: DEDUCTIONS On the Capital Gains data entry form what does expired mean? If an option is bought it could expire worthless so the sales price would be zero An option could also be written (sold) and then expire worthless, so the cost is zero. Options are OOS, but there could be trades that fit this. If I don t enter the info for State Sales Tax, will TS use the State Income tax entered? Yes. Jay recommends that counselors make a habit of calculating the State Sales Tax for completeness. Also presents a good opportunity to ask about large purchases. How do I enter a charitable contribution carryover from a prior year? It is out of scope, unless it for your own return, or friends and family. When you enter contributions, you can add the carryover from the prior year. We discovered that the override must include ALL of the contributions; we learned when we tried to split one. Either all must be itemized or all totaled. Medical miles You cannot see where they go. Jay s site prints the medical expenses worksheet
Comment: A few weeks ago TS said they would put a link at the top of each page to go to an image of the form where the figures go. It hasn t yet occurred. PAYMENTS AND ESTIMATES If I pay a balance due on the state return, it is a deduction the next year, but where it goes is very hard to find. All payments are entered in the federal section under payments Comment: If a TP receives a CA 593 from the sale of a house, it has to be entered into the CA section, including any withholding. That means it will be accounted for in the California section, but not in the Federal section. Enter the amount of CA w/h as a federal itemized deduction, but label it as a different state, ie Colorado, since it is already on the CA return. When the efile section reminds you that you have State withholding but no state return to match, just ignore it.. MISCELLANEOUS FORMS Why doesn t TS identify all possible problems that could cause rejects? TS has never had 80,000 users before. If it happens, let them know, but don t call. Example: 1310 is required, but TS will let return through. When you send a comment to TS, please copy Jay. HEALTH INSURANCE Question1: How do you enter a short Gap: exemption without going through affordability? Question2: If that repayment question that triggers unnecessary repayment is answered correctly, what other gotchas should we watch out for? TS made a change yesterday to improve the verbiage about the repayment question.. We should almost never mark it as yes. We are having a terrible time with the various exemptions, finding the Bronze and Watch: Silver plan costs and reporting exemptions for those with ITINS. Jay did an example in the webinar. It is about 50 minutes into the recording. It covers a couple filing MFJ who have insurance part of the year, did not buy from the marketplace, and qualify for exemptions. He demonstrates where to put the exemption info. Comments: Healthpocket.com is not intuitive, but usable. And I don t trust the numbers, since the bronze seems to be higher and the silver lower. Until you have more than approx 4 children in a family, the amount is the sum of the individuals, so looking up the individual amounts and adding them together will be very close. Covered California is still not giving last year s info. Comment: Jay would like TS to put the TP name on each page Comment: Somewhere on the Covered California site (I found it by accident and don t know where it is) there is a graphical chart that shows a lot of info about Medi-Cal and other coverage. CALIFORNIA Why are we asked the Renter s Credit question before we know the AGI?
Answer Yes if the TP is eligible, independent of income. TS will determine eligibility on the basis of income. TaxWise asked annoying but relevant questions to determine eligibility; TS assumes you know the rules. In the state section, go to credits, then other credits. In the colored box at the top of the page select HERE for a list of available credits. There is a list of the qualifications for the California Nonrefundable Renters Credit. Counselors should review the rules so they know what disqualifies a tp. TS doesn t always award renters credit correctly. I had a state rejection because there was a renters credit on the return when there shouldn t have been. Comment: TS has been fixing the federal problems, obviously quite late. Many states have problems with TS this year. California is closer than many others. That s at the top of the NTTC list of necessary fixes. 2015 returns: CA acceptance never showed up. They were transmitted and accepted, but it never showed up in acknowledgements. CA2 policy is no prior year returns and no amendments. If and when we get the goahead to do these, we are likely to do only paper returns in order to see what is actually on the return. Comment: Jay s been told that TS has done a good job of updating their prior year federal software to behave like 2016. 2013 returns will not be accepted as efiles, or so I have been told. Comment: If you create a return and then have to correct the primary SSN it causes problems. The client status won t match reality and the audit trail is lost. I think the return that is transmitted is ok. Jay has heard that if you go through the return and transmit it, that works. If you save the return and reopen it before it is transmitted, things can go awry. What will happen next year in this situation? Jay doesn t know. Comment: We hope IRS gets the right info. HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD CALIFORNIA Comment: When counselor tried to put in the birthdate of a 90-year old parent dependent, TS would not allow a birthdate before 1/1/1920. We had to use a later date. If the date is put in wrong, it may be necessary to completely leave the California section and try again. It might even require deleting the return and redoing the whole return in order to get rid of all the error messages. Comment: In the federal section, the return is saved every time you click continue. In the state section, it is not saved until you reach the end of the state return. STATE ACKS How long is the wait for state acknowledgements? I have had at least one return for which I not yet received an acknowledgement. Are other people having this
problem? If you wait long enough, does the ACK finally arrive? How long has the wait been? Jay doesn t have an answer, but a few times he has contacted Mark Callahan of the FTB who checked. Comment: Federal ACKS come back promptly; states come in more slowly. If we don t get acks within a day, we resubmit. If it rejects, ok. For the retransmit, click the state only. PRINTING Comment: The ability to copy then edit an existing print set would be a great improvement. If I create print sets, will they also apply to prior year returns amendments? Jay doesn t know. Comment: Tonight TS would not print from the Client list. A few minutes later it worked. At Jay s site they always force the Schedule A. Comment: Once in a while we have to go out of the return and the re-enter it in order to print. Jay: TS quality review print set shows W-2 s, 1099 s, etc. Good for checking. Is there a way to force print Schedule A? If you have not set up your site to do that, the only way is to go into the Itemized Deduction Section and select the check box to use itemized deductions instead of the better of the two, then use a print set to print the schedule A. Be sure to go back to change it select back to the better of the two deduction options. EFILE Comment: We did a paper return today, giving the client 2 copies. Comment: Jay set his site up with 2 different print sets: one to file, and the tp copy with a few extra things in it. Comment: If a return is marked complete, it cannot be deleted. Go to the efile page and click failed review, which will allow the return to be deleted on the Client List page. 1000 returns issue mentioned in the Client List section If the site reaches 1000 returns, my understanding is that it will be more difficult to track down certain returns. Jay will try to get more info. WEBINAR, SUGGESTIONS AND ENHANCEMENTS (taken from Jay s post-webinar e-mail) If you haven t downloaded a pdf of the slides it is available on the CA-2 Website (http://www.aarpca2.org/) under Forums/General/Training with the title TaxSlayer Issues Webinar-03/01/2017. You will also find written responses to questions that were submitted prior to the webinar and there will soon be a text summary available in the same section. You can submit suggestions for future TaxSlayer training at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2y56dm3 And submit suggestions for non-urgent (next year) TaxSlayer enhancements at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/tso-2017-enhancements Any TaxSlayer issues that impact the ability to prepare an accurate return should be brought to TaxSlayer s attention immediately by sending an e-mail to: support@vita.taxslayerpro.com. Please copy Jay with any such messages.