2018 ProSeries/1040 ReadMe
Release 2018.460 / February 10, 2020
Click on any of the links below to go directly to the topic of your choice
As is typical this time of year, many forms in this release are not final.
These forms will be continuously updated once the forms have been published by
the respective agencies and form instructions are available. For a full list of
form update release dates:
2018 ProSeries Release Dates.
The ProSeries Tax Year 2018 Tax Reform Information and Updates
page can be "followed" to receive email notifications when new information is
posted. This Live Community Announcement page is updated when new information
becomes available as we transition into Tax Year 2018.
We know how important these calculations are to many of our customers. To see
the latest information on QBI, visit
ProSeries - Qualified Business Income Resources.
All forms in this release of ProSeries/1040 can be filed with the IRS.
Items addressed in this release of ProSeries
The following issues have been addressed in this release:
- 2019 Late Legislation - Electronic filing functionality is again available in this release of ProSeries/1040 product. However, the product has not been updated for legislative changes enacted on December 20, 2019 as part of the Tax Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019 and the SECURE Act of 2019. If you file the return, there is the potential that calculations could change, and that you may need to file an amended return when the updates are made to the product.
Items addressed in previous releases of ProSeries/1040
The following issues were addressed in previous releases:
- Release 2018.460 / September 5, 2019
- Form 1099-R Summary - Taxable inherited IRA
distributions that were qualified disaster distributions were understated on
the Form 1099-R Summary line 7.
- Release 2018.450 / August 29, 2019
- Form 8962, Premium Tax Credit was
allowing a credit for MFS taxpayers claiming relief in the Relief
Indicator Smart Worksheet line A and also indicating in
line B that the exception was claimed in the prior three years. A
credit is not allowed in that situation.
- Release 2018.430 / August 15, 2019
- Asset Entry Worksheet - On May 30, 2019,
Minnesota law was updated to the Internal Revenue Code as amended through
December 31, 2018. In this release, the new conformity program changes
impacts the Asset Entry Worksheet for Minnesota calculations.
- Release 2018.330 / June 6, 2019
- Form 2210, Underpayment of Estimated Tax
- Schedule H taxes (Household Employment Taxes) were
not being included with Other taxes on line 2
- Form 8615, Tax for Certain Children Who Have
Unearned Income - The Form 8615 version of the Schedule D Tax Worksheet
has been updated for the new instructions from the IRS for lines 18 and 19
- Form 8867, Paid Preparer's Due Diligence
Checklist - When there was an American Opportunity Tax Credit in
a return and no Form 8867 had the AOTC box checked above line
1, the error was on the CTC box instead of the
AOTC box
- Schedule A - When a TurboTax return
was transferred to ProSeries, the full amount of the home mortgage interest taken
on the Employee Home Office Worksheet was also taken on Schedule A when
there was also a Form 8829 taking some of the mortgage interest
- Release 2018.300 / May 16, 2019
- Form 1040 Worksheet line 63, Section 965 net
tax liability, was inappropriately being included as a tax on Form 1040
line 14. This fix was in release 2018.290.
- Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of
Your Home - When using the Simplified Method, data entry requirements
and some QuickZoom targets have been streamlined to make preparation
easier
- Schedule K-1 Worksheet - Estates and Trusts -
If a Form 1041 Schedule K-1 was imported more than once, each Section 199A
item was duplicated in Box 14, adding to the previously imported list of
199A items
- MFJ vs MFS Comparison Worksheet - The Schedule
D Tax Worksheet calculation in line 44 was including 28% gains in the
long-term capital gains 20% rate and failing to compute tax on those at the
higher 28% rate
- Client Analyzer - a new query has been added to
help identify clients that failed the 85% tax reform waiver exception for
the underpayment penalty but would qualify for the subsequent 80%
waiver. The 80% waiver was in release 2018.230 on March 28, 2019 so
affected client returns prepared before that may benefit from an amended
return.
- Release 2018.270 / April 25, 2019
- State and Local Income Tax Refund Worksheet - in some
circumstances, line J of the 2017 Federal Form 1040 Information
Smart Worksheet was throwing an error that its value was inconsistent with
lines S-Z when that was not the case
- Schedule C - the printout of the QBI Deduction Info
Smart Worksheet was cutting off the bottom sections after line I.
That Smart Worksheet has been broken up into two Smart Worksheets that print
on their own page.
- Form 4970, Tax on Accumulation Distribution of
Trusts, was causing an EF reject when it was part of the return but no tax was
computed on line 28 to go to Form 1040. This has been corrected to not be a part of
the return unless there is a tax amount in line 28.
- Form 6765 was incorrectly requiring an attachment for
line 34 when the Yes box was checked (electing reduced credit)
- Form 1095-A - Some error checks have been added to prevent
starting month entries from being after the ending month. Also, changed several other
error checks to be non-interactive instead of popping up immediately.
- Form 5695, Residential Energy Credit, Part
II has not been extended but an override of the current year credit field on
line 30 was being reported on Schedule 3, line 53. That has been fixed. Users
can still check the box on line 4 of the Late Legislation Worksheet to
enable calculation of Part II and the current year credit on line 30 will flow to
Schedule 3. That will still be an EF reject, however, because Part II is not output
at all to the EF record.
- Form 1116, under a rare fact pattern, lines 1 and 6
were not summing columns A-C. This happened when a subsequent copy of Form 1116
with the same income category as a previous copy but had no values in line 1 or
line 6 A-C. The previous sum of line 1 or 6 was cleared in that
circumstance. Also, on the AMT version of Form 1116, line 3a,
certain itemized deductions, was using 10% of AGI for the medical
deduction instead of 7.5%.
- Casualty and Theft Worksheet - Validation of the
State and ZIP code fields in Part II for personal property has been fixed to
allow U.S. possessions and territories (Puerto Rico, Palau, etc.)
- Transfer from TurboTax - For the Locality for
Sales Tax Deduction, the locality checkbox was not being transferred from
the TurboTax return
- Release 2018.250 / April 11, 2019
- Form 4797 was not printing with the return for filing in
certain circumstances. EF returns were not affected.
- Form 6765, Credit for Increasing Research
Activities was causing the credit to double on Form 3800 when all of the
credit was from an eligible small business
- Car and Truck Expenses Worksheet - in some
circumstances when entering the mileage for a third vehicle an array
out of bounds error could occur
- Release 2018.240 / April 4, 2019
- Form 2441 - fixed an EF reject where a care provider was
included in the output when there was no amount paid to that provider
- Form 8801, Credit for Prior Year Minimum Tax,
was not reducing the tax liability on line 22 by the Form 8936 credit
- 1065 K-1 Worksheet was improperly allocating a
self-employment tax deduction to K-1s with no self-employment income
- Safe Harbor Election and Election to Capitalize Repair
and Maintenance Costs - Sections 1.263(a)-3(h) and -3(n),
respectively, were not giving the full text of the election in the EF
output. Only the Description of Eligible Property was
transmitted. Printed elections were not affected.
- Client Analyzer has a new query to identify
clients that may have understated net investment income tax due to
an unlimited state and local income tax deduction
- Release 2018.230 / March 28, 2019
- Form 8994, Employer Credit for Paid
Family and Medical Leave was added in Release 2018.210
- Form 3800 - Form 8994 credits from multiple
K-1s were not being included in the Form 3800 page 3 summary. There was no
effect on the return other than the cosmetic absence on the summary.
- Charitable Deduction Limits Worksheet was
allowing a deduction of donations of capital gain property to 50%
organizations (line 24) even when cash donations were limited by 60% of
AGI
- Tax Planner, Itemized Deductions
"Deductible Taxes for Sch A" was not correctly applying the $5,000 SALT
limit for MFS filing status Plans
- Various EF validation improvements to help prevent rejects
- Release 2018.220 / March 21, 2019
- Various EF validation improvements to help prevent rejects
- Release 2018.210 / March 14, 2019
- Form 8283, Noncash Charitable
Contributions, was not printing with the return when there was a use
restriction explanation statement attached for line 3c. Electronically filed
returns were not affected.
- Form 4684, Casualties and Thefts, page 1,
line 1 property Location fields are now not enterable because city, state and
ZIP code validation for EF has always been done on the Casualty and Theft
Worksheet. Sometimes users have entered EF-invalid addresses directly on the
4684 causing rejects.
- Release 2018.200 / March 7, 2019
- Pension conversions to Roth IRAs with after-tax
contributions in Form 1099-R Box 5 were not reducing the taxable amount by the amount
of previously taxed contributions in line B8 of the 1099-R Worksheet
- Schedules C and F QBI is now being reduced by SE
health insurance expenses from linked Form 1095-A's
- Release 2018.190 / February 28, 2019
- Schedule 5, line 72, Excess social security tax
withheld computation wasn't including Form W-2 Box 7 social security tips in
the total social security income in determining if any excess social security
tax was withheld. This could reduce or eliminate the credit in rare
circumstances.
- Schedule SE Part II, Farm Optional Method was
using 2017's $5,200 for the line 15 limit. That has been corrected to use
$5,280.
- Release 2018.180 / February 22, 2019
- Schedule 1 is
now part of the printed return when the only item on it is the line 36
write-in from the Form 1040 Worksheet
Other Adjustments to Income Smart Worksheet. E-filed returns were not
affected.
- Form 2441 -
Validation of the care provider's name to have at least one alpha character
has been added to prevent EF rejects for a blank/missing name - a phone number
is sometimes entered there by mistake and all numbers are stripped by the EF
formatter, creating an empty name
- Form 8903,
Domestic Production Activities Deduction, has been restored to ProSeries to
accommodate Form 1099-PATR Box 6. Lines 23 and 25 are the only active
fields.
- Client Presentation - Items regarding the
qualified business income deduction limitations have been expanded to
include more information about why the deduction is reduced or
eliminated
- MFJ vs MFS Comparison Worksheet now
incorporates the SALT limitation on the Taxpayer and Spouse fields on
line 7, Taxes paid, in the Itemized Deductions Summary
- Release 2018.170 / February 14, 2019
- Standard Client Letter - The federal
estimated income tax payments list formatting is wrapping the leader dots
after "Voucher n". The font appears to be rendering a little larger
than last year. As updating the Standard letter to account for this would
require you to replace your current letter (and overwriting any changes you
have already made) we are recommending a manual fix to your Standard
letter. You only need to change one Standard letter for the fix to take.
- Standard Deduction Worksheet for Dependents now
automatically opens and becomes part of the return when appropriate
- State and Local Income Tax Refund Worksheet,
line 7c now has the correct 2017 standard deduction amounts
- Release 2018.160 / February 7, 2019
- IRS Reject F1040-436 - This reject occurring
when it's an MFJ return and the taxpayer can be claimed as a dependent has
been fixed
- Casualty and Theft Worksheet - Validation
checks have been added to the FEMA number, City, State and ZIP code fields
to help prevent EF rejects
- Release 2018.150 / January 31, 2019
- Form 4684 - Line 15 was
including regular federally declared disaster losses if there was also a
net qualified disaster loss
- Release 2018.140 / January 25, 2019
- Form 8889 - Medical expenses entered on the
Form 1099-SA Worksheet were not properly flowing to Form 8889
line 15
- Release 2018.130 / January 18, 2019
- Form 6251, line 4 slipped back to using 2017's
MFS threshold of $249,450 three weeks ago on the Alternative Minimum
Tax Worksheet. It has been restored to $718,800.
- Release 2018.120 / January 11, 2019
- State and Local Income Tax Refund Worksheet was
sometimes incorrectly checking the General sales tax box on returns
transferred from 2017 that deducted income taxes in 2017
- Release 2018.110 / January 4, 2019
- Schedule A
- The choice to force use of either the state and local income tax
deduction or the sales tax deduction has been restored to line 5a
- The checkbox on line 8a is now manually enterable
What's new in ProSeries/1040
There are three new Client Analyzer Queries regarding the Qualified
business income deduction:
- Has Qualified Business Income Deduction
- Use this query to identify clients who have the qualified business
income deduction
- May Have QBI Last Year - Includes Rentals
- May Have QBI Last Year - Excludes Rentals
- These two queries are based on the 2017 tax return that was
imported into the 2018 product. They identify any return with
potential income (Schedules C, E & F, etc.) that would qualify
for QBI.
You can use this opportunity to provide consulting about
this new deduction to your clients or provide a targeted planning letter to
those benefiting from this tax law change.
For more information on what's new in ProSeries, open a 1040 return, go to
the Help menu, select Help Center, then select What's New This
Year?
We've added the following forms to ProSeries/1040 for the 2018
tax year:
- Form 1040 , Individual Income Tax Return
- This is the new "postcard" Form 1040. The "old" 1040 is now a worksheet
that supports this form.
- Form 8994, Employer Credit for Paid Family and Medical Leave
- Schedule 1, Additional Income and Adjustments
- Schedule 2, Tax
- Schedule 3, Nonrefundable Credits
- Schedule 4, Other Taxes
- Schedule 5, Other Payments and Refundable Credits
- Schedule 6, Foreign Address and Third Party Designee
- Paid Preparer's Due Diligence Worksheet, Head of
Household
- The Due Diligence Checklist Form 8867 has a new Head
of Household section
- QBI Worksheets, Support for
the Qualified Business Income Deduction
- Late Legislation Worksheet provides information about
some expired tax provisions the client may be impacted by
Tip: For information about changes to existing forms,
start or open a Form 1040 return, go to the Help menu,
select Help Center, then select
What's New This Year?
Obsolete ProSeries/1040 forms and worksheets
We've removed the following obsolete forms and worksheets from ProSeries/1040
for the 2018 tax year:
- Forms 1040A and 1040EZ , Individual Income Tax Returns
- The IRS has discontinued these "short" forms in favor of the new "postcard"
Form 1040
- Form 1095-B, Health Coverage (removed from
product, not obsolete)
- Form 1095-C, Large Employer Health Care Coverage
(removed from product, not obsolete)
- Form 2106-EZ, Unreimbursed Employee Business Expenses
- The IRS has discontinued this form
Tax legislation issues
For information on tax legislation issues, open a 1040 return, go to the
Help menu, select Help Center, then select What's New This
Year?
Electronic filing
Electronic filing functionality is available in this release of
ProSeries/1040. The IRS opened for e-file on January 28, 2019.
For electronic filing procedures and information, click the
EF button on the toolbar to go to the EF Center (also
known as the HomeBase Electronic Filing view). The Steps to
E-File section on the right side of the EF Center summarizes the steps
that you take when you file a client's return(s) electronically. In the
Steps to E-File section:
- Click a step to see detailed information in the ProSeries User's Guide.
- Click a button to see more information about electronic filing.
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End of ProSeries/1040 ReadMe file