2018 ProSeries Basic Edition/1040 ReadMe

Release 2018.460 / February 10, 2020

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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 1040 Forms can be filed

Items addressed in this release of ProSeries Basic Edition/1040

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 Basic Edition/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
• 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 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.)
• Release 2018.250 / April 11, 2019
  • Form 4797 was not printing with the return for filing in certain circumstances. EF returns were not affected.
  • 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 4797 was not printing with the return for filing in certain circumstances. EF returns were not affected.
  • 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.
• 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
  • 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.
• Release 2018.170 / February 14, 2019
  • Client Filing Instructions - 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. We are recommending a manual fix to your Client Filing Instructions. You only need to change one Client Instruction 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 Basic Edition/1040

New ProSeries Basic Edition/1040 forms and worksheets

We've added the following forms and worksheets to ProSeries Basic Edition/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

Obsolete ProSeries Basic Edition/1040 forms and worksheets

We've removed the following obsolete forms and worksheets from ProSeries Basic Edition/1040 for the 2015 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

Electronic filing

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End of ProSeries Basic Edition/1040 ReadMe file