California Extended System Maintenance: 10/29-10/31

California Extended System Maintenance: Friday, October 29, 2021 between 5:30 PM PT to Sunday, October 31, 2021 9:30 PM PT.

On October 27, 2021 at 12:30 PM CT, the State of California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) announced it will be performing system maintenance beginning Friday, October 29, 2021 5:30 PM PT to Sunday, October 31, 2021 9:30 PM PT. All FTB IT services, including SWIFT, will be unavailable during this timeframe.

The State of California FTB recommends retrieving any outstanding acknowledgement and receipt files prior to the start of the maintenance window and holding all transmissions until after the maintenance timeframe is completed.

Should you experience any issues with transmission processing or receipt/acknowledge retrieval after the maintenance window timeframe or have any questions, please contact the California e-file coordinator at e-file.coordinator@ftb.ca.gov.

Important information for 2021 TN 250 and TN 251 forms

Now that you have filed your 2020 TN 250, please remember that the Hall Income Tax is repealed as of January 1,2021.  As a result the TN 250 and TN 251 will not be available in the 2021 tax software.

For more information see:  Hall Income Tax

Indiana Experiencing Ack Processing Delays due to scheduled maintenance

The Indiana Department of Revenue (DOR) will launch the third phase (Rollout 3) of its multi-year tax system modernization initiative, Project NextDOR, on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021. As DOR continues its transition to the new Indiana Tax System (ITS), there will be some outages for maintenance.

As a result, return submission acknowledgements will not be generated from 11:59 p.m. EST on Aug. 12, 2021, until 8 a.m. EST on Sept. 7, 2021. Tax return submissions received during this period will be processed when DOR’s system is back online.

*Resolved* New York Experiencing Ack Processing Delays

New York State has announced that the issue affecting their ability to retrieve MeF submissions and send acknowledgements has been resolved.  

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 New York State is currently unable to retrieve MeF submissions and send acknowledgements.  They are working on a resolution.

Once New York notifies us that the issue has been resolved and normal operations have resumed, we will update this blog post.

Maryland 1040 Returns

 

Due to a last minute scheme change any 1040 Maryland returns will be EFC rejected (response code 49: This type of efile is not currently being accepted by the EFC.  Please resubmit once the EFC has begun accepting these types of efiles) beginning tomorrow 4/15 at 8 am est. We will be releasing the software update to support this change the morning of Monday April 19th. 

Wisconsin Filiers with Federal PTC Repayment

  (from WI DOR, 4/13/21):

If a Wisconsin return was previously filed in ATX and Federal 8962 had a repayment amount, then an amended return is required to reduce the subtraction amount on the WI return.

New State of California Franchise Tax Board automated clearing house (ACH) company entry description for Golden State Stimulus Payments

 Please be advised that the State of California Franchise Tax Board will be processing Golden State Stimulus Payments (GSSP), authorized by Section 8150 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, as added by Senate Bill 88 (Stats. 2021, Ch. 8) and amended by Assembly Bill 88 (Stats. 2021, Ch. 12), using a new company entry description for ACH payments. GSSP will use the company discretionary data field description “XX FTB GSSTIMULUS XX”, as described below. The ACH transaction amount will be either $600 or $1200.

Effective immediately, financial institutions should be prepared to begin receiving GSSP with the new company entry descriptions. This notice is being provided to allow financial institutions to make any processing or system preparations necessary to receive these payments.

In accordance with the National Association of Automated Clearing House Association (“NACHA”) operating rules, State of California Franchise Tax Board payments will be issued with the following descriptors:

The “XX” indicator in positions 21-22 & 39-40 of the “Company Discretionary Data” field identifies GSSP as exempt from all garnishments except garnishments for child support enforcement. The following table maps certain field values found in the ACH Company/Batch Header (“5”) record of GSSP processed by the State Controller’s Office.

CA Type of Coverage Exemption Codes

 There have been a lot changes to CA forms this year, and we know you are confused, but TaxWise is here to help!  Our Content team partnered with Solution Architect, Anthony Sampson, and out together this video that explains the changes and instructions for CA form 3853. Click the picture below to view. 

NJ State News: Automatic Extension for 2020 CBT Returns for Certain Fiscal Tax Year Filers

 One of the changes resulting from the enactment of P.L. 2020, c. 118 (which was signed into law on November 4, 2020), was a change in the original due date of a Corporation Business Tax return to 30 days after the due date of the federal return. In general, this means that a return is due on the 15th day of the month following the due date of the federal return. This may impact some taxpayers' original due dates.

The 2020 Corporation Business Tax returns (Forms CBT-100, CBT-100U, BFC-1, BFC-1-F, and CBT-100S) are currently in the process of being updated to incorporate the new law's changes, which is delaying the start of the filing season.

Taxpayers with returns that have an original due date that falls anytime between November 15, 2020 and March 15, 2021, are granted an automatic extension to file their tax returns by April 15, 2021. A taxpayer will not be charged late filing penalties if the return is filed by April 15, 2021 (the extended due date). This extension applies only to the filing of the return and does not extend the time to make all required payments. (Note: If a due date falls on a weekend or a legal holiday, the return and payment are due on the following business day.)

Affected taxpayers that apply for an extension of time to file have 6 months from the original due date to file their tax returns. If you are filing form CBT-100, CBT-100U, or BFC-1 (BFC-1-F) and your year ended on July 31, 2020, you must file your tax return on or before June 15, 2021, which is 6 months after the original due date of December 15, 2020. If you are filing Form CBT-100S and your year ended on July 31, 2020, you must file your tax return on or before May 15, 2021, which is 6 months after the original due date of November 15, 2020.

California e-file Business Rule Rejection S0000-095 Issue on 11/13/2020

 The State of California, Franchise Tax Board’s e-file program experienced an issue on Friday, November 13, 2020 after 1:30 PM PT that caused tax returns to be rejected by business rule S0000-095. The issue has been corrected as of 4:35 PM PT that day.

 

Business Rule S0000-095:

Our records indicate that you are not authorized to submit a tax return of a type and for a tax year specified in the Submission Manifest [CA-SubmissionManifest].
 

If you have any outstanding submissions that were previously rejected that day based on business rule S0000-095 and have not been re-submitted and accepted, please re-transmit the return. 

Expectations for Agency ACK Response Beginning This Weekend

Beginning this weekend, agencies will begin to actively manage the increasing volume of e-files as we approach the Individual filing deadline. This agency process, known as "throttling," ensures that both federal and state e-filing pipelines continue to flow smoothly while handling the increased volume.

During this period, you can expect some slower ACK responses than are typical for the rest of the season; however, slowed agency responses are normal for this time period.

Acknowledgement Status

Around the March 15 and April 15 deadlines, the processing volume at the IRS will increase daily. Both return volume and return size will affect processing time. While you are accustomed to receiving your Federal acknowledgements within a one hour time-frame, that turnaround time will increase as the deadline approaches. You may see your acknowledgements take from 2 to 4 hours, and possibly longer.

Current year federal:

Corp, S-Corp, & Partnership acks

Business Extension acks

Current year state: Note: State acks are not considered late until outstanding for more than five days. 

FL Business

IN Business

KY Individual

LA Business and Individual

MI Business

NJ Business

NY Business

AZ Efile Validation Error for Driver's License Entry *Resolved

Situation:
You attempt to create an efile for a return with AZ state attached and you get a validation error similar to this:

The element {spouse drivers license or ID} has invalid child element


You have entered the driver's license number, expiration date, and state initials properly, but you continue to see the error.


We are actively researching this now. Please hold these returns until a resolution is provided on this blog post. 

Updated 1-23-17
We have resolved this issue and the remedy will be released in AZ Module update version 3, midweek.

Updated 1-25-17
AZ ver 3 is in production now