Extended Scheduled Maintenance

Scheduled Maintenance for October 22 - October 24, 2021

A planned maintenance event will take place from 10 p.m. Eastern, Friday, October 22nd through 10 p.m. Eastern, Sunday, October 24th.

During this time, access to product and support resources will be limited while we complete this work. The support site will display a maintenance page, not allowing login or use of any pages/tools.

Impacted Systems and How They May Affect You:

• Electronic Filing Center: You will be unable to transmit returns or receive acknowledgements.
• TaxWise Online and InterviewPLUS: access to the web application will not be available.
• TaxWise Solution Center and COM site: support tools and information will not be available
• Online Ordering: 2021 renewals and new product purchases will not be available
• PPR Ordering: the PPR system will not be available for orders or downloads 

Minnesota MeF Scheduled Maintenance

 The Minnesota Department of Revenue has sent the following announcement.

e-Services and other online services unavailable Friday, October 8

Due to scheduled maintenance, our e-Services system and other online services will be unavailable Friday, October 8 from 4:30 p.m. to midnight. This includes Where’s My Refund? and the Property Tax Refund Online Filing System. Regular deadlines for filing and paying taxes still apply. Please plan accordingly. We apologize for the inconvenience.

*Resolved* New York Reject Code R0170

***Resolved***

On 10/8/21 at 3:37 PM, we received communication from the State of New York (NYS) reporting a temporary fix which resolved the R0170 reject. According the NYS, you can now resume transmitting returns, and NYS will resume pulling from the IRS previously transmitted returns. For returns in Rejected status for R0170, recreate the e-file and retransmit the return. Returns already in Transmitted status will be acknowledged when NYS pulls the files and processes them.

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***Update***

On 10/6/21 at 3:15 PM EST we received communications from the State of New York (NYS) with an updated status about eFile returns. Currently, NYS is not pulling e-file returns due to an issue with the SSNValidation Status between the NYS and the IRS. This issue results in rejected returns with a Reject code of R0170. We will update you as we receive new information from the State of New York or the IRS. Please hold these returns and do not re-submit them until we receive additional guidance.

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We are aware of an issue impacting 1040 New York State returns. We have contacted The State of New York who is examining the issue. Please hold these returns and do not re-submit them until we receive additional guidance from the State of New York. 

Error Message:  R0170 - The primary SSN/ITIN was either invalid, or could not be verified

*Resolved* Intermittent Slowness

Service has been restored.  

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On October 4, 2021 at 8:15 AM EST, some TaxWise customers are experience intermittent slowness including e-filing and online check printing.

Thank you for your patience as our team investigates.

Social Security Administration announces important changes for filing 2021 W2s

 

• Due Date
• Tax Year 2021 wage reports must be filed with the Social Security Administration by February 1, 2022.

• The Taxpayer First Act mandates electronic filing of IRS forms including W-2s.
• In 2022* if you send 100 or more W-2s to SSA, you have to file them electronically
• In 2023* that limit is lowered to 10
• See the Taxpayer First Act page for more information including options to file for free
• See IRS Taxpayer First Act Provisions, IRS Modernization, Electronic Filing of Returns (Section 2301) 

               *Pending IRS issuing final regulations.

• Changes have been made to the Wage File Upload process.
• Files will be processed in real-time, and you will get results right away of either Success or Reject.
• If your file is rejected, the SSA will now provide the errors right on the screen.
• You will not receive a Wage File Identifier (WFID) until you have fixed the errors, resubmitted the file, and it passes all edits.
• For more information
• Read the tutorial
• View the infographic
• View the video
• Read the training package

Note:  Files created with Payroll Compliance Reporting or W2/1099 are in EFW2 format.

Tax Tip 2021-145: Here’s what tax professionals should do after a data theft or loss

If a tax pro or their firm is the victim of data or information theft, they must deal with it thoroughly and efficiently. Here are some actions they should take immediately to help minimize damage and protect against future data and theft or losses.

Contact the IRS and law enforcement:

• Internal Revenue Service – The tax preparer should report client data theft to their local Stakeholder Liaison. Stakeholder Liaison will notify IRS Criminal Investigation and others within the agency on the tax professional’s behalf. Speed is critical. If reported quickly, the IRS can take steps to block fraudulent returns in clients’ names.
• Federal Bureau of Investigation or the United States Secret Service – the preparer should contact a local office of either the FBI or the USSS.
• Local police – The taxpayer should contact police to file a report on the data breach.

Contact states in which the tax professional prepares state returns:

• Any breach of personal information could have an adverse effect on the victim’s tax accounts with the states as well as the IRS. To help tax professionals find where to report data security incidents at the state level, the Federation of Tax Administrators has created a special page with state-by-state listings.
• The preparer should contact the State Attorneys General for each state in which the tax professional prepares returns.

Contact experts:

• Security expert – Tax preparers should consult an expert who can help determine the cause and scope of the breach, to stop the breach, and to prevent further breaches from occurring.
• Insurance company – The preparer should report the breach to their insurance company and to check if the insurance policy covers data breach mitigation expenses.
• Federal Trade Commission – Preparers and other businesses can go to the FTC for guidance. For more individualized guidance, preparers can contact the FTC at idt-brt@ftc.gov.
• Credit and identity theft protection agency – Certain states require that preparers offer credit monitoring and ID theft protection to victims of ID theft.
• Credit bureaus – Preparers should notify them if there is a compromise and clients may seek their services.

Contact clients:

Preparers should send an individual letter to all victims to inform them of the breach, but they should work with law enforcement on when to send the letter.

Share this tip on social media -- #IRSTaxTip: Here’s what tax professionals should do after a data theft or loss. https://go.usa.gov/xMESn

Client Accounting Suite/Premier (CAS/P) 20.6 is available

The 20.6 version of CAS is now available from the Solution Center or via the auto-update feature in CAS. It includes the following regulatory updates.

Regulatory Updates

The following regulatory information is now available for Client Accounting Suite and Client Accounting Suite Premier:

• Federal Forms
• 941 Updates
• Line 13a includes the vendor deposit made for the selected quarter.
• Line 15 calculates the Overpayment for the selected quarter.
• 2021 State Withholding Rates - The following state withholding calculations have been updated for 2021:
• Idaho
• Kansas
• Ohio

Scheduled Updates

• November 2021 - Client Accounting Suite 21.0 - Annual Release
• December 2021 - Client Accounting