First Thursday Minutes February 7, 2019

Attendees:

Tax Professionals: Theresa Abel, Laura Dawson, Jessica Gatzke, Jacen Gondringer, Cindy Hockenberry, James Hockenberry, Carrie Houchins-Witt, Terry Johnson, Tricia Knight, Todd Koch, Rick Kollauf, Ken Larsen, Ruth Ann Michnay, Shania Murphy, Jodee Paape, Darian Panasuk, Kendra Privratsky, Jo Ann Schoen, Portia Vogt, Will Wallace, Doug Wendlandt

Stakeholder Liaisons: Karen Brehmer, Kathleen Fox, Alan Gregerson, Mike Mudroncik

Stakeholder Liaison Managers: Kristen Hoiby, Area 6 manager; Shane Ferguson, Director

Departments of Revenue: Lorie Bowker – ND; Vicki Gibbons – WI; Mark Krause – MN

Webinars – No upcoming webinars. Check out the webinars on Tax Reform on the IRS Video Portal.

Discussion items

  • Follow up on previous issue: Can the IRS include state tax withheld on transcripts?

We raised this issue in IMRS. The answer we got was:

Unfortunately, we do not currently have the capability to integrate state withholding data (which would come from the Forms W-2 filed with the Social Security Administration) into IRS Wage and Income Transcripts. We appreciate your interest as we continue to consider ways to improve the transcript process and contents.

  • Follow up on previous issue: Tax pros said that the IRS should waive estimated tax penalties for everyone in 2018.

Response – it was not waived for everyone, but the threshold was reduced to 85% instead of 90%: IRS waives penalty for many whose tax withholding and estimated tax payments fell short in 2018

  • EITC and Other Refundable Credits
  • Formerly called EITC Central. Now it includes information about other refundable credits, so the new title is “EITC and Other Refundable Credits”
  • Follow up on previous request: How to get unredacted transcripts
  • Steps for tax professionals to obtain wage and income transcripts needed for tax preparation
  • The IRS, in partnership with the tax preparation community, has devised a new process that will allow tax practitioners to access employer information needed for return preparation and electronic filing while also protecting taxpayer data.
  • The article above states that the IRS will stop faxing transcripts on February 4. We are going to extend the transcript faxing service beyond that date. The IRS is reviewing options for a new timeframe. We are committed to providing you with advance notice of the new date.
  • Insurers and employers have until March 4, 2019 to provide Form 1095-B and Form 1095-C.
  • The IRS has not been able to update IRS.gov. Even so, the information on this page is helpful to filers for the 2019 filing season:
  • See “3. Must I wait to file until I receive these forms?”

Your issues and questions:

  • Question: At what point does the IRS lock someone out of filing EITC? The client’s ex-husband files with children. We have to paper file, or file as early as possible.

Answer: Here are a variety of resources:

  • IRM 20.1.5.2.5 Two and Ten-Year Bans on Claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit

If you ordered W-2’s and 1099’s using this system, they are delayed until mid to late February. You can buy the forms at office supply stores. One tax pro commented that the forms were back-ordered at office supply stores.

A suggestion for 2019: Order the 1099’s and W-2’s for 2019 now. You will get them in July 2019. Then you will have them when you need them in January 2020.

State Departments of Revenue

Lorie Bowker – ND

  • North Dakota is not seeing any filing issues so far this season.
  • We ask that practitioners verify client’s direct deposit information as well as their current address.
  • It appears that the stillborn child deduction that was available in 2017 may pass and will be retroactive to 2018. Once signed into law our we will update the Schedule ND-1SA Statutory Adjustments and that is where you will take the deduction.

Vicki Gibbons – WI

  • Tax return processing is proceeding as expected.
  • We have had complaints from some taxpayers and practitioners who were told they couldn’t e-file because DOR was holding up their software. DOR requires that software providers pass various test files before we can accept returns. We respond to those submissions in one to two business days or sooner.
  • Wisconsin did extend its 1/31/19 filing deadline to 2/4/19 for all business tax filings. While we got notice out timely, it takes a little longer to get our systems to recognize that new date. If you see a balance on MTA even though filed timely and paid timely, please ignore until Friday. We are having issues moving the new code to our production system that will reprocess the submissions with the new due date.

Mark Krause – MN

  • We’ve had very few reports of software errors so far this filing season. Continue to review returns with extra due diligence and report any errors to your software provider and our e-file coordinators at 651-556-4818, option 4. If you want to verify if something is working correctly or not, contact me.
  • Your client may receive a return verification letter to verify their identity. Have the taxpayer follow the instructions on the letter to verify their identity which will allow us to continue processing their return. If they don’t have web access, have them call 651-296-3781 and we can verify the return with the information that they provide from the letter.
  • New this filing season. We are issuing 1099-MISC forms when a taxpayer claimed a refundable credit on form M1RCR – Credit for tax paid to Wisconsin and that credit amount exceeded Minnesota tax liability. If the amount was less than $600, a 1099-MISC form will not be issued but the amount may still be taxable. If you would like more information, please contact me.
  • Our new beta website is up and running. Please check it out and complete a survey before the end of February. We want your feedback!
  • Due to a much lower state standard deduction amount, we expect many more Minnesotans to itemize on the state return only. Make sure that your clients are saving receipts and documents as they were in the past.

Next Call

The next call will be on March 7, 2019. We’ll send out the WebEx link closer to that date.

Meetings are one hour long. Come when you can, leave when you must.

Thank you to everyone who attended. We appreciate your time and input!