Updates for 2008 Editions of Tax Preparer

Tax Preparer
(Form 1040)

NEW: Release 2008.01i

(posted 3/31/2008)

Partnership Edition
(Form 1065)

NEW: Release 2008.01b

(posted 3/10/2008)

California Supplement
(Form 540)

NEW: Release 2008.01f

(posted 3/3/2008)

Manuals and IRS documents

IMPORTANT NEWS

7/26/2008: Advance Order discounts available until September 15! You can get any of our software for the next tax season at a 10% discount if you order by September 15. This discount also applies to e-file upgrades, designed for those who plan to e-file more than a dozen returns next year. To order on-line, go to our Ordering web page.

6/27/2008: Special discounts until July 25 ONLY! e-file upgrades, designed for those who plan to e-file more than a dozen returns next year, are now available ... at a 25% discount until July 25. And for those who haven't yet ordered their Tax Preparer software, it is available at a 15% discount until July 25. To order on-line, go to our Ordering web page. (Flyers are being mailed to registered customers, for those who want to order by mail, fax, or e-mail.)

4/16/2008: 'Early Bird' discounts for 15 days ONLY! Designed for our loyal current customers, we are offering a 25% discount on our software products for the next filing season for orders placed from April 16 through April 30, 2008. To order on-line, go to our Ordering web page. (Flyers are being mailed to current customers for those who want to order by mail, fax, or e-mail.)

3/31/2008: Tax Preparer (1040) release 2008.01i and revised Tax Forms Guide now available. This release properly automates a penalty for early distributions from Roth IRAs, and the manual contains revised explanations of the penalty on pages 2-422 and 2-530. (The new release also refines printing at Form 1040, line 63.) To install the new update or see details about the changes it contains, go to the Tax Preparer Downloads (1040 Downloads page). To download the revised Tax Forms Guide, go to the Manuals page.

3/29/2008: Revised IRS Forms, Instructions, and Publications available. To keep you up-to-date with mid-season changes in IRS documents, we have added links to IRS forms, instructions, and publications revised since the date we installed them on our CD-ROMs for this tax season. To download the revised IRS documents or see what documents have changed, go to the IRS Downloads (1040 Downloads page).

3/27/2008 (1:00 PM): Tax Preparer (1040) release 2008.01h and revised Tax Forms Guide now available. Release 2008.01h differs from release 2008.01g ONLY in the handling of the printing of gambling amounts at line 28 of Schedule A, to avert an e-file error that can arise when no gambling losses are allowed. The manual differs from the prior release in the correction of the edition year shown in the page headings.

3/26/2008 (9:30 PM): Tax Preparer (1040) release 2008.01g now available. This release differs from release 2008.01f ONLY in averting e-file errors that prevent the creation of e-file output for certain returns with a Form 4797.

3/26/2008 (6:00 PM): Tax Preparer (1040) release 2008.01f now available. This new release provides a number of refinements and minor corrections, mostly to improve clarity and on-screen aesthetics.

3/25/2008: Tax Preparer (1040) manual now available. The Tax Forms Guide for Form 1040 returns now complete, and can be downloaded from the Manuals page. Save it to disk in the same folder as your software (normally C:\TAX), and it will be accessible from the Documents button on the floating Tax Preparer Control Panel. Note that this manual now contains all forms supported by all levels of Tax Preparer. There is no longer a separate Premium Level Supplement for forms supported only by the Premium Level software.

3/10/2008: Tax Preparer (1040) release 2008.01e and Partnership (1065) release 2008.01b now available. The new 1040 and 1065 releases add Forms 8910 to Standard and Premium Level software, and make minor aesthetic changes to all levels. To install the new 1040 update or see more detail on the changes it contains, go to the Tax Preparer Downloads (1040 Downloads page). To install the new 1065 update or see more detail on the changes it contains, go to the Partnership Edition Downloads (1065 Downloads page).

3/3/2008: California manual and release 2008.01f now available. The Tax Forms Guide for the California Supplement is now complete, and can be downloaded from the Manuals page. Save it to disk in the same folder as your software (normally C:\TAX), and it will be accessible from the Documents button on the floating Tax Preparer Control Panel. California release 2008.01f is also available, with minor changes for consistency with the new manual. To install the new update or see more detail on the changes it contains, go to the California Supplement Downloads (540 Downloads page).

2/21/2008: Tax Preparer (1040) release 2008.01d and Partnership (1065) release 2008.01a now available. The new 1040 release adds Forms 2848, 4136, 6765, 8611, and 8801 to the Premium Level, and adds a clarifying informational line to Form 6251. The new Partnership release adds Forms 2848, 6765, and 8801 to the Premium Level, and ensures compatibility with 1040 e-file.

2/12/2008: California release 2008.01e now available. This release corrects a spelling error in the title of the printed e-file payment vouchers (Form 3582).

2/11/2008: California release 2008.01d now available. This release averts a potential problem with the printing of the registration marks at the bottom of the page for some graphic forms, and improves minor aesthetics on Form 540.

2/10/2008: California release 2008.01c now available. This release adds Forms 3519, 540-ES, and 540X to all levels, and adds Form 3805Z to the Premium Level. It also corrects the position of the year designation on a Form 3582 voucher (for e-file).

2/5/2008: California release 2008.01b now available. This release corrects a problem in the scanband of the printed Form 540 and adds Form 3540 to all levels.

2/3/2008: California release 2008.01a now available. This release corrects a problem with the Renter's Credit and activates e-file in the California Form 540 software.

2/3/2008: Federal release 2008.01c now available. This release adds Form 8846 (Credit for Taxes Paid on Employee Tips) to the Premium Level, refines calculations on Forms 2210 and 6251, adds more extensive translation to Forms 3468 and 8283, and ensures e-file compatibility with the California Form 540 software.

2/1/2008: IRS corrects erroneous ERC 103 rejects. The IRS has now corrected the e-file problem we noted on 1/29/2008. A return will no longer be rejected with ERC 103 in Field 1160 solely because of rounding errors. See Beware ERC 103 in Field 1160 on the e-file Alerts page for more information.

1/29/2008: e-filers beware ERC 103 in Field 1160. Because of a change in IRS processing this year, this error is now common if you fail to round to the nearest dollar your entries for withholding on our W-2, W-2G, and 1099-R Worksheets.

1/22/2008: Release 2008.01b now available! This release implements all the changes in the newly released IRS Pub. 4655. It also adds a graphic form for the Schedule D Tax Worksheet (which was inadvertently omitted from prior releases), corrects the ceilings on line 15 of that worksheet, and corrects an e-file problem when 1099-R withholding exists.

1/18/2008: Release 2008.01a now available! e-file is activated in release 2008.01a (Standard and Premium Levels only), allowing you to complete the e-file forms (accessed via form 85 on the Forms Menu) and generate e-file output for transmission to the IRS with your EFI2007 software (included on our Standard and Premium Level CD-ROM program disks).

1/16/2008: Release 2008.01 now available! For those who have installed the pre-release disk for the current year, an update is available to bring you up-to-date with the regular release, which is currently being shipped to customers. It adds Form 5884 to the Premium Level and corrects a couple of problems with the pre-release.

1/14/2008: Pre-release 2008.pre2 now available! For those who have installed the pre-release disk for the current year, an update is available to correct problems with Form 1040 (Standard and Economy only) and to add the new Forms 1040X and 1040ES.

1/10/2008: Pre-release 2008.pre1 now available! For those who have installed the pre-release disk for the current year, an update is available to correct problems with Form 1040 and enhance Form 4562.

1/7/2008: Pre-release 2008 now shipping! We have completed the pre-release version of the 2008 Edition of Tax Preparer for Form 1040 returns, and are now shipping this initial disk of the season. In spite of the year-end tax bill, the late release of many forms by the IRS, and the warnings from the IRS that the tax season could be delayed by several weeks, very few forms are omitted from our pre-release this year. For the Standard and Economy Levels, only the e-file forms and Forms 1040-ES and 1040X, neither of which is filed with a Form 1040 return, are omitted. For the Premium Level, several business credit forms supported only at that level are also omitted because they have not yet been released by the IRS. In fact, the IRS now projects that they will not release these forms until January 15 at the earliest! (You can keep up-to-date on the latest status of the forms in our Progress Report: IRS Forms for Tax Year 2007.)

12/31/2007: Tax season to start on time! Within days after the passage of the AMT patch, the IRS released final copies of most affected forms, including Form 6251 and all personal credit forms. Contrary to earlier indications from IRS officials, the IRS now intends to start its tax season on time. However, it will not be ready to process all of the new forms, so returns that contain Form 5695, 8396, 8859, or 8863 will not be processed until February 11. See our main website for more details.

12/19/2007: Congress passes AMT patch! The anticipated year-end tax bill with retroactive provisions to patch the AMT just passed both houses today, and the President is expect to sign the bill shortly. However, the bill that passed contains only a tiny portion of the original bill: it provides the AMT patch alone, with no renewal of expiring credit forms for next year and no closing of loopholes or other means of paying for the patch. Unfortunately, the IRS advance drafts described below for the affected forms (Form 6251 and ten credit forms) are based on the assumption by the IRS that the AMT patch would NOT pass, and the IRS plans on no further advance drafts before the final releases. However, the IRS is expected to release these forms in a matter of days.

11/11/2007: Correction to Fall 2007 HowardNews. Contrary to what the print version of our Fall 2007 HowardNews states, we are not dropping Form 8834 from the software (Premium Level). It is true that the Qualified Electric Vehicle Credit has expired in that it applies only to vehicles placed in service before 2007, but partnerships and S Corprations with a fiscal year other than the calendar year may still have such a credit to pass through to partners and shareholders. Therefore, the IRS is retaining the form for one more year and reducing it to a form for reporting credit from pass-through entities, and the revised form will once again be included in the Premium Level of Tax Preparer. The on-line version of the Fall 2007 HowardNews has been revised accordingly.

Prior releases. For details on prior changes throughout the tax season, see Changes in Recent Releases for the respective software:

• Changes for 1040 (individuals) software
• Changes for 1065 (partnerships) software
• Changes for 540 (California) software

What are the changes?

Because of the convenience of the web, we issue new releases frequently, even when most of the changes are relatively insignificant. Changes are highlighted in the bottom half of the respective download pages. However, if you want more detail about the most significant changes, there are two other places to look:

• E-FILE ALERTS. Changes that are of consequence ONLY to e-file returns are documented here. The changes typically avert specific Reject Codes for the e-file return, so if your return is rejected, check this list first to see if you need to update your software and take particular steps to repair your data.
• BULLETINS. Changes that are significant for both paper and e-file returns are documented here. Technical Change Notices are issued for each significant change, including the steps you may have to take to repair a return prepared with an earlier release.

Changes that are not documented on either of these pages are less serious in nature, including rewording on some on-screen lines to make entries more understandable, correction of spelling errors, correction of line number references on printouts, and technical changes that have no affect on calculations.

IMPORTANT TIP: After you translate a prior-year return to the current-year format, be sure to VIEW ALL TRANSLATED WORKSHEETS to ensure that the worksheets are recalculated under their new format, and to verify that all entries are proper for the current return. This step is especially necessary this year because of major changes in several worksheets.