ON-LINE UPDATES

These on-line updates can be used only by those who have already installed a prior release for the same program for the current filing season.

Tax Preparer
(Form 1040)

Release 2011.01w now available.

(Updated 10/7/2011.)

Partnership Edition
(Form 1065)

Release 2011.01b now available.

(Updated 3/27/2011.)

California Supplement
(Form 540)

Release 2011.01e now available.

(Updated 4/12/2011.)

Manuals, IRS documents, and FTB documents

Technical Change Notice TCTP1101 added. A potential problem exists with the computation of the earned income credit (EIC) when you have a deduction on Form 1040, line 29, for self-employed health insurance. The problem was corrected in release 2011.01o, but you should read the notice to see if it applies to you. Just go to our Bulletins page and scroll to the bottom of the page to access the notice.

IMPORTANT NEWS

10/7/2011: Release 2011.01w now available. This release revises Schedule SE for those who use only the Optional Method(s) and revises our e-file form for better clarity. It also updates the manual to reflect the changes and to expand instructions for Form 8606 regarding qualified charitable distributions. To see detail on the changes and update your software to release 2011.01w, go to our Downloads page.

5/28/2011: Release 2011.01v now available. This release makes a number of technical changes that are of minor consequence to most people, including modifications to earned income for Schedule M and Form 8812, minor printout changes for Schedule B and Form 4562, and mitigation of e-file erros from blank Form(s) 4562. To see detail on the changes and update your software to release 2011.01v, go to our Downloads page.

5/1/2011: Release 2011.01u now available. This release makes a number of technical changes that are of minor consequence to most people, and updates the manual for an omission in the instructions for Schedule C, line 1. To see detail on the changes and update your software to release 2011.01u, go to our Downloads page.

4/16/2011: Release 2011.01t now available. This release adds Schedule J to all levels, adds Form 4970 to the Premium Level, averts certain obscure e-file errors, averts a potential error when printing support for Schedule A, and makes some clarifying aesthetic changes. It also updates the manual with minor changes in instructions for the newly added forms. To see more detail on these changes and update your software to release 2011.01t, go to our Downloads page.

4/12/2011: California Release 2011.01e now available. This release adds Forms 3510, 3523, 3548, 3553, 3805Z, and 3806 to the Premium Level, ensures dark printing of registration marks on certain forms for certain printers, and updates the California manual. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01e, go to our California Downloads page.

4/1/2011: Release 2011.01s now available. This release omits the printing of page 2 of Schedule A when not needed, ensures the printing of Form 3800 when a credit exists only in Part II, ensures the auto-creation of Form 3800 when Form 8834, 8936, or 8941 is present, and provides warning for missing spouse name. To see more detail on these changes and update your software to release 2011.01s, go to our Downloads page.

3/31/2011: California Release 2011.01d now available. This release adds Schedule P (pages 1 and 2) and Forms 3540, 3803, 5805 (pages 1 and 2), and 5805F to all versions of the software and updates the California manual accordingly. It also corrects certain on-screen line references and a graphic tax year designation. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01d, go to our California Downloads page.

3/27/2011: Partnership Release 2011.01b now available. This release adds Form 3468 to all levels, Form 8910 to the Standard and Premium Levels, Forms 4255, 5884, 6478, 6765, 8586, and 8846 to the Premium Level only, and updates the Partnership Tax Forms Guide to reflect changes in these forms. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01b, go to our Partnership Downloads page.

3/23/2011: Release 2011.01r now available. This release adds Forms 8839 and 8859 to the Premium Level and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new forms. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01r, go to our Downloads page.

3/17/2011: Release 2011.01q now available. This release adds Forms 5884, 6478, 6765, 8586, and 8846 to the Premium Level and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new forms. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01q, go to our Downloads page.

3/15/2011: Release 2011.01p now available. This release adds Form 8910 to Standard and Premium Levels, adds Forms 8834 and 8936 to Premium Level, corrects a Form 1040 printing problem for Standard and Economy Levels. and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new forms. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01p, go to our Downloads page.

3/12/2011: Release 2011.01o now available. This release adds Forms 3468 and 3800 to all levels, corrects a potential EIC inaccuracy (per TCTP1101, described below), makes a couple of technical changes to avert potential e-file rejections for returns with Schedule F or Schedule R, and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new forms. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01o, go to our Downloads page.

3/12/2011: Technical Change Notice TCTP1101 added. A potential problem exists with the computation of the earned income credit (EIC) when you have a deduction on Form 1040, line 29, for self-employed health insurance. The problem is corrected in release 2011.01o, but you should read the notice to see if it applies to you and to see a workaround that you can use until you update to release 2011.01o. Just go to our Bulletins page and scroll to the bottom of the page to access the notice.

3/7/2011: California Release 2011.01c now available. This release adds Forms 540-ES and 540X to all versions of the software and updates the California manual accordingly. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01c, go to our California Downloads page.

3/6/2011: Release 2011.01n now available. This release adds Form 2210 to all levels (including Schedule AI and Form 2210-F) and Form 8885 to the Premium level, and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new forms. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01n, go to our Downloads page.

3/3/2011: Release 2011.01m now available. This release adds Form 1040X to all levels and Form 4255 to the Premium level, and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new forms. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01m, go to our Downloads page.

2/27/2011: Release 2011.01l now available. This release adds Forms 8814 and 1040-ES to all levels, adds Forms 8801 and 8853 to Standard and Premium levels, updates tax rate schedule for 2011 (for tax planning), averts an e-file error on Form 4835, updates indexing rate on Control Form, and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new forms. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01l, go to our Downloads page.

2/25/2011: Partnership Release 2011.01a now available. This release adds Form 8825 (Rental Real Estate) to all versions of the Partnership Edition, and adds the Partnership Tax Forms Guide for the current filing season. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01a, go to our Partnership Downloads page.

2/25/2011: California Release 2011.01b now available. This release averts an e-file error for those with an amount on line 63 of Form 540. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01b, go to our California Downloads page.

2/22/2011: Release 2011.01k now available. This release adds Form 5405 to the Standard and Premium levels, adds Form 8396 to the Premium Level, and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new forms. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01k, go to our Downloads page.

2/16/2011: California release 2011.01a now available. This release adds Form 3519 to all levels, adds Schedule G-1, Form 3501, and Form 8822 to the Premium level, and updates the California Tax Forms Guide to the 2011 Edition. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01a, go to our California Downloads page.

2/14/2011: California Supplement 2011.01 now shipping. The disks for California Supplement for the 2011 filing season were shipped to all customers today without an on-screen manual. The first on-line update will include the updated on-screen manual and additional forms, and will be available no later than Wednesday this week. If you do not receive your disk by Wednesday, be sure to call us for the status of your shipment.

2/9/2011: Release 2011.01j now available. This release adds Form 5695 to the Standard and Premium levels, adds Form 8889 to the Premium Level, and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new forms. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01j, go to our Downloads page.

2/8/2011: Release 2011.01i now available. This release adds Forms 4684 and 8829 to all levels and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new forms. In addition, Form 8606 revised by further support for special cases in the IRS instructions and refinement of certain tests. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01i, go to our Downloads page.

2/7/2011: Release 2011.01h now available. This release adds Form 8606 to all levels and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new Form 8606. IMPORTANT: Be sure to read our new material on Form 8606 because calculations are very complex and implement many special instructions provided in the IRS instructions but not evident from the labels on the form. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01h, go to our Downloads page.

2/3/2011: Release 2011.01g now available. This release adds Form 5329 to all levels and updates the Tax Forms Guide to reflect the new Form 5329. To update your software and manual to release 2011.01g, go to our Downloads page.

2/2/2011: Release 2011.01f now available. This release adds Form 2106 and 2106-EZ to all levels. The Tax Forms Guide is updated to reflect the new Form 2106 as well as the new Form 4562. To update your software to release 2011.01f, including the newly revised Tax Forms Guide, go to our Downloads page.

1/31/2011: Release 2011.01e now available. This release adds Schedule H and Form 4562 to all levels. The Tax Forms Guide is updated to reflect the new Schedule H but not yet the new Form 4562. To update your software to release 2011.01e, including the newly revised Tax Forms Guide, go to our Downloads page.

1/27/2011: Release 2011.01d now available. This release adds Forms 8615 to all levels, Form 1116 to the Standard and Premium Levels, and Forms 4136 and 8594 to the Premium Level. The Tax Forms Guide is also updated accordingly. To update your software to release 2011.01d, go to our Downloads page.

1/25/2011: Release 2011.01c now available. This release adds Forms 4868, 8863, and 4137, and revises Form 8822 in accordance with a new release from the IRS. The Tax Forms Guide is also updated accordingly. To update your software to release 2011.01c and see more detail on the changes, go to our Downloads page.

1/24/2011: Release 2011.01b now available. This release adds Form 2441, revises Schedule M, revises the e-file form, and revises the Tax Forms Guide accordingly. To update your software to release 2011.01b and see more detail on the changes, go to our Downloads page.

1/19/2011: Release 2011.01a now available. This release adds e-file to the Standard and Premium levels, including the required e-file form and all e-file related printed forms. If you plan to e-file returns, you must update NOW on our Downloads page. Also see our e-file Alerts page for important information about e-file.

1/17/2011: NOW SHIPPING release 2011.01, the first regular release for the 2011 filing season. This release includes most of the forms required for personal returns, but does not include e-file nor most business credit forms. It is also missing all forms not yet released by the IRS or released shortly before this release. However, it includes our updated 800-page Tax Forms Guide 2011 Edition and, for Standard and Premium Levels, forms, instructions, and publications released by the IRS for the current filing season as of January 16, 2011. For those who have the pre-release, an on-line update to the regular release is available on our Downloads page. REMINDER: The IRS has announced delays in releasing some important forms and delays in processing returns with some other forms that have already been released. See our NEWS FLASH! above.

1/6/2011: Pre-release shipped for 2011 filing season. The pre-release is intended for those who want to file certain paper returns early, even though many forms are not yet included in the software. Since the first installation for the tax season must be from a disk we send you, it also gives you an early start on the tax season because updates are available so quickly on-line. Use our on-line Order Form to order any release. (Even if you already ordered only the regular release but now want to order the pre-release, you can do so on-line with the same order form.)

12/23/2010: IRS announces delays in processing some returns in 2011. The IRS has announced that it will not process returns that include forms affected by the year-end tax bill. For details, see the NEWS FLASH! above. This announcement is the IRS response to the year-end Tax Relief Bill of 2010, which was signed into law just a few days ago. Some provisions in that bill require the IRS to redesign its advance drafts of several forms and to reprogram their computers in order to handle the changes in their processing of filed tax returns.

10/30/2010: Fall 2010 HowardNews now on-line. For an overview of this newsletter, see our public website. You'll also get access to the complete newsletter from that website.

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

• Changes for prior-year 1040 (individuals) software
• Changes for prior-year 1065 (partnerships) software
• Changes for prior-year 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.