The IRS e-file system was having technical problems on the morning of April 17, 2018. Practitioners should continue to e-file returns as usual through their tax software, but they should expect delays in receiving acknowledgements for returns filed in the last day or so. This provides an interesting end to the tax season!
As was the case last year, the due date for filing the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) for foreign financial accounts is April 15, but for the 2017 tax year, the due date was moved to April 17, 2018. All taxpayers are granted an automatic six-month extension to October 15 to file the FBAR, and taxpayers do not need to file any request for an FBAR extension.
The new tax law, which was enacted on December 22, 2017, makes changes to the rules for the penalty for not having health insurance (line 61 on Form 1040), but those changes are not effective for the 2017 or 2018 tax years. Clients remain subject to the penalty for not having health insurance for themselves, their spouses and/or their dependents until the 2019 tax year. Beginning in 2019, th...
As was the case in prior years, some Forms W-2 for the 2017 tax year will contain a 16 character verification code in box 9 of the form. The IRS has requested that practitioners who see this code in box 9 of Form W-2 enter it into their tax preparation software for the applicable client recipient. However, entering the code is not required. This is a pilot program started by the IRS in ea...
