{"id":1421,"date":"2019-01-26T20:28:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T20:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/?p=1421"},"modified":"2019-05-13T20:27:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T20:27:34","slug":"2018-tax-return-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/2018-tax-return-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"2018 Tax Return Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We just completed our last seminar on the new tax code\nyesterday.&nbsp; A full day of review of the\ncode and its implications and challenges.&nbsp;\nWe have taken multiple seminars all year in an effort to become familiar\nwith the massive overhaul of the tax code as we have known it.&nbsp; The tax software companies and the companies\nthat provide our research and reference materials have also worked all year\nlong to adjust their programs and their libraries to provide the tools we need\nto process 2018 tax returns and be as accurate as we can.&nbsp; Unfortunately, some things are still in flux\nand we had new legislation as recently as last Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A couple of things to note:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The presenter yesterday, who uses the same tax\nsoftware as I do, indicated that returns he had worked with so far still had\ninaccuracies in the final results, so the tax software is still not completely\nfinalized.<\/li><li>He suggested that return preparers wait until\nabout a month after the shutdown ends in order to wait for what will most\nlikely be technical adjustments that the government will make to aspects of the\ncode that are in conflict with regulations written which drive our implementation\nof the new code.<\/li><li>Some aspects of the new code are complicated\nenough that the implementation of them is very difficult and it may take some\ntime before we are confident that our software is handling them correctly.&nbsp; This is primarily around the Section 199A\nBusiness Deduction that is new this year and very complicated legislation.<\/li><li>So many other small pieces of the code changed\nthat we cannot rely on our old knowledge of the code and many deductions that\nseem uncomplicated will still require additional time and research to ensure\nthat we have accounted for all the very small changes to deductions and\nlimitations the new code has changed.<\/li><li>Keep in mind that there is New <strong><em>Tax\nCode<\/em><\/strong>, which is basically the intent.&nbsp;\nThere is then <strong><em>Tax Code Regulations<\/em><\/strong> that specify\nhow the tax code is implemented ( these are sometimes in conflict) then there\nare <strong><em>Revenue\nProcedures, Notices, Private Letter Rulings<\/em><\/strong> that provide additional\nguidance on particular aspects of the code.&nbsp;\nIt is layers of the what, the how to, the adjustments, etc.&nbsp; This is then all translated into Research\nMaterials that professionals use to help us understand and comply with it all.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We are working very hard to ensure that we can provide\naccurate and complete returns, but this year is more challenging than any other\nyear I have experienced in 26 years of preparing tax returns.&nbsp; It will require patience and understanding on\neveryone\u2019s part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>What this means to you:<\/em><\/strong> Our strategy will be to continue\nto prepare returns and get them to a stage where we think they are\nfinalized.&nbsp; We will then let you know as\nwe have in the past that your return is finalized and send the invoice for the\npreparation fee.&nbsp; We will not transmit\nthe returns until some time later once we get some assurance that the software\nwill not be altered requiring us to amend returns already submitted.&nbsp; This will, of course, delay some returns and\nfor those of you getting a refund, delay the processing of that refund.&nbsp; It is the only strategy that we think makes\nsense as amending returns takes additional time and effort on both our parts\nand we do not want to incur additional fees to amend returns due to something\noutside of our control.&nbsp; Amended returns\noften times cannot be electronically filed and when paper filed, take months\nfor the IRS to process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>We still need you to get your tax documents to\nus as early as possible as we cannot complete everyone\u2019s returns in the last\nfew weeks before the April 15ht deadline.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are working diligently to provide the best possible\nservice and client experience.&nbsp; However,\nour hands are tied when we are reliant on technology and resources that are not\nas current and accurate as possible. It is more complicated stuff than TurboTax\nwould indicate, especially for our clients who usually have more complicated\nsituations than TurboTax is appropriate for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you in advance for your patience, understanding and\ncooperation. We will keep you updated as the landscape of Tax Season of year\n2018 progresses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We just completed our last seminar on the new tax code yesterday.&nbsp; A full day of review of the code and its implications and challenges.&nbsp; We have taken multiple seminars all year in an effort to become familiar with the massive overhaul of the tax code as we have known it.&nbsp; The tax software companies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[59,58],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>2018 Tax Return Challenges - O&#039;Connor CPA Firm<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/2018-tax-return-challenges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2018 Tax Return Challenges - O&#039;Connor CPA Firm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We just completed our last seminar on the new tax code yesterday.&nbsp; A full day of review of the code and its implications and challenges.&nbsp; We have taken multiple seminars all year in an effort to become familiar with the massive overhaul of the tax code as we have known it.&nbsp; The tax software companies [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/2018-tax-return-challenges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"O&#039;Connor CPA Firm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-26T20:28:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-05-13T20:27:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tricia O&#039;Connor CPA MBA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tricia O'Connor CPA MBA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/2018-tax-return-challenges\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/2018-tax-return-challenges\/\",\"name\":\"2018 Tax Return Challenges - O&#039;Connor CPA Firm\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-26T20:28:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-13T20:27:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/be926ce3c5e9e19cb67276085b6eb993\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/2018-tax-return-challenges\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/2018-tax-return-challenges\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/2018-tax-return-challenges\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"2018 Tax Return Challenges\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"O&#039;Connor CPA Firm\",\"description\":\"Denver CPA Firm and Business Advisor\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/be926ce3c5e9e19cb67276085b6eb993\",\"name\":\"Tricia O'Connor CPA MBA\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b63b138f7a7158415b427996bd1a24?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b63b138f7a7158415b427996bd1a24?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tricia O'Connor CPA MBA\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/oconnorcpafirm.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/author\/triciaoc\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"2018 Tax Return Challenges - O&#039;Connor CPA Firm","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/2018-tax-return-challenges\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"2018 Tax Return Challenges - O&#039;Connor CPA Firm","og_description":"We just completed our last seminar on the new tax code yesterday.&nbsp; 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