It is not possible to make instant updates to tax software just because Congress has passed this or that law. This is for a variety of reasons:
The first reason is that we have to wait for guidance from the IRS on how the IRS is going to implement these changes.
For example, the law says that the repayment of excess Premium Tax Credit is waived for 2020. You might think that this is clear, but what about the collateral issues?
Self-employed taxpayers who have to repay excess PTC can apply that to the Self-employed Health insurance deduction. Will that still be true when the taxpayer doesn't have to repay the excess PTC? Congress didn't say so the IRS has to decide. Furthermore, the Self-employed health insurance deduction and the Self-employed SEP, SIMPLE, and qualified plans deduction have peculiar interactions where the value of one affects the other. Will this change? Again, Congress does not say so the IRS has to consider all the possibilities and issued rules on how we are to proceed.
The IRS has also said that they are considering automatically calculating the difference in tax for taxpayers who have receive unemployment compensation and sending out refund checks, and have implied that they might do the same for the excess PTC issue. So they have asked taxpayers to wait and not amend their returns until the IRS decides what it is going to do.
This, too, will affect TurboTax's response: to amend or not to amend?
Even when TurboTax receives the guidance that hasn't come yet, there is still work to do.
- TurboTax has to read and understand the guidance and design a response.
- TurboTax has to code the underlying code
- TurboTax has to design and create the screen for the interviews
- TurboTax has to design the changes to PDF forms (if any) and to the XML forms that are e-filed
- These changes have to be approved by the IRS
- TurboTax has to create test cases to test the changes
- TurboTax has to create regression tests to make sure that the changes did not break something else
- TurboTax has to create documentation for internal and external audiences
- TurboTax has to package the changes so that they can be rolled out to Online servers and to CD/download software users
In short, you and we will have to wait until the IRS issues guidance on how these tax law changes are meant to be interpreted and implemented - and this will take time.
Normally, tax laws changes are finished before December 31st, but this has been a year of "moving the goalposts" on practically a daily basis. It is very difficult to plan anything when the Congress, the IRS, or the states change the rules on the fly.
Give the process a chance - when TurboTax knows something, then you will know something shortly thereafter as TurboTax works through the steps I listed above.
**Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post
**Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"
