Does turbotax support e-filing for form 8858 now? When I search I see that this was not supported last year. Has the status changed by any chance?

[JohnW222]

No, Form 8858, Information Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Foreign Disregarded Entities (FDEs) and Foreign Branches (FBs), cannot be e-filed with TurboTax. 

In Electronic Filing of Form 8858 on page 3 of the Instructions for Form 8858, the IRS states:

"If you are filing Form 1040, Form 1040-SR, or Form 1041 electronically (with or without a Form 5471 or Form 8865), attach Form 8858 to the applicable Form 8453."

You use Form 8453 to send any required paper forms or supporting documentation -- including Form 8858 -- that can't be filed electronically.

According to the Instructions for Form 8453, send to:

Internal Revenue Service                                                 

Attn: Shipping and Receiving, 0254                                

Receipt and Control Branch                                            

Austin, TX 73344-0254

You should mail Form 8453 to the IRS within 3 business days after you have received acknowledgment that the IRS has accepted your electronically-filed tax return.

[JSDchrome]

This is a pretty weak response from TT

Effective 2018, Form 8858 is required for self-employed individuals who are living/working in a foreign country. In that scenario, the IRS happily allows electronic filing for the 8858. 

Sadly, TT doesn't seem to even flag the possible need for an 8858 for the self employed who claim the FEIE or FTCs--and there are statutory penalties of $10k for not filing. Ditto the 8938--you get an FBAR warning, but no 8938 warning. 

There are large numbers of self-employed expats (probably more than a million, as there are 9 million US expats) that would be able to file 8858 electronically that will continue to move to other software packages because TT doesn't support them, when it could.

In the expat tax groups, TT continues to get a bad name for silly things, like not letting US citizens married to NRAs enter NRA in the social security boc=x when. filing married, filing separately. Other tax software packages manage this easily enough, but year after year TT fails. The recommended T solution is put in a fake SSN, print the return, white out the fake SSN and hand-write in NRA and mail the printed return instead of filing. Dumb...just dumb.

I am guessing TT underestimates the size of the expat community wanting/needing software to file that supports all the basic expat needs. And how their market share is declining in that 9-million person market as other tax software companies rise to the challenge.

I have used TT as an expat for 8 years. It's time for. change for 2021. 

[isaacbrock]

I agree, very weak sauce.

[gsmackers]

I used the TurboTax Business 2020 product to e-file file my C-corp return. In the section about foreign operations I answered all the questions correctly. There are no questions about whether the corporation operates a foreign branch, however on the Schedule N of form 1120, TurboTax automatically answers No to question 1a and leaves 1b blank. I understand that TurboTax does not provide the facility to complete the 8858 for a foreign branch, but it should at least:

1) ask the question about whether the corporation has a foreign branch

2) ask how many 8858 forms will be filed

3) complete Schedule N questions 1a and 1b correctly

4) notify me that I need to manually file an 8858 and how to do this (form 8453 is for individuals not corporations)

This is a serious gap in the TurboTax Business product and should be addressed urgently to avoid its customers (unknowingly) becoming non-compliant with the IRS.

[gsmackers]

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[sbsurf101]

What about state? If I e-file my California return, what is the equivalent of form 8453 for attaching form 8858 and sending it to California?