"Foreign Taxes Date Paid Diagnostic"

[YM]

I'm getting a e-file diagnostic saying that a date must be entered for foreign taxes paid or accrued. We mostly handle dividends. How to enter various dates of foreign taxes paid for the same holding or,  different holdings under the same account?

[itonewbie]

First of all, I'm assuming that this is foreign tax reported on a 1099 and your client is not eligible for §904(j) election.

You can enter -01/01/01 (yes, a negative date) to print "Various".  However, that is not acceptable for MeF which, of course, is not an issue if you're client is planning to paper-file.  To avoid a critical diagnostic and enable e-filing, you can simply enter 12/31/2020.

[ss12108]

I have the same question...the program used to automatically label these as "1099 TAX" which would satisfy the efile.  I am curious what we are supposed to enter in order to achieve the same result and clear the diagnostic.

[itonewbie]

@ss12108 What diagnostic are you getting?  Did you enter an actual date?

[ss12108]

#54377 and also #54378 (which I think is only popping up bc the first is generating)

In previous versions of Lacerte as far as I can remember the best practices was no date on 1099-DIV and 1099-INT entries as the program would automatically populate the efile with "1099 Taxes" as per the IRS instructions for form 1116.

If foreign tax paid on passive income is reported to you in U.S. dollars on a Form 1099-DIV, 1099-INT, or similar statement, you don't have to convert the amount shown into foreign currency.  This rule applies whether or not you can make the election to claim the foreign tax credit without filing Form 1116 (as explained earlier). Enter “1099 taxes” in Part II, column (l), and complete columns (q) through (u) for each foreign country indicated in Part I.

[itonewbie]

Form instructions don't carry any statutory authority.  Entering 12/31/2020 is not technically incorrect, especially since there's no exchange rate involved.  Not worth your time fighting the program.

[ss12108]

Completely understand, but this is how the program has worked for like 5 years now.  I actually learned to do it this way from support a few years back.  Pretty stupid to just change it for no reason.

[ss12108]

Just did another return and the update that just came through seemed to fix the problem.  Have to give Lacerte credit...they occasionally address issues fairly quickly with updates even if they're minor.

[markmckinney]

Lacerte did not fix the problem. I have NO foreign  taxes and still come sup asking for a date accrued or paid.