1040 page 1 and 2 release date

[brabs2]

is anyone else having trouble downloading the 1040 first pages??  I am trying to plow through estimates and it is really difficult without those pages!!

[George4Tacks]

Here are the 1040 and 1040SR

For right now you can use the tax summary as a best guess for what the forms will produce. 

[brabs2]

I have used Lacerte for over 20 years and have always had access to forms enough to prepare estimates with the current year numbers starting middle of November or earlier. So what if they are watermarked? I don't need them to efile, I just need them to help with my farmers and businesses end-of-year. This year for the first time they are not available at all, and I feel like Lacerte has my $9000 fee and I have nothing.

[abctax55]

It's 8 days short of your post of last year.

Perhaps you'll get lucky and page 1 & page 2 will pop up in the (likely) update on Thursday.

[Strongsilence-CPA]

Brabs2

Have you used the 2021 tax planner software to prepare your estimates?

[BobKamman]

OMG, look at what they've done for Line 1, wages!

[brabs2]

I asked customer support that same question to see if that is the solution and they had no clue! I spoke with two different people and they were stumped. Do I have to pay extra for tax planner?

[brabs2]

I just tried the 2021 tax planner for 2022 and it didn't help at all. For complicated farm returns you have to have the net farm income already calculated, you have to calculate the farm income averaging, you have to calculate the QBI, etc etc. When I get my software in November, that is why I use that to figure the estimates because on the federal I could always get pretty close to the bottom line. The 2021 tax planner is a joke for the types of returns I am doing. Intuit has really changed their way of getting out the software this year, and it is not worth what I am paying for it because this is a huge part of the way I do business, not by choice but because the farmers especially don't know what their yields/prices are until November, and then I can give them a month to scramble around shopping for equipment and/or breeding stock to purchase to help lower their net income.

[Strongsilence-CPA]

Thank you for your explanation.

[Strongsilence-CPA]

I bought it an hour ago. IT SAYS DEMO PROGRAM. That isn't right.

[BobKamman]

Why not just use the 2021 program? Not many changes, if any, going into 2022.

[brabs2]

2021 doesn't help if I am plugging in actual numbers into the client's file. the line numbers are already filled with last year's numbers and especially in a year like this there are so many changes that you get bogged down trying to outsmart the software. I know you can save the original numbers and then erase the ones with which you are playing but quite frankly, those new numbers were really nice to have already entered when they came in to finalize their return. The way I was doing it worked really well on time efficiency and helping them get their income down before Dec. 31. I have so many clients and am doing it all alone so every minute counts, and Lacerte worked so well in the past. I am beyond frustrated.

[PhoebeRoberts]

It's going to be an exciting tax season, isn't it? 🙄

[BobKamman]

Maybe you're using pay-per-return? Just copy the 2021 return, then open that one and change whatever numbers you want. Might require a closer look at depreciation. IRS doesn't promise Intuit the specifications and approvals it needs by mid-November. That's why Intuit doesn't promise us a program two months before returns are filed. You can't go skiing either, if the snow comes later every year.

[brabs2]

I prepare over 800 returns, alone, so I can't get bogged down with ANYTHING per return, including PAY. Why not just do what they have always done, just send out the forms watermarked so we know they are not final, but like I said before, it gives us something with which to work in the meantime. I don't hold them responsible when they have not finalized the forms - I just want what I had in years gone by.

[BobKamman]

Try calling 1-800-CRY-BABY. What you want, and what's possible, are often two different things. I prepare projected current-year returns all the time by duplicating last year and changing the numbers. I'm an old dog, but it's not a new trick. And solving puzzles in a new way is said to be a way to prevent dementia.

[brabs2]

Is Intuit paying you something to defend them? How about I withhold my $9000 until they fork over the product? Seems that went out of my credit card months ago. Believe me, I am no crybaby - I know very few people who can do what I am doing, and do it with the clients' best interests in mind. It's just that 12 hours per day, 7 days a week, for 12 weeks is a whole lot easier if I can rely on Lacerte to do what it has always done in the past - get me rough drafts of those forms in November.

[sjrcpa]

I've never used the Lacerte Planner. I looked at it when it first came out and decided it was subpar.

I use BNA's (Bloomberg now?) Income Tax Planner. You can export clients from Lacerte. It handles complex situations and multiple cases and years. I don't do any farm averaging so I can't speak to that aspect. It may be worth your while to look at. I've used it for 30+ years.