Oklahoma and a better product

[olaf]

Sigh

Two weeks ago, spent 7 hours online with Lacerte trying to do an Oklahoma Partnership return, as just 1% of our business but as our primary is SD (no state tax) would not correct out or give us any apportionment for SD, wanted all of the income there, ended up on multiple lines had to put in the neg amount for the Federal for all of the state stuff, had to go all down the line, sometimes had to put in phantom entries, all to get a refund of $100 on $400 of tax withheld

We are just using Lacerte software due to need to do oil and gas accounting, Turbotax business does not do depletion (which has always seemed ludicrous to me since there are so many smallish oil and gas partnerships etc), We are not tax professionals and have used Lacerte since 2007, occasionally found a glitch or two but this...even if hired a "tax professional" to do our return, I'd still have to do it all, rebuilding the well data would take days

It would have taken me just 20 minutes to do the OK return by hand, but OK in 2022 requires online filing, now I find that can't e-file the form as self-prepared, need EFIN number, but as we are not tax preparers, never got one, not even sure we can, definitely that is gone for 2021, still have 2022 now to worry about.  Are we just such an albatross in American business? Maybe there is a better product for us.   Anyone else had trouble with OK module?

Thank anyone with advice

[BobKamman]

What do you expect would happen if you filed a paper return with Oklahoma?  They would come to South Dakota to arrest you?  Or maybe just confiscate your $100 refund, which is typical but not as ugly as other atrocities committed in that state.  

I would have created a phantom state return for, say, North Dakota, and allocated all of the non-Oklahoma income there.  Then, just don't file it.  

[abctax55]

Paging Phoebe...

@PhoebeRoberts 

[PhoebeRoberts]

A couple of things!

1) Oklahoma 100% will accept and process a paper-filed return. I personally stick in a brightly colored piece of paper with a "this is why this return can't be e-filed" explanation, but the OTC has said to the Oklahoma Society of CPAs that they will not reject or penalize a paper-filed return. Mail that sucker in.

2) Oklahoma uses specific accounting, not apportionment, for oil & gas. You should be able to use a combination of the O&G screens and Screen 38.041 to get the right bottom line. The State if Different column in the other screens might be helpful to you, too.

3) I don't do the well-by-well depletion calculation in Lacerte, because even with a handful of wells, the dollar rounding becomes an issue. I calculate depletion in Excel, then make summary entries into Lacerte to get the right presentation. If you can transition to an Excel based depletion schedule, and if TT Business permits PDF attachments, you might be able to make that work. Heck, ProSeries (the "tax professional" version of TT) doesn't support depletion, and plenty of people do O&G returns using it, regardless.