Tax planner - where is the community

[Strongsilence-CPA]

Hooty Hoo

Is this the LC community for tax planner questions and issues?

If so, here is a question. I am using it for the first time this year.  I see that the credit for Residential Energy Efficiency (on the credits tab) has been grayed out.  I think that the credit is allowed for 2021. (But I haven't followed the major recent legislation closely.) Why is it not allowed by the Planning software?

I noticed that the last update was sometime around March 2021 and since the 2020 Tax Planner is used for 2021 returns, I would have thought there would be more updates and updates closer to now due to changes in tax laws.  

I like having multiple cases/scenarios and I like the reports. I don't like the input screens and I wonder how accurate the tax calculations are (which I can review myself.)

allowed by the Planning software?

[Karl · Accepted solution]

The Lacerte Tax Planner is a great free (technically, since they don't itemize it with your Lacerte purchase) product.  But it's free, so you get what you pay for.  It takes some massaging to get it to do what you want it to, but I personally find it very helpful.

You appear to be on the screen that's a subset of "General Business Credits," which the residential energy credits wouldn't fall under.

You'd need to be at the top section of the Credits tab "US Credits Against Income Tax" and it'd be entered a little more than halfway down under "Other Nonrefundable Credits."  Unfortunately, it's not showing up with a carryover like I know it has in years past.  That may be a glitch they need to fix, or it may be a feature they've decided to cut out.

What I usually do to answer these questions is create a dummy return in Lacerte, enter the data there that I want to see in the Lacerte Tax Planner, export it to the Planner and see where it ends up.

Another tip is that if you see a calc error you want fixed, call support and ask them to put in an enhancement request to fix it.  I've had things fixed, but you have to be patient and screenshare and get the agent to see how to repeat the error.  If that's worth the work to you.  It usually is for me because of how much I use it.

The calculations are usually pretty accurate for the more standard returns.  A good metric to check accuracy is to export from Lacerte and make sure your base column refunds/amounts due match the return.  Figure out and override/fix any big discrepancies, and that'll teach you watch to watch for in utilizing the product more.

[Strongsilence-CPA]

I suggest that Karl's answer be saved in the permanent database for Lacerte help and tutorials.

Thank you, Karl.

[Strongsilence-CPA]

Update: 2 years later.

I just encountered the same problem as in 2021. The amount from Lacerte didn't transfer to the Tax Planner.  The SE health insurance deduction didn't get transferred.