Texas resident payment date

[mrboatright]

After three separate calls to support, this issue is still unresolved:

Texas residents' Federal returns (and payments) are not due until June 15, due to disaster relief granted by the IRS. I have previously e-filed returns with balance due being paid via direct debit, with a payment date of June 15. The workaround to do so was to change the "Due date of the return" on Screen 5.1 to 6/15/2021, and leave the "Electronic payment date" on Screen 3 blank.

Recently, such returns have been rejected by the IRS due to Error FPYMT-072-01: If the filing is received on or before the due date of the filing, then the 'RequestedPaymentDt'...must be on or before the due date.

Lacerte help did their best, but I knew it was an engineer issue with the software. The excuse from the engineers is that they do not update due dates within the program for disaster areas.

Even when the disaster area is the entire state of Texas? All businesses and individuals located within the state? Lacerte is seriously going to ignore tens of millions of customers?

Unbelievable.

I know this can be fixed within the program, because I have successfully e-filed such returns just last month! So fix it back!

[BobKamman]

How would you program it to recognize people who just moved to Texas from Florida in March?  And people who moved to Florida from Texas after the February freeze?  

I don't want to pay for software features that are useful for less than 1% of the population, in just one year.  Texas has 9% of U.S. population but only 10% of filers owe tax with their returns.  

[mrboatright]

I would allow the override of the payment date and due date of the tax return!

You're already paying for functionality that applies to much less than 1% of the population. What % of the population files a City of Kansas City return? Or a Philadelphia City Return? And yet Lacerte provides support for both of these returns. It's amazing. It's supposed to be amazing! That's why we pay for the Cadillac of Tax Programs!

Does Lacerte not provide support for fiscal year individuals? Why can this same functionality not be applied in this case?

[sjrcpa]

It is my understanding that IRS will not update the efile schema for the June 15 disaster extended deadline. Therefore the software can't.

[mrboatright]

That may definitely be the case. 

I did have a productive conversation with a supervisor at Lacerte, and even though it blows my mind, apparently I'm the first Texas practitioner to have raised any concerns to Lacerte about this issue.

The Lacerte Development Team was not proactive in developing a solution because the disaster relief was granted on a county-by-county basis, and the solution was not cost-beneficial. In my opinion, this is missing the forest for the trees. It is true that FEMA assigned the disaster codes county-by-county. It is ALSO true that EVERY COUNTY IN THE STATE was designated a disaster area. So it is not required to pick out the county of the disaster in this case, only the state.

The end result - no support for the Texas extended due date from Lacerte.

[sjrcpa]

"apparently I'm the first Texas practitioner to have raised any concerns to Lacerte about this issue"

That is bull 💩.

It has been brought up since the day the June 15 date was announced.

[BobKamman]

I think "Cadillac" as a synonym for "top of the line" went out about 25 years ago.  But then most Lacerte users remember starting with it back then.  Even in the days before e-filing -- when IRS didn't make the rules, and tell every software company that they couldn't use a June 15 payment date.  

[KathyTbo]

I'm in the same boat with Louisiana - we also have until June 15.   Lacerte did update the due date for the Louisiana returns & the Louisiana estimated tax due dates to June 15th, but did not update the federal.   Sure seems like if they could update the Louisiana State return due dates they would be able to do so with the IRS as well.   So now I wonder - will we have to file extensions by May 15th if we want to do so electronically?   Will Lacerte let us file extensions on June 15th when it's saying the deadline has passed to file an extension?    With the current backlog of mail at the IRS I sure do not want to paper file extensions.   But I also don't want to file extensions on May 15th if I don't have to - I'm knee deep in hurricane losses plus the covid changes - PPP forgiveness, PPP applications, loss of income claims with insurance for the hurricanes - I don't have time to file extensions that I don't need to file!