Practice Management

How to Amend a Paper Return Using ProSeries®

Written by Melanie Milton
Modified Mar 6, 2018
1 min read

Several years ago, the National Society of Accountants came out with its top 10 list of the reasons why people should hire a professional tax preparer instead of preparing their own returns. The number one reason? A tax professional can find significant deductions or tax credits a taxpayer may have missed.

Since the IRS provides taxpayers up to three years to file amended returns, offering to take a look at a new client’s prior returns, and possibly completing an amended return as a “second look” service, is a great way to expand your business, bring in new customers and build customer loyalty.

If you’re concerned about the time that it takes to enter the 1040x in Intuit® ProConnect™ ProSeries®, don’t worry! Here are nine steps to complete an amended return in ProSeries with only the paper copy:

Open a new return.
Enter the taxpayer and (or) spouse information on the Federal Information Worksheet.
Select “Forms” from the “Forms” dropdown menu.
Type “X” and press “enter” to open Form 1040X.
Enter the correct calendar year for Form 1040X.
Complete the necessary fields on Form 1040X.
Enter the amounts originally reported for the chosen year in “Column A.”
Enter the correct amount in “Column C” or on the associated worksheets.
ProSeries will compute the amount for “Column B.”

Keep in mind that you can use the refund monitor feature to review the amended refund/federal tax due. Complete the remaining sections as needed and print out the return, but do not forget to complete the “Explanation of Changes.”

Editor’s note: For more information about how to amend returns, read “How to Navigate Amending Returns for Your Client” and “Correcting Mistakes and Submitting Amended Returns” on the Tax Pro Center.

Melanie Milton has been with Intuit® for 14 years, and is currently a member of the East Start Onboarding & Training Team as a success coach. She is a subject matter expert on the Pay-by-Refund program, and dedicated to providing assistance and training to valued customers across Intuit's professional products. Melanie is also director of tax education at Dollars & Cents Tax and Accounting Services, where she helps new preparers fall in love with the tax and accounting profession. She has one child, likes traveling and is currently working on becoming an enrolled agent. Find Melanie on Linkedin @melaniemilton. More from Melanie Milton

3 responses to “How to Amend a Paper Return Using ProSeries®”

Jeanne Harris says:

May 12, 2017 at 12:32 pm

Actually instead of creating a new return it is much more efficient and accurate to “File” “Save as” and put an X at the end of the file name. That replaces Steps 1, 2 and 7. Once you perform steps 4 & 5 the software will complete Step 7 as soon as you make changes to the form. DON’T FORGET, before making any changes, to designate the appropriate state(s) return with an X first.
- Melanie Milton says:
  
  May 15, 2017 at 5:07 pm
  
  Jeanne, thank you for your feedback. You are correct – if the tax preparer completed the original return in ProSeries, it is more efficient to create a copy, and then complete the amended return. However, an often unknown benefit of ProSeries is that it also allows tax preparers to complete an amended return without re-creating an original 1040 return from a paper copy.
  - John J says:
    
    May 22, 2017 at 1:03 pm
    
    I do as Jeanne described as well even on amending returns filed previously on paper.