Release Notes for 6-in-1 Version 2017-033

6-in-1 Estate Administration Software, v2017-033 February 3, 2017

We’re delighted to announce first release of 6-in-1 Estate Administration Software for 2017.

9/11/17

Highlights

1) Indexed Amounts for 2018: Based on the CPI-U (All Urban) released today (9/14/2017) for August 2017, we were able to calculate the average for September 2016 through 2017. Based on this average, we are projecting that the new amounts for 2018 will be as follows:

a) Basic Exclusion Amount: $5,600,000

b) Basic Credit Amount:       $2,185,800

c) Annual Gift Tax Exclusion:  $15,000

2) 706 (August 2017)

This version, released by the IRS in final form on 9/6/2017, is the first update to the 706 since 2013. Changes include the following:

a) Restored Exclusion (new Line 9c): This exclusion is available only to same-sex couples where the first spouse could not claim a marital deduction for transfers to the surviving spouse based solely on the application of DOMA (the “Defense of Marriage Act”). Now, the first estate may recover the applicable exclusion based on the availability of the marital deduction, pursuant to the decision of the Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor (2013).

See Notice 2017-15

See also the help screen next to Line 9c (small blue rectangle with a question mark).

If the limitations period under IRC § 6511 has expired, the first estate may still claim the marital deduction and recalculate the DSUE, but may not obtain a credit or refund. The second estate, however, may use the recalculated DSUE from the first estate.

Nuance: any gift tax paid (but not refunded because the limitations period has expired) will still be treated as gift tax paid for purposes of Line 7 of the 706 in the first estate.

b) Statement at Top of Page 1: If the estate is claiming a Restored Exclusion, it must display the following statement at the top of Page 1:

“FILED PURSUANT TO NOTICE 2017-15”

We now provide a checkbox at the top of Page 1. Checking this box will display this statement.

c) TG 7 Worksheet: There is some minor wording changes in several of the column headers (including (h)) to reflect the availability of the Restored Exclusion.

d) Schedule Header Note: The reference to Reg. section 20.2010-2T has been removed from all schedules.

e) Line 3b (IN and OH): Removed IN inheritance tax and OH estate tax for decedents dying on or after 1/1/2013 (when both of these state taxes were rescinded).

3) 709 (2017): This form is available only in draft, so we have not yet activated it in 6-in-1 (although we have built in most of the required changes, mostly based on the same Restored Exclusion now available for the 706). We wil document the changes in the next update, once the IRS releases the 709 in final form.

States

4) CT-706/709 (2017)

5) CT-706 NT (2017)

6) CT Inventory (PC-440): Cover pages 1-3.

7) CT Financial Report (PC-246): Cover pages 1-4. This implements CT’s optional “simplified” accounting.

8) MA Inventory (MPC 854): Cover pages 1-3.

9) MA Accounting (MPC 853): Cover pages 1-5.

10) NJ Estate Tax Return (2017): Note that the exclusion has been increased from $675k to $2m, and the calculation is now circular (the NJ estate tax is itself a deduction in determining the base on which the NJ tax is determined). Our calculations match those of NJ’s online calculator to the dollar. Note that the NJ estate tax is schedule to go away entirely starting in 2018.

11) VA Inventory (CC-1670): Added pagination. Added unit values.

12) VA Accounting (Estate and Trust) : Refined these modules in a variety of ways, including the addition of the following schedules that are available on the Print Options screen (for both Principal and Income):

a) Assets on Hand

b) Investments Made

c) Changes in Holdings

Also, added pagination to attachment schedules.

13) WI Inventory (PR-1811): Minor change to cover page.

4/3/17

1) e-filing Statistics (returns accepted through 3/30/2017):

1041: 1,053
PA-41: 496
NY IT-205: 25

2) e-file (federal and state)
: may e-file for 2014-2015-2016 returns. Next year it will be for 2015-2016-2017 returns, etc.

3) PDF attachments
: Your scanner must produce PDF files that are compatible with Adobe Acrobat 8 or higher.

4) State e-file (OH, NJ, NY, and PA)
: MUST enter an “OfficerID” (EIN or SSN of fiduciary). Otherwise, your return will be rejected.

5) PA-41 e-file Rejections
: some returns have been rejected because the system wasn’t finding a StateSubmissionIdOrig. This issue has been resolved. You should resubmit your return if you see this error (More…, Errors STATE).

6) PA-41 Fiscal-Year Rturns
: may now e-file for fiscal-year returns (starting with 2016 returns).

Changes from 2017-088 to 2017-089

CT-1041
Form K-1T signature block conformed to changes on 2016 form

Schedules C, FA, Payment Voucher, and Extension Request: Eliminated truncation of labels by reducing space between lines

MA Form 2
Schedule D, Lines 12 Reference to gain portion of 1041, Schedule D, Lines 1a, 1b, 2, and 3 corrected
Schedule D, Lines 18 Reference to loss portion of 1041, Schedule D, Lines 1a, 1b, 2, and 3 corrected
Schedule B/R: Hyphens removed from beny SSN/EIN field
Schedule B/R: Lines 2 and 4 (lower right corner, for all benys combined) now appear unconditionally
Schedule B/R: Total Income displays each benys share Lines 2 and 4 if both boxes checked.

US 709
Page 4, Schedule C, Details button now navigates properly to 2016 version of Details, then back to 2016 version of Pg 4.

Changes from 2017-086 to 2017-088

Form 2848
Informational watermarks (1040/706, 1041, 8979) removed from printing

CT Schedule I
Minor changes made to threshold amounts for 2016 return

OH Schedule K-1
Minor changes made to conform to revised version issued by Department in February 2017

2D Barcodes for CT, MA, NY, and OH
2D barcode procedure refined (including auto download of required ScriptMaster plug)

Paper Returns

Federal: all approved

CT, DE, IL, IN, MA, NC, NJ, OH, PA, VA, WI: approved

NY: We are now in our 6th round of testing. Final results expected on Friday, 3/31/2017.

Remaining issue involves removing a zero value from the 2D barcode data when the form displays a blank. The NY specs state, in effect, that the 2D barcode may display either a blank or a 0 for a zero-value field. Nevertheless, the NY Department has asked us to remove the 0 from the 2D barcode so that a blank line in the 2D barcode exactly matches a blank field on the printed form.

e-filed Returns

1041: approved (1/10/2017)
PA: approved (1/23/2017, at 9:07 am)
NJ, NY, OH: approved week of 3/20/2017
DE, CT, IL, MA, VA: in development
WI: deferred to next season
IN, NC: not yet available from the respective states

2/3/17

Version 2017-033 was posted this morning and is available for immediate download.

For multi-user installations, please remind your IT experts (who may not be reading these e-mails) that it takes a full 25-30 minutes for users to regain 6-in-1 desktop access after the FileMaker Server service has been restarted after the update is run. We receive frequent calls from users who launch 6-in-1 and receive a blank gray screen. The solution is simply to wait the full 25-30 minutes before relaunching 6-in-1.
Paper Returns

Federal: all approved

CT, NC, PA, WI: approved
DE, IL, IN, MA, NJ, NY, OH, VA: in process
The “Do Not File” watermarks have been removed from K-1s for these states so that you can provide them to beneficiaries without delay.

e-filed Returns

1041: approved (1/10/2017)
PA: approved (1/23/2017, at 9:07 am)
NJ, NY, OH: in process
DE, CT, IL, MA, VA: in development
WI: deferred to next season
IN, NC: not yet available from the respective states

You may now e-file any and all 2014, 2015, and 2016 federal and PA returns (but fiscal-year PA returns only for 2016). You may have prepared draft 2016 returns on the 2015 forms. With the current update, be sure to prepare and submit 2016 returns on the 2016 form. Once the 2016 e-file “schema” became operational for 2016 returns (as of 1/6/2017), these returns must be submitted on the 2016 form or else they will be rejected.

Yesterday we completed the final implementation of the DeviceID portion of the IRS’s anti-fraud requirements. We were able to identify the serial number of “PhysicalDrive0” and include it (together with the smBIOS of the transmitting PC) in “hashed” format as part of the e-filed return.

We also analyzed all of last year’s rejected returns (virtually all of which were successfully resubmitted), and pinpointed the various reasons for initial rejection. We now provide you with “soft error trapping” for 78% of these rejections. This means that we alert you (via pink shading on buttons or in fields) to issues of missing, incomplete, or incorrectly formatted data. This shading may appear on screens in General Information, Transact, Edit Beneficiaries, 1041 forms or schedules, or the e-file Center, but will not prevent you from e-filing. A return with uncorrected errors, however, will be rejected. Once you correct each issue, the pink shading will disappear.

The most common errors (representing a combined 37% of all rejections) relate to:

12%: PTIN missing/incomplete
10%: Beneficiary SSN/EIN missing/incomplete
5%: Grantor First Name missing(for trusts whose EINs were obtained online)
4% Submitting on wrong year’s form
3% Preparer Telephone Number missing (where “Discuss with IRS” box is checked
3%: Fiduciary 8879-F signature date not set to current year (2017)

In order to provide a consistent meaning for the pink shading, we have changed the shading in Transact for items marked as IRD. Instead of pink shading in the IRD, 706, PA-1500, and Accounting Principal fields, we now use light green shading for the IRD field and a light-green block on the far right of the other fields.

Other Changes

Starting with the November 2016 update, we made changes to the following modules:

1) CT-706/709 and CT-706 NT: 2016 forms incorporated (CT-706/709 now seven pages and “scannable”)

2) MA M-706: 4/16 form incorporated (now five pages)

3) NY ET-706: 4/16 form incorporated (released by NY on 11/24/2016)

4) CT Inventory (PC-440 REV. 1/17): We have just learned of this new version which will require some structural changes within 6-in-1. It is on our list for one of the next updates.

5) DE Accounting (N.C. 30, 9/18/16)

6) PA Notice of Estate Administration (RW-07): When the PA Supreme Court revised 10 probate forms effective 9/1/2016, we learned that we had to make our forms exact duplicates. Thus, we had to remove some useful variations that we built in over the years. This included the option to switch from the option to enclose a copy of the Will to the default language about obtaining the Will or Petition from the Register of Wills.

7) PA Accounting, Verification Page, Request for Distribution: For years, we have provided a checkbox at the bottom of the Verification Page, right panel, to force the display of the Request for Distribution language. Because a local Allegheny County rule now requires this language, we now display this language automatically for all Allegheny County estates.

8)e-file Center, Get Status (All): We have finished extending this function from 2014/2015 to 2016. Now, regardless of the year that you specify (upper left of the screen), navigating to the e-file Center will automatically refresh the status for all returns that are pending for the selected year.