Update on federal conformity legislation for tax software providers

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Minnesota lawmakers have passed legislation granting tax relief for some taxpayers by updating Minnesota’s tax code to match the federal code in several areas for tax year 2016. The passage of this bill to match the federal tax code in some areas has resulted in changes to several forms and the instructions for tax year 2015 and 2016.  We are working quickly to update our forms and will soon provide more guidance on what you will need to do. 

 

In the meantime, here are the details we can provide now:

  • We will be opening the 2016 tax season on January 23. Any returns transmitted to the Minnesota Department of Revenue on or after January 23, 2017 with outdated forms/calculations will be rejected.
    • This includes current year (TY16) and prior year (TY15) returns.
    • To successfully e-file TY15 and TY16 returns with Revenue you will be required to update to the latest TY16 and TY15 forms/calculations.

  • For TY15 Returns filed prior to January 23, 2017, there is no action required by you.
    • The impacted returns will be adjusted by the Revenue. We will provide more information on how we plan to do this in the near future.

  • You will NOT be required to re-test your forms or e-file with Revenue if you have passed testing. We recognize it is late in the year and we are not going to require you to retest with us after making changes.

    • While we are not requiring you to retest, we expect to receive accurate returns from you.

    • If there are issues with the product we may need to suspend acceptance and processing of your returns until the errors are corrected.

    • We will experiment with this decision to not require retesting and closely monitor the results for future consideration.

  • We also recognize that you need to know what the form and e-file changes are but do not have that specific information ready to share yet. Because it is a busy time for you all, rather than holding a conference call to walk through the changes, we will be drafting a document that lists all the changes and posting that to our website while sending an e-mail notification.

    • This information will be provided at the same time we post the updated forms.

    • If you have questions upon reviewing that you can contact us at efile.devsupport@state.mn.us or by calling 651-556-4818.

    • We will be reserving time on Thursday, January 19 from 9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. CST where we will be available via conference call to answer any questions you may have. Please watch for the invitation for this call.

    • We have no plans to release another schema version.


We will provide more guidance in the near future. Thank you for your continued partnership and work to help Minnesota taxpayers have a successful filing season.