Form 8879

[Christian]

I see Form 8879 is still in draft form. Any info on when we can begin efiling?

[Lion EA]

Friday 12 February. (Business returns Friday 8 January.) Or, do you mean the ATX date? Do they send out period emails to tell you such things? (CCH does to ProSystem fx users.)

[Christian]

I am not the most up to date but I thought we were encouraged to go ahead and efile and ATX would hold and forward them on February 12th.

[Christian]

I called ATX tech support and he advised efile will start a few days before February 12th. I see a lot of disappointed clients.  

[Lion EA]

I'm not going to send before the 12th. I can't count on no more new clarifications of laws, reprogramming, etc. In fact, the 12th will probably crash the IRS computers! I might e-file on the 13th. But, yes, you can send to your software company when they're ready for holding until the 12th.

I will probably have two different partnerships shortly and two different S-corporations to keep me busy after I finish payroll taxes/W-2s/1099s.

[Christian]

Looks like there  is some confusion regarding submitting efiles. As I still had a nagging feeling about it I again called tech support and was told that ATX would hold any submitted efiles and forward about February 12th. Today I read the Form 8879 will not come out of draft until February 12th which means what ? We will not be able to send in our efiles until that date I suppose. Good grief. 

[Abby Normal]

The 8879 is not part of the efile. I've created an efile but I haven't transmitted any.

My bigger worry is heard a rumor that ATX will make you recreate any efiles over 5 days old before you send them. for us, that's almost 100% of efiles that will need to be recreated, one... at... a... time!

[Yardley CPA]

5 minutes ago, Abby Normal said:

The 8879 is not part of the efile. I've created an efile but I haven't transmitted any.

My bigger worry is heard a rumor that ATX will make you recreate any efiles over 5 days old before you send them. for us, that's almost 100% of efiles that will need to be recreated, one... at... a... time!

Abby...so based on the rumor, anything filed February 8 or beyond should be "safe"?  I don't plan on filing until February 12 or later but was just wondering how it would work.  

[Abby Normal]

No, the date created is supposed to be within 5 days of when you transmit to ATX. I'm hoping that's incorrect.

[Gail in Virginia]

This time of year with software being updated every day or two, I can't imagine that you won't have to recreate the e-file anyway because the version of the software it was created with is out of date by the time you file the return if you create the e-file ahead of time. 

[Christian]

I read that five day window somewhere along the line. Abby has answered my question so I will go ahead and file them when paper work is signed. The client can live with an 8879 that says draft. Most of mine don't know where their return copy is after a few days. The last time I ask a client "Where is that copy I gave you ?" the answer was "Out in the hay barn somewhere." Nowadays I just print an additional copy and charge them for it.   

[mcb39]

On 1/20/2021 at 11:15 AM, Lion EA said:

I'm not going to send before the 12th. I can't count on no more new clarifications of laws, reprogramming, etc. In fact, the 12th will probably crash the IRS computers! I might e-file on the 13th. But, yes, you can send to your software company when they're ready for holding until the 12th.

I will probably have two different partnerships shortly and two different S-corporations to keep me busy after I finish payroll taxes/W-2s/1099s.

YIKES!!!!!

 

[mwrightea]

8879 in ATX was released on Friday!