I just called the customer "support" with your question... and they were ZERO help. In fact the woman told me she knew as much as we did concerning any updates.

rbynaker

Level 13

The legislation was signed by the VA Governor on 3/15/21. VA Tax quickly released a Bulletin but they have not yet addressed the details needed to prepare tax returns (what schedules, what lines, what codes, etc.) Lacerte cannot just arbitrarily make this stuff up, VA Tax has to update their computer systems as well as their forms and instructions and then they have to send those specifications to Lacerte (and all of the other tax software providers). Then Lacerte has to update their programming. Then there is presumably a testing/approval process that has to happen between Lacerte and Richmond before anything can be filed electronically. I expect it will take a while (think weeks) for all of this to happen, and that's just VA conformity.

For some context, I think across the river in MD it's been over a month since their RELIEF Act was signed and now they're having to circle back and revisit taxable unemployment before those returns can be filed.

Rick

R

RTCPA

Level 2

Rick- I understand your point. Our frustration is with Lacerte adding back the charitable contributions for the folks taking the standard deduction. They added this before anything was "official", so why can't they take this out? The add back doesn't exist, so why wait on any technical decisions on where it won't go? I understand the PPP issue, but I wish they'd make the update for the charity issue. We're also very frustrated with Northam, not sure why he sat on this legislation for 2 weeks before signing it.

rbynaker

Level 13

Bigger fish to fry? I'm sure the focus is on ARPA compliance at this point. I'm not sure VA provided any guidance either way (just did a quick scan through the instructions). Is Lacerte adding this back as an Other FDC Addition? I agree, that should be an easy fix that they don't need anyone's permission for.

I don't know the details but my understanding from a CPE I attended last week by the VSCPA is that there was some technical administrative problem with physically getting the bill from the General Assembly to the Governor so it could be signed. As a result several internal procedures were "COVID" updated to streamline the process for this bill and future ones as well. So I'm chalking that up to "everything in a COVID year takes 5x as long as it should."

Update from my VSCPA guru: "The simplest explanation is the bill wasn’t sent to the governor until this past Monday and he signed it that day. It appears the House and Senate clerks offices failed to flag the bill as emergency legislation and were just processing bills in the order in which they passed."

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