We’ve heard from numerous tax professionals who are frustrated because many of the final business entity tax forms are still not available through their tax software provider. This is not a universal issue with all tax software providers, because we have heard from other tax professionals that they have been able to access final forms through their providers. The final FTB forms are also available on the FTB’s website.
When we reached out to the FTB, we were informed that taxpayers can e-file forms with a watermark. A watermark only indicates that the form has not yet been approved for paper filing. However, we recognize that some software products will not allow professionals to print forms that are watermarked, which prevents clients from reviewing their complete tax returns.
The taxing agencies (IRS, FTB, and others) create the forms and set parameters for software developers to recreate the forms and set e-file standards. The reason why one software developer may have a particular form available before another provider is a matter of the software provider managing resources, such as the number of developers and which forms the software company prioritizes.
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