Intuit Keeping Users Informed Regarding Refund Delays

[Chowdahead]

Intuit ProSeries has made the following statements on it's site regarding the refund delays and what they are doing about it with the IRS. They have promised to update their users every 3 hours with any new information. I am assuming (praying) the same information is applicable to ATX users. Here are the most recent new items:

http://accountants.intuit.com/support/tax/proseries/document.jsp?product=PROSERIES_TAX&id=INF22634&src=alert

February 13, 2013:

We understand there has been some confusion for our ProSeries customers regarding the IRS requirements around lines 22-27 in Form 8867, Paid Preparer's Earned Income Credit Checklist – an issue that is impacting many professional tax preparers. We know this is a busy time for preparers and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this caused our customers. Our goal is to save you time during tax season, and we’re happy to report that updates to ProSeries available Feb 7th have eliminated this confusion.

We have been in contact with the IRS over the last few days to better determine any impact to you and your clients for returns filed before we updated our software. The IRS has shared that the process for any additional review of Form 8867 will be transparent to your clients. Refunds should be issued within the same timeframe, less than 21 days, per the refund guidelines provided by IRS at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p2043en.pdf.

The IRS may request additional information directly from you regarding verification of lines 22-27, if you filed client returns prior to the software update. If so, you will receive a notice with additional instructions as to the information required and the timeframe in which you need to respond. Please respond timely to any requests from IRS, as it will help to further ensure that you avoid any penalties that may come from further review by the IRS. The IRS has a complete toolkit available for preparers regarding their EITC Compliance Program. Please visithttp://www.eitc.irs.gov/rptoolkit/compliance/.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience you’ve experienced over the last few days.

Sincerely,

Jill Ward
Senior Vice President and General Manager, Intuit Accounting Professionals Division

Update: February 20, 2013, 1:08 PM CST:

It's after 1:00 p.m. ET and we are awaiting confirmation on new information from the IRS. We will post updates ASAP.

In the meantime, we continue to work closely with the IRS on the issues related to Form 8867 with missing information on lines 22 and 23, e-filed before February 8th. The IRS is working around the clock and making great progress processing returns with Form 8867. They are working on processing and refunding all impacted returns on a "first in, first out" basis, starting with returns filed on January 30th and then moving on to those filed in early February.

We know that the timing of your clients' refunds is extremely important. Based on the latest information available, the number of these returns being refunded by the IRS will continue to accelerate over the next several days. The IRS has stated that they plan to process all remaining affected returns that were filed between January 30 and February 7th by the end of this week.

Resolving this issue for you is our top priority. In an effort to keep you abreast of the very latest updates from the IRS, and to avoid confusion and misinformation, we will be sharing the latest information right here every three hours during business hours. Our next scheduled update will be later today at around 4:00 p.m. ET.

While we may not always have new information, we will continue to share whatever we learn with you until this issue comes to a full and complete resolution.