Goverment Shutdown and Bank Acknowledgement delays

We are now in a government shutdown until further notice and we have gotten a lot of emails asking how does this affect everyone.  The E-filing center is still operational and still running, the only main downside people will notice is IRS phoneline has reduced its staff by 80% (except 6 - 8 hour hold times) and also expect some longer than expected delays on getting acknowledgments during this testing phase.  Staff members overlooking issues with EFIN's or office information as well are affected by this which also pushes further on being able to process any types of returns.

With that being said, I want to remind everyone that we are in a "eFiling test phase".  I expressed this in a few posts ago when we talked about the "roll out" period or the "test phase" that started on the 17th.  Many of you are concerned because of acknowledgments being delayed or other items.  Again, please understand this is a "testing" phase.  There can, and usually are every year, some issues in some way shape or form.  On top of all this, the government shutdown has significantly hindered a lot of items.

Waiting for that watermark to be removed so you can paper file?  The government shutdown means this will take longer because of no one at IRS available to approve the forms.

Bank product acknowledgment issues

Customers are calling in concerned about the returns not showing up at the bank.  As every year we remind people that technically unless it's been longer than 72 hours, we don't consider this an issue ESPECIALLY during a "testing" phase like right now.   Those that I have talked about this past week are starting to see those acknowledgments at the bank level.

If you are ever concerned there are few items you need to double check before treating it as a serious issue.

1. Make sure on the tax return itself you marked it as a bank product, and the bank forms have a blue/green check mark next to them
2. If you are still in doubt, look it up on the Return Query 


1. Install Version you can also open the return and go under Tools > Return Status to see details if you aren't feeling like these are 100% correct and want to double check you can look them up and see what the Electronic Filing Center shows by looking them up on the Return Query system by logging into http://support.taxwise.com  If you want a full detail walkthrough on how to do this, simply log into our website at http://surefiretaxsoftware.com and go under our Knowledgebase and do a search for: return query
2. Web Version Users simply click on where it says "Sent" in the return list, look up the SSN.  On the Blue Return Query screen, you can find specific information detailing what the latest information is
   
   No matter which option you do for either Install or Web Version you will see this type of information listed...
   
   
   
   
   As you can see it was marked as a bank product and was sent off and this is all that matters.  Even if you don't see information on the right-hand side, it's perfectly fine!!! Just got to give it a bit of time.