In preparation for 2018 Federal Income Tax (based on the 2017 Tax Act), I was suprised when using 2018 Turbo Tax to see the following: enter image description here

Which seems to state that the IRS is still working on how to handle Property Taxes according to the law that was passed a year ago. Is that correct ? (Software was updated 12/18/18)


The laws are set, however the policies and guidance are still being finalized at the IRS (as of mid-December, 2018). You can observe this yourself by searching the web for "2018 IRS Form 1040" and etc, many of the forms returned are still listed in 'draft' state, and bear the warning "DRAFT AS OF {DATE}, DO NOT FILE". While this might seem unusual, even in a normal year the documents are still being revised and updated until late into the end of December. The IRS has a decent amount of leeway, because the official deadlines for banks and businesses to provide their customers with official documentation (such as W2s, 1099s, etc) are still over a month away in most instances.

  • I understand that the law is set, what I'm focused on is the "how to handle" (quoted from above). Now it if were just a matter of the formatting of a form, that's one thing. But if it's a matter of policies and guidance. I'd have expected that to have been settled some time ago, not a year later. – BobE Dec 19 '18 at 3:19
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    Even though the policies are settled, until Intuit has final versions of the documents and forms, they wouldn’t be able to finalize the software. – prl Dec 19 '18 at 4:01
  • @ prl , yes I understand that Intuit could be hamstrung in finalizing their software, what I'm focused on is (what appears to be) a failure on the part of the IRS to generate the "final versions of documents and forms". Obviously the IRS must do it's 'thing' before Intuit can do their 'thing'. What is surprising is that (apparently) the IRS hasn't been able to complete their 'thing' for a year. – BobE Dec 19 '18 at 15:19
  • @BobE "apparently the IRS hasn't been able to complete their 'thing'.." Welcome to government :) If your concern is for the purposes of getting an estimate of taxes owed (and thus take action before end of year), the draft documents are "firm enough" for you to run some rough calculations and get some figures out. Since this is only an estimate, you'll need to redo the work once the forms and policies are finalized. – Derek_6424246 Dec 19 '18 at 16:29
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    Just because Google returns draft form results doesn't mean the official form isn't out yet. The 2018 1040 form and instructions have been out since Dec 12. The 2018 1040 Schedule A (which is the form relevant for property tax deduction) form has been out since Nov 28, but the instructions aren't out yet. – user102008 Dec 19 '18 at 19:20

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