Below are the Release Notes for TaxCalc 2020 releases. Click to see the Release Notes for 2013-2016 > 2017 > 2018 > 2019

TaxCalc Product Update – Version 11.6.001 – Released on 04 June 2020

Applying the Update

Please note: 

• For Customers who have not already updated to Version 11 this update requires an installer to be run. Please ensure that you have local admin rights before attempting the update.
• In addition, installation of this release will include the auto-creation of 2020 Tax Returns where 'auto-create work' was set on completion of the 2019 jobs and tasks and where the current installation is version 11.2.029 or before. This will be performed in the background and will also link the 2020 Tax Return to the already existing job or task (for 2020). You can continue to use the software whilst the Returns are being created, however, please note that the 2020 Tax Return may not be immediately available until this background process has been completed. 

The following improvements have been included:

Product summary

• Accounts Production
• Practice Management
• Tax Return Production
• AML Centre

Accounts Production:

• To assist with the preparation of Financial Statements for clients that may have been affected by COVID-19, additional options have been provided:
  • Accounts prepared under FRS 105 include an option to disclose:
    • Post Balance Sheet Events.
    • Exceptional Items.
  • For accounts prepared under FRS 102 a new Accounting Policy is available for 'Significant Judgements and Uncertainties'.
  • The Auditor's Report includes an option to disclose:
    • Key Audit Matters.
    • An Overview of the Scope of Our Audit.
    • Our Application of Materiality.
  • The Audit Report refers to 'Independent Auditors Report'.
• Revaluation account codes are available on all Fixed Assets.

General Maintenance:

• The Audit Report automatically makes reference to 'period' (rather than year) where appropriate.

AML Centre:

General Maintenance:

• An Identification can be saved:
  • Where a new related party has been specified as a PEP (Politically Exposed Person).
  • After deleting a trust as a related party.

Tax Return Production:

WhatIf Planner:

• The WhatIf Planner for 2020/21 is now available.

Dividend Database:

• The Dividend Database for 2019/20 is now available.

HMRC Pre-Population APIs

• The 2020 HMRC Pre-Population APIs have been enabled.

General Maintenance:

SA100 / SA800 / SA900:

• HMRC Exclusions and Specials for 2019/20 have been updated in line with HMRC's current documentation.
• Balancing charge is included for electric charge points in Tax Return form SA100.
• An information message has been included for the change in treatment of personal allowance for top slicing relief calculations where income exceeds £100,000.
• Client questionnaire always displays the client's address details.
• Helpsheets included in the software have been updated for the 2020 tax year.
• The placement of the 'X' to represent that self-employed pages are included as part of the Tax Return has been corrected.
• Postcode data has been updated to ensure the correct tax rate is applied in all circumstances.
• Validation message for state pension will only be displayed if the taxpayer was born on or before 5 July 1954 and state pension hasn't been entered.

Corporation Tax:

• CT600s ending on or after 1 April 2020, with a £nil Corporation Tax liability now successfully file online.
• Zeros have been removed from boxes 735, 736, 737, 750 and 755.
• Validation message for box 736 is only displayed if data has been entered for an account period ending before 29 October 2018.
• CT600s for periods ending on or before 31 March 2016 now successfully file online.

Practice Management:

• Client summary engagement section includes the 2020 tax year.
• Data mining and reporting facilities include the following additional data:
  • UK life policies including voided ISAs.
  • Foreign life policies.
  • Adjusted total income.
• New mail merge letter regarding the Government's COVID-19 strategy and announcement that the payment on account for 31 July 2020 can be deferred.

TaxCalc Product Update – Version 11.5.056 – Released on 12 May 2020

Applying the Update

Please note: 

• For Customers who have not already updated to Version 11 this update requires an installer to be run. Please ensure that you have local admin rights before attempting the update.
• In addition, installation of this release will include the auto-creation of 2020 Tax Returns where 'auto-create work' was set on completion of the 2019 jobs and tasks and where the current installation is version 11.2.029 or before. This will be performed in the background and will also link the 2020 Tax Return to the already existing job or task (for 2020). You can continue to use the software whilst the Returns are being created, however, please note that the 2020 Tax Return may not be immediately available until this background process has been completed. 

The following improvements have been included:

General Maintenance:

• Fixes an update issue found in the 2020 Spring update Hotfix 2.

TaxCalc Product Update – Version 11.5.040 – Released on 20 April 2020

Applying the Update

Please note: 

• For Customers who have not already updated to Version 11 this update requires an installer to be run. Please ensure that you have local admin rights before attempting the update.
• In addition, installation of this release will include the auto-creation of 2020 Tax Returns where 'auto-create work' was set on completion of the 2019 jobs and tasks and where the current installation is version 11.2.029 or before. This will be performed in the background and will also link the 2020 Tax Return to the already existing job or task (for 2020). You can continue to use the software whilst the Returns are being created, however, please note that the 2020 Tax Return may not be immediately available until this background process has been completed. 

The following improvements have been included:

Product summary

• Accounts Production
• Anti-Money Laundering
• Tax Return Production
• Practice Management
• eSign Centre

Accounts Production:

General Maintenance:

• The fixed asset notes now display all asset types within both the financial statements and preview mode correctly for all client types.
• The average number of employees note now makes correct reference to the prior year.

Anti-Money Laundering:

General Maintenance:

• Within AML Centre an Identification Stage for a client is populated with the relevant data and can be saved and/or completed as required.

Practice Management:

• A new default report "Business Profit and Income Comparison" is included in Report Manager for the ability to report on total businesses profit and income instantly.
• When creating your own reports in Report Manager you can report separately on self employment, partnership and Lloyds profit and loss as well as income.

Please note that:

• The income is based on the taxable profits for a tax year and does not account for overlapping profits.
• Where passwords are used on clients these values remain protected and will therefore not be included on these reports in accordance with existing behaviour.

General Maintenance:

• It is now possible to update work for a client using options within the "outstanding work" dialog.
• Job Template using offsets with adjusted time measures now recurs as expected.
• Job template using the Tax Year End offset displays the correct Tax Year End date as expected.
• It is now possible to delete certain clients according to the expected behaviour.

eSign Centre:

General Maintenance:

• The available credits for your eSign envelopes are now displayed accurately.
• The client filter within the eSign dashboard can now be used.
• It is now possible to send the PDF's with compression for file versions greater than 1.4.
• Envelopes can now be sent with and without password protection.

TaxCalc Product Update – Version 11.5.039 – Released on 1 April 2020

Applying the Update

Please note: For Customers who have not already updated to Version 11 this update requires an installer to be run. Please ensure that you have local admin rights before attempting the update.

In addition, installation of this release will include the auto-creation of 2020 Tax Returns where 'auto-create work' was set on completion of the 2019 jobs and tasks. This will be performed in the background and will also link the 2020 Tax Return to the already existing job or task (for 2020). You can continue to use the software whilst the Returns are being created, however, please note that the 2020 Tax Return may not be immediately available until this background process has been completed. 

The following improvements have been included:

General Maintenance

• TaxCalc 11.5.0.39 allows upgrade to TaxCalc 2020 release where clients have multiple businesses with different year-ends. This version is not needed for users already on 11.5.0.38.

TaxCalc Product Update – Version 11.5.038 – Released on 26 March 2020

Applying the Update

Please note: For Customers who have not already updated to Version 11 this update requires an installer to be run. Please ensure that you have local admin rights before attempting the update.

In addition, installation of this release will include the auto-creation of 2020 Tax Returns where 'auto-create work' was set on completion of the 2019 jobs and tasks. This will be performed in the background and will also link the 2020 Tax Return to the already existing job or task (for 2020). You can continue to use the software whilst the Returns are being created, however, please note that the 2020 Tax Return may not be immediately available until this background process has been completed. 

The following improvements have been included:

Product summary

• Accounts Production
• Anti-Money Laundering
• Tax Return Production
• Practice Management
• eSign Centre
• Document Manager

Accounts Production:

• Fixed Assets, options are now available to:
  • control the split of assets within the Tangible and Intangible Fixed Asset notes
  • show Cost or Valuation (where a revaluation has taken place).
• The position of the person signing the accounts, e.g. Director/Secretary, will now be displayed.
• Account codes for 'Revaluation' are now available on all Intangible and Tangible Fixed Assets.
• An option is now available to allow the Balance Sheet statement to refer to 'members have', where only one Director but more than one Shareholder exists.

General Maintenance:

• The Balance Sheet will now make reference to Net assets/(liabilities) where corresponding balances exist.
• Brackets on the Statement of Changes in Equity are now aligned.
• When generating opening balances on a Partnership, postings for closing stock are correctly assigned to Partners.
• The Audit Report has been updated to show the Other information paragraph at the end of the report.

Anti-Money Laundering:

AML Centre:

• It is now possible to run a sanction check (UK version) for a client/contact or related party from within an identification.
• Ability to create a sanction check record.
• Ability to link a file location with a sanction check record.
• Ability to set an expiry date for a sanction check record.
• An MLRO/MLCP can now create a task for a sanction check record for a client.
• Improvements have been made to Status Management including:
  • Ability to create a CDD stage and Task.
• It is now possible to filter records by client/contact and include/exclude archived clients.
• Improvements have been made to Trust clients including:
  • Ability to add a Corporate Structure.
  • Option to set relationship "PSC" for Trust.
  • Option to set relationship 'Is a PSC of' between two Trusts.
  • A new relationship type for 'Protector'.

General Maintenance:

• Small amendments have been made to SAR/ISAR to make the SimpleStep process even easier.
• Changes made to a client's record in Practice Manager are now automatically populated on an identification.
• Improved process for deleting pending searches, to allow unwanted searches to be easily removed.

Tax Return Production:

• Incorporation of 2019/20 SA100, SA800 and SA900 Tax Returns.
• Updated 2019/20 R40 repayment claim form.
• Updated screens for HMRC Helpsheets/Working Sheets.
  • Please note that HMRC had not provided final copies of all Helpsheets at the time of release so the printed form will not be up to date.
• Updated Form R185.
• Updated and improved Client Questionnaire.
• Incorporation of 2020 V3 CT600.
• Inclusion of new asset type 'Electric charge point' for capital allowances.
• Improvements to 'Working out your tax' section of SimpleStep.
• Improvements to Student loan data entry and inclusion of Postgraduate loans.
• Improvements to Pension contributions and Annual Pension Allowance data entry screens.
• Auto-selection for tax rates now includes Welsh postcodes & Welsh tax rates.
• Inclusion of Investor's Relief for Capital Gains disposals.
• Inclusion of non-residential and indirect disposals for non-resident individuals calculations for Capital Gains Tax.

General Maintenance:

• iXBRL accounts can be attached to an old CT600.
• Validation when 28 February year end created for CT600 when in a leap year.

Practice Management:

• Report Manager:
• Client reports now have an option to include GDPR Consent details.
• Client and GDPR Consent reports now include additional fields including 'Assigned to office'.
• Data mining for Reports now includes VAT period ends.
• Practice Manager Plus:
  • A 14-day trial is now available for PM+.
  • TaxCalc trial now allows use of both live data and demo data.

General Maintenance:

• Improvements have been made to the recurrence of Jobs and Tasks, to make sure the correct outcome takes place in all situations.
• The Work Status set on Jobs and Tasks is now correctly updated.
• The due date of a Task is now being displayed correctly in all situations.
• The Note set against a Job or Task is now displayed against the correct work type.
• Reporting on VAT Return Periods and VAT Period Ends for a client with multiple businesses displays the correct results.
• Imported Reports now return correct results in all situations.
• Password protected clients cannot be accessed when selecting VAT Filer via the Launcher.
• It's now possible to add a VAT Registration number without the need to specify the VAT period end for all client creation methods.
• It's now possible for the full task dialog to fit on a screen with the lowest resolution.
• Using data mining for reports now populates the specified details.

eSign Centre:

• External PDF documents can now be attached to an envelope. 
  • An Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) governing the attachment of external documents has been added into Section 15.15 of our EULA.
• A document relating to an associated client can be attached to a client's envelope, e.g. an SA100 for a Director can be added to an envelope holding the Limited company's annual accounts.
• It is now possible to password protect your eSign envelopes (using the same password as that set for PDF encryption).
• The 'Accountant' can now be added to an envelope as a signer or watcher.
• It is now possible to add Companies House Forms (including the Incorporation) to an envelope.

General Maintenance:

• An option is now available to delete an envelope without the status 'Sent to Client'.
• Client restrictions now apply to all areas of eSign Centre when viewing lists of clients.

Document Manager powered by SmartVault

• It is now possible to access Document Manager from the Launcher.
• A quick send option is now available within eSign Centre to 'Send to Document Manager' once the documents within an envelope have been signed.
• An option is now available to rename the document filename when sending a signed document to Document Manager from the eSign Centre.

TaxCalc Product Update – Version 11.2.029 – Released on  13 February 2020

Applying the Update

Please note: For Customers who have not already updated to Version 11 or who are on Linux this update requires an installer to be run. Please ensure that you have local admin rights before attempting the update.

 The following improvements have been included:

Product summary

• AML Identity Checking 

  • Service Update

  • General Maintenance

• Practice Manager 

  • General Maintenance

AML Identity Checking

AML Identity Checks have been upgraded to support a more technologically advanced service delivered by Equifax. This will provide a more secure service that allows better control over your AML ID Checks using improved functionality.

Service Update:

• A new SimpleStep wizard for the AML ID Checking service to easily take you through the process.
• Choose from three pre-configured profiles when screening a client: Global, UK Plus and UK Standard.
• Use additional search criteria such as Country of residence, Bank Account, Sort Code and Telephone Number.
• Fuzzy logic and refined algorithms to optimise matching capabilities and reduce unrelated alerts.
• An updated and improved AML ID Check report includes additional information to give you a comprehensive record of your client.

Please note: The upgraded service will need to be used from 31 March 2020 and will require changes to licencing and credits. Please see KB3048 for more information.

General Maintenance:

• Improved process for deleting pending searches which should allow you to easily remove unwanted searches.

Practice Manager

General Maintenance:

• An issue where on occasions, creating a client using the CSV import was not always displaying the imported Usual Year End in the client record is now resolved.
• Resolved the issue where on rare occasions, completion of a recurring task was creating duplicate tasks.

TaxCalc Product Update – Version 11.1.005 – Released on 08 January 2020

Applying the Update

Please note: For Customers who have not already updated to Version 11 this update requires an installer to be run. Please ensure that you have local admin rights before attempting the update.

The following improvements have been included:

Product summary

• Practice Manager update
• Tax Return Production update

Practice Manager

General Maintenance:

• An issue where on occasions, a recurring a job was not always returning the next statutory deadline, has been resolved.
• Resolved the issue where on occasions, a recurring a job using the linked work to calculate the job dates was not always returning the next jobs due and start dates.

Tax Return Production

General Maintenance:

SA100:

• Reinstatement of 'Remove' button for PDF attachments.
• Basis Period tick box now launches the Basis Period wizard.
• In a small number of areas, removing the section tick boxes in SimpleStep mode was not always showing a warning that data would be deleted. This has now been resolved.
• An issue has been resolved where in a small number of areas, removing the section tick boxes in SimpleStep mode was deleting data even when 'No' was selected when the warning dialog was displayed.

SA800:

• It is now possible to create extra trade pages for a Partnership Tax Return.

AML Centre

General Maintenance:

Identification:

•  AML identification can be saved or completed for SQLite user.