Navigating the income tax return preparation screen

Modified on Wed, 21 May at 5:15 PM

Overview

Preparing an income tax return begins in the tax year summary screen. This article provides a summary of basic navigation, including the navigation bar, sidebar, an overview of version control, and printing documents.

Accessing a tax year

From the TaxLab home screen, select either the name of the entity, or the Open text in the Income tax column, to access the most recently used tax year.
If you selected the name of the entity, from the entity details screen, select the Income tax tab > select the tax year.

This will land you in the entity's tax year summary screen, which is divided into 4 parts: the Navigation bar, Details, Summary and the Sidebar.

Navigation bar

The navigation bar is present on all screens when working in an income tax return for an entity. It displays the name of your entity, the tax year, and the entity type as the heading.

TaxLab icon: selecting this takes you back to the TaxLab home screen.

Goto: selecting this populates a dropdown where you can toggle between income tax years.

Bell icon: any new announcements or product updates will be populated here, and a number will appear by the icon informing you of the quantity of unread announcemnets you have. Selecting the bell will openb a side panel to read announcements.

TaxLab User: selecting this opens user account settings, and a recent list of entities worked in.

Workpapers, Tax position and Reports are covered in more detail in separate articles.

Print icon: print a variety of reports and workpapers.

Three ellipses: access all files attached to the entity, amend user access, hide the side panel, or edit return settings.

Sidebar

The sidebar provides a live calculation of the income tax position, and is present on every screen (unless actively hidden using the hide side panel function). It displays:

the due date of the return (based on whether or not the return has extension of time (EOT) or not)
the IRD number, form, balance date and months in period which can all be edited from the entity details screen.
the workflow status shows the status of the income tax return task and can be changed.
Assigned to displays who the income tax return task has been assigned to, and can be changed to any other user that currently has access to the entity.
Version: creates a new version of the tax return, and allows you to toggle between versions.
The return calculations: selecting any of the figures takes you to the tax position to see a detailed breakdown of the calculation.

Details

The details section contains some of the details of the entity. Selecting any of these items will take you to the entity details screen where you can add or edit them.

Summary

The summary section contains details of settings and fields relevant to that income tax year.

Selecting the Tax year, Balance date or Status will take you to the entity details screen where you are can add or edit them.

Selecting any of the figures will take you to the Tax position for that tax year. The status of a return can be edited from the return settings, found by selecting the three ellipses in the top right of the screen.

Selecting EOT (extension of time) will take you to the Tax years tab of the entity details screen, where you can add or edit the settings for that tax year, including EOT dates.

Troubleshooting and FAQs

Due date is incorrect

The due date is calculated from the tax year that the return is for, and whether or not the entity has EOT for that year. Check that the return dates are for the correct tax year, and check that your EOT status is correct.

Return is locked

if your return is in read-only, a banner will display at the top of the screen along with a link that takes you to the settings to unlock it. Select the link and change the editing mode to read/write.

Form type is incorrect

The form type is linked to the entity type, so if the type displaying is not what you wish to file, navigate to the entity details screen and select Edit and change the entity type.