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Text File | 1993-01-01 | 18KB | 529 lines

A Maryland Form 502 Maryland Tax Return For Individuals MD92 1992 Tax Year Version 1.00 - 01 Jan 93 U S E R S M A N U A L NOTE: Make sure your configuration for federal tax program has "MD" for the state default code if this is your primary state tax return program. Copyright (c) 1987-1993 F. Roland Bjorklund All Rights Reserved This version of the documentation, software and copyright supersedes all previous versions of MD92. Specifications subject to change without notice. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 MD92 SPECIFIC FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 WHAT IT WILL NOT DO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 PREPARING A TAX RETURN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 PRINTING A TAX RETURN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 HELP SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 IN CASE OF PROBLEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 APPENDIXES Appendix A. Configuration Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 INTRODUCTION This state program is directed toward experienced tax preparers: individuals who prepare their own tax returns or who are paid to prepare tax returns for others. This implies that the user knows which forms are required for a particular tax return. The state program copies all the information that it can used from the corresponding Federal Form 1040 tax return. The Federal tax return should be mostly completed before the state tax program is executed. If you change any Federal Form 1040 data then make sure you run the state tax program again to see if any of the changes affects the state return. DO NOT submit any of the forms printed from this program in your state tax return. You should transcribe the data to REAL approved state tax forms for submittal and signature. Maybe in a year or so this situation will change. For paid tax preparers, the program includes a fee schedule, a cover page, and the capability to use a start up tax return file with selected fields already pre-filled. For example: the fee rates and preparer information is usually constant for all tax returns and can be saved into a start up tax return file. FEATURES 1. The forms presented on the screen are the same ones printed out, and are as much like the state tax forms as is possible. 2. Fee Schedule and Front Cover Page forms for tax preparers. 3. Function Keys and other features are identical to federal tax program program. 4. Start up tax return for tax preparers with fees and other fixed fields already filled in. 5. Built in print spooler to allow simultaneous printing and return preparation. The spooler continues to work even when switching between state and federal programs. MD92 SPECIFIC FEATURES 1. Maryland has removed the Married Filing Combined Separate filing status (hurray!). It has been replaced by a modest two wage earner income subtraction. The enclosed program handles this situation automatically, assuming the federal wages are "marked" properly for Taxpayer or Spouse ownership. 1 WHAT IT WILL NOT DO 1. It will not "hold your hand". You have to know what forms to use for your return. 2. There are no consistency checks, except for what are required for calculations. You can print out the return at any time, even blank forms can be printed. 3. There is no on line context help for the specific form fields. The author assumes that you the tax payer/tax preparer knows more about these forms than he does. He welcomes comments, corrections, and suggestions. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Same as federal tax program program. See federal tax program documentation. LICENSE This version of MD92 is NOT public domain software, is NOT free software, and is NOT shareware. License to use MD92 is limited to registered users of the federal tax program program. What does this mean to you? If you use this program, then you should register your copy. That way the author will be able to provide you support and updates, and stay in business. Plus, registered users receive additional tax forms, automatic upgrades during the tax season, and technical support. A MD92 registration entitles you to use the program on any and all computers available to you, with the following restriction: If other people have access to this program or may use it, then you should purchase a site license. See the following section for information about site licensing or quantity discounts. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY THIS SOFTWARE AND MANUAL ARE SOLD "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OR MERCHANTABILITY. THE SELLER'S SALESPERSONS MAY HAVE MADE STATEMENTS ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE. ANY SUCH STATEMENTS DO NOT CONSTITUTE WARRANTIES AND SHALL NOT BE RELIED ON BY THE BUYER IN DECIDING WHETHER TO PURCHASE THIS PROGRAM. THIS PROGRAM IS SOLD WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER. BECAUSE OF THE DIVERSITY OF CONDITIONS AND HARDWARE UNDER WHICH THIS PROGRAM MAY BE USED, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED. THE USER IS ADVISED TO TEST THE PROGRAM THOROUGHLY BEFORE RELYING ON IT. THE USER MUST ASSUME THE 2 ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE PROGRAM. ANY LIABILITY OF SELLER OR MANUFACTURER WILL BE LIMITED TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE. The author is committed to supporting this program, so he will repair reported problems and issue upgraded programs as quickly as possible after problem reports are received. The earlier in the tax season that the problems are repaired the better off all the users are going to be. TRADEMARKS MS/DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. PC/DOS is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation. GETTING STARTED The MD92 program is distributed on a diskette and contains the files: README.EXE, INSTALL.EXE, INSTALL.CFG, INSTALL.HLP, MD92.EXE, MD92.FRM, MD92.HLP, and MD92.DOC. The INSTALL.EXE program will copy the necessary files into the directories \TAX_1991 and \TAX_1991\T92_DATA. Insert your distribution diskette into floppy drive A or B, log in the floppy drive with the DOS command A:(<--Enter), and execute the INSTALL.EXE program. The INSTALL.EXE program will prompt for the necessary options. The files in MD92PAK.EXE: MD92.EXE The state tax program itself. MD92.FRM The state forms and supporting schedules file in compressed format. MD92.HLP The context sensitive HELP file for MD92 in compressed format. MD92.DOC This file contains the program documentation in a ready to print format. This file is accessible from within the MD92 program for review. The documentation can be scanned forward and backwards, and printed at will. The program will create one additional file when accessing the Documentation: MD92.TBL A table is built for the on line Documentation routines. This is done once if the MD92.TBL does not exist. 3 You will notice in the IN CASE OF PROBLEMS section that the recommended solution to several errors that the program detects is to use the installation procedure to get fresh program or data files from the program distribution diskette. As you repeat the installation procedure, the program will check to see if files with the same name exists on the destination drive/directory. If you want to retain the old files, most likely the MD_START.T92 files, answer N for NO to the question about file overwrites, unless they are the ones you need a new copy of. The other files are not customized by you as the user, so just answer yes, thereby causing the install program to overwrite the program, help and form files as they are copied. PREPARING A TAX RETURN MD92 is executed by selecting the State option on the main menu in the federal tax program program. MD92 will execute and copy all the information that it needs from the federal tax return file, which may also contain information saved from a previous execution of MD92 for the same tax return. NOTE: make sure that you save the federal tax return to file with all the changes you made during the most recent go around. MD92 takes data from the tax return file, not the screen forms that you are currently using. A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not change the name of the file containing tax return data for both federal and state tax returns. federal tax program will not copy any state tax return data from the old file to the new file, i.e. the state tax data will not go to the new file. You can move around and select forms just like the federal tax program program. All the function keys, menus, and other features have the same function as the federal tax program program. After you print out a return, go over the return and check the arithmetic and tax calculations, the same way you would do if you prepared a return manually. If you do many returns, you will gradually gain confidence in the many routine procedures that the program goes through, but don't forget to check carefully when a new form is required or new situation arises. You will also discover that using a program to prepare tax returns does not save time over the manual method if no big changes are required after the first go through, but experience has shown that a program really shines when you have to go back and add, change, or delete data from a return. Just not having to do all the arithmetic over again is wonderful. You can also play "what if" games with a tax return using this program, that you would not do manually because of the time and work involved. 4 PRINTING A TAX RETURN When you want to print a complete return or maybe a single form, select the PRINT option from the main menu. A request for a complete return will print all the forms indicated in the form select menu that are needed for a particular return. These forms are indicated by a check mark and are highlighted on the form menu. The forms are printed in the order that you should submit the tax return to the state of Maryland. If dynamically created Supporting Schedules are used, they will be printed after each form that uses them. A Form 502 is also printed, but do not sign and submit this form to the state of Maryland. Do not submit any of the other forms either. You must transcribe the data from the computer forms to the official state tax forms. Signature on the Form 502 represents a legal declaration by the taxpayer and tax preparer about the data on the form. Having the arithmetic and tax calculations is still a great time saver, since the state tax return virtually "pops" out and is ready to go for most tax returns. The program provides a "print spooler" option on the configuration screen. If you activate this option, you can execute print requests for one tax return, and in the time it takes to save the forms to a temporary print spooler file, you can begin working on another return; while the program prints the requested forms that were saved to disk. This option is recommended only if you are using a hard disk. The federal tax program program and the state program interact with each other in such a way that the print spooler in each picks up where the other left off as you switch between the Federal and state programs. It is handy to have the Federal return printing while you work on the state return, and vice versa. The program does provide another option to redirect all forms for a tax return to a disk file. This is handy for making changes to the return using a text editor or word processor program. The tax return can then be printed using the DOS PRINT command. Please Note: the return printed this way will not give the overstriking bold emphasis to tax line data that you will get from printing the forms from the program directly. The DOS PRINT command is a MS/DOS print "spooler". This means that the print job becomes a background job for the DOS system and you can execute and work on something else while printing continues. DOS uses idle system time to print a few characters from the file that you want printed. HELP SYSTEM The help system works the same as the federal tax program system with the exception that individual form help is NOT included in the state program. It is assumed by the author, that the user of the program knows more about the state forms than he does. The 5 author welcomes comments and suggestions to improve this state program. IN CASE OF PROBLEMS The errors and error handling suggestions are identical to the federal tax program program. Refer to that documentation if problems arise. Appendix A. Configuration Options The state program and the federal tax program program uses the same configuration file. Refer to federal tax program program documentation for discussion of the configuration options. Make sure the two letter state code "MD" is entered into state option. 6