Release notes for version 13.03, August 4, 2011
In general
We have added new options on the Alimony Needed screen. You may now
calculate alimony as a % of after-tax cash, and calculate alimony needed
to give recipient a target amount of after-tax dollars.
We added special entries ("Unknown," "To be Determined," etc.) to the "[
# ]" button, so you can easily enter them for any number field.
Special entries ("Unknown," "To be Determined," etc.) now appear on the
Marital Property Division Report.
There is now an option to have title (H/W/J) appear on the Marital
Property Division report.
We have made the description lines for assets substantially longer. This
will allow you room to write account numbers and other identifying
information.
For send-file-to-anyone through our server, we now do not require an
email address.
We have added a complete suite of training videos to our web site, and
these are available from within the software by clicking Home tab >
Getting Started > Video Tours.
We have included a new version of NovaPDF, the PDF creator we are
licensing. This may help those who were not getting PDF to display after
the file was created.
We have added the ability to add notes at the top or bottom of the
Alimony Needed report.
Now, if you are in "Read only" mode, you will not be able to enter data
until you "Save As" and save the file under a different name.
The default retirement age was changed to 66, per current Social
Security regular retirement age.
Life Insurance may now be designated as a "child’s asset."
If you enter 2nd and 3rd tiers of alimony or child support, but not a
first tier, then we will not calculate any support. We assume that when
you blanked out the first tier you intended to remove all support.
We added a new report: Taxable Amount of Social Security Income. This
shows how we calculate the taxable amount of social security income,
given the total social security payment.
If a person enters a birth date, then enters wages, and if the person
has already passed retirement date, we now automatically advance
retirement age by 2 to 3 years. This is because people were entering
wages for people who were already age 67 (or older), without changing
the default retirement age.
If the property is a real estate investment property, it is now possible
to specify that the real estate expenses flow as allocable to the
investment property. Previously, real estate expenses all flowed as
living expenses, and you have to manually total the real estate
investments allocable to investment property.
If you have specified that you are entering expenses with the real
estate property, then the real estate lines on the living expense page
are shown as grayed out. This is appropriate, because the only place
they may now be entered is on the real estate "more info" screen. It is
still possible to override the totals on a year by year basis, and that
is still allowed on the Living Expense "more info" screen.
New files now ask if the first party is "male" instead of "husband."
This makes that dialog more straightforward for same-gender couples.
In all states except NY, NJ and CT, we have an option to enter "shared"
expenses. For expenses that are shared, you enter the total expense
value (not each party’s amount). Then you enter a single allocation of
expense (e.g., 50/50, 60/40) that applies across all shared expenses.
This is especially useful in mediated or collaborative cases.
Connecticut
On the "Key Support Data" screen, we now include health insurance and
child care expenses.
We implemented the new state tax law, including a new tax table;
requiring a partial or total phase-out of the 3% tax bracket for
higher-income taxpayers; and imposing a surtax (called a "recapture
tax") on high-income individuals.
On the "Key Support Data" screen, we now include health insurance and
child care expenses.
"Other Expenses" are now reflected on Affidavit even if the only
expenses listed are write-in expenses
Footnotes now print with the Flexible Affidavit.
Florida
On the "Key Support Data" screen, we now include health insurance and
child care expenses.
Under Child Support, we have reorganized the screen for health
insurance, to clarify that it is possible to enter the child’s share of
health insurance directly, if you wish.
On the "Key Support Data" screen, we now include health insurance and
child care expenses.
Footnotes now print on the Affidavit for debts.
"Unknown" asset values or liability balances now appear on the Florida
affidavit.
For FL Child Support, on View/Print Guideline > Header:
a. We added options to include/exclude the "non-lawyer" block.
b. We added an option to move the client signature block to the final
page.
c. We added an option to include the lawyer block on the cover and/or
final page.
We improved the carrying of health insurance footnotes, to reflect the
fact that health insurance may appear in different sections of the
Affidavit.
The Gross Income year was changed from number to text field, so you may
make entries other than numbers.
Illinois
On the "Key Support Data" screen, we now include health insurance and
child care expenses.
Footnotes may now be printed with the line items, or at the end.
Much of the text of the form of the Disclosure statement is now
editable, so you can modify it.
We changed the way Health Insurance Carries to the disclosure statement.
Now, Health Insurance Carries to the section on deductions from gross
income if the tax category is "Flexible Spending Account," or "Payroll
Deduction, not FSA." Otherwise, health insurance carries to the
deductions section as a Health Insurance expense. Footnotes carry with
the item.
Special entries ("Unknown," "To be Determined," etc.) for assets now
appear on the Disclosure Statement. (Income and Expense special entries
do not carry through.)
California
Uninsured health expenses now do not carry from party's expenses, only
from child's expenses.
Massachusetts
We added a "shared" option for Massachusetts child support.
New Jersey
We include new values for Appendix H table.
From Appendix IX-A, we updated the Shared Parenting Household Net Income
Thresholds table (for 2011 Fed Poverty Guidelines).
We updated the New Jersey wage survey numbers.
We updated for changes in the Case Information Statement. The title is
now "Plaintiff / Defendant," not "H" "W." If you have entered H and W,
we convert to Plaintiff or Defendant.
On the "Key Support Data" screen, we now include health insurance and
child care expenses.
The Marital Standard of Living form has been updated for
plaintiff/defendant & "domestic partner" language.
The revised FICA ceilings from Appendix IX H were already in the
software.
On the Gross Income screen of the CIS, we now do not clear the values
when you change the calculation method, so you can try different methods
without losing your data.
We added an option to override and thus "freeze" the date of the Case
Information Statement, so that it does not automatically update to the
current date.
In the case of shared custody, if there was child support from a prior
relationship, we were not carrying that to line 2b on the guideline
worksheet. That is now fixed.
For the "other dependent deduction," the Circular E calculation was not
including the deduction for "additional allowances for income level."
Now it is doing that.
We improved the help for the Other Dependent Deduction, to explain what
it is and what entries you need to make.
New York
On the "Key Support Data" screen, we now include health insurance and
child care expenses.
With New York temporary maintenance, now there is an iterative call to
calculate the impact of NY City tax on the maintenance calculation. NYC
tax affects maintenance which affects federal and state taxes which
affect NYC Tax. The iterative calculation keeps calculating these
maintenance and state taxes until they get a number that works for both.
The mortgage has its own footnote in the Liabilities screen of the Net
Worth Statement. For the NY Net Worth Statement only.
Now we do not print "other" lines if they are blank.
A footnote is now available on Total lines at end of "Liabilities"
screen when separate property is not being displayed.
We added an option to exclude the client certification section of the
Net Worth Statement.
Pennsylvania
On the "Key Support Data" screen, we now include health insurance and
child care expenses.
We added a button on the Key Data page for "convert gross to net"
income.
We added an alert (a blue message on the screen) for the situation in
which custodial parent pays alimony.
In the case in which there are no children, the software was sometimes
not awarding the mortgage adjustment. The software now awards a mortgage
adjustment to whichever party is paying the mortgage, even if there are
no children.
Added a line identifying prior alimony and prior child support as
deductions for alimony pendente lite in Pennsylvania
Washington
Line 3 of Washington Child Support (Net Income) now may not go below
zero. So if there is negative net income, line 3 will be zero.
Bugs Fixed
On the NY Net Worth Statement, overriding the label of the misc expense
was causing values to NOT carry from the NY expense list to the planner
expense list. Fixed.
Fixed the case where label for expense (say repairs) set to "<blank>"
special edit was printing 0.
If the monthly child support amount is overridden, What If Analysis was
using the overridden amount instead of the amount entered for the What
If Analysis. Fixed.
In New York, expenses of investment income, unreimbursed business
expenses, and supplemental security income were not flowing correctly to
CSSA where the first party entered was the wife. Fixed.
The Florida affidavit was showing a filing status of "single," even when
the parties' were filing jointly. Fixed.
The pension valuation client report was not reflecting situations in
which multiple tiers of interest rates were being used. Fixed.
Back taxes were printing twice on the generic affidavit. Fixed.
NY Child Support, Child Care add-on. Was not correct if non-custodial
parent was paying child care. Fixed.
Mortgage payments. If you must pay all the mortgage payments (principal
and interest) on a jointly-owned home, and they otherwise qualify as
alimony, you can deduct one-half of the total payments as alimony. We
had been deducting only the principle as alimony. Fixed.
The software was ending child support when the oldest child turned 18,
and it should have been ending child support when the youngest child
turned 18. This applied only if the "modifications" box was not checked.
That has been fixed.
