Lacerte has 83 days until the April 18th Nationwide deadline to figure this out and make adjustments to their software.  But they really should resolve things by March 31, giving them 65 days.

Further, it appears the change could be applied to S-Corporations & Partnerships, which are due on March 15, so the fix for those needs to be done even earlier.

In terms of the 4th Quarter Estimates, which technically were due 8 days ago, the Underpayment Penalty has to somehow be fixed right away.  Anyone who is Underpaid for the 4th Quarter, should not be penalized, if they live in one of the counties on the list.

It would be completely Irresponsible for Lacerte not to put in some sort of a fix.  We pay good money for the software.  At the very least, if they want to put determining the eligibility on the Preparer, put a check box so we can mark whether a Taxpayer qualifies.  And add a Diagnostic for all Tax Returns with a CA address, indicating that the Taxpayer may be eligible for this relief.

An interesting side note.  If the Tax Preparer is located in one of the listed counties, then ALL of their clients are eligible.  This is how the official IRS Notice reads.  It impacts any Tax Records which would be located in one of the counties.  However, this would not be automatic, and the client would have to request relief, as the IRS is only going by the county on the Return for the automatic exception.