E30. Will Treasury still provide fillable MBT forms on the Web?

Beginning with the 2010 tax year, Michigan has an enforced Michigan Business Tax (MBT) e-file mandate for all MBT forms other than those being filed by individuals and those filed by Unitary Business Groups. Treasury continues to have all MBT forms available on the Web but not as fillable forms. The overall impact to taxpayers from this change is minimal as more than 98% of the MBT returns are prepared using commercial software.

Fillable MBT forms are not available on Treasury's Web site for tax year 2010, as that would be counter to the e-file mandate. That change was made to reduce the volume of returns requiring manual review and decrease processing costs. On average, e-filed returns have an almost 10 percent lower error rate than paper filed returns and, as a result, require less manual review. The cost of imaging the paper filed MBT returns creates an additional budgetary burden that is avoided with e-filed returns.

Developers producing MBT tax preparation software and computer-generated forms must support e-file for all eligible Michigan forms that are included in their software package. All eligible MBT returns prepared using tax preparation software or computer-generated forms must be e-filed.

Treasury may not process computer-generated paper returns that are eligible to be e-filed. If a paper form is not accepted, a notice will be mailed to the taxpayer indicating that their return was not filed in the proper form and content and must be e-filed. Payment received with a paper return will be processed and credited to the taxpayer's account even when the return is not processed.