eFile acceptance - IRS bogged down...

[JoeWras]

Midpack, that stinks! Sorry to hear that for you.

 

[donheff]

I'm continuing to have the same problem as Midpack on my state filing. State filing as not made until the Feds accept so that probably explains Midpack's state delay. My Fed was accepted quickly so I have no idea why the state remains pending. I guess I will wait until mid March and file with paper if nothing changes.

 

[Midpack]

I'm continuing to have the same problem as Midpack on my state filing. State filing as not made until the Feds accept so that probably explains Midpack's state delay. My Fed was accepted quickly so I have no idea why the state remains pending. I guess I will wait until mid March and file with paper if nothing changes.

My Fed eFile return is delayed, my state was snail mail and I'm not worried about that. It's having my Fed eFile in a black hole that bothers me...I file early and hope for a quick acceptance to guard against return scammers.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Midpack, sorry to hear of the problems. I hate stuff like that.

I'm dealing with a major annoyance myself. Yesterday, when I electronically submitted my mother's tax returns via TurboTax (desktop version), it was rejected because it says the IRS shows her social security number being for a DECEASED individual. Ugh.

My father passed away in 2017. Every year we have filed since then, my mother has had an issue filing. For 2017 and 2018, after MANY calls to the IRS, we thought we finally resolved the issue when the IRS found that someone had flagged my mother as deceased instead of my father. It was "Fixed" once, then showed back up the next year. So they "Fixed" it again. Then for 2019, they simply didn't process her $83 tax payment when she paid it in March 2020 and fined her and added interest to the amount due. They took her money from her bank, but didn't apply it to her account. We got that resolved in January 2021 so that her account was properly credited and fines/interest were rescinded. But we were never told what the reason it happened was.

Now with the recent revelation that they still have her flagged as deceased, I suspect that might have been the cause of the issue for 2019. Even though when we spoke with a person in January resolving the 2019 issue, she gave us no indication that any records showed Mom as deceased.

It is so frustrating to deal with these issues. Mom is 83 years old. She can't usually hear the phone conversations with the IRS. If she can hear it, she can't really follow along well enough to know what is being said. She could not do the process on her own. Fortunately, I'm there to help with all of this, but she stresses over it. Last year it was her owing $83, so not a lot of stress. This year, she has a $1300 refund coming that we now likely won't get to her for many months.

I'm going to file her returns by paper and I figure they will get put at the bottom of the Covid-processing-backup. I expect they will eventually contact us about the returns being for a deceased person.

I'm also going to contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service for assistance with this lingering issue. We have spent many, many hours on the phone with them and writing letters to try and resolve it. Our government bureaucracy at its finest.

 

[REWahoo]

PP, suggest you contact SS to see if they show your mom as deceased and if so, get that corrected (easier said than done, I know). Sounds like that may be the source of your mom's problem with the IRS.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

PP, suggest you contact SS to see if they show your mom as deceased and if so, get that corrected (easier said than done, I know). Sounds like that may be the source of your mom's problem with the IRS.

I think we will do that, just in case this year. That's actually what the TurboTax "help" topic said to do when the IRS thinks you're dead and you're not. I assume that SS does not think she is dead since they've been paying her monthly benefit without interruption. They properly raised her benefit when my father passed. And they send the annual SSA-1099 every year in January so she can file her taxes. She has an online account with SSA and everything looks fine there. So one would assume everything is alright in the SS systems. But when one "assumes"...

 

[mystang52]

Just had 1099's and one small W2; filed with TT on 2/9, accepted by IRS 2/12. Got refund this morning!

 

[Midpack]

Finally decided to wait out a phone hold to talk with TT live. The reps supervisor said:

"We noticed something in your tax return that could have caused it to be rejected. We are doing an extra review to assess the reason it was flagged, resolve it for you, or identify what you need to do to ensure everything is accurate and your return is accepted.

We will send you an email within 48 hours with confirmation that your return has been filed, or instructions for any additional steps that need to be taken to ensure an accurate return is accepted, and you receive every dollar you deserve."

I've been waiting 7 days already (48 hours?) and the TT rep said she'd never seen an eFile in limbo this long. But they're (re)aware of me now, so I hope I'll get an email one way or another within 48 hours. There were no missing forms, or errors indicated on my final TT error check/review. I compared my 2020 return side by side with my 2019 return, basically identical (other than the numbers of course).

The rep also wondered if it was because my return was $0 - no refund, no amount owed - I've never done that before. [I had a refund that I applied fully to 2021 estimated taxes, net $0]

We'll see...

T

 

[JoeWras]

I've filed with $0 refund for the last 4 years, applying my small refund to the next years tax payments.

Never had a problem with filing.

I didn't like that TurboTax would congratulate me for hitting the post like that. It would give me some message like "wow, this is rare" or something. Seriously? I just asked you to fill in the line to apply the refund to next year. That's not rare.

 

[sengsational]

Late Bird gets results in two minutes

This thread lit a fire under me, and I filed my taxes today. I've had them "done" since December, just waiting for the IRS to be ready. No hurry since I engineered it so the dollar amount is negligible. And now that the hackers need the previous year's AGI, I think the risk of getting hit with that scam is greatly reduced.

Anyway, the point is, the IRS accepted my return in 2 minutes, hehehe!

 

[aleabo]

Filed via TT today. Got acceptance email in less than an hour. But I owe them $12K :-(

 

[unclemick]

Got last brokerage(Vanguard) 2/15. Gonna file closer to 4/15 cause I/We will owe as always.

Heh heh heh -

 

[mountainsoft]

We filed our taxes on January 24th. I got an email on Feb 12th saying our submission was accepted by the IRS. I haven't heard anything since then and the refund has not showed up in our checking account yet.

 

[gauss]

Finally decided to wait out a phone hold to talk with TT live. ....

The rep also wondered if it was because my return was $0 - no refund, no amount owed - I've never done that before. [I had a refund that I applied fully to 2021 estimated taxes, net $0]

We'll see...

T

Was your AGI $0? If this was the case then the IRS would likely not accept the e-file.

Normally I would think that your tax software would catch this and display an appropriate error message when you tried to e-file.

A workaround for $0 AGI returns that you would like to e-file is to put $1 of phantom income on the other income line. For a description say something like 'IN ORDER TO EFILE'.

-gauss

 

[SecondCor521]

Was your AGI $0? If this was the case then the IRS would likely not accept the e-file.

Normally I would think that your tax software would catch this and display an appropriate error message when you tried to e-file.

A workaround for $0 AGI returns that you would like to e-file is to put $1 of phantom income on the other income line. For a description say something like 'IN ORDER TO EFILE'.

-gauss

There is a difference between a return with a $0 AGI and one with a $0 refund. I'm betting OP had a non-zero AGI.

The IRS certainly should accept an e-filed return with a $0 refund.

 

[audreyh1]

The rep also wondered if it was because my return was $0 - no refund, no amount owed - I've never done that before. [I had a refund that I applied fully to 2021 estimated taxes, net $0]

We'll see...

T

We have also successfully efiled with TT a few times applying the refund to the next years estimated taxes and thus ending up with $0 refund. That’s a fairly common scenario - enough that it affected the IRS stimulus payments online access for a bunch of folks, and the IRS had to update their site.

 

[Midpack]

Was your AGI $0? If this was the case then the IRS would likely not accept the e-file.

AGI over $200K thanks to Roth conversions. Again, the only reason I had a $0 refund/amount owed is because I elected to apply our 2020 refund to 2021 estimated taxes. Most years I have an amount owed that I pay on Apr 14th...

All these examples of others getting acceptance almost immediately, like I did for 15+ years, is a little discouraging. I can assure our return is not that complicated. Hopefully I’ll hear from TT within 48 hours.

 

[walkinwood]

Its been more than 48 hours since I eFiled. TT says the status is "pending".

 

[Midpack]

Its been more than 48 hours since I eFiled. TT says the status is "pending".

It’s been 8 days for me so far, misery loves company...

 

[ohiodep]

I eFiled Feb 16th using the Credit Karma website. Return was accepted within a few minutes. Had to wait until yesterday to finish my state as Credit Karma didn't have Ohio ready. It's been accepted. Waiting on my refunds.


I always try to file as soon as possible due to the scammers out there.

 

[RobbieB]

I've always applied any refund to next years taxes. Never had a delay.

 

[donheff]

My DC return was finally accepted.

 

[SecondCor521]

Shouldn't be. I've got a return like that which I'll have filed in the next day or two. If I remember to I'll come back to this thread Thursday and post an update.

A little late, but I did happen to check and that return I alluded to above got filed and accepted by today. So a maximum of a few days from file to acceptance.

 

[AtlasShrugged]

It’s been 8 days for me so far, misery loves company...

Did your return include Form 1116 for foreign tax credits? There are several threads on the Bogleheads talking about returns not being accepted due to an issue with Form 1116.

 

[audreyh1]

Uh oh - we have Form 1116. Haven’t tried to file yet.