Federal e-filing rejected for duplicate W-2s -- but the W-2s are similar but one is for me and one for my wife

hard to know what to do in this situation.

1) go back to the W-2 section and make absolutely sure that one was assigned to you and the other to your spouse in the table of W-2 forms.  IF they are not assigned to different people, correct that and try again.

2) IF...you've confirmed that each W-2 is assigned correctly to the correct spouse...hope-and pray that box 2 or box 17 had some real $$ amounts in them...if so, reduce one of those boxes value by $1 for one of the W-2 forms, and try again.

Not sure what to do if neither of those works...

My husband and I are having the same problem. We have the same employer and identical pay.  Both State and Federal filing is being rejected.

@crismanad 

And you tried my #2 suggestion? 

I have had the same problem. My wife and I are working for the same employer and we have received two W-2's for the same amount, one under my SSN, another one under my wife's SSN.  I think it is problem with TURBOTAX application itself, programming problem.  I have had the same situation last year, but did not encounter this problem. When my Federal e-file got rejected because of  duplicate W-2's, I have had the same idea as you are, I added $1.00 to one of the W-2's.  It did not get rejected so far, but we did not receive confirmation of acceptance either. 

I followed the suggestion by SteamTrain, or a slight variation of the suggestion.  The suggestion was to reduce one of the reported W-2 amounts by $1, which I did.  But I also increased the other other W-2 by $1 so that the net amount reported to the IRS is did not change.  The federal tax then went through without rejection, and within the next 24 hours the state return was also accepted (the state had originally been rejected due to the original federal rejection).

I followed the suggestion by SteamTrain, or a slight variation of the suggestion.  The suggestion was to reduce one of the reported W-2 amounts by $1, which I did.  But I also increased the other other W-2 by $1 so that the net amount reported to the IRS is did not change.  The federal tax then went through without rejection, and within the next 24 hours the state return was also accepted (the state had originally been rejected due to the original federal rejection).

My husband and I had the same issue. Rejected by federal and state due to duplicate W2's. We worked for the same employer. Same wages, same hours, and everything the same except the name and were rejected . I tried the suggestion of changing reducing the wages by a dollar on one and increasing the wages on the other by a dollar , so the net income did not change. Let's hope this works . TURBO TAX , fix this !! 

All of my returns Federal, NJ and non-Res MD have all been rejected as well. It's saying I have a duplicate W2 but in fact I have 2 W2s, both for me from Unum. One is the NJ disability payments for maternity and the other is disability payments from my employer insurance. Both are Unum and both amounts are $0 but there is an amount as non-taxable sick pay (different for each) in box 12 code J. I don't want to include any income unnecessarily so since there is nothing in box 1 I'm not sure what else to try. 

Try to edit both of the W-2's and add $!.00 in box (1) of yours, and subtract -$1.00 from your spouse.

There will be no change to the return, but it will not cause the original confusion.

Would this strategy increase the likelihood of an audit, as the W2 of the employee and the forms filed by the employer would not match?

@apfata 

try another tax software provider.

same problem here.  It's a turbo tax problem for sure.    

Don't think it's a turbotax problem. It's the IRS Efile system that is rejecting the return, not turbotax. 

I had similar issue, return rejected for duplicate 1099R.   We both have exact retirement income from same company. Althogh withholding tax was different - they should know NOT a duplicate.    This has been the same for prior years and no problem.  I decided to increase the amount for my 1099R by $1 and resubmit.  Hope it works. Otherwise T-T says print and mail it - a pain.   

In reply to "it's not a Turbo Tax problem - but IRS"   Maybe so, but T-T should know about (seems common) and provide a solution rather than just state duplicate on the email they send about Rejected Return.   

I changed the amount on the Turbo Tax for one of my 1099Rs that they rejected for habing a duplicate.  I resubmitted and got a reply that the IRS had accepted it.  But will wait to see if they later reject it. 

@clevelandmb Once the IRS has accepted your return, then they process it. Computers will cross check things and the forms within an accepted variance go right through. There should not be an issue.

The IRS software will note the owner of the form in the processing portion. The IRS does not do that for the acceptance stage. 

Maybe I should try this. I got denied for same thing. But I don’t have duplicates at all no wife with same w2 nothing. I just had 3 different jobs with 3 DIFFERENT w2,s. I think it’s TurboTax themselves messing stuff up. When I called turbo tax was lost for the reason I got rejected. This is my 4th year in a row with turbo tax messing something up

@Eddie62189  The same thing happened to me. How were you able to resolve it? I have 3 different w2s with different incomes on each. 

Do you have 3 different W-2's for yourself or for you and your spouse?   If it is just you, then you need to contact your employer to get a corrected W-2 that reports all of your income instead of 3 of them.  

Are one of them a W-2C?  If so, you will enter the W-2C instead of whichever W-2 it is correcting.  

Do you have 3 different W-2's for yourself or for you and your spouse?   If it is just you, then you need to contact your employer to get a corrected W-2 that reports all of your income instead of 3 of them.  

Are one of them a W-2C?  If so, you will enter the W-2C instead of whichever W-2 it is correcting.  

@Vanessa A Hi! I had 3 different jobs at different companies. Just me. 

If you had three different jobs with three different companies, you will just enter each W-2 separately.  After you enter the first one you will get to a screen that says You W-2 info so far, then under your W-2 you will see Add a another W-2.  Click that screen and enter your next W-2, repeat for the third W-2.  

Both my Federal and NJ state tax returns were rejected for duplicate W2's. I went back into the W2 section and there was only on W2 for my wife and it was fine. After investigation, and looking through a bunch of TT stuff, it turns out that on the W2 in box 17 it had the state taxes that were taken out but it also had $45.83 of FLI. Because it was in box 17 that is where I entered it. After the investigation it states for NJ residencies if you have Family Leave Insurance in box 15-17 you'll need to remove it from those boxes and enter it into box 14. I looked at the state worksheet and it did have the salary for NJ in there twice as if it was a second state. I removed the FLI from box 17 and put it into box 14 and went back and checked the state worksheet and, yep, it removed the second state wages. Resubmitted both Federal and State returns and they were accepted.

Although I found the answer myself, buried in TT information, I believe that TT should either prompt you with a message stating that "it seems you have two states with the same wages is this correct?" or not tell you that the final review has no errors and go ahead and efile.