Federal return accepted, then rejected

[scm05]

E-filed. Got a "TurboTax Update: Federal Return Accepted" email, followed immediately by an email "ACTION NEEDED! Your Rejected State Return" with reason "REJ001 - This state return was rejected because the federal taxing authority has not yet accepted or has rejected the federal return." and another email immediately after "ACTION NEEDED! Your rejected federal tax return" with nothing in the "What Happened" field.

Opening Turbo Tax yields  a notice that my Federal tax return was "accepted" and the state return was "rejected".

What to do now?

[TiffanyL]

If your state return was rejected, you can use the link provided below to take action, fix the rejection, and re-file your state return:

How do I fix a rejected return

[scm05]

Thanks for the suggestion.

The information says that the state return was not accepted due to the federal return being reject - and that I should fix the federal return.

But the federal return is marked as 'accepted' so I cannot fix it.

Got conflicting emails about the federal return being both accepted and rejected.

Not sure of the next step.

[AkinaLO]

Was the date of the accepted email before or after the rejected email?

[scm05]

Messages received in the following order. All with the same timestamp.

"TurboTax Update: Federal Return Accepted" email - received 3/23 at 8:12 PM

"ACTION NEEDED! Your Rejected State Return" email - received 3/23 at 8:12 PM

"ACTION NEEDED! Your rejected federal tax return" email - received 3/23 at 8:12 PM

[CassLO]

An e-file rejection just means that some things on your return don't match the IRS database. 

First, check your email

Follow the instructions in the ACTION NEEDED! email from turbotax@intuit.com. It will give you a brief explanation of your reject and how to update it.

Please also see the directions in the TurboTax FAQ below, for further instructions:

How do I fix a rejected return?

[scm05]

Appreciate all of the responses - thank you all.

The instructions in the ACTION NEEDED email for the federal return:

What Happened: is blank

Next Step: Once you've opened your return in TurboTax, the details about what needs updating will be displayed.

But the return is marked as Accepted in TurboTax so there are no instructions available.

The instructions in the ACTION NEEDED email for the state return:

What Happened: REJ001 - This state return was rejected because the federal taxing authority has not yet accepted or has rejected the federal return.

Next Step: We'll help you update this on your 2019 <state> Personal return and e-file. 

In TurboTax:

Description of error: The state return was rejected because the federal taxing authority has not yet accepted or has rejected the federal return.

What needs to be done: Correct the errors in the federal return then re-file these returns for E-File after the federal return is accepted.

(but the federal return is marked Accepted so correction is not possible.)

[BrandiLO · Accepted solution]

This situation is handled best by contacting customer care. Please click here for instructions. 

[scm05]

Thanks for the help.

Solution was to re-file the State return.

Cause seemed be that Federal and State returns were filed at the same time. State return requires that a Federal return be accepted before the State return can be accepted. Federal return was still being process when State return was filed so State return was rejected. Federal return was accepted so re-filing State return (for free) solved this issue.

Would be nice if TT would delay the filing of the State return by a short time (15 minutes?) after the Federal return is filed so that this race condition cannot happen.