Fixing a Rejected Return

[chuckcobb]

I finished my individual joint tax return using TurboTax Online this morning and submitted it to the IRS via e-file.  To make a long story short, the IRS rejected my return five times before I figured out how to get it accepted.  I want to share what I learned from this experience to possibly enable others to avoid the consternation I went through on this.

I used TurboTax for a number of years including 2024 and this is the first year that I've used TurboTax Online.  For the IRS to accept a return, it needs to match the 2025 return to a matching 2024 return to verify the identity of whoever is filing the new return.  If it can't find a match, it will reject the new return.  It uses the 2024 Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) to match the identities of the people filing the 2025 return.

Every time I filed the return it was rejected because it said it couldn't find a match for the AGI on the 2024 return.  In fact, the AGI I used to find a match for the new return was exactly the same as the AGI on my 2024 return, so there was no reason that the new return should have been rejected, but the IRS uses a lot of other data including driver's license information to match the 2024 return to verify the identity of whoever is filing the new return.

The first (4) times, I submitted the return and it was rejected, I tried tweaking all kinds of stuff in the identifying information on the new return, nothing worked, and the return was rejected each time.  Finally, I found a solution that worked.  Go to the irs.gov website and request an IP PIN for everyone included in the return.  An IP PIN is used by the IRS in addition to other data to positively identify people.  I added an IP PIN for both my wife and I to the return before I refiled it and it was accepted!

I hope this might prevent others from having to go through the consternation I had to go through to figure this out!

[VolvoGirl]

Did you ask for help here to fix the AGI rejects?  It’s too late for you but this may help someone else or for next year.

Try entering 0 for the AGI. The IRS might have processed your return later so the AGI didn't get entered in time.  Especially if you mailed it.  That works for most people. See,
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/rejections/help/what-if-i-entered-the-correct-agi-and-i-m-still-ge...

How to correct the AGI in the Online version
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/agi/help/where-do-i-correct-my-agi-in-turbotax-online/00/26311

If you can’t get it to efile you will have to print and mail it.
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/printing/help/how-do-i-print-and-mail-my-return-in-turbotax-online...

Be sure to attach copies of your W2s and any 1099s that have withholding on them.  You have to mail federal and state in separate envelopes because they go to different places.  Get a tracking number from the post office when you mail them for proof of filing.

[chuckcobb]

Re: getting help on this forum: I use TurboTax Online and got lots of help on there from at least 4-5 “TurboTax Tax Experts” associated with TurboTax support and none of them could figure out what was wrong until I tried getting an IP PIN from the IRS to validate the identity of my wife and I.

By the way, the AGI matching reason for rejection was a “red herring”.  Matching the AGI, in itself, was not the real issue; although the IRS said that was the reason the return was being rejected.  In every instance of the return I submitted, the AGI that I provided was an exact match to the 2024 AGI.  For whatever reason, that wasn't sufficient for the IRS and the IRS wanted additional information to corroborate with the AGI to verify our identity.  And nothing else worked until I tried using IRS IP PIN numbers to validate our identity.

i think that a root cause of this problem is that I’ve been using TurboTax Desktop for many years and this is the first year I’ve used TurboTax Online.  I think because my 2024 and 2025 returns were submitted from different software, the IRS may had had difficulty recognizing that the two returns were associated with the same individuals who submitted returns in 2024.  I’ve been using e-file with TurboTax desktop for at least 10-15 years and never had this kind of problem.