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

[zapjack]

My wife and I are filing as married/filing-jointly.  My wife and I worked at the polls for the last election.  The township we worked in sent us two very similar looking W-2s -- same employer (the township), same amount paid for the day working at the polls, etc., but a separate W-2 for each of us.  Our federal return is getting rejected as "Duplicate W2 - Unfortunately, we've noticed your return may have included duplicate W2 information. Please login to TurboTax in order to resolve this issue before we can e-file your accurate return."

There is nothing to correct -- the W-2s are for two separate people. If they were to the  same person I would assume that I could add them together and submit as one combined W-2, but the W-2s are for two different people with different SSNs.

[SteamTrain · Accepted solution]

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...

[crismanad]

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.

[SteamTrain]

@crismanad 

And you tried my #2 suggestion? 

[id57]

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. 

[zapjack]

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).

[zapjack]

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).

[beejay99158]

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 !! 

[ngobel125]

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. 

[SForrestLO]

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.

[apfata]

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?

[fanfare]

@apfata 

try another tax software provider.

[awaylu]

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

[Bonnyrabbit79]

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

[clevelandmb]

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.