Refund of my taxes

[Camille matheau]

Hello, I am French. I was J1 in New york, I cannot submit my file. The site tells me that the transmission cannot be submitted, I do not understand why, I have filled in all the necessary information. If you can help me please. Have a good day Camille matheau.

[mesquitebean]

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@ Camille matheau wrote:

Hello, I am French. I was J1 in New york, I cannot submit my file. The site tells me that the transmission cannot be submitted, I do not understand why, I have filled in all the necessary information. If you can help me please. Have a good day Camille matheau.

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 Does your return show any income, or is it a zero-income return?

Is there more to the error message?  Does it show any error code such as this:

601ERRV:5, CustHdr_17 - ?:? - Invalid SMS Number. Must be between 10 and 10 digits.

More importantly, you mentioned a J1 visa.  More information is needed to see if you can even use TurboTax to prepare your return.  TurboTax can only prepare returns for US citizens and "resident aliens for tax purposes."  TurboTax cannot prepare a Form 1040NR/NR-EZ for non-resident aliens, but there is a partner affiliate that can--Sprintax (with one "t")--that we can tell you about, if it comes to that.   

In order to figure out how you are classified for tax purposes and whether you can use TurboTax, please answer the following:

1)  When did you first come to the USA, and when did you leave, or are you still here?

2)  You already said you are/were on J1 visa.

3)  By French do we assume that your citizenship is France?

4)  Are you married?

I'm not a tax expert, but once you answer those questions, I can ask someone familiar with international filing to help you on how you are classified and if you can use TurboTax or not.

[Camille matheau]

I have done my refund taxes on the website Turbi tax. But i don’t understand why my file cannot be transmitted, i have filled in all the informations. I worked in NYC in 2019 from may to august. I am a student in france I made this trip and this work for my studies. I'm not married. I don't know who to contact i cannot validate my file.

[mesquitebean]

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@Camille matheau wrote:

I have done my refund taxes on the website Turbi tax. But i don’t understand why my file cannot be transmitted, i have filled in all the informations. I worked in NYC in 2019 from may to august. I am a student in france I made this trip and this work for my studies. I'm not married. I don't know who to contact i cannot validate my file.

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As for the technical reason you can't efile, you have not provided enough information to know.  We don't know what your exact error message is.  I asked a couple of questions at the beginning of my comment above to try to get more info, and you didn't respond to them.

But that may be a moot point.  It sounds like you prepared the wrong kind of return.   If the only months in total that you have been in the USA on the J1 visa were those 4 months of May to August of 2019, then it sounds like you are a nonresident alien and cannot use TurboTax.   TurboTax cannot prepare returns for nonresident aliens since it cannot prepare the correct form, which is 1040NR/NR-EZ.   TurboTax can only prepare Form 1040 returns for USA citizens and "resident aliens for tax purposes".  There is an exception if you are a nonresident alien married to a US citizen/resident alien and file a joint return, but you said you are unmarried.    If you file the wrong kind of tax return, you would later have to amend it and file the correct one.

If that's your situation and you are classified as a nonresident alien, see this FAQ.    It also has a link to Sprintax (one t) that can prepare nonresident alien returns.

FAQ:  Does TurboTax handle Form 1040-NR for nonresident aliens?

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/forms/help/does-turbotax-handle-form-1040nr-for-nonresident-aliens...

Also see this FAQ: Can I file a 1040 or do I have to file a 1040-NR?

Read there about the substantial presence test.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-topics/help/can-i-file-a-1040-or-do-i-have-to-file-a-1040-nr/0...

If you are a nonresident alien, you may also have an additional form to file, too, in addition to your nonresident tax return, but I'm not familiar with international filing.  Since I'm not a tax person, I'm going to see if @pk or @Critter-3 can weigh in with any more info.   Or you can contact Customer Support at Sprintax (link in first FAQ above.)

EDITED: 10/30/2020 at 11:55 AM Pacific

  I originally stated here that since you are using a free product you do not have TurboTax phone support, so I'm revising this paragraph.  However, I see you may be using the PLUS product, which does have TurboTax phone support.   I'll explain all that in another comment below.   But if you are required to file a nonresident alien return, they can't help you further with using TurboTax; you would need to use Sprintax and seek their help to prepare a non-resident tax return.

[mesquitebean]

As I mentioned above, if you are a nonresident alien, you need to be dealing with Sprintax (or other international tax preparer) to prepare a Form 1040NR return and not TurboTax.   However, if you do need to contact TurboTax, if you have the PLUS product (i.e., Free Edition with PLUS), then, phone support is included. So if you have PLUS and can call internationally, you can either phone them or use messaging at Twitter or Facebook.  But they may not be able to help you much with a nonresident return.

FAQ: What is the TurboTax phone number?
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/using-turbotax/help/what-is-the-turbotax-phone-number/00/25632

Or use this contact form:
https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact

Or you can contact a TurboTax Support agent directly via messaging at Twitter or Facebook.

https://twitter.com/TeamTurboTax
or
https://www.facebook.com/turbotax

[pk]

@Camille matheau ,  there are two issues here and that is why @mesquitebean  asked for more information from you.

(a) assuming that you are/were qualified to file a form 1040  ( i.e. filing as a resident for tax purposes ),  e-filing by TurboTax has been closed -- because the last day for filing  ( with extension ) was  Oct. 15th. 2020 for the tax year 2019. Thus everything generally shuts down  by the end of the month only to allow for the corrections for rejected returns.  IRS shuts down the  E-file around the thrird week of Nov -- 21/22 Nov kind of time frame  for cut over  testing for the year 2020.  File by mail continues  till the end of the year  atleast -- .  Perhaps you should file by mail --- Tell TurboTax that you want to file  by mail, print out the form  ( for filing and keep an additional copy for yourself ), sign, date  and send to the IRS by mail / delivery service.

(b) there is question as to whether you are qualified / eligible to file your return using the form 1040 -- perhaps you are still a Non-Resident Alien ( for tax year 2019 ) and therefore need to file using the form 1040-NR or 1040-NR-EZ.  These forms are not supported by TubroTax  ( their partner  SprinTax does support these forms ).  Hence the questions to understand  which form you would need to file.  There could be a tax liability difference depending on your immigration status  ( Resident vs. Non-Resident).

Please answer the questions posed by  @mesquitebean , so we can help you file correctly

pk