Typically, if your return is rejected, you would have received notification that the federal return was not successfully transmitted. The electronically filing error typically occurs if there is some sort of mismatch between your tax return versus the information the IRS has on file. In your case, since it was a first year business return, this appears to be the reason that the federal return was rejected as evidenced by the error message you posted. If you had tried to resolve the error, your final course of action would have been to mail in the tax return in.
Since you already in contact with the IRS, you might want to ask the agent you are in touch with to see if there is a way to send them the return directly so it gets processed while addressing your 2023 issue. If this is not an option, I'd recommend mailing your 2021 federal tax return as soon as possible to avoid any further interest or penalties.
You might be able to request assistance from a Taxpayer Advocate using this link. You can let them know your return was supposed to be electronically filed and you believed it was, but never received any notices from the IRS saying you were delinquent until you contacted them for your 2023 tax return. They may be able to request some sort of abatement of those interest and penalties due on that business return. It might not be possible but it doesn't hurt to try and request that assistance.
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