Update: My state return has been accepted as well. In the end you did stay with me through the ordeal so...Thank You!. The maddening part of all of this is when my spouse does not work and hasn't had a single source of income in over a decade can she have an AGI of anything but zero? Since I ended up using zero for each of us to get my return accepted then there is certainly something wrong at the IRS level. I say this because the supposed reason for entering zero is that the return for 2020 has not been processed. But I am certain it has. The reason I am certain is that I suffered this same senario for my 2020 return. I struggled with the AGI insanity until the clock struck 12 and I missed the timeline. So I mailed my return instead. For tax year 2020 we all had a time extention because of Covid. I mailed my return on 5/18/2021. The IRS acknowleded reciept of my return on 6/15/2021 (and cashed my check). However, they didn't process my retun until August 2021. That is the period of time used by the IRS to assess my penalty and interest. Which I promptly paid. So my return had been processed before November. I spoke directly to the IRS about my penalty. The person I spoke with was in the audit/collection department. He told me to create an IRS logon where I could view my transcripts. HE said " when you view your transcripts you will be seeing exactly what we see". My point being that the November connection for the need to enter zero as an AGI (although it works) doesn't correlate to my experience and adds to the confusion that we, the users, experience when we painfully try to be logical and understand the reason we make the entries we do.
So, this years experience has taught me that if the AGI is the reason your return is rejected try the following:
First submittal:Use the default suggestions in Turbotax for yours and your spouses AGI.
2nd Submittal: Leave yours unchanged and use zero for your spouse.
3rd submittal: Use zero for both yourself and your spouse.
It's easier and faster to just go through the motions than it is to try to make sense of iit all.
I suggest that Turbotax and the IRS together develop a system like Paypal has. Where the taxpayer has an account/logon with the IRS. Turbotax hands off the taxpayer to the IRS website for identity verification. The IRS website hands the taxpayer back to Turbotax with verification in hand and then the taxpayer can submit their return. The taxpayer doesn't have to drag out year old tax returns to doublecheck his/her AGI. And what about the PIN number?? Wasn't that supposed to be our verification?? After all these years (decades!) Turbotax and the IRS should be symbiotic. Please fix this.
