After you file

Read Carefully: 

Last year I filed through a different FREE online software and I was having this exact error. However, I read here somewhere that putting a zero worked, so I put zero for spouse prior year’s AGI. This year I am having the exact same issue, but since i am filing with TurboTax not by choice but because i have more complex tax situation including 401k cash out etc... I chose Turbotax. Anyways, I got the same error, to those who think it is a Turbotax problem, or if your spouse is deceased, no it is not just that. It is on the IRS end, because other people get the same error.

Now the important stuff, if you are reading this and you are not using Turbotax, figure a way to put your spouse’s agi zero and see if it works “honestly it will most likely work”. Now if you are using Turbotax, the issue is they will ask you to correct the spouse’ agi, when you put zero they literally redo the filing thing again and they ask you for the agi again, so, if you do the actual agi then they override the zero you just put and when you send you will get rejected again, and if you put zero on all they put zero for both of you and your spouse, and again you will get rejected........to resolve this: wen Turbotax redo the filing steps again and asks you if you both filed a return last year “which most people will put both yes” instead put only one filed a tax return, a sub menu will open a new question and it will ask specifically who didn’t file a return last year, choose your spouse didn’t file a tax return last year “Turbotax will automatically put zero as your spouse’s agi”, then go ahead and finish the return, put your prior years agi as usual when prompted and this should work for many people. 

If this works for you please come back a comment so others now it is working, because next year, just like I did, you will be here again looking for this answer because you will forget. Best of luck