Short story...for anyone having problems with the "Officer's PIN Number" on the Michigan 1041...I simply picked a 5 digit number and entered it in "Forms" view. I received the Michigan "accepted" email about one and a half days later.
Long story...for many years I've been preparing a Fed and Mich 1041 return using TT. For the last couple years I started e-filing and have been able to successfully e-file the Fed 1041, but not the Mich 1041. TT would keep telling me during the review process I had an error in the Mich return because I was missing a PIN number. TT would also state something about how I had to file electronically, even though I've been mailing paper Mich 1041 returns for years without issue.
Anyways I dug around online and found two different Michigan Treasury documents which talked about this PIN number. One document said I had to apply to the IRS for the number (which seems odd since I don't need a PIN number to file the Fed 1041) and that Michigan would accept this same number. The other document said the PIN number was a 5 digit self-selected number! So I decided to test this out, since at worst the Mich e-file would simply get rejected, and I would just paper file again.
Since I was finished with both the Fed and Mich 1041 returns at this point and didn't want to go back through the "Step-by-Step" screens and risk changing something accidently, I went into "Forms" view, and entered my made-up 5 digit number in the "Officer/Trustee PIN Number" field on the "Information Wks" form under the "Michigan Estate/Trust" section.
Interestingly, after entering my number and then going on to the "FILE" tab back in the "Step-by-"Step" view, it said the Mich return could not be e-filed and had to be sent by mail -- but the screen afterwards had the option selected to e-file for Michigan! Very odd, but then TT does do odd things on occasion.
So I decided to plod along like nothing was wrong, and all went well (just like e-filing my 1040 for Fed and Mich), and I did get that "transmitted" screen at the end of the e-filing process showing that both the Fed and Mich 1041 returns were sent, cool!
Then came the waiting part. I received the Fed "accepted" email in about 25 minutes. I received the Mich "accepted" email a little over a day and a half later. For some reason Michigan "accepted" emails take awhile, I notice about the same time delay with my Mich 1040 "accepted" email.
Hope I've helped anyone who's been having the same PIN number issue! And of course, I'm pretty sure you need to keep that PIN number for use next year!!