Turbo Tax won't let me efile state this year

[okey1211]

I am a retired widower from Indiana receiving SS and Pensions.  I provide the same input to the online TT program as always, nothing changes from year to year.  But for the first time in about eight years being with TT using the same 1099s, etc. year after year for me, TT suddenly says while I can efile my Federal, I have to mail my State Return! Nothing I can see has changed from previous years.  They present me with this cryptic message...

Well, it looks like you have a tax situation in the Indiana return that makes it ineligible for efiling.

Reason for efile ineligibility:

At least two of the three withholding amounts (Federal Income Tax Withholding, State Income Tax Withholding, and Local Income Tax Withholding ) on 1099-R have the same dollar amount.

Huh?!  I have gone back and checked Fed and State and several times.  Compared it to previous years.  I have no idea what they are talking about.  I'm not very good at taxes, but have had no issues up until now.  This year's is practically a carbon copy of previous years.  I'm done, I'm paid, and I want to efile both together.  What can I do?  Could it be a glitch in their program?  MUST I snail mail my Indiana State return?  Will TT provide me with the completed Indiana return for mailing it if I have to?

[ThomasM125 · Accepted solution]

You may need to mail the return in. I don't think it is a glitch in the program. You will be provided with an address with the mailing instructions when you print out your tax return.

The message is saying that the tax withheld in box 4, 14 or 17 on one of your forms 1099-R is the same amount as on another form 1099-R. Because of this, your state will not allow your return to be e-filed. It is possible that you entered one of the forms twice, as it is unusual for those numbers to be the same on different forms. That is why you have to mail the return in, as the state wants to verify that the forms were entered correctly.

[okey1211]

Thank you for that quick reply.  I just went thru my 1099-R forms "again".  No form has any of those boxes' value identical to another 1099-R's boxes.  All unique values.  However...

...one of the 1099-R forms sent to me has the same value in box 4 (Fed tax withholding) as it does in box 14 (State tax withholding).  I never noticed that before.  That shouldn't be, should it?  Could that be the problem?  What if I just leave that State withholding box blank like the rest of my 10990-Rs are?

If I mail it in, will I have to include the state portions of all m y 1099s like the old days?

[DaveF1006]

Yes, if you mail both the federal and state returns, you will need to send in paper copies of income forms such W2's, 1099R's, 1099-NEC etc.

[Kcz]

I agree there is a glitch. I think Turbo Tax needs to investigate this as we got the exact same message. We also live in Indiana, and boxes 4, 14, and 17 all have $0 as the amount. Calling these "identical" and flagging them is troublesome, because $0 should not be an "identical amount" trigger.

If this is not investigated and the faulty algorithm not corrected, I think we should get a refund on the money we paid Turbo Tax. We should not be paying for such a poorly written algorithm.

[RobertB4444]

@Kcz  TurboTax views zero as an amount entered and analyzes it accordingly.  Don't enter the zeroes, leave the fields blank.

[Cjohnson132]

Also in Indiana and I'm having the same problem. With this many people from the same state experiencing the same problem, I am beginning to doubt that this issue is user error. I have now uploaded and manually entered all of my income and I also left boxes intentionally blank that were 0 as you suggested. Two full tax returns on the mobile website. I am now trying on desktop PC which, coincidentally was the only way I was able to reply to you. If this doesn't work, I suppose I might try once more on the mobile app before moving on and having them prepared by someone else, but I've already spent over two hours trying to get this done.  

[CarissaM]

Please let us know if it does not work @Cjohnson132.

[calremy2018]

Both my federal and state shows no error but when I went e-file, my state says I can't e-file and need to send paper form in. I am in MN, and this never happen to me before. I went through mine twice over and there is no error but won't e-file state.

[CarissaM]

Did it give an exact error that causes you to file by mail? @calremy2018

[bres1]

I'm getting the same message and also in MN. It's not giving an exact error message.

[Katrina LO]

You may need to contact customer service directly for assistance. Please see the following information here for more details.

[Cjohnson132]

So the numbers round up or down because the IRS only accepts your whole dollars on your information. So double check and make sure your numbers won’t ROUND into each other. I had two numbers that were different when I entered them, but ROUNDED (up on one/down on the other) to the same number. That’s why it kept kicking back my state return. Why TurboTax’s system or the live tax expert were unable to figure that out I’ll never know, especially since I was able to figure that out by using a competitor, but I reckon TurboTax should create a way to force your tax return through.