Form 5695 Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit

[esferre]

 I just completed and e-filed my 2024 Tax returns, both Federal and State and they both were rejected.

I Jointly own my property with my someone else, who is also filing separately. I can't file my federal return with the Form 5695 joint occupancy box checked. Although I did pay for the entirety of energy improvements, there is no way to manually adjust the worksheet to indicate this. I also noticed that TurboTax checked "NO" for all three boxes on lines 17a, 17b, and 17c of this form. These are questions that have to do with, qualified improvements installed in your main home,  the original user of the qualified energy efficiency improvement, and the length of time (5 years) that the improvement is expected to remain in use. All of these questions were correctly answered by me,  "YES", but when I look at the actual 5695 form it generated, TurboTax checked the "NO" box. 

Anyone know what is going on with this. Is this a program bug? How do you fix this?

Thank you for your help.

[CatinaT1]

You might try deleting the form and reentering it to solve the issue with the boxes being checked no instead of yes. See below on how to delete a form. 

Additionally, if you have Form 5695 and claiming joint occupancy, the IRS will not be accepting these returns until 3/16/25. You can see this on this IRS site. The language you see below is from Row 39 of the Tax Year 2024 spreadsheet.

Taxpayers claiming Joint Occupancy on Form 5695 will have to file via paper if filing their return before the Form 5695 schema is updated in mid-March. This temporary limitation should only impact a subsection of Form 5695 filers.  For a preview of the TY24 draft form and instructions for Form 5695, please see the Draft tax forms on IRS.gov at https://www.irs.gov/draft-tax-forms. Submission of Forms 5695 that do not claim Joint Occupancy may be e-filed at the start of Processing Year 2025

See if you have form 8915 from a prior year in your return. Perhaps you took a distribution in an earlier year? 

If you are using:

• TurboTax Online: see How do I view and delete forms in TurboTax Online?
• TurboTax Desktop:
  1. On the top right, there is a FORMS button.
  2. Click on FORMS.
  3. Locate the form you want to delete.
  4. Click on the form name.
  5. Below the form, bottom left, select DELETE FORM button.

[esferre]

Thank you so much for your answer.  I deleted the 5695 form and went through the questions and answers again, this time to the Question of "Joint Ownership" I answered NO (even though this is not true) and then I tried to e-file again and it came back being rejected with the same issue and it keeps saying to either manually submit the return by mailing it in or wait till after March 17 to e-file.  

[AnnetteB6]

In addition to waiting until March to file the return or filing it by mail, you can consider deleting the Form 5695 altogether and filing your return without it.

Then, you can file an amended return later to claim the credit from Form 5695.  

@esferre 

[esferre]

Thank you for your answer. I guess I could do that to get part of the refund now. I think I will wait till after March 17 and go for the whole enchilada. Lets see what happens.

[RichHarrelson]

I tried today and the form still seems to have an issue. IRS says fixed on March 23, but I see March 17 in TurboTax documentation.

[RachelW33]

Joint Occupancy for Form 5695 is estimated to be ready in TurboTax near the end of March as long as the IRS has resolved the issue by then. Currently, the IRS resolution date shows as 3/23/25 and the estimated TurboTax release day is 3/27/25. @RichHarrelson 

Please see IRS Known Issues and Solutions.  Click on the 2024 link and the Form 5695 Joint Occupancy issue is Row 55 of the spreadsheet.

[RichHarrelson]

And so what happens if the IRS does not get the form fixed by April 15. Am I allowed to file an extension? 

[AnnetteB6]

You are always allowed to file an extension if you wish.  The only issue is whether you owe taxes or not.  If you have an expected balance due, that must still be paid by April 15th and then reconciled when you file your actual return.

See the following TurboTax help article to learn more:

How do I file an IRS tax extension?
 

@RichHarrelson