No, you are not alone, if that is any consolation to you! I do not mean to trivialize your problem, but my problem is (in fact, problems are) even more serious.
The nightmare of From 1116 Schedule B continues! My e-file was rejected by the IRS because of "a potential issue with the calculation of the carryover of foreign taxes" in the Form 1116.
I started using MacIntax by Chipsoft before they were acquired by Turbotax, and have been using their product every year since (well over 30 years now). I'm getting sick and tired of TT's growing incompetence, arrogance, predatory practices, and the declining quality and usefulness of their products and services. Specifically this year, my experience has been a disaster.
Summary: I have encountered what seems to be TWO DISTINCT bugs involving (1) e-filing, and (2) Form 1116 carryover calculation. I use the PC version of Turbotax Delux.
I have already spent several hours on the phone with TT support and neither of my issues has been resolved. As it stands, I am supposed to wait a few days to see what happens, while the TT representatives closed my two case numbers and no one seems to be following up on my issues. The reality is that the IRS has rejected TT's carryover calculations on my Form 1116, TT is not working to fix it, and short of divine intervention, I do not see how my waiting for a few days is going to change anything!
Here are the details (brace yourself):
1- Like so many others, I needed the new From 1116 Schedule B for carryover of my foreign taxes. Thus, I had to wait until the software update supporting this form became available on March 11. A number of workarounds were discussed on the forum before this latest update became available, but I did not even attempt any such workaround, because I did not want to mess around with overriding fields, manual entries, or manual attachments. I kept my return clean, while the TT software made me wait for the upcoming update to work on my Form 1116.
2- I updated TT on March 12 with the latest update. It then promptly went through with the Form 1116 and its Schedule B, without any issues. TT ran its error check, found no errors or issues with my (federal and state) returns, and I got to e-file my returns.
3- I successfully did the e-file and promptly received an "in progress" confirmation email from TT that said my returns were transmitted on March 12, 2022 at 12:17 AM PST, with estimated acceptance date on March 14.
4- At around 1 PM on March 14, I decided to check the status of my e-filed returns through the TT software. I opened my return in the program and clicked on the Check E-file status" tab. To my surprise, TT claimed that I have NOT e-filed my return! THIS IS MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE FIRST BUG! I had successfully e-filed on March 12, and I have the TT confirmation email to prove it. Now the same program that successfully e-filed my returns claims that I have not e-filed them!
5- I was annoyed that having wasted two days waiting, I now did not know which one to believe: the confirmation email from TT, or the TT program's claim that I have not e-filed.
6- To be safe, I decided to follow the lead of the program, which proposed to go ahead and e-file my returns. I clicked through the whole scenario without a hitch, and got to the page to click on the orange button to transmit my returns. I clicked the button to transmit. Churn, churn, churn, ..., and I get an error (actually the same error twice, once for my federal and once for my state) claiming that transmission failed because it was attempting to file duplicates! So, it seemed like my e-file on March 12 had been successful and the confirmation email was legitimate too. Clearly, then, there must be a bug in the TT software: instead of properly fetching and showing my e-file status as "in progress" it was claiming that I had not e-filed at all.
7- In disbelief, I ran through the same e-file scenario one more time. Again, the same error messages.
8- I called TT support. After a few failed attempts, I managed to pass through the pre-recorded obstacles and got to talk to a human. I have his name. He was the kind of "tech support" personnel that has no time to listen to the client, and believes his job description is to dismiss and deflect and distract and weave yarns to rationalize every clear anomaly. After some struggle, I shared my screen with him and I followed his instructions as he walked me through the same e-file scenario, as he watched, which ended (for the third time) with the exact same error messages claiming duplicate transmissions. No cornered, he said he needs to consult his resources to see what to do. So, he put me on hold. about 15 minutes later, he returned and said he needs to check more resources and put me on hold again. Ten minutes later, my call was dropped and a minute or two later, the screen share was closed. He did not have the decency to call me back, did not give me a (new) case number, and a few minutes later, I received an email from TT support stating that my original case number was closed.
I had wasted more than an hour with TT support by now with absolutely no results!
9- I called TT support again. navigated my way through the pre-recorded obstacles again, and after 20 minutes waiting, I ended up talking to another support representative. I have her name too. She was the opposite of the first representative. She listened carefully and cared to understand the problem. She first checked to see if the previous guy had left any notes that could perhaps help her about this case. She said he had left no notes on under the previous case number. So, she carefully listened to me explaining what had happened.
10- She checked and confirmed to me that she did actually see that my original e-file was successful and that they were waiting for the acceptance/rejection from the IRS. The previous representative did not even bother to do that!
11- OK, this sounded like a bit of good news: my returns had actually been sent to the IRS. But then clearly there was a bug in the TT software that prevented it from fetching the correct status of my return, and made it claim that I had not e-filed.
12- On my suggestion, I shared my screen with her to show her what I saw. She asked me to close the program and restart, just to make sure everything was clean. I did so. I restarted TT and shred my screen with her. She asked me to check for update, which I did, and she saw that my software was indeed up to date. Next, I opened my return and went to the Check E-file status tab. Again, it claimed that I had not e-filed my returns. We walked together through the e-file scenario one more time and got to clicking on the transmit button. I clicked and this time, the transmission was successful! This time, I did not get the duplicate transmission error that I used to get!
13- Now she was confused! She could see that I already had my earlier e-file pending, and the program should not have allowed me to e-file again. But this time, it did! Now we have two e-file problems: (1.A) why does the program keeps claiming that I have not e-filed, while I clearly had? and (1.B) why did it allow me this time to e-file again while I had one still pending? At least the earlier duplicate transmission error messages made some sense, but no what?
14- She went to read some material and see what she could find. She came back and asked me to see if I had received any emails in the meanwhile. Indeed, I had. A few minutes earlier, I had received two email messages from TT informing me that my transmitted returns had been rejected by the IRS. Here is part of one of these emails:
| | | E-file Status | | | | To check your status in TurboTax, select the File tab and then the "Check E-file status" sub-tab. | | | | If you e-filed any state returns, you'll receive a separate status email about that return. And remember, keeping a copy of all status update emails like this one is always a good idea. | | | | Important filing deadlines | | | | If your return is rejected before the April 18, 2022 tax extension filing deadline has passed, you can still correct and re-file your tax return before April 23, 2022. Learn more |
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| We'll walk you through updating and e-filing your return every step of the way. |
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| | | What happened | | | Fed_1116_Carryover_Foreign_Taxes - There is a potential issue with the calculation of the carryover of foreign taxes.
| | | | Next step | | | | We'll help you get this updated on your federal return and e-file. | | |
| | | To update your return | | | | Once you've opened your return in TurboTax, the details about what needs updating will be displayed. | | | | From there we can walk you through making the updates you need and help you e-file your return. If it isn't possible to e-file your updated return, we'll make sure you have everything you need to print and file your tax return by mail. | | |
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15- So clearly, the IRS has an issue with the calculation of the carryover of foreign taxes in my return. But, I did not do these calculations, TT did, and I never altered, override, or work-around anything that the program did. THIS IS THE SECOND ERROR. Clearly this has something to do with the new Form 1116 Schedule B worksheet.
16- Now, I have a rejected return that the email above says I should update by going to the Check E-file status sub-tab, which is supposed to fetch the error and show me the offending fields/values. Together with the support representative, we see that the program still claims that I have not e-filed, so she cannot see what issue the IRS has with my e-filed return.
17- After over an hour and 40 minutes with her, my call was dropped. She kept the screen share open, and called me back a few minutes later. We spent another half an hour or so back and forth, without any resolution.
18- Finally, she said that she thinks now that I have another e-file pending with the IRS, I should wait until we get the acceptance/rejection from the IRS for it, before we go further. This is likely to take another 48 hours or so.
19- My return will most likely get rejected again, because nothing has changed. Once I get the rejection, the TT program will still not allow me to see the issue flagged by the IRS, because it will still claim that I have not e-filed my return, as it does now. Short of a software update or divine intervention, I do not see how the same program will say something different in two days. I have no faith in divine intervention here, and do not see how TT may issue an update to resolve this program bug, before anyone at TT actually starts to work on it.
20- My return and all necessary information for TT to identify and reproduce the bug is available to TT right now. There is no excuse for TT not to start working on these two distinct bugs right now, neither ow which will go away by themselves before they do. Here are the two bugs, again:
Bug 1- The TT program consistently claims that I have not e-filed, in spite of the fact that I have done so successfully twice, already. Because it insists that I have not e-filed, it refuses to fetch the issue that the IRS flagged in my return, showing the second bug, below.
Bug 2- The IRS has some issue with the way TT has calculated the foreign tax carryover in Form 1116 Schedule B in my return. The failure of the TT program to fetch this reported issue and thus my inability to see it because of the first bug, above, does not make whatever is not kosher with how TT calculates carryover go away.
21 - The second tech support said that she had to close the case by the end of the day, because TT did not allow her to do otherwise. She also said that TT did not allow her to call me back or for me to somehow reconnect with her for the followup, once I received my all-but-certain rejection of my currently pending e-file from the IRS. Nevertheless, she assured me that she left copious notes so that hopefully, if I am luck and end up with another decent person the next time, she/he will have some useful information to begin with.
It seems to me that she was also unable to escalate either of the two bugs for serious technical investigation. I find the tech support policies of TT appalling. The incompetent, disastrous way that they have handled this Form 1116 Schedule B update was inexcusable already. Now it turns out that at least in some cases, TT does not do the carryover calculations correctly, which causes the IRS rejection. Bug 1, above, actually witnessed by two different TT support representatives, prevents me from figuring out what exactly the IRS objects to.
And TT does not seem to be inclined to escalate any of these problems to something worthy of serious technical examination.
Meanwhile, I have paid for the TT software, invested so much time and frustration in completing my returns, paid TT to e-file my state return as well, and I am unable to get the IRS to accept my returns (electronically or on paper) because the IRS has an issue with the way that TT calculates my foreign tax carryover!
