Turbotax doesn't accept an APO AP (Army Post Office/Armed Forces Pacific) address for child care provider

[Kwaj_dude]

I see that other people have had this problem as well, but it has not yet been addressed. I am trying to enter the EIN and address for my child care care provider, but it will not accept a military address. I am living overseas on a military base, and the address for the daycare center is an APO AP (Army Post Office/Armed Forces Pacific) address. Normally, AP (Armed Forces Pacific) would be a valid state that can be selected, but it is not listed as an option. If I try to leave the state selection blank, it will not accept it. If I try to use the zip code corresponding to the military address, it says that the zip code does not match the state and it will not accept it. If I try to select "Foreign or U.S. Territory" for the state, which is not accurate either, it demands a zip code, but will not accept it. The only option I see that I have is to select that my care provider is a foreign provider, but then I am not given the option to list the US EIN. This is a bug or oversight in Turbotax. You should provide the option for a military address for people living overseas on military bases.

[Opus 17]

U.S. citizens and resident aliens living abroad.

If you are living abroad, your care provider may not have, and may not be required to get, a U.S. taxpayer identification number (for example, an SSN or EIN). If so, enter “LAFCP” (Living Abroad Foreign Care Provider) in the space for the care provider's taxpayer identification number.

(There might be a checkbox to indicate your provider is an LAFCP, I have not tested this.)

If turbotax does not accept "LAFCP" or does not allow e-filing, you will have to use a fake SSN to get past the interview, then print your return, use some white-out or cover up the fake SSN and write in "LAFCP" and then file your return by mail.

(I don't know if you can e-file with LAFCP, and if you can't, I don't know if that is a Turbotax problem or an IRS rule.  It's nothing you can fix, so print and mail your return.)

[Kwaj_dude]

Hi Opus 17,

Thanks for your reply, but I think that you misunderstand me. I am trying to report a bug with TurboTax. If this is not that appropriate forum to report the bug in, then please let me know if there is a better way of doing that.

I am living abroad, on a US army base overseas with my family. My care provider (daycare center) DOES have a EIN, which I can enter into TurboTax. The problem is that TurboTax requires an address for the care provider, but it will not accept the military address for the daycare center here on the army base overseas. This is a bug with TurboTax, and I see that other people have complained about this same problem on this website in the past. Specifically, my daycare center has an APO AP address (Army Post Office, Armed Forces Pacific). If TurboTax were designed properly, when selecting the state for the daycare center, in addition to the options for the 50 states in the US, AP (Armed Forces Pacific) should be one of the additional options in order to accommodate US military addresses. If you are unfamiliar with this, you should look up what military addresses are. These are US addresses that are recognized by the United States Postal Service for people and organizations living and working on US military bases in foreign countries. However, since TurboTax does not have this functionality, I am unable to select "AP" as the state, and it does not accept the US zip code that I provide either because it is a US zip code associated with an AP address. 

I could identify my care provider (daycare center) as a foreign care provider, but that is not accurate, and then in that case TurboTax does not allow me to provide the EIN for the care provider. The actual solution should be that TurboTax should allow military addresses to be entered for care providers operating on US military bases in foreign countries, and it should recognize and accept those addresses as valid US addresses, as the US government does. This is a problem that TurboTax should try to fix in order to better serve US military personnel and government contractors that live and work on US military bases in foreign countries.

Thank you.