I am filing married separate because I am literally separated from my wife. Why am I required to provide two forms of her ID when last year I only needed her SSN??

[antrandi1]

it would be very difficult for me to obtain two forms of identification at this moment, so I certainly hope that her Social Security number would suffice like it did last year unless there was some sort of wall change or rule change with TurboTax I certainly hope it’s not the case

[Vanessa A]

Where are you being asked for 2 forms of her ID?  When you file the return, you should only be asked for your drivers license at the end right before you transmit the return.  You should not be asked for anything at all other than her SSN and name and a couple other questions about her living with you and if she is claiming itemized deductions.  

Are you sure you chose Married filing separately?  Go back to the personal info section and double check. 

[antrandi1]

This is where it is asking me for my spouses license and a second form of ID for her. This is on the TurboTax app and this is where it automatically brings me when I login because I already began the process of filing for my 2024 return and as of right now I have a meeting scheduled to meet with my tax expert this Friday I suppose I could just wait until then and bring this issue to their attention and hopefully they can guide me And explain that I do not need my spouse’s license and her Social Security number will suffice. I tried looking everywhere for any other links to go back and view my personal information to confirm that it said I’m filing married separately  but there doesn’t seem to be any option to go back to confirm that but I am 99.9% positive that it asked me if I wish to file the same way as I did last year, which was married separately when I first logged into my TurboTax account this year, only a few days ago. 

[CatinaT1]

What options do you have if you click on Steps or More down at the bottom? It seems you must not have selected Married Filing Separately.

[Opus 17]

@Vanessa A 

@CatinaT1 

Is this a problem with the Live Assist or Live Full Service program?

@antrandi1 

In general, if you hire a tax expert, they have to do "due diligence" to make sure that what you are telling them is correct.  (So you can't lie to them and trick them to file a false return for you, for example.)

I suspect that, if you correctly selected MFS, that the due diligence function of the expert assistance program is not flexible enough to recognize this situation.  It wants you to upload the specified number of documents.  The software might not let you proceed without an upload, but it is a human who will review the documents.   If you are sure you are asking to file MFS, then I suggest that for those document requests, you could upload a photograph of a blank piece of paper with the words "I am filing MFS and you should not need my spouse's ID" and see if your expert asks for more. 

As a second possible problem, if you previously filed a joint return with your spouse using the same online account, their name and info is still attached to your account even if you select MFS this year.  It is recommended that you start over with a new online account (new user name and password, can be attached to the same email address).