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dp242
New Member

It says I can't file my Fed tax return online and I have to mail it. When I click "file by mail", it takes me back to the beginning ("Here are your filing choices").

 
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3 Replies

It says I can't file my Fed tax return online and I have to mail it. When I click "file by mail", it takes me back to the beginning ("Here are your filing choices").

Does it not give you any reason you can't efile?  Is there any error message?

 

Does your return have any income items, or is it a zero-income return?

 

Step through the screens in the REVIEW tab.   Is there any info there telling you why you can't efile?

dp242
New Member

It says I can't file my Fed tax return online and I have to mail it. When I click "file by mail", it takes me back to the beginning ("Here are your filing choices").

Thanks for your reply! It says I can't e-file because my 1040 has zero income fields. I am fine with mailing my return, but it won't really let me proceed. When I click mail my return, it takes me back to the review screen, so it's a bit circular... Not sure how to proceed. I will mail my fed return but e-file my NY state return, so if I can't progress on the site not sure how I can e-file?

It says I can't file my Fed tax return online and I have to mail it. When I click "file by mail", it takes me back to the beginning ("Here are your filing choices").

As I mentioned above, I was suspicious it might have been a zero-income return.    Why was it zero--did you have foreign earned income and used the exclusion for all the income?    TurboTax will not let you efile or print a zero-income return.

 

If you mail the Federal return, you cannot efile the NY state return.  You can only efile a state return if the Federal return is either efiled at the same time or has been efiled earlier and accepted.

 

I'm not a tax person, just a fellow user, but have seen others get around this dilemma in a couple of ways.  The easiest way is by entering $1 in interest income in the interest section so that it's no longer a zero-income return, then it should let you efile or print.    I have seen another alternative is to enter $1 in the category "other income" and labeling it as "in order to efile."

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