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").

[mesquitebean]

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]

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?

[mesquitebean]

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."