Rejected 2019 return based on my deceased spouse's agi

[Craig b]

Same issue.  Can someone from turbo tax respond on how to file electronically. Nys does not allow for printed submissions.  

I paid for premiere and two states.  I shouldn’t have issues this silly. 

[Craig b]

Same issue. I file a married joint return for my parents. This year my dad passed away.  Federal return keeps being rejected and state auto rejects based on fed rejection.  NYS does not allow paper filings.  I really do not wish to risk using a 3rd party software to file 

Can someone from turbo tax respond on how to file electronically?  This does not seem difficult to fix.  

[ToddL99]

Depending on when your father passed away, the IRS may have already updated their database to show his SSN as associated with a deceased person. If that is the case, you may have to file a paper return.

(New York will accept paper returns - NY's "requirement to efile" has several exceptions and your situation would apply).

If you are getting an AGI reject,  try entering "0" for your father's AGI (before filing by paper/mai)l. 

If you’ve tried everything and nothing works, you can still file a paper return by printing out copies of your federal and state returns and mailing them. We’ll include File by Mail Instructions on where to send your returns and what forms, if any, you need to include. 

And, our condolences for the loss of your father.

[dianalarose]

>>>>the IRS may have already updated their database to show his SSN as associated with a deceased person.

Okay, I may not have "Tax Expert" after my name. but this frequently used "explanation" is NOT CORRECT.

. 

Many people who die during a given year owe income taxes for that year. To the IRS, that money is just as green as the money from living people. The IRS expects to receive this money and doesn't roadblocks in the way.

Although the state office of social security must be notified when someone passes, the federal government doesn't keep close tabs on who has recently died.  The IRS usually doesn't even know about it until the deceased taxpayer's spouse or representative files a final resturn and puts a check in the "Deceased" box. That's why so many dead people are receiving stimulus checks from the IRS.

If you're having problems with rejected returns because you are a recent widow(er) filing joint:

** Try using zero as your AGI

** Fill out the return with yourself as primary filer, not your late spouse

** Ditch TT and use FreeTaxUSA. Their software uses the correct format for your info and won't cause the IRS to reject you if you're in this situation. Other tax programs surely work too, but I used FreeTaxUSA and the SAME information that kept getting me rejected with TT was accepted almost immediately.

[fuzzy1]

how do i enter this so it is accepted electronis

[TiffanyL]

The article posted below has some information pertaining to the issue you are having. If this does not help, the only other thing you could do would be to print and mail your return:

TurboTax Online instructions for E-file reject IND-031-04 or IND-032-04: The AGI or Self-select PIN ...

[emq1096]

@fuzzy1  What finally works for me is to put myself as the first taxpayer and my late husband as second taxpayer.  As for the AGI, I put in the previous year’s figure.  Give this a try.  Hopefully it will work for you too 

[emq1096]

@TiffanyL  Hate to disagree.  I did all of that and it doesn’t work. What works is to list myself as first taxpayer and then I can enter info to verify identity as such while preparing efile.  Having my late husband as the first taxpayer did not give me the option to verify the identity.   Nothing TT suggested works to solve the issue.   TT needs to listen and seriously take a good look at this since it is NOT an isolated issue.

[Pattoncrew]

Nothing worked for me. I had to paper file. Checking my status to see if the IRS has received. No record yet of receipt of my paper returns. Last time I will use T.T. 

[SForrestLO]

This Turbo Tax FAQ will provide information on what to put for your AGI if you didn't file last year or don't have the correct AGI.

Incorrect or no AGI

[GBtaxes]

In my case, putting my name as primary and my deceased spouse as secondary also corrected the issue. My spouse died in 2020 before the 2019 joint return was submitted. There were no issues e-filing the 2019 return with TurboTax. I suspect the IRS rejected the 2020 return because they reject a second joint return having the deceased spouse listed as primary. If this is always the case, TurboTax can easily fix the issue whenever the prior year return indicates the primary taxpayer was deceased by automatically swapping the primary and secondary taxpayers on the current return. If this is not a universal problem, there should be an option to make this change after the IRS rejects the return.

TurboTax does not make the process of switching taxpayers easy. I thought I could use a copy the return and simply cut and paste to swap the taxpayer information for primary and spouse. Doing that didn't work because the file still shows the return as being rejected by the IRS. You cannot treat it as an entirely different return and submit from scratch.

My next step was to create a new return, import the taxpayer information from the prior year's tax file, and swap the information listed as primary and spouse. It should have been easy to merely enter the values from the current W2(s) and 1099(s), but swapping names also changed the individual associated with them. My spouse's W2 was listed as mine. Swapping taxpayer names requires deleting the imported W2 information and importing or re-entering the information as a new W2. The 1099s can be corrected by clicking on the appropriate owner. In essence, the only real way to swap the primary and secondary taxpayer on an already completed tax return is to completely redo it.

Why TurboTax associates forms by whether the person on it is primary or spouse instead of tying it to the taxpayer ID is beyond me.

[Ksiebs006]

It’s 200% Turbo Tax issue.  I had the exact same rejections over and over and the AGI was right.  They are missing something for the deceased taxpayer so AGI doesn’t transfer to IRS.  I went to FreeTaxUSA and filed exactly the same and IRS accepted it.  I’m extremely upset.  It’s unexplainably horrible that I lost my spouse last year now Turbo Tax took $230 of my dollars to prepare my taxes I couldn’t even file.  I’m pissed and will never ever use Turbo Tax again after 10 years of doing so.  Nice way to treat a widow and her small child. 

[Ksiebs006]

Did Turbo refund your money?  They took $230 from me and it wouldn’t e-file but FreeTaxUSA submitted it and it was accepted it in 20 mins 

[MoniqueLO_]

Please see below for information on how to contact Customer Support for assistance as we are not able to assist with billing issues over AnswerXchange.

https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact/

[97hk]

can anyone, who successfully switch the deceased primary to spouse, please tell me how to do the switching on the 2020 tax return?  mine is rejected for the same reason - not matching the AGI/pin # from last year.  i don't want to paper filed as suggested by TT.