I successfully e filed four Federal returns this spring. A fifth return was rejected and had to be mailed in.
Today, I attempted to e file a fifth return for another friend (while late, he was getting a refund) and the attempt was rejected with msg that 5 free e files had already been used.
The only possible explanation was that earlier failed attempt was indeed counted towards the five free filings.
Unfortunatly that is hoe the program works and return that gets rejected does not make the number of returns filed go up when rejected.
You can file five times and if rejected still counts as one of your five filings.
But if it never gets accepted, as in my case since they had to mail in their return, it counted as one of the five.
Just spoke with Tech Support. For a specific return, rejections are not counted as filings. However, if you are unable to efile for some other reason, as in my case, and file by mail then that return will be counted as one of the five efilings.
Tech support does not understand and giving wrong information. As soon as you submit a teturn it is counted as one of your five. There is nothing in the program to change your number of returns submitted if the return is rejected.