TurboTax Business won't let me efile, tells me I need to correct Special Name Control for trust filing. I have verified that the Special Name Control is correct. ???

[stephaneroy]

Trust name and date are correct. I have already filed 2 trusts with no trouble. Special Name control matches form CP575B. What gives?

[JulieS]

Yes, you can check, and change,  the name control on the Fiduciary Information Worksheet. It's a four letter code used to verify the name of the trust and it may not match the name, or IRS records. 

Here's how to find it:

1. Open your software, then the trust return.
2. Select the Forms icon in the upper right corner. 
3. Highlight Information WKS in the list on the left.
4. You will see the Special Name Control in the box at the right end of the first line. 

If your trust is named for a person, the name control will be the first four letters of the last name. For example, if your trust is named The John C. Smith Revocable Trust, the name control is SMIT. 

If the trust is named The Western Reserve Trust, the name control would be WEST. 

The special name control can't have any special characters other than & or - , but it can have numbers or letters.  If you need more help figuring out the name control, follow this link for more details. 

[stephaneroy]

Well, the first word in the name of the trust is only 3 letters. The name control is those 3 letters, and the first letter of the next word, omitting the space, as per IRS instructions. This matches IRS form Cp 575B for this trust. So, I know what the name control is, and it is correct.

However turbotax throws an error about the 4th character, the 1st letter of the second word in the name of the trust. I finally tried just deleting that character, and having turbotax use a 3-letter name control that doesn't match IRS form CP575B, and then turbotax accepted & confirmed the e-file. 

I don't know what's going on, this is my first time having to deal with name control, but it feels like a bug in turbotax.

[Quercus]

With the TurboTax 2024 Business product, I had the same problem: "Filer's EIN and Name Control in the Return Header must match data in the e-File database." 

It is interesting that the council in the same TurboTax message suggested: "... the IRS recommends you call the IRS e-File Helpdesk at (866) 255-0654  to determine what corrections need to be made to the name in the e-File extension." The first person I spoke with said the number was for professional tax preparers. I tried again hoping for a person who would be willing to help. They confirmed the information transmitted. The trust name was (changing the name, but keeping the same number of characters): "Trust FBO Karen Rockwell Silken" and the generated name control was KAR. I added an E using the instructions from @JulieS to make the name control KARE and resubmitted. The return was accepted 🙂

The helpful person, with whom I spoke, said that if one called [phone number removed], they would be authorized to tell me the four name control. I would have tried that had my guess not worked. That number advertised a 55 minute wait, as opposed the 4 to 7 minute wait for the number that I called.