Efile not allowed with more than 4 states

[Jesse]

Warning - I have not read the instructions, I am hoping someone might have an answer to save a bit of time today (or tomorrow).

I have a young man that worked for a contractor in 9 different states. I am receiving a message from Proseries that I cannot efile the Federal with more than 4 states listed. He has a balance due to some of the states and a large balance due to the state of Wisconsin. He has a large refund from Federal.

We can just mail the state returns, but he is hoping to get the Federal refund back in time to pay the States. If we must print and mail I don't think this will happen.

So, my question is, must I include or can I omit all of the state information and efile only the Federal? Or can that lead to problems down the road for me or the taxpayer?

[David1980]

The reason you get this error is because only the first 4 states listed on the bottom of the W-2 get transmitted in an efile image.

The IRS really does not care about the state information on the W-2. If Proseries won't transmit the federal you could remove the extra entries - just make sure the total state tax paid for Schedule A is still there.

Alternatively, and although not entirely "correct", you could make 3 W-2's, make the first one normal with the first 4 states. Then on the 2nd/3rd put the same employer information put $1 in box 1 (can't efile $0 in box 1 unless there's a Q in box 12), and the remainder of the state information in the first 4 state boxes for each W-2 until all states have been entered.

Personally, I'd probably just remove the extra entries and correct the Schedule A taxes paid deduction. Then add the states back and mail those.

[Jesse]

Thank you for the response - and so quick!

Those are solutions I was hoping for. I will print and he can mail the States so he can efile the Federal, no itemized deduction so really the state information is not needed for Federal purposes.

[erchess]

State Efile

Most States can be e-filed directly as opposed to piggybacked with the Federal if your software supports this. Every software package I have used did support this very useful function.

[Possi]

Choose not to efile the state?

My program lets me decide whether or not to efile the state(s). One or all, it doesn't matter. I do not need to change my w2 entries at all.
Surely somewhere in the program there is a tiny little box that says "Efile this state return?" Check yes or no.

??

I had 2 clients back to back that moved mid-year from VA to NC and continued to work in VA. Just about drove me to drink. Two days of support from VA DOT later and now I am an expert on the topic. Filed VA Part-year, AND VA Non-resident, AND NC Part Year. ALL had to be paper filed with copies of each other's returns. It was nuts!

[Jesse]

The Federal was the problem with too many states on the W-2. All but WI are nonresident and except for GA and LA, none of the other states will not allow a nonresident return to be efiled - at least with Proseries.

It's easy enough to print and mail, I mostly want to efile federal so he can get his refund back and send in checks with the returns that he owes money, largest being WI because he had very little withheld for his resident state.

[Possi]

Oh!

I get it now. I see the problem and understand the answer. Making sure the Sch A has the right amount for taxes paid, efile the fed, then change up the states to do what you need them to do... ahhhh.

[Koss]

Multiple States

That's a lotta states...

You may need to do a part-year resident return in the State of Confusion.

BMK

[Jesse]

That's a lotta states...

You may need to do a part-year resident return in the State of Confusion.

BMK

Good one Burton! My State of mind is the State of Confusion!

[Gretel]

So, my question is, must I include or can I omit all of the state information and efile only the Federal? Or can that lead to problems down the road for me or the taxpayer?

Jesse, there is another general solution for dealing with e-file rejections from ProSeries that are not based on Federal or State law. ProSeries has lots of them. When you open the e-file dialog box, 2 boxes are checked automatically of which one is for error checking. Just uncheck that box.