Names on tax return

[Questionguy101]

My program limits the total characters of the taxpayer and spouse names to 35. They said it is an efile requirement.

So what I am thinking to do is to first type their full names and print a copy of the tax return for them. And then I will change the name of the spouse(use an initial only for her first name) in order to meet the 35 characters requirement when I efile the tax return for them. But then the names on the efile return and the name on their hard copy will not be the same (spouse name on efile return is an initial while her first on the hard copy return is complete). Would it be a problem?

[PIGLEE]

I leave them the same, that way they know how their return was submitted to IRS. Also less confusing. I do the returns while they are at my desk, so I explain what I have to do, and they sometimes have suggestions on how to shorten their name. Never has been a problem. There are always little quirks, some are surprising.

[erchess]

I use Drake Software

and it must be doing something for me because it lets me type in whatever I wish and it must shorten for efiling when needed. I would look in the software but I don't have access to my preparation computer at this time.

[Questionguy101]

and it must be doing something for me because it lets me type in whatever I wish and it must shorten for efiling when needed. I would look in the software but I don't have access to my preparation computer at this time.

I use Drake too. Yes they let you type in whatever you wish in screen 1. But then there would be a red tag which disallow e-filing.

[erchess]

Now that I think about it

I believe that I have one client (who I haven't done this year but who will be returning because they are family) who runs into that problem. I don't remember what I did last year to solve the problem but I do know that I produced only one version of the return. I have no idea whether what you propose is technically ok or not but given a choice I will run afoul of an occasional client rather than the code and the regs.

[David1980]

The e-file specifications are easily obtained. It's IRS Publication 1346.

Yes, the name field (like most text fields) is limited. There's an order of truncation software is supposed to do. So very often they'll let you type more into the name fields then what actually gets transmitted.

Especially when you have something like multiple last names and deceased taxpayers (it adds "DECD" to the name field.)

Here's some examples from Pub 1346 showing the truncation.

Examples:* Enter as:
John C. (Brown), III JOHN C<BROWN<III
John M. (Brown), M.D. JOHN M<BROWN
Henry A. (Carter) HENRY A<CARTER
Frank N. (De Porta) FRANK N<DE PORTA
Timothy (Jackson), 2nd TIMOTHY<JACKSON<II
Carl A. (Jones) & Angie Myer CARL A<JONES<& ANGIE MYER
Charles (Jones) & Diane D. Jones, M.D. CHARLES & DIANE D<JONES
Florence E. (Jones) MD FLORENCE E<JONES
Alfred (Newman), Minor ALFRED<NEWMAN<MINOR
James R. (O'Donnell) JAMES R<ODONNELL
James (Oliver-Keogh), 3rd JAMES<OLIVER-KEOGH<III
Lillie B. (Owen-Smith) LILLIE B<OWEN-SMITH
J. B. (Smith) Jr. & Ann Trent J B<SMITH<JR & ANN TRENT
John A. (Smith), III & Ann Smith, M.D. JOHN A & ANN<SMITH<III
John A. and Jane B. (Smith) JOHN A & JANE B<SMITH

So you can imagine with names longer than "John" a lot can get dropped. Not to worry, the IRS will accept the return based on the first 4 characters of the last name. Only the first 4, they don't care about the rest. So if you type the 5th character wrong or just omit the 5th character the return will still get accepted. 4 characters is enough.

(Personally, I'd like to be able to type a reasonably long name, so long as it'll print on the return, and let the software truncate it to whatever it needs to be to efile. Imposing efile limits on what prints out is silly for things like names!)

[taxea]

Doesn't an efile only send the last four letters of the last name? It certainly does not send the forms as we are used to seeing them but rather only the line numbers and amounts input on those lines.

[DonPriebe]

Doesn't an efile only send the last four letters of the last name? It certainly does not send the forms as we are used to seeing them but rather only the line numbers and amounts input on those lines.

The e-file sends a combination of things that are visible and things that are not. For example on a 1040, line one of the taxpayer name is sent as record 60. The four character name controls for both the taxpayer and spouse are separately calculated and sent as records 50 and 55.

See http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=186111,00.html for the 1040 or Pub 1346 if you suffer from insomnia.