Oct 15 crisis - Some help please

[FEDUKE404]

It's STILL a W2

How about putting the W-2 information on line 21, with the notation that employer has an EIN mixup. Get the income on the return; no amendment is needed.

Maribeth

That would kinda muck up withholding/FICA/etc stuff shown on the otherwise correct W2.

For the employee there is more involved than "income."

FE

[Burke]

If the employer filed the W-2 with the IRS with the incorrect number, it is going to hang up the return anyway since the withholding won't match. At this late date (and I am assuming it is the client's delay in not getting his information to you way before the deadline) I wouldn't worry about getting him his refund -- or a large portion of it -- fast. None of this appears to be your fault.

[RitaB]

Ah

I have dealt with this (only once) by deleting the offending W-2, and then overriding line 7 and the line for witheld tax. The return was exactly right. Everything was peachy.

And, yes, it may have been my lucky day.

[appelman]

Best idea yet!

Why the hangup about getting it efiled? Just staple the 8879 to a paper copy and mail it in. Not including income on the return that you know about is going to get you in trouble with OPR, especially if you are an EA.

Right on! Under these conditions, a signed 8879 will always be accepted as a signature document for a paper filing. A copy of the e-file reject report should be attached, and perhaps an explanatory note. And, of course, all the W-2's! If there's a mismatch in a W2 on a paper filing, the IRS will sort it out.

We do this all the time in the VITA/TCE world when it is too late to get back to the client.

[FEDUKE404]

Resolution

After a quick dinner and considering all of the viewpoints expressed here (thank you to everyone!) I have decided the prudent thing is to file a (late) paper return only. Everything will go in the mail to the client on Saturday.

Other than killing a few extra trees and paying a bit more postage, there is no great setback to the client or to me (although the refunds will obviously be delayed).

The IRS data entry person will spend a considerable amount of time keying in all of the relevant information from the return....but somehow I am not overly concerned about that issue.

FE

[David1980]

That's the right choice.

If Providers transmit the electronic portion of a return on or shortly before the due date and the IRS ultimately rejects it, but the Provider and the taxpayer comply with the requirements for timely resubmission of a correct return, the IRS considers the return timely filed.

and

In order to timely file the return, the taxpayer must file the paper return by the later of the due date of the return or ten calendar days after the date the IRS gives notification that it rejected the electronic portion of the return or that the return cannot be accepted for processing.

[FEDUKE404]

Thanks for the update

That's the right choice.

The paper returns (federal & state) were signed and mailed by client on Wednesday (10/20) after the initial efile rejection on 10/14.

There was no way to "repair" them for efiling, aka fatal error with the W2.

Since both returns are refunds, everything should be good all around with no lasting harm other than waiting for the direct deposit (federal) and check (state) to arrive.

FE

[David1980]

And even if they owed money it would still be timely filed. Up to 10 days from the rejection on the 14th to send in the paper return.

[thomtax]

I ran into this once with a church W2. After talking with several people, I finally got someone who had been there several years. The problem with this one was that - yes, it was the correct EIN for the church. However, since no quarterly reports were required of the church, social security dept. has the file as inactive and the IRS only accepts for efile, active accounts. So, he is required to paper file each year.

LT