Rejections

[BOB W]

I had 2 rejections last week and both were for the a child being claimed on another tax return. In both instances I have been filing for these t/p for at least 10 years and never had a problem. None of the children work, not even 14 yet. I think that IRS is no longer checking dependents' name to SS# and any typo on someone elses return is tripping up the system....OR there is identity theft going on.....?????

Anyone else having this problem????

[S T]

Not yet

However, I have had a problem on one client with "twins" for years, I always forget and efile and always receive the rejection, so we have to paper file. The rejection makes no sense, as I have copies of the Social Security Cards, and they are matching in this case to the parents. One parent (the spouse) uses her maiden name hyphenated the married surname.

The client has never been able to get it straightened out with SSA and IRS.

Possible on the identity theft as there is so much of that, but then also, the MASTER List could be wrong! So if your taxpayer status for married filing joint, etc hasn't changed and parents being separated is not an issue, you might suggest that the t/p contact Social Security to check on the records.

Do you have access to SSA to do the SSN check?

Sandy

[BOB W]

Sandy> Welcome to the East Coast........

Since the return was rejected I proceeded to print a mail-in return with a small note to the IRS. At this point that is all I had time for. Once the issues is resolved, maybe after some correspondence, I will try to get to the bottom of this. Until then it is off my desk.

I have been filing their return with all the same SS#s for years, so what is different this year?

By the way, the client is very unhappy. Total income was 16,000 with 2 kids>>Big refund
and needed it YESTERDAY. THE REFUND WAS ALMOST HALF OF THE ANNUAL INCOME. There is no way for them to get within 2 months....Uggggg.

[S T]

I don't get them often

Thanks for the welcome Bob, We love it here on the Eastern Side of the US!

When it has happened to my clients, I print out the reject notice, give it to the client with a cover letter, that we don't know why it happened, but in order to correct it for the following tax season filing, they need to contact SSA. I let them handle it.

IRS will send you to SSA and SSA won't deal with POA's from us as tax professionals, at least not that I have found.

Good Luck! or should I wish your clients Good Luck!

Sandy

[Gene V]

Haven't had any rejection for a few years, when in the pass I had rejection with e-file, I would call our Local e-file Coordinator, and she would normally get to the bottom of the problem.
You might see if you have one in your area.

[David1980]

Well they're definitely still rejecting last name/SSN mismatches, so I don't think it's a typo on someone else's return. Probably identity theft unless this is a divorced couple where the ex finally got around to working after 10 years and thought he'd try claiming kids. Not much you can do with a 506/507.

Any possibility of getting the taxpayer setup with advance EIC through their employer, or do they already have that? They'd be able to get some of those giant refunds before tax season at least.

[FEDUKE404]

BTDT (Been there, done that)

I have a client who is currently on year #4 of such a mess for one of the children (preteen who has never worked but has been filing tax returns since an infant).

The first year it was an inconvenience....by year #3 it was a royal PITA. The e-file error message I receive is that "someone" has already claimed the child as a dependent. Let me add that the parents are happily married, first marriage for both, and the father has gone to IRS/Soc Sec/you-name-it. ALL of their records are absolutely correct re name, DOB, and the usual.

Because the parents/children have fairly complicated investments, it is impossible to file their taxes much earlier than the end of March due to the late arrival of some information. The "other person" therefore has apparently gotten there first three years running. Each year the IRS has resolved the issue in the parents' favor, and of course the IRS refuses to tell the parents anything about what is going on. It has to be an identity theft (school/doctor office/etc) occurring.

At least I now no longer try to e-file the state, and just give the 1040 a try first. My guess is we'll probably be in the same boat this year.....eventually filing a paper return and waiting.

FE

[S T]

Efile

Well so much for the Master List and the Matching ID and names and DOB's.

I thought SSA and IRS had more sophisticated systems to make sure these errors didn't occur, but nooo!

We will probably encounter more as time passes of rejects!

Sandy

[David1980]

Well DOBs don't get transmitted with exception of on Sch. EIC. And then it's only year. You'll get a reject if the year on Sch. EIC doesn't match their records, otherwise it's never even transmitted and they thus don't check it.

They do check last name/SSN. Well that is to say 4 chars of the last name.

However, none of that is going to prevent identity theft. Without "locking" a child's SSN to a particular parent return I don't see anything the IRS can do to prevent identity theft. Not sure we should be pointing fingers at the IRS.

Though, I guess they could allow more than one person to efile with the same child SSN. That would have it's own issues, but at least you could efile.

[Bonnie]

[QUOTE=David1980;52891 ]Well DOBs don't get transmitted with exception of on Sch. EIC. And then it's only year. You'll get a reject if the year on Sch. EIC doesn't match their records, otherwise it's never even transmitted and they thus don't check it.

They do check year of birth and name on all returns, not just EIC schedule. In past years, managing a large office, I had many rejects over the years for name and birth year not matching. Sometimes, we found the SS Admin had the information in their computers wrong. One I remember they had wrong year of birth for the child in SS system. Usually when I got rejects for birth year not matching it was because the father had given the information. Father's are notorious for not knowing DOB, etc. Mother's normally rattle it right off. Since I am now working at home and know my customers fairly well, I haven't had a problem last year or so far this year.

Along another note, a few years back, I received a reject because the taxpayer was deceased. He had been in our office so I didn't feel he really was deceased but had to call him and let him know he was dead. That was something he and I laughed about for a long time afterwards. What really had happened was his father passed away the year prior and he was a III and they marked the wrong person as deceased. It took him a few weeks to get it straightened out and then we efiled.

Bonnie

[David1980]

Well, it's possible they may have checked it/transmitted in prior years but I am certain that currently birth date doesn't get transmitted except on Sch. EIC where it shows plainly on the form. Depending on which software you use, you may be able to see the actual image that gets transmitted to IRS and check this for yourself.

You will get unusual rejections based on year of birth even though you didn't transmit it though. The biggest is the ERC 370, where the IRS thinks the child is too old for CTC. These are based off their records and nothing that you transmit. There's similar ones for EIC (IRS thinks you're too young or too old for EIC without a dependent based on their records) and "date of death on record prior to current year" whichever number that one is.

[Bonnie]

I don't know anything about how that works this year as I have not had a rejection of this type since I started working for myself. It has nothing to do with what shows up on the forms the preparer sees anyway. You are right it is all about what is transmitted to the iRS. But I know in past years that we received many rejects for name and birth year not matching and it had nothing to do with EIC. I wouldn't think it has changed, but don't know that for a fact.

Bonnie

[FEDUKE404]

Tale of wrong DOB

One other story that somewhat goes with this saga:

A few years ago when I was doing some work with a well-known firm, a client (young, single professional) returned for assistance because she had tried to use some also well-known boxed software to file her taxes. When she e-filed, the return bounced (wrong date of birth error message). After a couple of tries, she gave up.

We checked company prior filing records, and we showed her correct date of birth (the same one she had used with the boxed software). She said what the hades, we filed her return, and it went through perfectly.

Now for the rest of the story: The Soc Sec folks DID have an incorrect birth date (off one year) on file. The boxed product sent the DOB - it bounced. The proprietary company software did not send the DOB (although information was on file) - it processed without problems, as it had done for several prior years.

This was a couple of years ago, but I have my doubts as to whether taxpayers and "regular" dependents (no EITC issues) have their DOB's transmitted. Of course, I could be completely wrong about current procedures, as I've said "adios" to said company.

FE

[David1980]

Curiousity got me

Had to know if there were other situations in which birth would be transmitted, and yes there are.

Question then becomes when will it reject if date doesn't match IRS records.

IRS ERC 0522 year of birth must match IRS records for an "Online Return."
IRS ERC 0523 same as above but for spouse.

IRS ERC 0535 year on Sch. EIC must match IRS records.

And that's it for "must match IRS". Date/year is required for a few different forms, so looks like they could probably do some more matching than they currently do. For someone filing 8879 through a tax preparer it doesn't look like it gets transmitted, however if taxpayer did it online it does/must match (or reject code 0522).

So I think they could probably require it for all returns in the auth record and match it up. Still going to have identity theft, but at least the person would need more than a SSN and name, they'd need the birthday as well.

[taxtime]

Rejections

I had one reject this year on a client I have had for the last 5 years. It said SSN and name did not match the SSA master file for one of his dependents. I have been filing with the same information for years. We mailed the return, and they are calling SSA to get it straight. Weird.

Larry