Prepared elderly parents' taxes but it won't accept my mother's 2023 AGI to e-file!

Question

I'm quite frustrated.  My 91 year old father has always prepared his taxes by hand and mailed them in. This year I did them online with Freetaxusa and that went well until I went to submit them via e-file.  It will not accept the AGI value from last year's taxes for my mother no matter what I do.  I used the same amount that my father had on his joint filing and it keeps saying my mother's AGI is incorrect. It should be the same for each of them since they filed jointly.  Then I tried to use 0 but got the comment that I'd already tried that once before and I only have a limited number of submission attempts, etc.  I really want it to work …I don't feel like waiting 10 days to get their transcript from last year…..is there anything else I can do?? This makes no sense.  How many tries will I get to re-submit?  I have read all the options and AGI "reasons", but her AGI is correct and this drives me crazy! Zero doesn't work!  I want to use e-file!  So frustrating because I'm so close to being done.

KristineS · Answer

Hi ARupert,

I'm very sorry your attempts to e-file are not working. I appreciate how frustrating this is.

Reading through your post, it sounds like you have tried the options we recommend, which would include going back and entering your mother's AGI as $0, even though filing a joint return has the same AGI for both taxpayers.

Sometimes however, even using $0 for the joint filer's AGI in an attempt to submit a return this way still gets rejected by the IRS, and we don't know why.

FreeTaxUSA transmits tax returns and IRS systems accept or reject it. This is outside your control and ours.

Unfortunately, at this point, you have limited options. You can wait for a transcript copy of their return to arrive if you order one, but it will almost certainly show the same adjusted gross income you are currently entering. FreeTaxUSA software allows five attempts to e-file before you need to print, sign and date, and mail the tax returns as your only other option.