FTUSA isn't handling longitude properly on form 3468. How to fix this?

Question

My tax return was rejected because invalid coordinates on form 3468.

After investigating, FTUSA input the wrong longitude on the form. The problem is 2-fold:

* My longitude is a negative number. I believe FTUSA is treating the negative sign as a digit, and it's saying "The Facility Longitude must be less than or equal to 10 digits." I'm only able to proceed past this screen because my longitude ends with a zero. When I omit this zero, FTUSA fills in the zero for me on the form.Fr
* This is the big problem - My longitude starts with a zero. FTUSA is auto-deleting this zero when filling in the form, but IRS is expecting 3 digits on the form. So instead of my form having 012, the zero is deleted, and the form is filled in with 12_, leaving the 3rd digit blank.

How do I fix this? Turbotax had a way for me to pull up the completed form and modify it manually on the form itself before submitting the tax return. FTUSA doesn't seem to have this ability.

FreetaxB · Answer

Thank you. Support answered my email within 3 hours, which I missed because I didn't get an email (yes, I'd checked the box to be notified via email).

They recognized this was a bug in the software and recommended I omit the coordinates After doing so, I was able to submit my return, and it was accepted by the IRS.

However, until my return is approved, I'll be holding my breath. Previous years' instructions for form 3468 had "(if applicable)" next to the GPS coordinates. The "(if applicable)" has been removed for 2025, which implies that this is now a required field. Here's the text from the instructions:

"On line 3c, enter the address of the facility or property. On line 3d, enter the latitude and longitude coordinates of the facility or property." No mention of "if applicable".

In any event, I'll respond here when I hear back from the IRS in case this helps future users.

On another note, parsing a text input is a very basic aspect of writing code and super easy to test. That this code was allowed into production is baffling.

MatthewD · Answer

Hello FreetaxB,

I highly recommend you contact Support with this issue, so they can report a bug if needed or help you resolve the issue.  Did you resolve it?

FreetaxB · Answer

Apologies for the multiple posts. I've posted in the wrong forum and need assistance. FTUSA support has been emailed, but no reply in over 24 hours.

My tax return was rejected because invalid coordinates on form 3468.

After investigating, FTUSA input the wrong longitude on the form. My longitude is negative, and has a zero at the beginning and end, similar to -012.123450. The problem is 2-fold:

* FTUSA is treating all characters as numbers, even the negative sign and decimal points, and it's saying "The Facility Longitude must be less than or equal to 10 digits." I tested this. It will accept -012.12345, 012.123450, which both have 10 characters, but it will not accept -012.123450, which has 11 characters. I'm only able to proceed past this screen because my longitude ends with a zero. When I omit this zero, FTUSA fills in the zero for me on the form.
* This is the big problem - FTUSA is auto-deleting the first zero in my longitude when filling in the form, but IRS is expecting 3 digits. So instead of my form having 012, FTUSA fills the form with 12_, leaving the 3rd digit blank, reading -12_.123450.

How do I fix this? Turbotax had a way for me to pull up the completed form and modify it manually on the form itself before submitting the tax return. FTUSA doesn't seem to have this ability.