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Solved

Bug report - joint return w/deceased spouse efile rejected by IRS

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
March 2, 2020
14 replies
0 views

Using TurboTax Premier download edition, efile of joint federal return for 2019 with deceased wife gets rejected with the reported error shown below. She died in 2019. We filed a joint return for 2018, and I double-checked that the AGI from 2018 was correctly entered in my 2019 return. There is no separate prompt to enter my wife's identifying information.

The error message:

IND-032-04 - SpousePriorYearPIN or 'SpousePriorYearAGIAmt in the Return Header must match the e-File database.

Best answer by racer_x_9

agreed. I am having the same issues in 2021. turbo tax makes a lot of money to not fix this issue. very frustrating.

Every year I file taxes with turbo tax for my inlaws. My father-in-law passed in 2019 and the return was rejected with IND-031-04.

I read a forum from last year where the solution was to put the surviving spouse name first. As soon as I did this it was accepted.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/rejected-2019-return-based-on-my-deceased-spouse-...

Others from last year reported that submitting on Freetaxusa.com they efiled and it was accepted. I don't know why the problem is happening with turbo tax. Seems like they should fix the problem if there were 13 pages last year with multiple people having the same problem. And more people having the problem this year. Try putting the living spouses name first and report if the return was accepted so others will know. Good luck all!

Opus 17

Employee

Even if you could enter your spouse’s e-file pin, in most cases, you will find that the Social Security administration has locked your spouse’s Social Security number to prevent fraud, and that will also block e-filing. Print your return, sign it, and mail it in. Don’t forget to also print and mail your state return.

johnf3

I just ran into the same problem. If the answer is as simple as this, why does Turbo Tax allow the return to be efiled? They should simply say that you can't efile a return for a deceased taxpayer.

Plus it says elsewhere in this community (can't figure out how to link here) that a return for a decease taxpayer can be efiled.

So I am in the same situation as the OP. The return was rejected even though I put in the correct AGI.

Although I notice that the OP said there was no place to enter the spouse's information. That makes sense since they filed jointly in 2018. My wife and I filed married filing separately in 2018 and I'm filing jointly for 2019. Turbo tax did ask for each of our 2018 AGIs separately.

Opus 17

Employee

@johnf3 wrote:

I just ran into the same problem.   If the answer is as simple as this, why does Turbo Tax allow the return to be efiled?   They should simply say that you can't efile a return for a deceased taxpayer.

Plus it says elsewhere in this community (can't figure out how to link here) that a return for a decease taxpayer can be efiled.

So I am in the same situation as the OP.   The return was rejected even though I put in the correct AGI.

Although I notice that the OP said there was no place to enter the spouse's information. That makes sense since they filed jointly in 2018.    My wife and I filed married filing separately in 2018 and I'm filing jointly for 2019.   Turbo tax did ask for each of our 2018 AGIs separately.

There is nothing in policy that prevents e-filing as such, it just seems to be the case the the social security administration (which is where the IRS gets their SSN/name/DOB database) is becoming more aggressive about blocking the SSNs of deceased people. This is probably to your ultimate benefit although it may be frustrating in the short term.

My main reason for suspecting this is that, if you use the same Turbotax account from year to year, the program automatically adds the e-filing PINS for both spouses, and I have only seen this problem reported for the deceased spouse, and not for the living spouse or in couples with both spouses alive.

Now of course, if a spouse died in 2018, the taxpayer can;'t file a joint return in 2019 regardless of SSN block or not. They would file single, or head of household, or qualifying widow(er), but not joint. I don't notice that happening but it's possible, then its the taxpayer error. The other tricky thing about this forum is that it was created this year and all the posts from the old forum were migrated in May and June and ended up with 2019 dates, even if they were originally years older, so posts dated May and June 2019 can contain out of date information.

jchapmanAuthor

That makes sense. Thanks. A less misleading error message would have been helpful, but I guess that's on the IRS, not Intuit.

Opus 17

Employee

@jchapman wrote:

That makes sense. Thanks. A less misleading error message would have been helpful, but I guess that's on the IRS, not Intuit.

I think in previous years the message has been more specific, I don't know if the current change is an accident on the part of the IRS or a deliberate change in wording.

derscott

This seems to be a software issue, not an IRS/SSA e-file issue. Simply editing the return to unmark the spouse as deceased and re-filing will result in the return being accepted. This was not an issue when using the 2018 version of TurboTax. I filed the same sort of return for my in-laws last year for a husband who had passed in 2017, and it worked fine with one spouse marked as deceased.

My guess is that TT is simply not sending the AGI and/or PIN for a deceased spouse on a joint return in the 2019 version of the software.

Also, as others have pointed out, printing and mailing is not a great solution *after* you have already paid the $25 e-file fee.

Opus 17

Employee

@derscott wrote:

This seems to be a software issue, not an IRS/SSA e-file issue. Simply editing the return to unmark the spouse as deceased and re-filing will result in the return being accepted. This was not an issue when using the 2018 version of TurboTax. I filed the same sort of return for my in-laws last year for a husband who had passed in 2017, and it worked fine with one spouse marked as deceased.

My guess is that TT is simply not sending the AGI and/or PIN for a deceased spouse on a joint return in the 2019 version of the software.

Also, as others have pointed out, printing and mailing is not a great solution *after* you have already paid the $25 e-file fee.

That is an interesting extra observation and I will forward this for investigation.

Also, once you pay the extra fee in the desktop program to e-file, and then you can't e-file, you can call customer support for a refund. With the online program, there is no separate charge for e-filing, so there is no refund if you aren't able to e-file.

Opus 17

Employee

Based on the last statement that the return could be e-filed if the "deceased spouse" box is unchecked, that is evidence that there might be a bug in Turbotax. (Don't do this to e-file, it will cause problems later. Please leave the box checked if your spouse is deceased.)

To try and track down the bug (if it is one) it would be helpful for 2 or 3 affected people to create diagnostic files and send them to tech support. If you have a deceased spouse and your return is rejected, create a diagnostic file by going to the help menu and select "Send file to agent." This sends an anonymous version of your file to tech support and gives you a token number. Post the token number here, so tech support can associate the diagnostic file with the complaint.

jackadoacres

followed your suggestion hope it helps token number 622882

elly01

I encountered this problem, too. I had already paid Intuit $24.99 to e-file my state return. But the state return was Rejected because the Federal return must be accepted first. TT mislead us into believing we could use e-file even though we had entered our spouse's deceased date. I want my state e-file fee refunded from Intuit.

bjwimpey

@elly01 Exactly. If this is a known bug, it costs us time and is indeed misleading on TT's side.

Re: 24.99 state efile refund: I had to call customer support. It was quick, she understood the situation. So call in to get a refund.

Good luck!

Al46

FYI. The customer support lady I spoke to did not know about this condition. She looked it up, and it was not evident that it was not solvable. We spent about an hour on the phone trying to solve it.

GabiU

Community Manager

Thank you all for your comments. On behalf of the community and our product teams, we are sorry for your loss.

Mishaps or complications while using the product is not what we want for our users. The community team is here to collect your feedback.

Please sign up in this article for more information: "Incorrect error: Customers are being rejected (IND-032-04) for spouse AGI when the spouse has passed away"

[Edited: 4/7/2020]

**Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post **Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"

Al46

I have the same error for the same condition (wife died 2019, filing jointly).

Since I now have to mail in both my Federal and State Returns, do I get refunded my $25.24 that I paid to efile my state return?

CatinaT1

Please call TurboTax Customer service. Here is a link: Turbo Tax Customer Service

**Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post**Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"

Carl11_2

Employee

I'm sorry for your loss. I suspect the bug is in the IRS computers, not the TurboTax program. The message I would expect you to get on the rejected e-file attempt is "SSN LOCKED". This indicates that whoever handle the final arrangements did their job and notified the Social Security Administration of her passing.

The IRS pulls their data from the SS database every year. Usually around December. So if your spouse had been reported as having passed in 2019, the IRS would have locked her SSN so that it could not be used fraudulently. This being the case, you have no choice but to print, sign and mail the return to the IRS this year.

- Yes, you were correct to file MFJ for 2019 because you are still entitled to her standard deduction for the entire year, regardless of the date she passed.

Al46

Hi. That is not the error message I was getting. I was getting the "missing AGI" message that everyone else was getting. That says to me, based on the discussions in this blog, that her SSN was not locked.

macuser_22

Employee

@Al46 Did yiu click the link in my post above. TurboTax is working on the problem and you can sign up on that link for e-mail updates.

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

pkeck5

So this issue was reported early in January 2020. I am trying to help my Mother in law through this loss by e-filing her taxes with Turbo Tax, but also getting same error message even though I have copies of last years AGI reported number number. We purchased Turbo tax for ease of e-filing reporting but keep reading that the best option is to mail in taxes or try the free tax software and see if it accepts it there.

Has this bug since then been fixed? Or recommendation is still to file via mail.

CharlesL12

This is still a problem in May 2021.

I ended up having to file by mail because Intuit / TurboTax can't resolve this simple problem (that must be happening literally tens-of-thousands of times a year).

Bonny K

I found out how to avoid getting that error message! My FIL passed away last year. My MIL is the surviving spouse. I kept getting the same error message when I e-filed that many people have posted about. I switched the order of the two names, to put my MIL first, and the return was accepted within one hour! I was able to keep the deceased box checked for my FIL and I put "widowed" for my MIL. Yay! Didn't have to submit by paper! TT experts should say to try this, and the TT software should say it as well.

Critter

Employee

Marital status for a joint return in the year of death is Married not widowed ... Check the return you filed carefully ... are both parties listed on the return ? Did they get the correct standard deduction ?

ljyuc25

So this is still an issue, does not appear to attempted to be addressed. I've used TT since 1994. Doing my parents taxes due to my Mom passing away in 2019. Filed for their 2018 taxes no issue, now 2019 have to go back to a paper filing, absurd. Shame on you TT for not doing your job, you've lost a customer. With the deaths in 2020, filing taxes next year should really cause more TT disappointment. Recommendation use anything but TT!