# US Tax E-filing - heads-up



## rynd2it (Feb 2, 2010)

Hi,

I decided this year to file on-line using Turbo Tax as my return is dead simple. As I have no state taxes to pay I used the Free version. So far, so good.

Then, when I click to e-file it says I have to register the product and requires a US address to do it. After several attempts to get on the chat session I finally got someone and they took an hour  to tell me that that was a requirement if using the Free version. This hour was mainly taken up by the person asking all sorts of irrelevant questions like "why are you filing a tax return?" "are you filing for the US taxes" "why do live overseas?" and then giving an answer which had no bearing on the question about the US address.

Anyway, I got an email from them confirming all this and also providing a code for a free upgrade - but the code didn't work telling me it had already been used 

So now, having spent several hours on this I still haven't got my return filed. It's not just France that has poor customer support skills 

Cheers


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

This has been a long standing problem with the e-file program. There are only certain companies that allow e-filing for free - and of those, only a handful are able to deal with foreign addresses.

Haven't checked this year's offerings, but this is the IRS link to free file services: Free File: Do Your Federal Taxes for Free

Normally, the Paris consulate IRS office posts information about the availability of e-filing from overseas, but I'm not holding my breath. Last year there were only 8 of the available free filing sites that could deal with foreign addresses, and of those, every single one had age limits that excluded me from the program. For some reason, they won't let you free file on most of the sites if you are older than 52 years old. Checked with a tax preparer buddy of mine in the States, and she has no clue why that particular cut-off. One site (don't remember which one) would free file your return if you were under 26 or over 65 - which also rules me out, but might be useful for some folks out there.
Cheers,
Bev


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## rynd2it (Feb 2, 2010)

Bevdeforges said:


> This has been a long standing problem with the e-file program. There are only certain companies that allow e-filing for free - and of those, only a handful are able to deal with foreign addresses.
> 
> Haven't checked this year's offerings, but this is the IRS link to free file services: Free File: Do Your Federal Taxes for Free
> 
> ...


TurboTax actually advertised this facility which is why I used it, I've also just discovered another problem. It throws up an error on the recipients address for the 1099 - saying there is no State Code and there is nowhere to edit it other than the personal details.

Another on-line chat session coming up 

Cheers


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## rynd2it (Feb 2, 2010)

Bevdeforges said:


> Haven't checked this year's offerings, but this is the IRS link to free file services: Free File: Do Your Federal Taxes for Free
> 
> Cheers,
> Bev


That link asks for some details to narrow down the choice of companies - it insists on a valid US state code  Otherwise you have to choose manually and therefore cannot start on the IRS Free File website.

As a software developer with over 40 years experience I find this stuff just ridiculous

Cheers


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

rynd2it said:


> That link asks for some details to narrow down the choice of companies - it insists on a valid US state code  Otherwise you have to choose manually and therefore cannot start on the IRS Free File website.
> 
> As a software developer with over 40 years experience I find this stuff just ridiculous
> 
> Cheers


Preaching to the choir again, I'm afraid. How long has e-filing been available? IIRC it started up just about the time I moved over here. Anyone with any smarts would have figured this was PERFECT for all those overseas filers who are just mailing in "information returns" - but NO, we've been excluded from e-filing now for close to 20 years.

What's worse is that the IRS now has a "non-commercial" way to e-file your forms - called e-file fillable forms (or something to that effect). But that is (or was, last year) specifically not usable by those with overseas addresses. In the early days of e-filing, there was a statement on the IRS website that the IRS didn't have a free e-filing method available because they "didn't want to interfere with the free market in tax preparation services" - or some such thing. 

It's kind of galling how much effort the IRS puts into terrorizing the accidental Americans in Canada into repenting for their sins and back filing all those forms (that they have no clue about), but yet they have ignored the overseas filers for the past 20 years when it comes to allowing us to easily file returns where we owe nothing. 

But, that's our tax money in action... We ought to be used to it by now.
Cheers,
Bev


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Just had a look at the US Consulate's IRS page and it appears that they have made no changes to the listing of the 8 e-filing companies that can handle overseas addresses.

TurboTax, it appears, has never been one of the options.

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/france/5/irs/efiling.pdf

Note, too, that only 5 of the companies listed offer a free-filing option for those with AGI of $58,000 or less.
Cheers,
Bev


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## rynd2it (Feb 2, 2010)

Bevdeforges said:


> Just had a look at the US Consulate's IRS page and it appears that they have made no changes to the listing of the 8 e-filing companies that can handle overseas addresses.
> 
> TurboTax, it appears, has never been one of the options.
> 
> ...


It's right there on the free file site:

http://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp?ck


And believe me my AGI is well under $58000 

Cheers


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

You'll have to report back to us to see if they actually can file a foreign address. I thought the sheet posted on the Consulate site looked pretty much untouched from last year.

But there also seem to be far fewer available free file companies than last year. (And for TurboTax, it looks like your AGI has to be under $31,000 unless you're active military.)

I think I'm probably going to just use the fill-inable pdf forms and stick a stamp on it all again this year. 
Cheers,
Bev

PS My bad - on further checking, the list of e-filing sites for overseas residents has NOT been updated for this year. Just went through the e-file information on the IRS site and I'll post what I've found over in the Expat Tax section.


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## rynd2it (Feb 2, 2010)

Bevdeforges said:


> You'll have to report back to us to see if they actually can file a foreign address. I thought the sheet posted on the Consulate site looked pretty much untouched from last year.
> 
> But there also seem to be far fewer available free file companies than last year. (And for TurboTax, it looks like your AGI has to be under $31,000 unless you're active military.)
> 
> ...



OK - here's the bad news - Turbo Tax has a major bug in it and it does *NOT WORK*. Simply put the product says "_Good News! You can e-file from a foreign address_" and accepts foreign address data in the personal and mailing data areas. However, it then uses that data to transfer to other parts of the return (such as 1099 recipients address) and then rejects that 1099 as being invalid for electronic filing . I spent another 90 minutes on-line with TT and they could not figure it out. So I'm filing by mail again 

It is clear that TT do not have a QA department worth the name - a single test would have found this bug - so I suspect other products will have similar issues. My advice would be to test any product before paying out any money. And on that note TT still insists on a US address to register the product and won't file unless it is given one.

What a major time-suck this was


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Unfortunately that seems to be pretty much par for the course. The companies that do the US tax software don't seem to understand much about actually filling out and filing the forms from overseas.

I did go over to the site, set up an account and have been working my way through the questionnaire. So far, I have had to trick it into doing a few things - and the way you're supposed to enter income from a foreign employer is far from intuitive (though I think I've managed to figure it out). 

I think I'm going to move this thread over to the Expat Tax section, as I posted the list of Free File sites that claim to accept foreign addresses. Since the list has changed a bit from last year, I'm curious to see if we can get some "real user" reports.

Anyhow - thank you for sharing!
Cheers,
Bev


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## rynd2it (Feb 2, 2010)

Bevdeforges said:


> Unfortunately that seems to be pretty much par for the course. The companies that do the US tax software don't seem to understand much about actually filling out and filing the forms from overseas.
> Bev


It's just not acceptable that they don't carry out even rudimentary QA - one dry run with this would have found that bug. Why do they think that users are software testers (unpaid) 

Ah well, back to snail mail


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

I spent part of this afternoon playing around with the TurboTax software - and checking a couple of the other Free File software systems out. (Will play with them later.)

It may not be all the fault of Intuit (or TurboTax). It seems that the standards for the IRS to accept an e-filed return are kind of dodgy, too. 
Cheers,
Bev


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## rynd2it (Feb 2, 2010)

Bevdeforges said:


> I spent part of this afternoon playing around with the TurboTax software - and checking a couple of the other Free File software systems out. (Will play with them later.)
> 
> It may not be all the fault of Intuit (or TurboTax). It seems that the standards for the IRS to accept an e-filed return are kind of dodgy, too.
> Cheers,
> Bev


It is the fault of Intuit if they make false claims for their software and promote the product as having a specific feature which turns out not to work. If the IRS rules mean they can't make it work then withdraw the feature.

Cheers


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