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Level 1
Sep 2, 2022 11:13 PM UTC

4557

The following diagnostic is generating:

Taxpayer's name is being truncated in the e-file. The IRS may delay the posting of the taxpayer's return and, if applicable, any refund. Shorten the taxpayer's or spouse's name using the following priority: a. Omit titles such as M. D. or Ph. D. which are not part of the taxpayer's given name. b. Input middle initial instead of keying the entire middle name. c. Omit the spouse's middle initial. d. Omit the taxpayer's middle initial. e. Substitute initial for spouse's given name. f. Substitute initial for taxpayer's given name.

Solution:

This often comes up if the spouses have different last names. The only way to resolve it is to remove characters from the name fields until it goes away.

Start with suffixes like Jr, SR, etc. Then middle initials. After that, you can delete what you need to, but don't remove the first four of either last name or it will likely reject for Name Control issues.
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10 replies

sjrcpa
Level 15
Sep 2, 2022 11:43 PM UTC
The more I know the more I don’t know.
Level 2
Sep 23, 2022 3:42 PM UTC

The same thing is happening to us and it is a problem for us, we cannot abbreviate the name of the taxpayers anymore

sjrcpa
Level 15
Sep 23, 2022 5:57 PM UTC

@Car10126 Why can't you?

Give the client a copy with their full name. Truncate as needed to get it to efile.

The more I know the more I don’t know.
Level 3
Sep 27, 2022 5:03 PM UTC

Same Thing, When I short client's Name, it said the name does not match IRS Data base. This diagnostic used to be informational, now they move it to Critical and it prevent Efiling which seems so unnecessary. 

Level 2
Sep 27, 2022 7:44 PM UTC

We are experiencing the same thing. Cannot make clients name shorter because it doesn't match the IRS database.

Level 3
Sep 27, 2022 7:49 PM UTC

I just got off the phone with Lacerte, In order to clear the Critical Diagnostic regarding the Tax Payer's name, They told me to only use the first 4 or 5 letters of their first and last name. 

I did the way that the Lacerte agent told me to, I tried to Efile, but doesn't agree with the database, then I basically played around with Client's first name and last name and eliminated the middle Initial, It finally went through after almost 6 attempts. 

So good Luck, the key is to keep the first 4 letters of the first or last name. 

Sep 27, 2022 9:59 PM UTC

Thanks for this & welcome to the community!

I was able to find more information on this.
2021 IND US Diagnostic Ref. 4557 Generating in Error--

This unexpected behavior has been addressed in a program update available September 27, 2022 (Version 42.0927) 

See the help article: Downloading and installing Lacerte updates 


sjrcpa
Level 15
Sep 28, 2022 1:34 AM UTC

@jakeisawesome What were you doing before? 

Doesn't truncate mean chop off at the end? Of course the first 4, at least, letters would be kept.

The more I know the more I don’t know.
Level 2
Sep 28, 2022 12:22 PM UTC

@1569  we perform the suggested update and continue with the critical diagnosis

Level 2
Sep 28, 2022 3:21 PM UTC

@jakeisawesome @sjrcpa @Car10126 We were experiencing all the same issues, I spoke with support yesterday, they do not know why the issue is persisting but they suggested disabling the efile diagnostic error checking:

https://proconnect.intuit.com/support/en-us/help-article/electronic-filing/disable-e-file-diagnostic-error-checking-lacerte/L1eiXpqQV_US_en_US?uid=l8lrte2d

it worked for us!