Electronic payments rejected

[nancy2]

Has anyone had an electronic payment set up through ProSeries rejected?  I had one return that had both the federal and state payments rejected.  The notices say there was insufficient funds in the accounts, but that is not true.  The state has an online system in which payments can be made electronically and we did that after the notice was received.  Using the same account number that is set up in ProSeries.  It went through without any problem, so I know it's not the account number that was wrong.  Of course, getting through to someone at the IRS to try and get more information would take an act of Congress.  Just wondering if anyone else has had a problem like this.  All the others went through correctly.

[dkh]

Are you sure the client had sufficient funds at the time the payments were withdrawn? Seems unlikely that both federal and state would be rejected for same reason if it was not true.

[nancy2]

Well, as sure as I can be without being the bank.  I have access to view their accounts online.  I don't file the returns until I look to make sure they are showing enough cash in the accounts.  

Yes, I agree that it is strange that both fed and state would indicate the same reason.  Just covering all bases as to what the problem might be.  Seems like it will be impossible to actually know for sure.  The penalties are quite stiff though so kind of makes you afraid to do electronic, kwim?

[dkh]

There may have been enough funds on the day you scheduled the payment but was there enough funds on the actual day the withdrawal happened? 

[nancy2]

Should have been.  These accounts are not regular checking accounts that have many daily disbursements, etc.  They are actually investment type accounts.  The taxpayer does not use these accounts for check writing.  There are few withdrawals from these accounts.  The only way there actually wasn't funds in the account would be if the brokerage firm took them out, which I doubt.  But of course I have no way of confirming that.  The other option is that the firm's operation erroneously rejected the withdrawals.  That is possible I think.  The purpose of my question is to see if this is something people have had a problem with before with Proseries.  Because I have a serious problem with Proseries electronic signatures.  So just checking.  

I had other payments from the same brokerage firm that did go through without problems.  Not from this same account though.  

[BobKamman]

I occasionally have problems with clients writing checks on brokerage accounts where there is a minimum amount required.  Were these small amounts, for example under $500?  If that's the case, you might learn in a few days that the second attempt failed also.  

[nancy2]

In this case, they do not write checks on the account.  They don't even have a checkbook for the account.  

The 2nd state payment that I did through the state's website a few days ago has already cleared the account.  For the federal payment, we actually had the brokerage prepare a check and it was mailed.  

Just really interested in whether or not anyone else has had an electronic withdrawal set up with ProSeries that was rejected for an undeterminable reason.  Again, since I've had a lot of problems with their electronic signatures.  

[nancy2 · Accepted solution]

FYI....  the problem has been discovered.  The brokerage did not cover the payments.  Completely their error.  Thankfully, I was thinking I might not be able to trust the software to do it correctly.  Since the electronic signature didn't work ALOT this year.