Schedule EIC

[JDVtaxes]

I have a client with 5 children, all of whom are qualified children for the Earned Income Credit.

However, when I try to efile their returns, the Federal return gets rejected. The system tells me that there is a mismatch for one or more of the children - that their SSN and date of birth don't match what is in the SSA database.

This has happened the last 2 years.

My client just got off the phone with the SSA, and all of the information that is on the return for their kids matches what is in the SSA database.

Has anyone else come upon this situation?

If so, how have you resolved it?

Thanks in advance for your help...

[BobKamman]

Do the kids have the same last name, or hyphenated names?  Do the names on the return match the names on their SS cards?

[JDVtaxes]

Thanks so much for such a quick response.

Yes, the kids all have the same last name and no hyphenated names.

And just today, my clients called SSA and confirmed the information on their return matches what is in the SSA database.

This is the 3rd year in a row this has happened.

For the first 2 years, we had to file paper returns, which were processed as filed without issue. But the refunds were significantly delayed.

I can't tell if this is an issue with Intuit's e-file processing or with the IRS.

And the ProSeries system does not even identify which of the kids data is not matching.

[BobKamman · Accepted solution]

Have you actually seen the SS cards?  And the birth certificates with the dates?

[mom4evr]

You have to look at the actual Social Security cards. I had an issue years ago it turns out that name on card had a letter initial for middle name and once I input that it went through without issue ever since.

[JDVtaxes]

Again - thanks very much - turns out you can't even depend on the SSA to confirm data.

The client initially gave me a wrong birth year for one of the 5 kids.

[JDVtaxes]

Thanks again for your help - turns out you can't even depend on the SSA to confirm data.

The client initially gave me the wrong birth year for one of the kids...

[BobKamman]

I have a note taped to my computer with the birthdates of my four grandchildren.  You might refer your client to @IRonMaN -- for a while his tag line was indicating that he also offers tattoos.  

[IRonMaN]

I got out of the tattoo business.  Based on my artistic abilities I was only able to provide tattoos of stick people.  I was surprised to find out that my artistic abilities limited my market.  But I still am running my taxidermy business ------------ but I'm not sure for how much longer.  Making mounts of stick animals also limits my market for taxidermy work.  The greenhouse collapsed because of all of the snow we have received so no tomato sales either.  The turtles all ran away so no turtle inventory left to sell.  I also had to shut down the taco business ----------- it seems that lutefisk tacos aren't big sellers --------- even in Minnesota.   Good thing I can fall back on the tax business.  As a side note, does anybody know what "under 24" means?

[Laaccy1]

I had this with a client in the past.  We had to e-file until they got it fixed.  It was a Social Security update that never got entered into their system.  Anyway, we could always tell which child due to the coding on the return notice.

[athaureaux6]

Hi, in my opinion sometimes the worksheets creates a kind of bug in the system that get the system confused. I would try, if you have, another computer and try everything from the scratch, I mean a new return where you will have to type all the names again and efile from there to see what happened. I did that last year because the systems was calculating something wrong when a deleted one of the dependents, it seems it created something in the blank space that produce an error. I am just trying to see if that will solve the problem but I am not 100 % sure. Thank you everyone. 

[mom4evr]

What I do every time I get a new client with dependents I ask for Birth Certificates and Social Security Cards. In a Tax refresher course I took they said you can keep them on File year to year. To verify that the dependents still live with the parent/parents claiming the dependent I request either a letter from their School for school age children and/or a Doctor letter for those not in school yet. Since Covid issues some of the schools do not give letters so I am asking for School Report Cards for what ever year I am filing. College Students I ask for school ID and a copy of their Registration Record which they can print out Online. I try to cross my T's and dot my i's. Just in the event that they get Audited and I can help them provide proof etc.

[Taxprohere]

How slow can you be if the turtles run faster?!

[IRonMaN]

You don't know how fast they can run when they really want to.  Don't believe all of that stuff you see on TV and the internet....................................... and yeah, I'm really slow.  I have to cheat to try and catch a roadrunner and I still haven't caught one, so that pretty much sums up my speed.