REJECTED!!!!

So...it's tax time again and Ray and I have had our share of tax struggles this past week. We have filed our taxes for years with Turbo Tax and we have been very happy with the process. This year we donated our 1993 Ford Explorer to the Utah Kidney Foundation and so we were able to claim $500 on our taxes. It sounds easy right? NOT SO! We filled out the paperwork - got the okay from Turbo Tax - and efiled our return. We were patting ourselves on the back for the good work that we had done and for getting our taxes filed so early. We were thrilled that we were getting a refund (not a big refund the government took care of that option). I looked at our email and was pleased to see the SUCCESS banner telling me that our taxes had been successfully sent. We were told to watch for confirmation that our taxes had been accepted by the Federal and State government. Alas...this was not to be. The next morning when I opened my email it said in big red letters REJECTED!! But don't worry Turbo Tax will help you fix the problem and refile.

We went to the website and read the possible solutions to our problem. We made the fixes they suggested and filed again. I anxiously waited to read our email again the next day and see the ACCEPTED Banner in green. But what greets me when I open up the inbox? REJECTED!! This time I get Ray to sit down with me and go over EVERYTHING again we put in another hour and try to send our return again. With both of us looking for any error we have to have found the problem. The next day... REJECTED!! again...sigh.

So I get the bright idea to start over - once you have finished your taxes on Turbo Tax there is no way for you to delete your return and start over. You just have to go to square one and start again. Of course if you start again you have to put in a new ID and Password and you have to have your return from last year to put in the required numbers so they can verify that this is really you. So once again Ray and I find ourselves seated at the computer desk sweating over our taxes. We work so hard and finally after about 90 minutes we once again find ourselves ready to efile. We push the send key and hope for the best.

I'm not sure what I am supposed to be learning from this little episode - whatever it is I was hoping that I had learned it by this point. Apparently NOT!

Anyway... the email said REJECTED!! one more time. I was feeling a little rejected myself at this point and I wasn't sure what we were going to do. I came up with one last ditch effort - we deleted two small deductions we had claimed just to see if perhaps it was the total amount of non-cash deductions with the car. This only affected our refund by about $20 so I felt like if it worked it was totally worth it.

I guess the FIFTH time is the charm - when I opened the email it said ACCEPTED in bright green letters! HOORAY! It finally worked. WHEW! I was exhausted, excited, and relieved that we had figured out a way to get our return accepted. It is always so nice to have this whole IRS debacle completed and out of our hands.

I was happy that we hadn't waited until the last minute - if we had been rejected this many times and we were trying to file on the last day we would have been hit with fees that would have gobbled up our refund and made me very mad. Just so you know there is no number to call on Turbo Tax for extra guidance or help. You can post a question and get an automated answer or you can pay $29.99 to talk to a tax specialist for 20 minutes WHAT?!!!

A word to the wise...if you are going to use Turbo Tax don't wait till the last minute and don't expect any special help or helpline numbers if you run into a snag. It is a great program if your taxes are pretty straight forward but if you have special issues don't do it!

Anyway...HAPPY TAX SEASON!