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Why can’t I e-file just a State return?Jun 01 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line The Government requires that e-file companies send the Federal and State returns together – and the e-file company has no choice but to follow that guideline. Most of us who are due refunds each year know that the big bucks are in the Federal tax return. So it’s not uncommon for people to go online to e-file their Federal return and put off the State return until later. But to the surprise of much of us we found that once our Federal return was e-filed we couldn’t find anyone to e-file our State return. Let me explain why. Apparently the Government requires that companies e-filing tax returns MUST e-file the Federal and State return together. This was made a requirement by the request of the States because too often the States were having a high volume of amended returns and errors on individual tax returns. Taxpayers who e-filed their Federal return early and returned to e-file the State return at a later date had a very high rate of error on the State return. These errors were coming up often enough that it was costing the States a lot of money in research and contacts to the taxpayer. To reduce costs and confusion the States asked the Government to put in a requirement that the Federal and State tax return get filed together, that way the States can have a lower volume of errors on e-filed State returns. Also, the State portion of your tax return isn’t even e-filed until the IRS has accepted the Federal tax return. That way if the Federal return isn’t immediately accepted, any changes made to the Federal tax return will automatically be corrected on the State return. This works well to help insure your State return is accurate and won’t need to be amended at a later date. In the event you amend your Federal return later in the year be sure you file the amended return for the State. The Government doesn’t allow amended tax returns to be e-filed so be prepared to mail it in. This year many of us also found that the company we chose to e-file our Federal return didn’t have e-file available for our State. So you will want to be sure that any company you are thinking about using has e-file available for your State before you begin filing the Federal return. And if the company doesn’t have your State available be sure to check back in a few weeks. The e-file companies have lengthy testing to go through in order to e-file with the States, most companies won’t have many States available until mid to late February.  |
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