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Did the IRS reject your e-file tax returns? Here’s why and how to fix it

The IRS might have rejected your e-file tax return so you may have to take an extra step

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Multiple forms printed from the Internal Revenue Service.

This Feb. 13, 2019, photo shows multiple forms printed from the Internal Revenue Service web page that are used for 2018 U.S. federal tax returns.

Keith Srakocic, Associated Press

The Internal Revenue Service may have rejected your e-file tax return due to a simple glitch in the system, but there could be an easy fix.

Driving the news: Financial columnist Michelle Singletary wrote for The Washington Post that an e-file return asks for your adjusted gross income (AGI) from your most recent tax return.

How to fix it: Singletary wrote that there’s a simple fix from the IRS — enter $0 for your AGI from your previous return.

  • “If you used the non-filers tool last year to register for an advance child tax credit payment or to claim the third stimulus payment, enter $1 as your prior-year AGI,” she wrote for The Washington Post.

Another issue: Tax refunds may be taking longer than expected to drop into your inbox, per The Detroit Free Press.

  • The IRS has a backlog of unprocessed returns from original returns, business returns and a number of others.
  • “They’re still working through those returns before they start dealing with some of the challenges and problems from this (season’s) tax return,” Erin Collins, the national taxpayer advocate, told The Detroit Free Press.