How do you file your tax returns from a country with unreliable mail service? Online, right? We found a site called Taxslayer for people with foreign addresses and, almost miraculously, for people over 65 who don't make much money. And we could file our state forms through them, too. Bingo. (Go Obama; raise taxes on those making over $200,000).
The process was easy: we entered the data, and the system did all the figuring. We did the federal form and two state forms (WV and NC). But, when we tried to submit the forms, the IRS kept rejecting them, and Taxslayer would not submit the state forms until the feds accepted theirs. What to do? An internet search revealed that the error code indicated a problem with the street address. We kept fiddling around with our address, putting the number in front instead of in back of the street name, taking out the word "Andador," etc. 3 submissions, 3 rejections. El sr J was frustrated and mystified; he kept saying, "the address is the address, how can it be wrong?" I was defiant ("try to find us, I dare you!"). But they owed us money, so my reaction was inappropriate. Finally, at the last minute we changed the address from Mexico to Alabama. That did it. Then NC accepted our forms and, just now at the last minute, WV came through. So much for the web site that specializes in foreign addresses.
We're not sure how to think about this: should we be pleased that we were able to persevere and get our returns accepted, or should we wonder why we can't simply file from where we are and not have to create a fictional address in order to by-pass an error code? One thing is certain: the mess on the floor has been cleaned up.
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