When you have a tax “oops” you fix it by filing an Amended Tax Return, form 1040X.
Mistakes happen. You file your return and later get a W2 in the mail for a job you had forgotten about. Maybe your investment firm sent you an amended 1099 because your interest income they reported was wrong. Or maybe you were talking to a friend and learned about a deduction that you should have been claiming for the past three years and you’d like a refund. What do you do?
It’s easy, you need to file an amended return, the form is called a 1040X and you can find it on the IRS website: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040x.pdf.
An amended return can’t be filed electronically like a regular return. You must mail it in and it’s going to take about 12 weeks to process. That’s a bummer if you’re expecting a refund, but that’s the way it works. If your regular return had a refund, make sure you wait until you’ve received the first refund before you file the amended return. (If they start processing the amended return before your original refund gets paid, it can mess up you getting the original refund. You don’t want that to happen now do you?)
If you have more than one tax return that needs to be amended, you must file separate returns for each year and mail them in separate envelopes. For example, say you found out that you had missed a $1000 deduction on your Schedule A every year and you’re in the 25% tax bracket. You can’t just put $3000 on this year’s return for a $750 refund. You’ll have to amend 2010, 2009, and 2008 separately and you’ll receive three checks for $250 each. It’s too late now to claim a refund that should have gone on 2007.
When you amend your tax return, you’ll have to send in the schedules of anything that changed. In the example above, the thing that changed was on the schedule A, so that form would also have to be attached. Don’t attach any forms that didn’t change. Warning: for many folks, a change in one part of your tax return can cause a change somewhere else-most notably on your schedule A. Before you actually mail anything in, go over it carefully to see if you have any unexpected changes.
When you file a 1040X, make sure you check the box for the tax year that you’re amending. That’s a pretty common mistake. The IRS can’t process the return if they don’t know what year it’s for.
When not to file an amended return: You don’t need to file an amended return for a basic math mistake. The IRS will automatically fix that for you. You also don’t need to file an amended return if your original was missing a schedule. That’s where you get a letter from the IRS saying that you claimed something on your return but that you’re missing the supporting documents. A common example of that would be a capital gain of $2000 on your return, but there’s no schedule D to back it up. You don’t need to amend the return, just mail them the schedule D. The IRS will ask you for whatever schedule they’re looking for, you won’t have to guess at what’s missing.
I’ve talked a lot about filing an amended return because of a refund. Sometimes when you file an amended return you’re going to owe. If you have a balance due, mail the payment check with your 1040X. The IRS will probably send you a bill for interest and maybe even penalties depending upon how much you owed. Be prepared for that.
Often times, people are thinking about filing amended returns because they received an IRS letter. Sometimes, you don’t need to amend, just pay the tax. Sometimes, you really need to amend because you shouldn’t have to pay the tax but you need to submit more information. Sometimes, you don’t need to amend and you don’t need to pay the tax—the IRS made a mistake and they just need to have it pointed out to them. Before you start writing that check, get a professional opinion–you want to pay your fair share, not more than you owe.
Hi Heidi,
Unless you live in a state that has a tax credit for the rent you pay, I wouldn’t bother. It shouldn’t affect your federal return (unless there’s part of the story that I’m missing here.)
Just have a quick question, I already filed and noticed I forgot a 3 dollar interest on savings account. Must I amend?
I messed up filing my taxes with h&r block online. Now its asking me for my current efile pin #. I have a four digit and not a five digit. How do I continue if its a four digit?
Hi I just have a question, I filed my taxes on turbo tax, when I originally filed I messed up the education portion by not adding in the amount my work reimbursed me for school, i didn’t have to pay anything towards school so i shouldn’t get a credit at all for it, turbo tax confused me and i messed this up, my original return came out to 14993 and has already been processed, i knew this did not sound right so i asked around and once i figured out i messed up the education portion i filled out an amendment 1040x on turbo tax and printed it, my return should of been 5000 something and i now owe a difference of 9000. My question is can I wait for my refund before i mail in the amendment because i dont have 9000. If I do wait for the return to mail the amendment will i get charged interests and penalties and finally as long as i mail it before april 15 will that eliminate any extra fees?
Is it common practice for CPAs to charge a significant amount of money to amend a tax return? For instance, an itemized return was filed and a higher than expected 1099 came in, so I need to amend my return I did a little prematurely for my refund… good part is I have plenty of receipts to capture the higher amount reported as income for me ( as a contractor)… but my cpa is now charging me $200 extra on top of my original fee paid to him to file this amendment, is that common practice or not?
correction””” I filed my taxes and my state came back rejected. it asked me to correct by giving my social security # and I believe last year’s income. I believe I put 2013″s income. Will they just reject it again after submitting a second time? im using TurboTax by the way.
basically I filed my taxes and my state came back rejected. so I tried to fix my state and it asked for my SSN and last uears income. I believe I put the income from 2013. How can I fix this?
Hi,
I just filed my state sales tax return on January 31st, 2015. After going through some bank statements the other day, I realized that one of my invoices was off and I owe an additional $6.73 in states sales tax. Do I need to bother filing an amendment if I only owe $6 more? Thank you!
hi i filed and irs accepted my return on 1/30/15, About a week later i saw that i had misspelled my name and instead of stephanie it was stehanie. On w.m.r it says still processing and when i call to speak with someone at the irs i always get a automated message. I dont know if the irs would hold my taxes over one letter missing in my name. I havent recieved a letter from the irs yet so i am hoping that is a good sign. What could be the hold up?
Jan,
I accidentally filled out an IRA contribution stupidly thinking it was 401k contribution. Thus, I’m expecting to get significantly more back than I should. From reading this site, I’m supposed to wait until I get the refund, and then file the amendment? Is this one of those cases where they might bounce it back saying “hey we need some supporting documents for this!”
Hi…thanks for answering these questions!
I filed my taxes and already got my refund back direct deposit. After I had filed, I received both a 1099-C and a 1099-Misc that I had not anticipated. I’ve filled out a 1040x and it’s given me the amount I now owe. My question is…what do I do with the amount of my original refund? Do I just add that amount to the amount I owe showing on the 1040x and send it in with the return? I got $1,500 back on the refund and now with the amended return it shows I owe $1,000. Thanks
I just recently filed my taxes
And both my husband and i decided to file seperate but once i filed and the irs accepted
I went to do my husbands taxes and his tax return was rejected since i had had claimed him as an exemption, now he cant file his own tax return and now I am stuck with this big mess
Do i need to file and amended tax return
And when will my husband be able to file his taxes?
was rejected since he was already claimed as an exemp
Hi,
I file my taxes on TAXACT, I recently change jobs and only had one W-2. So I file it with the only one w-2. The next day my other W-2 form come in the mail. What would happen if i didn’t file the other W-2 and how can I fix it.
my return was accepted but should not ever been filed, I was playing with the numbers and trying to see how much someone would get if they made this money and I used my info, its going to look like fraud, the bank sent the money back to the irs saying it was fraud cause I was in jail, so I did an 1040x to remove the entire return, will I get proscecuted even though I got no money>? I hit submit accidentally then didn’t know if it was too late. but like I said the third party bank sent the money back, so I haven’t gotten it but is it a crime still if I got no money and I am amending the return?
“I used a different tax software this year than last which worded a question differently and I just realized that on my Schedule C I put the name of the company, address and EIN that issued my only 1099 in the boxes that should have been my company name (yikes!). I did include my own name and SSN, but unfortunately my return has already been accepted. How do I correct this, or will the IRS note that the company that mailed them my 1099 is the one I included and will they correct this for me? There are no other changes that are required to my income, but I am worried that this could be considered a major mistake. Please advise. Thanks in advance.” Additional note to my last question above: the amount of my Schedule C 1099 income is also below $1000.
Jan,
I used a different tax software this year than last which worded a question differently and I just realized that on my Schedule C I put the name of the company, address and EIN that issued my only 1099 in the boxes that should have been my company name (yikes!). I did include my own name and SSN, but unfortunately my return has already been accepted. How do I correct this, or will the IRS note that the company that mailed them my 1099 is the one I included and will they correct this for me? There are no other changes that are required to my income, but I am worried that this could be considered a major mistake. Please advise. Thanks in advance.
Hi! I filed my Income Tax Return myself. I just realize that I didn’t include house rental that I payed to my landlord of $3600 a year starting 2012. Do you think I need to amend my tax return? Is it worth to amend it?
Hi Maria,
Basically, I’d just amend your return and pay the $15.
But, I have a different issue for you. You’re here on a J-1 Visa–that makes me think you should be filing your return as a “non-resident”. The 1040NR is never e-filed. So, unless you have some reason that you should be considered a US resident, then your whole return is wrong, not just the $100 award. Sorry.
Hi Melody,
It changes nothing on your federal return so I wouldn’t amend anything. Here in Missouri, it could change your state return, but in many states it will have no impact either.
I would just put a little note with your paperwork reminding you of what happened. If you do get an IRS letter in about a year or two, then you’ll remember why you got the letter. (And you’ll just explain it to the IRS then.) But I wouldn’t bother with an amended return, it wouldn’t make any difference and just waste the IRS’s time trying to process it.
Hi Valerie,
I’m going to snob out on you. Your friend’s problem is out of your league. You need a professional. He’s going to need an EA or a CPA who can get a power of attorney to represent him–you can’t do that.
Even with a pro–the IRS will give them a hard time (I speak from experience) because of the whole identity theft thing. But at least you can get the problem addressed.
Hi Amanda,
It usually takes about a year for the document matching to kick in so you should get the refund. Once you get that money, you should amend your return and send back what you shouldn’t keep. Do it now because otherwise you’ll just spend the money and won’t have it when the IRS sends you that nasty little letter. If you amend before April 15h–there won’t be any nasty little letter.
Hi Katrina,
The IRS might actually catch that one. I’d wait and see if they pay you or not. Give it a few weeks and if you don’t get a letter about it, amend. It all depends on if it’s in their system already or not. It might not be in the system yet which is why you’d need to amend.
Hi Lazara,
Well, you shouldn’t file without your W2s–scold, scold.
If your return was accepted with your maiden name–then it was accepted. So I wouldn’t worry about that.
The W2 is more troubling. After February 15th you can do a substitute W2 based on your final pay stub. You should also notify the IRS that the company hasn’t issued you a W2.
Hi Stephanie,
I recommend calling your old H&R Block preparer and pay her to fix it for you.
Hi Jodie,
You’re probably going to get and extra $1000 back. Amend your return and mail the IRS the $1000.
Hi Andrew, I wouldn’t worry. If it doesn’t change anything, I wouldn’t even try to amend.
Hi Angel,
That’s probably not going to be an issue unless they are mailing you a check. If the spelling is recognizable–I wouldn’t worry. If it’s really bad, go to the change of address section in Where’s My Refund to change it.
Hi, I’m a PhD student with a J-1 visa. I filed my taxes and got the emails saying they were accepted, but today I found a 1099-MISC form in my mailbox for a $100 award I received at a conference. I calculated and I will owe $15 for fed and $6 for state…I am freaking out, this is the first time this happens to me. I didn’t even know I was going to be taxed for an award! What should I do? Thanks!
melody says:
i have a question. I e-filed my taxes and then realized when either I entered it or turbotax prefilled my husbands w2…I am listed as the employee…I called the irs and they said to wait until I got a letter. it did not change our income or refund or anything like that…just I entered the wrong name and social security with this w2….of course I wont do anything till I receive my refund but wondering if I should amend after I receive the refund and explain what needs to be corrected instead of waiting for them to catch it….it looks like I reported a w2 that my employer did not and that my husbands employer reported a w2 that he did not report….
I am trying to help a friend with his taxes this year. The problem I have is that He had someone do his 2013 taxes that person sent it to a nother person to do in another state. When they were filing the return it was rejected due to one numbre off on a childs ss number. My friend then went to jail and has no idea what happened to the return. This when filing He needs the address to get his IP pin and he doesn’t know what they put as his address so he is unable to file. When requesting a transcript by mail they send it to the last known address irs has. He doesn’t know what that is. What do we do to get information on 2013 and to file 2014 tax
I was wondering and very nervous I somehow entered in the incorrect information from my w2 from the waqges and withholding tax. I was due a refund either way because as I realized what I did after I reviewed and had sent it in, I later looked at my print outs, so then I went to the turbo tax calculator and the refund is about 1000, in difference. However, my question is will I still get my refund and when does the irs look over the w2s to see if the info was correct or not, like do they match our w2s up with what we put in turbo tax? or do they get them later? I need my refund and will def, take out the 1000 to be ready to send back to them, but on the website for irs, i filed on the 29th was accepted and still says received and nothing else? I am getting worried. I do need this money badly. so basically i entered in more money than I made. I had put a 1 in front of my number changing it from 8899 to 18899. if it will be rejected how long does that take so i can correct it?
Amanda
So I efiled my taxes, for my 1099-G I ended up putting what was withheld federal in the state box. By my calculations the IRS will owe me about 600 dollars more, do I need to amend my taxes or will IRS catch the error?
Hi question,
i changed accountants this year and she put my maiden name instead of my married last name.I got divorced last year but i havent changed my last name yet.the return went through with my maiden last name ….should i be worried that its gonna get delayed?and also i never received a w-2 for a company i worked for i cant reach them either its like they disappeared no number their not even in the location so i went ahead and filed with out them becasue regardles if i have to ammend i only made about 1000 dollars so it wouldnt be a big difference…i check the wheres my refund and it says it was accepted that it bein processed. so should i worry?
hi
i filed through turbo tax i usually always go to h and r block but my sister keept pressuring me to try turbo so i did. and i messed it up it asked if i had kids and i put yes but other parent was claming them but it went through as me claiming the kids. and we did not want it to be like that because the father would get more if he claimed the kids. is there any way i can get this fixed with out doing an amendment? i dont know what to do to fix this. if i cant get it where he can claim them then we loose out on 6,000 dollars.
please help.
thank you
stephanie
My mom did my taxes and efiled them, she gave me all the paperwork back today and she entered the wrong amount on the federal with holding. My W2 says $608 and she entered $1608!!!! So now I know the return I will be getting is going to be too much The status on the IRS page says it has been accepted. Will they fix that automatically? I am freaking out and don’t know what is going to happen, please help
My mom did my taxes and efiled them, she gave me all the paperwork back today and she entered the wrong amount on the federal with holding. My W2 says $608 and she entered $1608!!!! So now I know the return I will be getting is going to too much The status on the it’s page says it has been accepted. Will they fix that automatically? I am freaking out and don’t know what is going to happen, please help
Hi i filed my taxes last week and i just got a w2 i wasnt expecting from 2013 but the pay period ended at jan 5 2014. I already mailed it but the w2 i did not adds income was only 113 dollars and 0 dollars federal withheld. Should i worry?
Hi I did my return myself and mailed it last week but today i got mailed a w2 from a job in 2013 i wasnt expecting to get but the pay period ended on the 5th of jan so i already mailed my return in without that one. It only changes my returns income from 113 dollars extra and the withheld is 0 so it wont change what the they will owe me should i worry?
I just filed my taxes yesterday and noticed I accidently spelled or auto correct my street name wrong what should I do?
Hi Becky,
Sometimes this happens. And it’s a pain. A couple of suggestions.
1. take out the middle initial (or add it)
2. look at last year’s tax return how did you have the name there?
3. look at the actual social security card sometimes saying it over the phone and looking at the card are different (ahem, I speak from experience on that one)
4. one time–and this was really weird, I had the name right, the social security card right, everything was right but the IRS wouldn’t accept the return–the little girl’s name had two spaces between her first and middle names and the IRS computers wanted that second space–weirdest reject ever!
If all else fails–you can paper file the return. It will take longer to process, but then a human being will look it up and the case will get solved.
Hi Stacey,
Two things. One, I don’t think your 2014 refund will be affected by your 2013 amended return.
Two, and more importantly–my gut reaction is that you don’t owe $250 for the hardship withdrawal on your Roth. Only the earnings of your ROTH are taxable. And, if you haven’t taken out all of the money from your ROTH, then I’m saying that you left the earnings in the account and only took out the basis–which wouldn’t be taxable.
So, it’s quite possible that you took out several thousand dollars of your ROTH and you had $1000 in earning, making the tax be $250–I can see that. But, if you only took out about $1000 from your Roth and either that’s all you had in the account or there’s still money left in the account–my best guess is that you owe nothing or a very small amount of money if at all.
Hi Latoya,
I’m thinking the problem has more to do with you filing on the 15th, not with the EIN. But I’m not sure. Federal efile didn’t open until the 20th, so if you filed on the 15th, where did your tax return go?
I think you need to contact your server and talk to them. Some companies stock-piled the returns and sent them all on the 20th. But I don’t know where your return went.
Bottom line is–either your return should have been accepted or rejected. That you’re still in limbo is kind of odd.
I’m almost thinking you should just fix it and resend, but I’d talk to your software company first to see where your return is in the pipeline.
Hi Gabrielle,
Hmmmm–your return got accepted with your name being wrong? It’s unusual, but I’ve seen it happen before.
If your return is going to reject, it happens right away, you won’t get an “accepted” notice and then have it reject. But don’t be surprised if you get a letter from the IRS later–you’re not in trouble, you’ll just need to explain that your name is Gabrielle.
That said, next year when you file, you may have a problem. File your name correctly and see what happens, If it rejects, then you’ll need to file with the double last name. (I actually have a client whose name got messed up somehow with social security so he’s “jones jones” even though that’s not really his name. He’ll get it straightened out eventually, but to get his refund we use the double name.
Hi Ibreena,
If your child’s social security number is wrong, then your tax return should be rejected and you can fix the social security withholding then.
If your return had gone through with the social security wrong, your return would probably still be processed normally and it doesn’t change your refund so there would be no need to amend.
Hi Valencia,
First, the important question–are you getting your refund direct deposited or are they mailing you a check? With direct deposit I wouldn’t worry so much, but if you are getting a check you want to make sure that the IRS has the correct address right away. You can do the address change in the “where’s my refund” section on the IRS website. That’s where you need to change it if they are mailing you a check. http://www.irs.gov/Refunds
If not, there’s a number of ways to correct your address: http://www.irs.gov/Help-&-Resources/Tools-&-FAQs/FAQs-for-Individuals/Frequently-Asked-Tax-Questions-&-Answers/IRS-Procedures/Address-Changes/Address-Changes
You’ll want you tax information with you to correct your address so you can prove your identity.
Hi Lorraine,
First, what you’ve done happens all the time You’re not the first person to do it and you definitely won’t be the last. But I’m guessing that your Dad is really mad.
What you’re going to do is amend your tax return and not claim yourself. You will mail that in separately. But–your dad is going to make a photocopy of that tax return and mail it in with his tax return where he claims you.
Now you might have seen a comment that I wrote about two other people and I said they “could” do that–but they were divorced and so the woman might not want to give that information to her ex. So it’s not a for sure thing for them.
You’re different. We’re talking about your Dad that you live with. He’s supposed to claim you on his tax return. He knows your social security number, and your birth date and everything. It’s okay for you to give him a copy of your tax return.
The worst thing about what you did (so you know why your Dad is mad) is that if he’s going to get a refund, it’s going to be delayed. And that’s a pretty good reason for being mad. The second reason people get upset is because they think they’ll get in trouble with the IRS. And that, he won’t have to worry about. This really does happen all the time and the IRS knows it. So he won’t get in trouble–if that helps at all.
Good luck.
Hi Tamara,
The IRS doesn’t have the W2 information yet. Your refund shouldn’t be delayed. You will need to amend your return because the IRS will have the information later. It takes almost two years for those document matching notices to go out, but if you owe the IRS money, that’s two years of late payment penalties and interest you’ll need to pay. If you’ve got more money coming back–you want that money (and the IRS won’t just send it to you.) So I recommend amending the return as soon as you’ve gotten your refund.
Hi Roz,
I’m guessing that if your return was going to reject, it already happened and you’ve already fixed the EIN and resent it. If your return hasn’t rejected, then don’t worry about it. Hang on to your W2, make a note in your file, and if you ever get an IRS notice about it, you’ve got your note and W2. Otherwise I wouldn’t worry about it.
Hi Catalina,
If you already filed, then anything you try to file afterwards will get rejected. That’s why you need to do the 1040X.
On the 1040X, you will claim all of your income, not just the income you forgot the first time. If you used a software program, it’s easiest to prepare the 1040X within the program. You’ll click a button to generate the X and it populates the “before” section, then you just finish your tax return with all the new information.
Remember to amend your state return as well.
Hi Kim,
Been there done that with the babies at 4 am. You have my sympathy (and a little jealousy–when you’re not exhausted, they are so adorable!)
About your ex claiming the kids–he won’t be able e-file until the IRS finishes with your return. It may make sense for him to paper file his return with a copy of your amended return (showing that you are not claiming the children) attached to his form for back up. Even so, that will still probably take 8 to 12 weeks to still process. But–at least he will have filed.
There’s no other form you need to complete.