Name control ?

[cientax]

I have husband and wife clients and each have two last names on their ss card. Which last name am I to use? The first last name of each or the second last name of each? The wife's last names are totally different from the husband's last names. And the wife's last names are split with "De" in the middle, such as "Ortega De Jesus". I have tried various versions since the return gets rejected each time. When I used the entire last names of the wife, the program would not create the efile because the name was too long. They do not have a copy of their last years tax returns. This is a joint return.

[Booger]

I have husband and wife clients and each have two last names on their ss card. Which last name am I to use? The first last name of each or the second last name of each? The wife's last names are totally different from the husband's last names. And the wife's last names are split with "De" in the middle, such as "Ortega De Jesus". I have tried various versions since the return gets rejected each time. When I used the entire last names of the wife, the program would not create the efile because the name was too long. They do not have a copy of their last years tax returns. This is a joint return.

I had one with a hyphenated last name of "Beelzebub-Jehosaphat"

I abbreviated it Beelze-Jehos.......it worked.

Booger

[Terry O]

I could be wrong, but I agree with Booger - - then again - -who doesn't!!

I believe that the SS dept pretty much compares the first 5 letters of the last name, so I do the same with the abbreviation.