Efile Rejection Error - IND-517

[Yardley CPA]

Receiving a rejection on a clients HOH efile.  Dependent is her son who had no income and is disabled over 24 years old.  I'm receiving this error:

A Dependent SSN in the return must not be the same as the Primary or Spouse SSN on another eturn where the Primary Taxpayer or Spouse was claimed as an exemption.

Is this suggesting the Dependent may have already filed his own return???

I'd appreciate any input.  

[Lion EA]

Sounds that way.  I've had good luck talking to a real person on the e-Help Desk.  They can't tell you about the "other return," but I've found that they will give you a pretty good explanation.  And, if you have your client and her dependent conferenced into the call, you can get permission to talk about everyone involved.

Start with having your client ask her son if he filed his own return, claiming his own exemption (probably need to see a copy of the return to get that question answered).  Sometimes, there's a work shelter that is trying to help the disabled with which they work by providing a tax preparer, VITA, or other volunteers.

And, there could be a hack of medical data that stole SSNs from disabled claim filers that are good candidates for not filing returns, good SSNs for thieves to use.

[Yardley CPA]

My client's son filed his own return. 

Problem solved...but it would have been nice to know.