FIRST OR LAST NAME IS TOO LONG

[KATHERINE]

Hi dear friends here

Do you know how to deal with people's name is too big?

One person's name is way too big.  First name has two words, running out of space , then same happens to her last name.  I was trying to make it short, then it got rejected as " does not match data base".  I tried to enter exactly as social card, but never succeed.   

Another person, I do not have ITIN letter because ITIN was issued long time ago.   How can I find out how his name was spelled in IRS?  

 

Any advice will be appreciated.

 

Thank you!

 

Katherine

[ILLMAS]

I have had this situation before, I request a prior year tax return to see how the name appears and that solves the problem.

[Lion EA]

The SSN is matched against the first four (?) letters of the last name. So, shorten the first name or use initials. (Might be more to it for dependents, such as birthdates.) You need to review at least one prior return anyway for carryovers, etc., so definitely do what ILLMAS said.

[Pacun]

I enter the names as they appear on their Social Security cards and I print their return. If the name is too long to efile, I take out the second last name from the spouse. If I still have the issue, I take the second last name from the first person. I have not needed to go any further. 

[KATHERINE]

Thank you all friends, .  I will try this time to see if I can resolve the problem.   

[Jack from Ohio]

ATX truncates the names automatically.

[Pacun]

5 hours ago, Jack from Ohio said:

ATX truncates the names automatically.

Not when they are longer than usual.

[Catherine]

The trick, as Pacun alluded to, is to get the correct surname as the first one.  Slavic and Hispanic naming conventions can throw you for a loop if you're not used to them. If you have John Smith-Jones he'll be in either with Smith *or* with Jones as the "official" IRS surname. Using the other will cause an error.  If you have Constanza Vazquez de Blanca y Domingo then you have three choices.  But only two choices if you are faced with Aleksey Ivanovitch Krasnaya or Marta Hofmann-Rahneva.

[Lion EA]

Went crazy with a young son of a new client. Had his SS card, so couldn't understand what was wrong. Mom called. Son had two middle names, but SSA used one of his middle names as his last name.