MeF for prior year (2010, 2009) returns?

[John A]

Anyone know if we'll be able to efile 2009 and 2010 individual returns (1040s) using MeF, starting in Jan 2012? I read somewhere that this should be possible...

Using TRX Pro 1040.

Thanks!

[ed_accountant]

No, you cannot efile prior year returns. The IRS and states closeout efiling on 10/15 each year. You can only efile 2011 returns now.

[John A]

See the Dec 9 2011 post here: http://blog.taxworks.com/understanding-mef/

I'll get in touch with Tax Works and see if they have an answer for this.

Thanks.

[RGFan]

Hi John,

Did you end up getting a final answer on this one?

Thanks,

Ryan

[John A]

I didn't. Someone at taxworks said no, and then I asked again, and they said maybe. Or rather, they said:

The prior years are supported back to 09, but only through Mef and not legacy E-filing. The IRS only allows a very limited amount of forms through the Mef system for 1040s. So it is possible to Efile them, but many forms in a return will not allow for it.

So I still don't know what this means for those of us using TRX. Did the 2010 TRX program (final version) support MeF on 1040s? In which case, it might work. I guess I'll find out at some point, but it would be nice to tell any clients who still need to file 2010 whether they'll have to paper file or if we can e-file.

Thanks, Ryan.

[RGFan]

Thanks, John.

I will see what I can find out definitively on this.

Ryan

[RGFan]

John,

I checked around and there are no limitations in place for this right now, so you should be able to send up efiles/MeF for prior years.

If for some reason you run into an audit or error when doing this, send it over to me and I can take a look but our regulatory folks told me there were no restrictions in place at this time.

Thanks,

Ryan

[John A]

None of my efiles from 2010 were indicated as MeF (per the reports at the E-File Center). I didn't check the "opt-out of MeF" on any of the returns, and I didn't have the global "Disable MeF" setting checked, but they seem to have all been sent as Legacy anyway. So my guess is it isn't going to work. I haven't had a chance to test it yet (no one's come in needing to file for last year), but when I do, I'll post results here.

(They almost all involved Oregon, which as far as I know does accept MeF.)

[Terry D EA]

This will definitley be nice to find out. Will this apply to 1120S returns? I am anxious to find out.

[10SorTAX]

Just an update...I tried e-filing a 2010 return today that would qualify for MEF, but I'm getting the error message saying it's too late to e-file so I guess it's still not working.