A short article in today’s Accounting Today newsletter (which I highly-recommend) included an extremely helpful snippet that I want to make sure to spread far-and-wide.

To validate and successfully submit an electronically filed tax return to the IRS, taxpayers need their adjusted gross income, or AGI, from their most recent tax return. The IRS has a couple of “special tips” to ensure the tax return is accepted by the IRS for processing.

For those waiting on their 2020 tax return to be processed, enter $0 (zero dollars) for last year’s AGI on the 2021 tax return.

For those who used a non-filer tool in 2021 to register for an advance Child Tax Credit or third Economic Impact Payment in 2021, enter $1 (one dollar) as the prior-year AGI.

All others should enter the prior year’s AGI from last year’s return. Tax preparation software that was used last year will auto-populate this field.

And my personal suggestion to add to this list — make sure to get a transcript before trying these, since there is some possibility that your tax return has already been processed and you are unaware of it, or that the answers you’re looking for will show up on a wage and income transcript (stimulus and child tax credit payments, as well as estimated tax payments, for example).

Hopefully these tips will help expedite your tax return filing and processing — but as the article points out, “significant backlogs, lack of adequate staffing, difficulty reaching tax authority agents by phone and pandemic-related IRS and state and local office closures” are making this tax season particularly challenging one for tax professionals and taxpayers.

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