Federal Rejected, IRS Error Code?

Question

My return was rejected and there are three error codes listed:

Form/Schedule: Schedule EIC - Earned Income Credit
Form Copy: 1
Error Code: 541
Error Description: Form 1040/1040A - When Filing Status equals Single, Head of Household, or Qualifying Widower, the age of the primary taxpayer must be older than the age of each qualifying child on the Schedule EIC. When Filing Status equals Married Filing Joint, the age of the primary or secondary taxpayer must be older than the age of each qualifying child on the Schedule EIC. Please review your entries in the Federal Q&A to make any corrections. Repeat the Filing step to resubmit your return.

Form/Schedule: Schedule EIC - Earned Income Credit
Form Copy: 1
Error Code: 535
Error Description: Schedule EIC - Qualifying SSN of Schedule EIC and the corresponding Year of Birth must match data received from the Social Security Administration. Please review your entries in the Federal Q&A to make sure you've entered the information correctly. You may wish call your local SSA office to verify this information if you have entered everything correctly. If you are unable to correct this error, you will have to file a PAPER return.

Form/Schedule: Schedule EIC - Earned Income Credit
Form Copy: 1
Error Code: 501
Error Description: Schedule EIC - Earned Income Credit. The SECOND qualifying child's SSN or name does not match the IRS Masterfile. Review your Schedule EIC entries. Please verify that the Social Security Number, Name, and Year of Birth entered for the Qualifying Children are correct. Make sure you are using only alphabetic characters for the names of any qualifying children....
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I understand about the last two error codes (501 and 535) because I see that I made a mistake with two of the social security numbers on the return and have corrected it. My question is, since I had the wrong SSN's listed for my two children (mixed them up) , would that be the reason for the first error code 541? Error code 541 states "primary taxpayer must be older than the age of each qualifying child" but on my return I have the correct years of birth listed for myself and my children. The only thing that was listed wrong is the SSN's for my daughters.

Answer 1

SS # is the most commonly made mistake on rejected returns.



If everything else looks right, just send it in again.



There's a new rule this year that, if you're going to claim dependents, you have to be older than they are. Silly rule, stating the obvious, but they may have put out the ruling because yayhoos are trying to get away with stretching dependency rules.

Answer 2

Error 0501 Qualifying child's SSN (Schedule EIC) does not match IRS

Error 0535 Qualifying dependent(s) SSN and date of birth (Schedule EIC) do not match IRS



Starting with 2009 tax return, the qualifying child can not be older than the person claiming the dependent.

You should enter correct SSN and file the return.

Answer 3

That could be it. Correct the SSNs and resubmit.