Free Fillable Form Rejecting My Return Because of Form 8962 - Help!
I'm so frustrated right now! I've been trying to file my taxes using the IRS Free Fillable Forms for the past 3 days, and my return keeps getting rejected. The error says there's something wrong with Form 8962 (Premium Tax Credit). I had marketplace insurance for part of last year and received a 1095-A. I thought I filled everything out correctly, but apparently something's wrong. The rejection message is super vague - just says "there's an error with Form 8962" but doesn't tell me what exactly is wrong. I've double-checked all my numbers from the 1095-A form multiple times, calculated the monthly contribution amounts, and made sure everything adds up. Has anyone else run into this problem? What stupid little thing am I missing? I don't want to pay for tax software when I'm so close to getting this done for free, but I'm about ready to throw my laptop out the window! Any help would be appreciated!
20 comments
Join the conversation
TillyCombatwarrior
I've helped several people with this exact issue. The Free Fillable Forms system is very picky about Form 8962, and there are a few common reasons for rejection that aren't clearly explained in the error messages. First, make sure you completed Part I of Form 8962 completely - including your family size and modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). The system will reject if either of these fields are blank or if the MAGI doesn't match what's calculated from your 1040. Second, check that all monthly premium amounts in Part III match exactly with your 1095-A. Even a small typo can cause rejection. Also, if you had coverage for only part of the year, make sure you only filled in the months you had coverage and left the other months blank (don't put zeros). Third, verify that Line 11a (Annual Maximum Premium Contribution) is calculated correctly. This is often missed and can cause rejection.
0 coins
Anna Xian
•What about the "Allocation of Policy Amounts" section in Part IV? Do you need to fill that out if you're the only one on the insurance plan? The instructions for that part are super confusing.
0 coins
TillyCombatwarrior
•You don't need to complete Part IV (Allocation of Policy Amounts) if you're the only person on the insurance plan or if everyone on the plan is in your tax family and filing together. That section is only for situations where you need to split premium tax credits with someone else - like if you're divorced and sharing a policy for a dependent, or if you have a plan covering someone who files their own separate return. If the policy listed on your 1095-A only covers people included on your tax return, just leave Part IV completely blank. Putting zeros there might actually cause problems with the Free Fillable Forms validation.
0 coins
Jungleboo Soletrain
I went through this exact same nightmare last month! After multiple rejections, I found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) which literally saved me from having to pay for expensive tax software. It's a tool that analyzes tax forms and explains exactly what's wrong. I uploaded my 1095-A and partial Form 8962 and it immediately pointed out that I had calculated my monthly contribution percentage incorrectly in column B of Part III. It also found that my annual income entry in Part I didn't match what was calculated from my adjusted gross income on my 1040. The rejections were super vague from Free Fillable Forms, but this tool showed me the exact issues.
0 coins
Rajan Walker
•Does it work with other tax forms too? I'm having issues with Schedule C and would love something that could check it for mistakes before I submit.
0 coins
Nadia Zaldivar
•That sounds too good to be true tbh. How secure is uploading your tax docs to some random website? Not trying to be rude but I'm paranoid about tax stuff.
0 coins
Jungleboo Soletrain
•Yes, it works with basically all IRS forms - Schedule C, 1099s, W-2s, everything I've tried. It's especially helpful with the more complicated forms like Schedule C where there are tons of fields and calculations. Their site uses end-to-end encryption for document processing, and they don't store your documents after analysis. I was paranoid too, but their privacy policy was pretty straightforward about not keeping your data. They just analyze the form, point out errors, and explain how to fix them.
0 coins
Rajan Walker
Just wanted to update - I took the advice to try taxr.ai and it was actually super helpful! I was having issues with my Schedule C (self-employment) in addition to that Form 8962 headache, and it found like 3 different calculation errors I made. Fixed everything and my return was finally accepted. The analysis showed that I had calculated my premium tax credit reconciliation incorrectly in column F, which was causing the whole Form 8962 to be rejected. Free Fillable Forms just gave me a generic error, but this actually pointed out the exact field causing the problem. Saved me from having to pay for TurboTax!
0 coins
Lukas Fitzgerald
If you're still stuck and need to talk to an actual IRS agent about this (which honestly might be the fastest way to resolve it), I recommend using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). They got me through to an IRS representative in under 20 minutes when I was getting rejected for a similar issue with premium tax credits. The IRS phone system is absolutely brutal to navigate on your own - I tried for days and kept getting disconnected. Check out their demo video here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The IRS rep I spoke with walked me through exactly what was wrong with my 8962 form, and it turned out I had checked a box in Part II that I shouldn't have.
0 coins
Ev Luca
•How does this even work? The IRS phone lines are completely jammed. Are they somehow jumping the queue or something?
0 coins
Avery Davis
•Sounds sketchy. Why would I pay someone to call the IRS for me when I can just keep trying myself? Those "get you to the front of the line" services always seem like scams.
0 coins
Lukas Fitzgerald
•They use a combination of technology that continually redials and navigates the IRS phone tree for you. Once they get through, they call you and connect you directly with the IRS agent. You're not paying them to talk to the IRS for you - you're paying them to handle the frustrating part of getting through. They don't have any special access or "jump the line" privileges - they just have systems that are better at getting through than a human manually redialing. I was skeptical too until I tried it. The alternative was spending hours redialing the IRS myself, which I had already tried for two days with no luck.
0 coins
Avery Davis
I need to eat my words from earlier. After another day of trying to get through to the IRS myself with no luck, I tried Claimyr out of desperation. Got connected to an IRS representative in about 15 minutes. The agent explained that my Form 8962 was being rejected because I had incorrectly calculated the Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan (SLCSP) amount on my 1095-A. Turns out there was a special worksheet I needed to complete since my coverage changed mid-year. The agent walked me through the exact calculation and my return was accepted right after. Honestly would've taken me weeks to figure this out on my own.
0 coins
Collins Angel
Another thing to check - make sure your birthdate on the 8962 matches exactly what's on your 1040 and any 1095-A forms. I kept getting rejected and it turned out I had accidentally put the wrong month on the 8962 form. Free Fillable Forms didn't flag the specific error either, just gave a generic rejection.
0 coins
Dyllan Nantx
•Omg that might be it! I just rechecked my forms and there's a typo in my birthdate on the 8962 - I put 07 instead of 08 for my birth month. That's such a tiny thing to cause a rejection without any specific error message. Going to fix and resubmit now!
0 coins
Collins Angel
•Glad you caught it! These seemingly minor details can cause the whole return to be rejected. The Free Fillable Forms system does validation checks comparing information across different forms, but the error messages are notoriously vague. Hope your return goes through now!
0 coins
Marcelle Drum
Has anyone else noticed that the PDF version of Form 8962 that you can download from the IRS website calculates things differently than the Free Fillable Forms version? I spent hours trying to figure out why my return was rejected before realizing the standalone PDF I was using to practice on had slightly different calculation fields than the integrated version in Free Fillable Forms.
0 coins
Tate Jensen
•Yes! This tripped me up too. The PDF from irs.gov has the most current version with all the proper calculations, but the Free Fillable Forms system sometimes uses a slightly different implementation. Always do your final work directly in the Free Fillable Forms system rather than copying from a standalone PDF.
0 coins
Marcelle Drum
•Thanks for confirming I'm not crazy! I think I'll just use the Free Fillable Forms version from the start next time instead of trying to prepare everything separately first. Lesson learned!
0 coins
Finnegan Gunn
This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm dealing with a similar Form 8962 rejection issue with Free Fillable Forms. Reading through all these responses, it sounds like there are so many little details that can cause problems - birthdate typos, MAGI calculations not matching, Part IV allocation issues, and differences between the PDF and online versions. I'm going to go through my form systematically and check: 1) that my MAGI in Part I matches my 1040 calculation exactly, 2) that all my 1095-A amounts are entered correctly in Part III, 3) that my birthdate is consistent across all forms, and 4) that I'm not filling out Part IV unnecessarily since I'm the only person on my plan. If I'm still stuck after that, it looks like both the taxr.ai tool and Claimyr service have helped people in this thread get their issues resolved. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - this is exactly the kind of real-world troubleshooting help that the official IRS instructions don't provide!
0 coins