Punctuation matters.

• Position: E - FILE TIPS - Brief Article

Sometimes, punctuation--or lack thereof--can foil an e-fling effort.

At the 2004 IRS Liaison Meeting in November, John DiCarlo, CPA, of Long Beach, said that a missing hyphen in a client's federal identification number caused rejection of an e-filed return.

And Redwood City CPA Michael O'Connor said that when he e-filed his own 2003 tax statement, the IRS website bounced it several times. Apparently, the system would not accept the apostrophe in his name. He noted that he...