Tax Professionals Handbook

The North Carolina data packet will be transmitted to the IRS Philadelphia Submission Processing Center with the federal return data. The North Carolina data packet will consist of the electronic State return and a copy of the electronic federal return. The Philadelphia Submission Processing Center is the only IRS Service Center designated to receive the North Carolina data packet.

Any E-File provider that is located outside of North Carolina and not assigned to the Philadelphia Submission Processing Center because of his or her geographic location must take specific steps with the IRS to file North Carolina returns electronically. The E-File provider will be issued an EFIN from the IRS that will allow transmission to the appropriate service center.

Under the Federal/State cooperative program, the IRS may reject a State return if an error is detected as a result of entity and consistency checks. IRS Publications 1345 and 1345A should be referenced for the 400 series error codes for Federal/State Electronic Filing. The North Carolina acknowledgment system will provide reject error codes for the North Carolina return.

If a federal return is rejected due to errors, the accompanying State return will also be rejected. If the IRS rejects a State return due to errors, the accompanying federal return will also be rejected. If the error can be corrected, both returns may be retransmitted to the Philadelphia Submission Processing Center. If the federal return cannot be corrected, the State return can be retransmitted separately as a State Only return.

Error Resolution at the NCDOR

Although the error rate is very low for electronic returns, a few errors may be identified on North Carolina returns when they enter the tax processing cycle at NCDOR. State returns are rejected for specific errors (see Chapter 13). Returns with errors that are not rejected will be corrected through the normal error resolution process. Some errors that will be rejected are duplicate returns, missing social security numbers, and computation errors.

NCDOR will communicate with the transmitter and/or the taxpayer if additional information is needed to correct a return. Providers will only be given limited information about the tax return, including acknowledgment of receipt by NCDOR through the Fed/State Acknowledgement System, the reason for any refund delay, and the date the refund check is released.

Changes to the Returns

If the provider or taxpayer wishes to make any changes after the electronically filed return has been accepted, the taxpayer must file an amended return on Form D-400X. Please do not send changes or corrections to an e-filed return via the transmission of a State Only return. Amended North Carolina returns should be mailed to:

North Carolina Department of Revenue
P O Box 25000
Raleigh NC  27640-0640