If you put 0 for your AGI when e-filing, one of two things happens: the return is accepted, or it’s rejected within minutes. Which one depends on whether the IRS actually has a prior-year adjusted gross income on file for you. When they don’t — first-time filers, people whose last return is still being processed, anyone who wasn’t required to file last year — zero is the correct entry and the return sails through. When they do have a number on record and yours doesn’t match it, the system bounces the return back with an error code. No penalty attaches to the rejection itself, and you can fix the AGI field and resubmit.
When Zero Is the Right Answer
The prior-year AGI field is an identity check, not an income question. The IRS uses the AGI from Line 11 of your last Form 1040 as an electronic signature: you enter it, they compare it to what they have, and a match lets the return through.1Internal Revenue Service. Validating Your Electronically Filed Tax Return When the IRS has nothing on file, zero is what matches nothing. Your actual income from last year will not.
Situations where zero is the correct entry:
- You’ve never filed a federal tax return before.1Internal Revenue Service. Validating Your Electronically Filed Tax Return
- You were claimed as a dependent in prior years and are filing your own return for the first time. A parent’s claim doesn’t create an AGI record for you.1Internal Revenue Service. Validating Your Electronically Filed Tax Return
- You filed last year but the IRS hasn’t finished processing that return.1Internal Revenue Service. Validating Your Electronically Filed Tax Return
- You weren’t required to file last year. For tax year 2025, single filers under 65 with gross income below $15,750 (or $31,500 for married filing jointly) generally don’t need to file, so the IRS has no AGI for you.2Internal Revenue Service. Check If You Need to File a Tax Return
- You filed very late last year — after the mid-October extension deadline — and the return may not have made it into the database before this year’s filing season opened.
In any of these cases, entering your real income from last year is what causes the rejection, not entering zero.
What a Rejection Actually Looks Like
If the AGI you enter doesn’t match what the IRS has, the return is rejected almost immediately with Error Code IND-031-04, which means identity verification failed.3Internal Revenue Service. IND-031-04 Nothing about this triggers an audit or a fraud investigation. Think of it as the wrong password: the system won’t let you in until you enter the right one.
The return isn’t lost. It bounces back to your tax software with a note telling you to fix the verification field. No penalties or interest run from the rejection alone, provided you correct and resubmit before the filing deadline.4Taxpayer Advocate Service. Incorrect Tax Return
Your Deadline After a Rejection
If the rejection comes late in the season, the IRS gives you a five-calendar-day transmission perfection period after the due date to retransmit a timely-filed return electronically. For tax year 2025 returns filed by April 15, 2026, that gives you until April 20, 2026 to get an accepted e-file in.5Internal Revenue Service. IRS E-File of Individual Income Tax Returns
If e-filing simply won’t work, there’s a separate paper window. The paper return must be postmarked by the later of the original due date or 10 calendar days after the IRS notified you of the rejection. Write “Rejected Electronic Return” in red at the top of the first page, include a copy of the rejection notice, and briefly explain what happened. This preserves your original filing date, so late-filing penalties don’t apply.6Internal Revenue Service. Age Name SSN Rejects, Errors, Correction Procedures
Finding the Right AGI if Zero Isn’t It
If zero doesn’t apply to your situation, you need the exact number from Line 11 of last year’s Form 1040. Off by a dollar and the return rejects. A few ways to find it:
- Your IRS Online Account. Log in at IRS.gov and open the Tax Records tab; the prior-year AGI is right there.7Internal Revenue Service. Get Your Tax Records and Transcripts
- A free tax return transcript. Online requests return results immediately; mail requests take 5 to 10 calendar days.8Internal Revenue Service. Transcript Types for Individuals and Ways to Order Them
- Last year’s tax software, which usually saves a copy of the return.
- A printed or PDF copy of your Form 1040. Line 11.
If You Filed an Amended Return
This one trips people up. If you amended last year’s return with Form 1040-X and it changed your AGI, the IRS verification system may not have updated. Try the AGI from the original return first. If that’s rejected, try the amended figure. If neither works, zero or an IP PIN may be the way forward. Amended returns can take weeks to appear in IRS systems; the Where’s My Amended Return tool doesn’t even show status until three weeks after filing.9Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040-X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return – Frequently Asked Questions
Paper Filing as a Backup
When e-file keeps rejecting no matter what you enter, paper filing skips the AGI check entirely. Print the return, sign by hand, and mail it in.10Internal Revenue Service. Top Frequently Asked Questions for Electronic Filing (E-File) The cost is speed. E-filed returns with direct deposit typically produce refunds within 21 days. Paper returns are processed in the order received, and in busy periods the backlog can stretch to several months.11Internal Revenue Service. Processing Status for Tax Forms If a refund is waiting, that hurts. If the alternative is missing the deadline, paper wins.
Using an IP PIN Instead of AGI
An Identity Protection PIN is a six-digit number that replaces the prior-year AGI as your identity check. If you have one, you use it and skip the AGI question. If the IRS has assigned you one, you must use it: submitting without it, or with the wrong one, causes its own rejection.12Internal Revenue Service. Frequently Asked Questions About the Identity Protection Personal Identification Number (IP PIN)
Anyone with a Social Security number or ITIN can sign up voluntarily through the IRS Online Account. If AGI mismatches keep dogging you every filing season, enrolling in the IP PIN program is a permanent way out of the loop.
When a Rejection Could Mean Identity Theft
Most AGI mismatches are boring: a typo, an unprocessed return, an amended filing that hasn’t caught up. But if you enter the correct prior-year AGI and the return still rejects, someone may have already filed a fraudulent return using your Social Security number. The IRS lists a rejected return among the warning signs of tax-related identity theft.13Internal Revenue Service. Identity Theft Guide for Individuals
If you suspect that’s what happened, file Form 14039, the Identity Theft Affidavit. Submitting online at IRS.gov is fastest; you can also fax it to 855-807-5720 or attach it to a paper return.14Internal Revenue Service. Form 14039 Identity Theft Affidavit Once the case is resolved, enrolling in the IP PIN program is one of the strongest safeguards against a repeat.