Why do I keep trying.....

Thought I would give one of the free IRS programs (Taxslayer) a try. Started great...asked me what country I lived in and address....great! I'm in!!  Nope, still requires a US phone number. Back to the paper version.....

I think I read once that someone put just any old US number in there, such as an IRS phone number.  Unless they actually use that number to validate your account.

I recently created an IRS account without the need for a US phone number.  Not sure if you can file directly from the account but is great to see the history and status of past and current tax returns, even paper returns which just seem to shoot off into a black void with no feedback unless they think you made an error or didn't send them enough money.  This happened to me on my federal return (missing documents) and Louisiana State return (wanted more money) for 2020.

I used Taxslayer last year (actually my USC daughters) - gave them my UK mobile number without the 44 or leading zero -  the US doesn't have an area code of 791 so when the phone/text validation fails they email you a code and voila you should be in.

I used Taxslayer last year (actually my USC daughters) - gave them my UK mobile number without the 44 or leading zero -  the US doesn't have an area code of 791 so when the phone/text validation fails they email you a code and voila you should be in.

Brilliant tip!!

I used Taxslayer last year (actually my USC daughters) - gave them my UK mobile number without the 44 or leading zero -  the US doesn't have an area code of 791 so when the phone/text validation fails they email you a code and voila you should be in.

So using this.....I'd put my mobile down and drop the country code and the 0 of the usual UK numbers.....which of course makes it a worthless phone number I guess. Just seems weird that they have no issue with your UK address, but you can't use a UK phone number. Thanks......I'll give it a try before I start cranking out the paperwork from the IRS site.

So using this.....I'd put my mobile down and drop the country code and the 0 of the usual UK numbers.....which of course makes it a worthless phone number I guess. Just seems weird that they have no issue with your UK address, but you can't use a UK phone number. Thanks......I'll give it a try before I start cranking out the paperwork from the IRS site.

When registering with the IRS recently through ID.me they said they would take a UK number and with a dropdown I select UK for the country but when entering the number it wouldn't accept it, with or without the leading 0 or 44.  So I continued with an alternative authentication method and once approved I went back and added my UK number with no problem.

US companies and government sites just don't seem to be able to deal with foreign countries, their postcodes and their phone numbers, even when they are trying to do so.

When registering with the IRS recently through ID.me they said they would take a UK number and with a dropdown I select UK for the country but when entering the number it wouldn't accept it, with or without the leading 0 or 44.  So I continued with an alternative authentication method and once approved I went back and added my UK number with no problem.

US companies and government sites just don't seem to be able to deal with foreign countries, their postcodes and their phone numbers, even when they are trying to do so.

I'll just give it one more try in a little bit. If there is any problem I'll just drop it. At this time my taxes should be simple enough that I could almost use the 1040EZ form. Making too much interest to meet the requirements. 1040A is the next step up, I've never done that one before. Still have to do the annoying FATCA/FBAR forms though. I'm not planning on messing with the sites that allow you to get "alternative" phone numbers. Paper filing is what I am likely falling back on every year.

Aaarrrrggg. Well, putting in the phone number without all the prefixes worked and it took that number. The Taxslayer forms however just weren't easy for me to use.....I'm too stupid? Possibly. Got part way through and it asks for interest info.....but there doesn't seem to be a place to put it. Oh well......think I will just fall back on the regular boring paperwork forms. Didn't seem very hard last year.

Have you tried Talkatone? I'm using it for us banking verification, so far ok😁

Thanks for the info....just sitting down again after putting things off. No, I haven't tried Talkatone.....I'm just tired of trying to find a way to do things just so I can use online tax sites. It's just too irritating for me to try to keep finding a way around the limitations of online tax software. Just doing it the old fashion way....

Thanks for the info....just sitting down again after putting things off. No, I haven't tried Talkatone.....I'm just tired of trying to find a way to do things just so I can use online tax sites. It's just too irritating for me to try to keep finding a way around the limitations of online tax software. Just doing it the old fashion way....

Good luck.