Bad UX for e-filing taxes

3 points by ryanthejuggler 12y ago ↗ HN

This weekend, like a good American, I filed my taxes. I decided to do it online, and it wasn't too bad; it only took about a half hour. I submitted and went on my merry way.

Immediately after, I got an email saying my filing had been rejected, with a somewhat cryptic error message:

Issue : Business Rule X0000-005 - The XML data has failed schema validation. cvc-complex-type.2.4.a. Invalid content was found starting with element 'EmployeeUSAddress'. One of '{"http://www.irs.gov/efile":ControlNumber, "http://www.irs.gov/efile":EmployeeName}' is expected.

The following information may help you determine the form at issue: Field/Xpath: /efile:Return[1]/efile:ReturnData[1]/efile:IRSW2[1]/efile:EmployeeUSAddress[1]

I figured the server was having trouble and decided to try again later.

This morning, I decided to try again. I noticed a link from the site that said Fixing Your Rejection[1]. Clicking on it, I was greeted with a 38-page PDF that started with a description of how to search for my error message within the document.

I know that government systems aren't terribly sophisticated (unless they're tracking people's activity online that is) but I personally think it's ridiculous to expect anyone to know that this is expected behavior. Rather than type up their PDF, they should have put all this information into a database and used that to generate the email. If this were a company's site, the bounce rate would be tremendous.

Do you all think this is useable as-is, or that this is an unacceptable UX?

[1] http://www.irs.gov/PUP/efile/Fixing_Your_Rejection.pdf

1 comment

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Pr0ducer 12y ago ↗

A user should never have to search a pdf for an error message. Nor should they every see an error of this complexity. And yes, the IRS should be able to programatically find your error and email you directions, written in simple english, on how to fix your submission.