1040x denied. Seeking help to understand the reason and advice how to proceed.

[mmovses]

Had originally filed as single, but much later learned that if I support a parent I can file as head of household. I went through the flow of making changes on in turbotax online where I changed the filing status and filled in the new fields it asked. For the Part 3 "Explanation of Changes" I simply put something along the lines of "Changing file status as I'm adding a parent as a dependent". It generated a package which I signed as instructed and mailed everything. 

After 8 months I got back response saying that "You did not provide the form of name of the credit you are claiming on line 7. When resubmitting your claim, please include Form 1040-X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, in addition to your supporting documentation." Looking at that Line 7 I see it changed from 0 to 500, but pretty sure this was done automatically by the software. I also see that some other fields have changed. I don't understand why they picked on this field or what they expect specifically for explanation or "name of credit".  Have a few questions to narrow down my next steps:

a) Did the software make a mistake? If this change required some technical explanation shouldn't the software fill it in or attach?

b) Is this some basic wording issue and I just need to copy paste some boilerplate explanation for this into Part 3 or was I supposed to provide some technical explanations for all the fields that changed?

c) If I can't figure this on my own, does turbotax have professional help service for amended returns that can help fill in the pieces here or do I need to seek help elsewhere? 

[fanfare]

"shouldn't the software fill it in or attach?"

That's your job.

In other words, you have to explain each line with Col B on 1040-X in Part III.

If there is a form or schedule showing a new $500 credit, you have to attach that, or,

as you have learned, IRS will send the amendment back to you.

@mmovses 

IRS has invited you to try again with another 1040-X submission.

[Critter-3]

If you mailed in a 2021 amended return to add a dependent you also had to attach the form 8812 ... is that what the IRS is asking for ? 

[fanfare · Accepted solution]

For a parent the credit is called "credit for other dependents".

I don't think you need 8812 for that.

In Explanation put

"Line 7 credit for other dependents (parent)"

That should be sufficient, since there is no associated form or schedule.

@mmovses 

[mmovses]

@fanfare Can't agree with your argument. It may be my responsibility to file my taxes, but it is certainly not my job to know the tax code. I purchase the product to delegate the job of filing the tax forms which I don't understand. I can very well understand that a feature for this use case may not be implemented yet to fill in everything automatically, but I'd expect the turbotax at least provide some explanation or reference for critical fields instead of setting me up for filing it incorrectly. It is a terrible user experience. 

[mmovses]

@Critter-3 sorry forgot to mention, but this is for 2020 and I looked at 8812 for that year seems to be only for Additional Child Tax Credit.