My question is about a 1040, married filing separately, in the section for Spouse's Standard Deduction. On my return, the box for "someone else can claim my spouse as a dependent" is checked. Same on my spouse's return. I'd like to know how that information is generated. I went back through the TurboTax questions and I didn't answer a question about this. I answered a question about myself and said "no." So did my husband. This is reflected on our own 1040s - there's a line at the top that says "can anyone claim you as a dependent?" On both 1040s, the box is unchecked about ourselves but checked about the other person. Does anyone know what question in TurboTax generates the check mark for "someone else may claim your spouse as a dependent"? I wonder if it's a bug.
The reason I ask is because that check box makes someone ineligible for the stimulus payment. It took me awhile to get this explanation from the IRS and some help from my U.S. rep, but they called me and explained. There is no way I supplied TurboTax with an affirmative answer to the question "can someone else claim your spouse as a dependent?" so it had to be generated from something else. Does anyone know TurboTax well enough to connect that answer on the form to its source in the user interface?
BTW, talking to the IRS, I learned that the stimulus is an advance on a new one-time tax credit in 2020. I can get it next year as long as I don't make the same mistake on my return. But I'd still like to know how Turbo Tax generated a false answer.
Thanks!
That is a known issue. Turbo Tax is investigating this issue, sign up here
Can you check your 2018 returns and see if that was checked back then too? We are seeing reports it was. So that may have started in 2017 or 2018 and transferred to 2019. Probably never would have been a problem and caught except now because of the Stimulus Check.