I submitted my original 2021 return, and it was accepted and my payment made. Then I discovered an error which provided me a refund. I submitted an amended return. It was accepted and received a refund. Now, in 2024, I discovered another error I made and need to amend the 2021 return again? What are the correct steps to create a second amendment?
What I have found is if I "edit" the original amendment, it just reduces the amount of the refund. However, I go into TT and select amend a return, then use the amended file, I get a message "Filing another amendment means we have to make some changes to you previous amendment (Form 1040X)....." I select continue and update/amend the return and I get the correct numbers.....ie my refund was reduced and this version show the correct payments. Is this the correct way to create the 2nd amendment?
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There might be a newer or better way but here is my notes for amending a second time.
Basically, to do the second amended return you have to start with a dummy "original" return that incorporates the changes that were made by the first amended return. Then you can simply go through the normal amending process. There are two ways to produce the dummy original return. Both ways are hard to explain and to understand.
One way always works, for both federal and state, but it's for desktop only, and you have to have a copy of the .tax file for the actual original return that you filed, before the first amended return. You make a copy of the .tax file for the original return with a different name. Open the copy and make the changes that you made in the first amended return, but without going through the amending process. That gives you an original return that incorporates the changes from the first amended return. A variation of this method, if you don't have the .tax file for the original return, is to create a new return from scratch, reproducing the original return. But that's a lot of work and very error-prone.
The other way is to open the first amended return and delete the Form 1040X. That will leave you with what appears to be an original return, but incorporates the changes from the first amended return. This will usually work for the federal return only. In theory it should work for the state also, but some states don't let you delete the amended form, or it immediately comes back after you delete it. Sometimes deleting the state amended form makes the federal 1040X reappear. The results vary for different states, and sometime vary even for the same state, depending on the exact sequence of steps that you follow. With some states there seems to be a problem even deleting the federal 1040X.
Make sure the original refund or tax paid and the first amended amounts you paid or received shows up on the 2nd amended return. You may have to override the amounts using Forms Mode.
You can confirm this by printing your amendment and looking at the 1040X. Line 18 should be your total refund amounts and line 22 should be your additional refund. If you paid on your prior returns it will be on line 16. If there is an amount owed with the amendment, it will be on line 20.
Thank you for the detailed answer!! I worked through both options. Using option 1 - edit the original to include updates from the first amendment. Then I amended that copy. This gave me the final numbers to work from.
Then I amended the original amendment. This process came up with the correct numbers. To my surprise, it also amended the state return. I will mail in this return.
So steps I took
- made a copy of the amended tax file --- copied amended.tax to amendment1.tax
-went into TT and selected "Need to Amend a Filed Return?
-Selected amendment1.tax
-When asked to save the file I named the saved file amendment2.tax
-Proceded to make the necessary changes and again saved the file as amendment2.tax
Now I just need to print the forms for both fed and state and send them in.
- Selected
As another step, I logged into irs.gov and validated the numbers in original return along with the first amendment.
Again, thanks for your help!
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