I need to amend my taxes to qualify my children as dependents because my ex-husband did not claim our children as dependents this year. How do I do this?

[honey376spice]

In our divorce agreement we claim our children every other year respectively. This is our first year doing this, since we got the divorce in 2019.

[DoninGA]

You add the children as dependents in the My Info section of the program.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for printing a tax return for mailing - https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/printing/help/how-do-i-print-and-mail-my-return-in-turbotax-online...

[DoninGA]

An amended tax return, Form 1040X, can only be printed, signed, dated and mailed by you to the IRS, it cannot be e-filed. The IRS will take up to 4 months to process the amended tax return. Wait until you have received the tax refund or the taxes owed have been paid and processed by the IRS before amending the tax return.

See this TurvrboTax support FAQ for amending a 2019 tax return - https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-topics/help/how-do-i-amend-a-2019-return-in-turbotax/01/123845...

[Critter-3]

For future reference ... just because the divorce decree says the "dependent" switches returns each year there are still IRS rules that must be applied ... 

The IRS goes by physical custody, not legal custody. You are the custodial parent if the child(ren) spend more than half the nights, in a year, with you.

 There is a special rule in the case of divorced & separated (including never married) parents. When the non-custodial parent is claiming the child as a dependent/exemption/child tax credit; the custodial parent is still allowed to claim the same child for Earned Income Credit, Head of Household filing status, and day care credit. This "splitting of the child" is not available to parents who lived together at any time during the last 6 months of the year; then only one of you can claim the child for any tax reasons. The tax benefits may not be split in any other manner.

Note in particular that the non-custodial parent can never claim the Earned Income Credit, Head of Household filing status or the day care credit, based on that child, even when the custodial parent has released the exemption to him.

 So, it's good idea to let the other parent know that you will be claiming those items, as many first time divorced parents are not aware of this rule and may try to claim those items, which will cause the IRS to send out letters.

Ref: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p17#en_US_2017_publink1000170897 Scroll down to "Children of divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart)"