If I have to amend my tax return to remove my dependent so that my partner can claim him, will it delay his return?

[daeqawnallen]

I recently filed my tax return and my son was on my profile for earned income credit from last year. Therefore, the earned income credit carried over and I filed him as a dependent. I am going to amend my tax return so that his dad can claim him s according to our verbal agreement. Since my tax return was already accepted and his was rejected, will the amendment of my tax return delay the process of his return? I know my tax return will be subject to longer processing times due to the amendment but I want to make sure it won't affect his return.

[Ashby]

This will delay the processing of both returns. The IRS is not going to accept his filing until your return is amended to remove the dependent claim. As of right now, the 2018 1040X(amended form) is not ready. Once the IRS releases this, TurboTax will have complete instructions on how to move forward with the amendment. I know it's an uncomfortable situation, but in time it will work out.

[daeqawnallen]

So his tax return will be subject to the processing time of an amended tax return as well?

[Ashby]

Not once yours has been amended. His could be e-filed once the system is updated from your amendment, but unfortunately no sooner than that.

[daeqawnallen]

So can he mail it in for a quicker process rather than waiting for the okay to e-file again? Because then my federal refund will no longer include my son. I know he's unable to e-file once he gets rejected but I read on another thread here that if he mails in his return it wont be delayed.

[Ashby]

If he mails right now, your return will still be in the system with a claim on that SSN. His mailed return will then get rejected. He can still efile once a return is rejected, but has to wait for your future amendment to process. He could also mail the return right after your amendment with hope that the amendment has processed by the time his processes, but that may or may not be the case.

[Mmmason823]

I’m in a similar situation. How did this end up?

[daeqawnallen]

We ended up leaving the dependent on the submitted return, and adjusted the other return to be single filer. We just handled splitting the dependent credit after everything was deposited.