Updating 2018 desktop software has changed my 2018 return

[MisterBB]

I need to amend my 2018 return using the desktop software because a tax credit is now available for something that wasn’t when I filed in April 2019. I started by opening the 2018 application. When I did, I was told there were updates available. I assumed it was to include (among other things) the info for the newly-available tax credit, so I clicked the “update" button. After it was all done, the amount shown for my refund that year is considerably different. According to the instructions for amending a return, I’m supposed to start with the identical return. When I started the “amend” process, TurboTax displayed a help topic on the screen saying “Why did the refund monitor just change to $0?” In my case, the Federal refund is showing $462 and the State is showing $0. Does this mean that something changed and I really should have filed with this new amount? Can I just continue “as is?”

[MisterBB · Accepted solution]

I continued on despite the non-zero refund amount and discovered that I had already entered the information in April 2019 even though the credit wasn’t yet available. So the $462 credit is the actual amended amount. Yay.