Tax Credit for Dependent Child

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
March 8, 2021
5 replies
40 views

Hi, everyone. For previous tax years, my wife and I filed our tax returns separately. My wife has been taking the child dependent credits and deductions for all those years. For 2020, we decided to file joinly as married. However, TurboTax 2020 will not allow us to claim our son as a dependent. It seems to me that somehow in the TurboTax local files may possibly be blocking that feature since our previous filing records indicate that only one of us was allowed to take that child credit when we filed separately before. Please advise. Thanks.

Best answer by DMarkM1

Any answer, please?

No. You should be able to file jointly and claim the child dependent in TurboTax in spite of prior year filing.

Go back to the "My Info" section
Delete your dependent first
Click continue at the bottom of the page.
Click "My Info"
Go back and edit your personal data
Select "Married Filing Jointly"
Add/edit your spouse's info
Then "Add a dependent"

Take note of how you answer the questions so that if it doesn't update to claim your son, you can repost with what you answered and someone will be able to better assist.