@TriniNessa04
We need to take a big step backwards.
The main thing to understand, is that when two parents live together unmarried and share custody of their children, each child may only be claimed as a dependent by one of the parents. The other parent should not even list the child on their tax return. During the dependent interview, when you are asked about custody of the child you want to claim, you should answer “no“ that you do not have a custody agreement with the other parent, because this question only applies to legal agreements between parents who live apart and share custody.
There is a special tax provision in the case of parents who live apart, that allows the parent who has custody to claim the dependent care credit, even if they allow the non-custodial parent to claim the child as a dependent. But this “splitting” the benefits of a dependent cannot be used when the two parents live together.
So the first question is, if you filed first and were accepted, what did you actually put on your tax return? Did you only list one dependent, or did you list both dependents, and did you claim both dependents or did you say that you had a custody agreement and the other parent was claiming a child? If you listed both children, but then said that one of the children had a custody agreement, that is what is causing the rejection of your boyfriend’s tax return.
You now have two choices. Either your boyfriend removes all the dependents and claims none of the children, and you file an amended return to change your answers, and claim all the tax benefits of both children, by saying that there is no custody agreement; or your boyfriend can claim one child as a full dependent, and you need to file an amended return to remove the second child completely from your tax return.
If your boyfriend removes all of the dependent children from his tax return, he should be allowed to e-file without rejection. However, it may be difficult to do this using TurboTax online because certain parts of the program are “sticky”. He would go into the section to review his personal information, look at the list of dependents, and click the delete button or trashcan icon next to each dependents, to delete them all from the tax return. This should in theory, delete any other forms that are connected to those children and allow him to e-file.
If your plan is for your boyfriend to claim one child as a dependent, he will need to check the list of dependents and delete all the children. Then re-add the child he wants to claim, and make sure that during the custody interview, he says that there is no agreement with the other parent to share custody. In this case, your boyfriend will print his tax return and file by mail. No refund of fees is required because the fee covers preparing a tax return and does not guarantee e-filing. If he gets a valid tax return, then he got what he paid for even if he has to mail it.
It will be free for you to amend your return, but don't file the amended return until your original refund claim is paid. The IRS e-file database is not updated during tax season, which means that if your boyfriend wants to claim a dependent that you originally added to your return by mistake, he will never be able to e-file and will always have to mail his tax return. So there's no rush for you to amend.
You can also post back here with more details if you are having trouble diagnosing the problem.
