Hi @ThomasM125 -
Thank you for your response! Unfortunately, this is not the situation I'm in. Your methodology results in the box at the top of form 2441 being checked, which is not correct for me since I do live with my wife and therefore do not qualify for the child and dependent care credit. I am attempting to get the $2,500 exclusion, not the credit.
On page 2 of the form 2441 instructions it says "If you don't meet all the requirements to be treated as unmarried, you generally can't take the credit. However, you generally can take the exclusion if you meet items 2 through 5." This is the provision that allows me to exclude the $2,500. There is further detail on the instructions for line 19 where your entry depends on whether you are considered unmarried for the credit (which I am not), so for my situation my spouse's earned income should be populated on line 19 and line 21 should be $2,500.
For what it's worth, I used H&R block software last year and they were able to correctly handle this situation. I'm disappointed that turbotax incorrectly calculates my taxes and even after being informed of the error in the software Intuit is taking no action to correct it.
Is there an option to get a refund since turbotax is unable to prepare my filing correctly? It doesn't seem worth the cost if I end up having to do the whole thing manually anyway. I guess I'll just purchase H&R block again this year.
