My wife and I have two children together. I also have two children from a previous marriage. According to my divorce agreement, my ex-wife and I each claim one of our two children each year on taxes. Toward the end of 2019, I was behind on child support due to a late-year change in jobs. She informed me that she would be claiming both dependents for the 2019 tax year. My current wife and I decided not to fight it and just move forward knowing we would be able to re-claim the child for the 2020 tax year. That decision cost us money on the stimulus checks, but it is what it is.
Here's the problem:
When completing the 2020 tax return using Turbo Tax, it asks how much we received in stimulus checks. If I enter the correct answer ($2400 and $2400), it assume we were underpaid because we are now claiming three dependents and in 2019, we only claimed two due to the child support issue mentioned above.
So..........do I enter the truth ($2400 and $2400) or do I enter what the program THINKS I should have received when it sees I have three dependents (and the one from the previous marriage is nine years old). Claiming "the truth" has a significant impact on my tax returns. We move from owing ~$1500 to receiving a ~500 refund.
Help?
