Hi!
Turbotax has some sort of glitch with their system, regarding this box being checked when it shouldn't be. I just reviewed my 2019 and 2020 returns with someone from Turbotax, and we verified that I answered all the prompts correctly, and yet, this box about being able to be claimed as a dependent - or that my spouse is bale to be claimed as a dependent - was checked. This likely stems from a handful of years ago when filing married/joint with my spouse; we now file married/separate. Turbotax has stated that once the box is checked, it cannot be unchecked. Either I checked it erroneously at one point or another a handful of years ago, and it kept auto-being checked with new filings, or it's a carry-over from when I filied married/joint.
I spoke with a Taxpayer Advocate from the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service today, and she verified that there were multiple people who have had this issue who are also TurboTax users.
The Taxpayer Advocate told me exactly what to fill in on the Amended Return (the 1040x form), but when I try to efile the amended return with Turbotax software, the fields on the lines do not populate correctly - and as such, I am going to just print and snail mail the form. I am going to mail the form via certified mail so I can be informed when it is in the hands of the IRS.
I make less than 75K, claim a dependent, and have had my refunds direct deposited into the same joint account as my spouse for the last seven years. Spouse got all his stimulus payments on time, and we have always gotten our refunds on time. I have gotten no stimulus, and I am relieved to finally know what the reason is, and have a course of action to correct it. The IRS removed the recovery rebate credits when I filed my 2020 taxes, taking my over 3K refund down to below 200. The TAxpayer Advocate was optimistic the 1040x should fix everything (even if it takes 4-12 months). And as stated, she noted this appears to be a trend for Turbotax users, who have told her that Turbotax told her that once the box is checked, their system has no way to allow the unchecking of the box, and also, that the checked box carries over year to year.
I will be switching to HR Block software moving forward, since it is absolutely a glitch with the TurboTax system - not being able to uncheck the box.
Thought I'd share since I've been trying to reach the IRS unsuccessfully for multiple times a week, for months, and the courtesy disconnects after being on hold for long periods of time have begun to drive me a bit mad. Hope this information helps someone out there.
