I pressed my Congressman's office to help with this issue, and ended up getting a call from the IRS, which turned out to be fruitless. After an hour on the phone with a rep who, to her credit, did enough research to say that even though my 2018 taxes have the "spouse can be claimed as a dependent" erroneously checked (thanks, Turbo Tax!), that should not prevent me from receiving the stimulus money (in theory, it actually should have prompted a closer look at my spouse, no?). It's like a series of unfortunate events. So friends, here's what she told me:
- Amend my 2018 return (I have already done this, but apparently my amended taxes have not been processed - count on 16 weeks for that)
- The IRS is tweaking its system pretty much daily due to the number of glitches it discovered after rolling out the first round of payments so quickly (e.g., deceased people receiving checks, temporary foreign workers mistakenly receiving checks, etc.)
- It is possible that our eligibility issue may be resolved by the IRS fixing the glitch and issuing payments in the fall, but don't hold your breath
- Even though my 2019 taxes have been filed (after the first round of payments) and do not have the box checked, they are still looking at my 2018 taxes for eligibility (why? No one could say)
- The most important thing you can do is get your "eligibility" straight as the glitch-ridden IRS system defines it (aka, amend your return so you don't have the stupid box checked)
In the end, and to echo @desposito89's comments, it seems that we are waiting for two organizations to resolve this issue on our behalf when neither has a vested interest in saying they screwed up. Thanks very much to Forbes for writing the article and bringing light to this situation! And shame on you, Turbo Tax for absolving yourself of that responsibility. I enjoyed your claim in the article that "All of these TurboTax customers correctly had this box checked for their 2018 filing." Classic victim-blaming.
