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First, if your mother had actually received the social security check while she was alive, then you could have added it to her tax return. However, since you actually received the money after her death, then it must be added to your income. Income in respect of a decedent (IRD) is taxable on the return of the beneficiary.   Next, if your mother's income is below the filing requirement for her age and income, you are not required to file a final return for her. Do I need to file a federal return this year? Do I need to file a state return?  - Every state is different, just click on your mother's state to see if she is required to file even if no federal return is required. As you discovered, social security is taxable if you meet the requirements. See the rules below.   When will some social security income become taxable? if half of your social security, combined with your other taxable income is below the following base amounts, then none of your social security would count as taxable income. The base amount for your filing status is: $25,000 if you're single, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse, $25,000 if you're married filing separately and lived apart from your spouse for the entire year, $32,000 if you're married filing jointly, $0 if you're married filing separately and lived with your spouse at any time during the tax year.  Social Security Income FAQs @moonstruck68 

Every situation is unique.  However, both the child tax credit and the earned income credit are based on income from working (wages or self-employment).  If you have less than $5000 of earned income, you won't qualify for anywhere near the potential maximum credits.  

Your income was very low.    The refundable child-related credits are based on the amount of income you earned from working, so it is not surprising that your refund is low.   Make sure you have entered your child as a dependent in My Info, and that you have entered the child's Social Security number.    Careful— do not say that your child’s SSN is not valid for employment.  If your child was born in 2025 make sure you said he lived with you the whole year.  There is an oddly worded question that asks if the child paid over half their own support.  Say NO to that question.   If your dependent was a full-time college student, make sure you were careful on the MY INFO screen for “Uncommon situations” and that you indicated there that they were a student.   Have you entered income from working in 2025?  If not,  you will not receive an income tax refund based on having dependent children.     The maximum amount of the child tax credit is now $2200 per child; the refundable “additional child tax credit” amount is $1700.   In order to get that credit, you have to have income from working.   Take the amount you earned from working.   Subtract $2500.   Multiply the rest by 15%.  That is the additional child tax credit per child that you canget—- up to the maximum of $1700 per child.   If the amount you earned from working was low, you will not get the full $1700 per child.    If your child is older than 16 at the end of 2025, you do not get the CTC.  But you may still get the non-refundable $500 credit for other dependents instead.   https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/taxation/child-tax-credit/L2lNhfGDl_US_en_US?uid=m68dfq2u   https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/taxation/additional-child-tax-credit/L6xFeMFEf_US_en_US?uid=lqnuygah https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/does-my-childdependent-qualify-for-the-child-tax-credit-or-the-credit-for-other-dependents     And for the Earned Income Credit—-   https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-credits-deductions/qualifications-earned-income-credit-eic-eitc/L7w4BFP32_US_en_US?uid=m62rmz09   https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit/use-the-eitc-assistant   https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p596.pdf   Look at your 2025 Form 1040 to see the child-related credits you received   PREVIEW 1040 https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-return/preview-turbotax-online-return-filing/L77WCkvnu_US_en_US?uid=m681fkhr   Child Tax Credit line 19 Credit for Other Dependents line 19 Earned Income Credit line 27 Additional Child Tax Credit line 28  

Yes, this is a new rule.   With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill in July 2025, the 2025-2026 Child Tax Credit adds an eighth qualifying test: work-eligible Social Security Numbers for both the child and the person claiming the credit (only one filer is required to have the number for a joint tax return).   See this TurboTax tips article for more information.   @analuzcardoza88 

I've had same problem for last 5 days for Schwab and Ameriprise and Fidelity---not their problem, it's TT.  My cache and cookies are clean, and I checked the TT documents sections and found the tax documents from Schwab and Fidelity are there but TT platform keeps telling me they cannot import or auto-fill??!!!   TT Expert says he has no knowledge of any techno issues on this matter.  Expert suggested I type in my info from Schwab, Ameriprise and Fidelity ---if so, WHY am I paying TT??  I'm ready to look at other online tax filing software.

Is this the FAQ you are using? - How do I enter Form 1099-B, box 8 and 11 information into TurboTax?     To report gains and losses from Section 1256 Contracts and Straddles on your tax return, follow these steps:   Navigate to the Contracts and Saddles section: TurboTax Online: Go to the Contracts and Straddles screen under Wages & Income, and select Yes. TurboTax Desktop: Go to Federal Taxes. Go to Wages & Income.  If asked How do you want to enter…?, select I’ll choose what I work on. Under Investment Income, select Start or Update next to Contracts and Straddles. On the Any Elections? screen, select any applicable election, then Continue. On the Contracts and Straddles screen, select any items that apply to your situation, then Continue. Proceed to enter your information as prompted from boxes 8 and 11 of your Form 1099-B.  

Try the following troubleshooting steps: Use abbreviations (for example, "St" instead of "Street," and "Apt" instead of "Apartment"). If there is a "Address Line 2," move part of your street address there to make room for the city/country. Some international postal codes exceed the 6-character limit for the Canadian box. If a digit is missing, try removing all spaces to see if the PDF generator detects the extra digit.   If none of that works, because you are mailing the return, you can correct your address on it. Because this is a paper return, the CRA's scanning systems and agents are used to seeing manual corrections to forms.     Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

Same here!  I've checked and re-checked. I never checked ANYTHING / Canada anything. Deleted tax file and started over 3x. No joy. Turbotax seems to have a bug! With this many people reporting it, perhaps it's worth looking at!?!  Hopefully, we'll have an update before 4/15/26? Never encountered this in past versions. Or is this part of an effort to try to get me to use the web version instead of the downloaded app (Windows 11)? 

We are seeing a lot of users who made a mistake --- the screen just after the entry screen for your SSA1099 asked you if you lived in certain foreign countries in 2025.   If you skipped past that screen or answered incorrectly, your Social Security was not taxed correctly.    It is very important to read every screen top to bottom and not go too fast.

You enter your self-employed health insurance premiums when you enter your business expenses on the screen that says Your (name of business) Business. Look for the option that says Other Common Business Expenses under Business Expenses. On the next screen that says Let's write off some business expenses, choose the option that says Insurance payments. On the next screen choose Health Insurance Premiums and update that section to show no payment for health insurance. 

It is out now, but there is a bug in the form 1040X, if you are taking the $6000 senior deduction from BBB act, on 1040X line 5 does not calculate subtracting the deduction from the figure on line 3. So when you go to electronically file, it will be rejected. Unfortunately if you manually override these figures, you won't be able to electronically file. You have to mail it in. 

Yes, you'll want to enter both your 1099-DIV and 1099-INT into the investment income section. If you move forward in the program and need to return to pick up any types of income that were left out, you can follow these navigational steps to return to where you can enter both forms: Navigate to the investments section: TurboTax Online/Mobile: Go to the investments and savings screen under Wages & Income. TurboTax Desktop: Go to Federal Taxes. Go to Wages & Income. If asked, How do you want to enter your income?, select I'll choose what I work on. Answer Yes to the question Did you have investment income in 2025? . If you land on the Your investments and savings screen, select Add investments.

I SHOULD HAVE SAID I COULD BE CLAIMED AS A DEPENDENT   Did you say you could not be claimed as someone else’s dependent, but it turns out your parent(s) can claim you?  Now your parents’ return is being rejected when they e-file, or it will be rejected.    Your part in fixing this will be to wait until the IRS has fully processed your tax return, and then you must amend your own return.  You use a form called a 1040X.   You will go to MY INFO and go through the interview questions to the one that asks if someone else can claim you as a dependent.  Say YES.   Meanwhile, your parent(s) do not need to wait for you to amend.  Waiting will not help them at all.   They can either print, sign and date their return in ink, and file it by mail.   OR   GET IP pin in order to e-file if your dependent’s SSN was claimed on another return   https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-takes-steps-to-help-prevent-refund-delays-by-accepting-duplicate-dependent-returns-with-an-ip-pin-for-2025-filing-season-taxpayers-encouraged-to-sign-up-soon-for-ip-pin-online-account     https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin     If you are the parent whose e-file has been rejected—- follow the steps above to file your own tax return that claims your child.   If it is any comfort, you (and your parents) are among many young tax filers who make this mistake.  We will be seeing plenty of posts just like yours.   And posts from the parents whose e-files were rejected....