All Posts

@swick wrote: In my research, I did not see anything saying income had to be REPORTED on a 1099 or W-2 to be eligible for the deduction.   If this is the case, is would exclude a very large population of workers (independent hair stylists, massage therapists, nail salons, etc).   Unfortunately, the law itself says it must be reported on a 1099 (for a self-employed person).  The "transition" guidance for this year also says that.   Yes, unfortunately that excludes A LOT of self-employed people from claiming that deduction  I suspect that those who made the law included that requirement to reduce fraud, but unfortunately, that drastically limits the number of self-employed people who can claim the deduction.    

You didn't say how you prepared the 2024 return--online or desktop software, so I'll assume online.   If you used Online TurboTax previously and now can't find the past online return(s), then you either didn't proceed far enough into your 2025 online return to find them (you don't have to actually prepare the 2025), or you could have multiple accounts. I'll discuss both scenarios below.   This answer assumes your 2024 return was prepared in Online TurboTax.   Any return prepared in desktop TurboTax will not be in an Online account.  Here's how one would normally find past-year online returns and how to troubleshoot for multiple accounts (User IDs) if necessary.  Many people end up with more than 1 account.  The pathway to download the PDF or tax data file depends on whether or not you have started an online 2025 return.  I provide both scenarios below, so choose which one is appropriate for your situation.   If you have not yet started a 2025 online return: Sign in to your account.   What you see next depends on whether or not you have already started a 2025 return in that account.   If your left column menu is minimal, and does not have a Tax Home tab displayed, that would imply you have not started preparing a 2025 return in that account.  If you haven't yet started a return, it will start asking you some questions.  Answer those preliminary questions on a few screens (you don't actually have to prepare a return), and then when you are far enough into the process, the left menu column will change, and you'll then see a Tax Home option in the left menu column.  Do not click the Documents tab.  Instead, click on Tax Home.  Then on the Tax Home screen, scroll way down to the bottom to "Your Tax Returns & Documents".  Expand that section and choose the past year you want.   If your past returns are not shown there, then you likely have multiple accounts and signed into the wrong one.  I'll tell you below how to troubleshoot.   If you have already started a 2025 online return: Log in, and if you've already started a 2025 return in that account, then it may already open at the Tax Home.  If not, click the Tax Home tab in the left column menu.  Do not use the Documents tab.  At the Tax Home scroll down and expand "Your Tax Returns & Documents."   If the past returns are not there, see the steps below.   If you do all that and can't find the past return, here's how to look for multiple accounts: You can have up to 5 accounts that use the same email address for notification purposes.  A User ID may be an email address, but it doesn't have to be.  It might be only part of an email address, or it can be anything at all.   To get a list of your User IDs, reset password, and recover account access, etc., you can use the tool at the link below.  When using the Account Recovery tool, try using your phone number first if you can still access it.   After that, if necessary, then run the tool on your email address(es) you can access. NOTE: Before running the account recovery tool below, log out of all Intuit accounts including this user forum, or you might end up in a loop.  Then clear your browser Internet cache, close your browser, then reopen it, and go to the link below.  You may wish to copy this link so you can paste it into the new browser session. https://myturbotax.intuit.com/account-recovery If still no luck after running that on your phone number you can still access and email address(es) that you can access,  here's another method:          Go back to the tool again, but this time leave the data field blank, scroll down a bit, then choose the small blue link that says "Try something else", and it will look you up by other parameters.

You can get this credit in TurboTax by going to the Deductions and Credits section, and in the "You and Your Family" section, click on Adoption Credit to get started.   For 2025, the Adoption Credit is worth up to $17,280.  And a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act allows up to $5000 of the credit to be refunded to those who have no tax liability.  Any excess credit not paid back in 2025 will be carried forward to future years.

How to Access prior year online returns https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/prior-year-return/help/how-do-i-access-my-prior-year-return/00/27010 If you can't get the side menus to open up to access the prior year..... You need to start entering some basic Personal Info in 2025 for the side menu to open up. Just continue a little ways into 2025. I had to go though about 12 screens. If you used the Desktop CD/Download program then the only copy is on your computer and not saved or stored online. So you need to make and keep your own backups. Or request a transcript from the IRS https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript Or get a copy of your return using form 4506 https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506.pdf

The new $5k rule is to get a refundable portion after your tax liability is wiped out. You may have had a larger tax liability that was reduced so that you refund is higher.    Follow these steps: Take a look at your form 8839 and verify the numbers.  Take a look at sch 3 line 6c for adoption credit. Take a look at your 1040. Look at the tax on line 16.  Now, look at line 20 for the credit from sch 3 to pull over.  Any adoption credit left after wiping out your tax liability, moved down the 1040 to line 30 for a maximum of $5,000.

Some credits are limited to the amount of income tax you owe.  Others are based on the amount of "earned" income that you have.   If you don't have any income tax, or you don't have any "earned" income (such as a business loss), you may not qualify for those tax credit.  There isn't anything you can do to 'fix' that.

The extension is form 4868. It should be part of your tax return. In addition, if you made a payment by April 15th online, you would have marked it as part of your extension. Check your records for payments as well. The payment counts as an extension request if you don't have the 4868 and properly marked the payment.

I went through the sch C and was able to enter income under the NEC, MISC, K and general income. Something must be wrong with the version you are using. If you are using desktop, try installing updates. If you are using the online version:  Log out of your return and try one or more of the following: Don't use Internet Explorer. Clear cache and cookies, Sign in using a different browser. Sign in using a different device. Log back into your return.