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Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"

Hello, 

 

Add me to the list of people who this happened to!

 

I did not check this box and today got ahold of IRS and they let me know this was the issue. Wondering what good will having someone take a look at my tax return do? Honestly wondering. Thanks.

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"

@Opus 17  Thanks for identifying yourself and explaining your end goal.  I understand you aren't convinced that this is a system glitch, but it's hard to dismiss when you have this many people with the same story.  If you do have any weight in raising this issue with someone at Turbo Tax who would take it seriously and look into it, it would be helpful if you could do that if only to communicate to the IRS that this is an actual problem.  Thanks for the info.  

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"

I’m 100% positive that I did not say my spouse could be claimed as a dependent.

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"


@Bethanyt84 wrote:

@Opus 17  Thanks for identifying yourself and explaining your end goal.  I understand you aren't convinced that this is a system glitch, but it's hard to dismiss when you have this many people with the same story.  If you do have any weight in raising this issue with someone at Turbo Tax who would take it seriously and look into it, it would be helpful if you could do that if only to communicate to the IRS that this is an actual problem.  Thanks for the info.  


It's not that I don't believe, it's that I recognize the difficulty in identifying a bug, if it only happens to 1 in 1000 taxpayers, and the results of the bug look the same as user error.  There is another compounding problem that this is now a pretty popular thread and some of the people who are posting "me too" actually have different problems, which may or may not be related.  And the bug, if there was one, might have been restricted to only certain versions.   (You can imagine it might be difficult to track down a problem if it only occurred to customers who filed MFS, and who previously filed MFJ, and who transmitted their returns between X and Y dates only.)

 

What I can try to do to help is to keep bringing problems to the moderators until they tell me to shut up.   What you can do to try and help is provide a few more details about your exact situation along with a diagnostic code.  Did you file MFS or something else?  Is it you or your spouse who was marked "can be claimed as a dependent" and therefore did not get a stimulus check?  Did the error occur in your tax file or your spouse's tax file?  Did you try and call customer support?  Did you notice the dependent box was checked before you filed, and did you try to fix it?  

 

The kind of case with the best hope of getting a solution is a customer who called support (so there is a record of the problem in real time) and provides a diagnostic file.  Diagnostic files from customers who did not call support may still be useful (unless the moderators tell me different). 

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"


@agchi wrote:

Hello, 

 

Add me to the list of people who this happened to!

 

I did not check this box and today got ahold of IRS and they let me know this was the issue. Wondering what good will having someone take a look at my tax return do? Honestly wondering. Thanks.


It won't change anything for 2020.  If eligible on your 2020 tax return, you'll get paid as part of your refund next year.  There isn't any way to fix the problem to get a payment earlier.  If this was a bug, you might be able to assist in stopping it from happening again next year. 

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"


@Tobakett wrote:

I don't know why I would have been told that either? Lazy rep? Incompetent? Who knows.

 

And no nothing unusual. Both he and I were born in the US to parents who were born in the US.

 

I checked to see if he had gotten my stimulus in case there was something weird where because we were still legally married it would have gone to him. 

 

I am not a tax person. The entire time we were married he handled money stuff. So if some of my statements are confusing it's probably because I'm ignorant of how it works. Kinda left me high and dry with nothing so I'm basically learning it all myself for the first time. 

 

When I am home tonight I will try and do that log thing.


If you called customer support in 2018 and/or 2019 about this problem, there will be records of that call.  It would be helpful to get a diagnostic file number to go with the call record.  When you filed MFS in 2018, was that a brand new turbotax account started in 2018, or was it an older account that you changed to your use?

 

However, I'm still confused by your situation.  If you were filing MFS and you check the box for "my spouse can be claimed as a dependent by someone else" that would block your spouse's payment but not your payment.   Are you posting here because your spouse is blaming you for not getting a payment, or are you posting because you did not get a payment?  If you didn't get a payment, that would mean the problem was on your spouse's tax return (assuming I understand IRS procedure correctly). 

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"

@Opus 17  Forget the IRS side of things - the logic is flawed there as well.  You're right that having the box checked saying "My spouse can be claimed as a dependent" should in theory make the spouse ineligible and should not impact the eligibility of the person filing, but the IRS has stated that this is the reason that we are not getting our checks.  When I told the IRS rep that it shouldn't impact my eligibility according to their requirements, I was told that that's just how it is.  To your point, they can't think outside their script and figure out a solution.

 

The "My spouse can be claimed as a dependent" box was checked on my 2018 taxes.  I am MFS, and was MFS previously (pre-2018 taxes).  I had no knowledge of this being checked until I inquired about my stimulus check.  My 2019 taxes (which were not filed before the stimulus checks were disbursed) do not have this box checked.  I did not call customer support in 2019 when filing my 2018 taxes because I didn't know this problem existed.  However, as you can see here, there is anecdotal evidence of folks who did call customer support at the time and were told not to worry about it.  

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"


@LoganA89 wrote:

This is definitely TurboTax's fault. I won't be using their services again. I know it's their fault bc 2018 I filed MFS, **bleep** box was checked. 2019 I filed Single, **bleep** box was still checked! I ain't getting squat!


Logan, if you filed "Single" in 2019, and did not get a payment because the spouse box was checked, that sounds like the spouse worksheet was not deleted when you changed from MFS to single.  It might help tech support track down the problem if you "share file with agent" and post the diagnostic code number here.  There are instructions and a screen shot of how to do this further upstream in this thread. 

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"

Hi,

My Spouse and I file Married Filing Separately.

There definitely is a box under Standard Deduction where you can check Someone else can claim you or your spouse as a dependent. Spouse was checked, I 100% did not check that box.

Why would I, it is not true.

She received her Stimulus check months ago (Did not use Turbo Tax) I have not received mine and I am otherwise eligible. I contacted the IRS and was told I have to wait until 2021 and claim it it as a deduction.

I looked at my 2018 and 2019 Turbo Tax returns and the box was checked on both.

TT Screwed it up, not happy.

 

 

 

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"

Hi,

My Spouse and I file Married Filing Separately.

There definitely is a box under Standard Deduction where you can check Someone else can claim you or your spouse as a dependent. Spouse was checked, I 100% did not check that box.

Why would I, it is not true.

She received her Stimulus check months ago (Did not use Turbo Tax) I have not received mine and I am otherwise eligible. I contacted the IRS and was told I have to wait until 2021 and claim it it as a deduction.

I looked at my 2018 and 2019 Turbo Tax returns and the box was checked on both.

TT Screwed it up, not happy

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"

Exactly same thing happened to me. TurboTax is blaming us though.

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"


@MLOUD wrote:

Hi,

My Spouse and I file Married Filing Separately.

There definitely is a box under Standard Deduction where you can check Someone else can claim you or your spouse as a dependent. Spouse was checked, I 100% did not check that box.

Why would I, it is not true.

She received her Stimulus check months ago (Did not use Turbo Tax) I have not received mine and I am otherwise eligible. I contacted the IRS and was told I have to wait until 2021 and claim it it as a deduction.

I looked at my 2018 and 2019 Turbo Tax returns and the box was checked on both.

TT Screwed it up, not happy


TurboTax is investigating this issue.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for information - https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-topics/help/spouse-claimed-as-a-dependent-box-checked-on-2019-...

 

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"

@MaureenB 

TurboTax is investigating this issue.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for information - https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-topics/help/spouse-claimed-as-a-dependent-box-checked-on-2019-...

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"


@desposito89 wrote:

Exactly same thing happened to me. TurboTax is blaming us though.


TurboTax is investigating this issue.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for information - https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-topics/help/spouse-claimed-as-a-dependent-box-checked-on-2019-...

Stimulus Check for "Your Spouse as a dependent"

You didn’t investigate it when I called. The rep just said it was impossible that TurboTax would have made this error. I need my stimulus check now and if it wasn’t for you, I’d already have it.

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