Line 15 of the injured spouse form states that lines 15g must be equal to the sum of 15b and 15c. That is what is in the box the sum if the 2 boxes but its not accepting

[AnnetteB6]

Please share what you are seeing to know that it is not being accepted.  Does it say you do not qualify or is there an error specific to line 15?

[bdlee3]

I have a similar/same question.  TT error message: "Form 8379: Line 15G (Joint)  must be equal to the sum of Line 15G(b) and Line 15G(c). Please check your entries for this line."

On the paper form instructions, Line 15G says "Total itemized deductions (lines A - F)", which I interpret as meaning Line 15G should be equal to the sum of Lines 15G(a) through Line 15G(f) which is contrary to the error message.

[bdlee3]

I understand now.  The error message is misleading in two ways.

1) The reference to Line 15G is referring to the TT Smart Worksheet embedded in TT's version of Form 8379.  The actual IRS Form 8379 doesn't have a Line 15G or any Line D-G.  But the actual IRS form does have Lines 15 A-C, which is what the back half of the error message is referring to, not Lines A-C in the Smart Worksheet.  The error message might be more constructively written as "for each Line 15 A-F, in the Smart Worksheet, the Joint column must be equal to the sum of the Injured Spouse and Other Spouse columns".

2) The form highlights the cell in Line 15G(Joint) as being the problem, which is an auto-calculated (correctly) value/sum of the values Lines A-F immediately above it.  The values immediately above it are auto-filled by TT on behalf of the user.  If the individual Smart Worksheet cell(s) in question (incorrect sum) in the Joint column were highlighted, that would have been a more appropriate UI design choice.

I manually allocated Line 15B within the Smart Worksheet and addressed the error.

[BrianDan]

Thank you for this. I've been beating my head on my desk about this for a couple of hours now because it made no sense. This is definitely a big issue with the UI and a very misleading error message.

[Marioarbino]

Can anyone just tell me how to fix it? It won’t let me exile because of this error.

[JamesG1]

IRS form 8379 Injured Spouse Allocation is used to allocate the income, deductions and credits of the tax return between the taxpayer and spouse.  The final allocation may look something like this.

We are not able to view your tax return or the injured spouse worksheet but, I assume that line 15 is referring to the standard deduction used in the Federal 1040 tax return or the itemized deductions used in the Federal 1040 tax return.  The number to be allocated would be found on line 12 of the Federal 1040 tax return.

In many cases, the standard deduction would be allocated 50% to the taxpayer and 50% to the spouse.

For itemized deductions, the deductions may be assigned to one or the other taxpayer if that deduction was paid only by that taxpayer.  

For instance, if only one taxpayer owns the home and makes the mortgage payment, only that taxpayer would be given credit for mortgage interest paid.  Other itemized deductions not assigned to one taxpayer or the other would likely (but are not required) be allocated 50% to the taxpayer and 50% to the spouse.

@Marioarbino