topic Re: Incorrectly claimed EITC in After you file

Incorrectly claimed EITC

rprassetya165 — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 07:27:53 GMT

Hi all,

I mailed my return (married filing jointly) claiming an earned income tax credit. However, I realize I am not entitled to EITC because my wife only has ITIN, not SSN. Should I file an amended return now or should I wait for a letter from IRS saying that my return is incorrect? Thank you.

Best,

Pras

Re: Incorrectly claimed EITC

xmasbaby0 — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:44:07 GMT

Sit tight and wait to see what the IRS does with your return. You should not try amending a tax return while the IRS is still processing it. That leads to confusion and delays.

Re: Incorrectly claimed EITC

rprassetya — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 11:20:18 GMT

Thanks for your reply; I will wait then.

A brief story of why this happened and might help other filers: my wife doesn’t have ITIN; we plan to apply for one together with this return. When filing the return in TurboTax, I left SSN/ITIN field for my wife empty. Only after submitting the Return (together with ITIN application) did I realize TurboTax assumed my wife has SSN, hence claiming EITC in the return. After I get my wife's ITIN, I redo the Return again in Turbotax, which results in a lower refund due to no EITC.