If married filing separately enter "MFS spouse earned income" Form 2441?

jessbean — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 02:45:30 GMT

I'm married, filing separately. My spouse and I have lived apart for the past 1+ year and we are in the process of divorcing in the state of MA. We have 1 dependent child for whom I am the custodial parent. Upon Turbotax desktop review it presented error: "Form 2441: MFS spouse earned income must be entered." I don't understand why my spouse's income needs to be entered or if I've made a selection elsewhere that caused this issue. Can someone please explain and provide some guidance? I would like not to have to reach out to my spouse as he is non-communicative.

I meet these requirements:

1) spouse lived apart for all of 2020
2) provided over half the cost of keeping up our home
3) child lived with me for all of 2020

Under my spouse's information section I selected:

1) that spouse lived apart during all of 2020

2) confirmed that the following did not apply to spouse a) had no income in 2020 b) will not file taxes for 2020

3) no one else can claim spouse as dependent in 2020

Re: If married filing separately enter "MFS spouse earned income" Form 2441?

jessbean — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 03:13:27 GMT

In case anyone encounters the same issue, I figured out what was triggering the error code. I had to revisit all the sections asking about dependent care credit and confirm

1) my spouse and I lived apart between July 1 and December 31

2) the person whose care I paid for lived with me for more than half of 2020

3) I paid more than half the expenses of maintaining my home

By doing this it cleared the error message asking about spouse's earned income.

topic If married filing separately enter "MFS spouse earned income" Form 2441? in Deductions & credits

If married filing separately enter "MFS spouse earned income" Form 2441?

Re: If married filing separately enter "MFS spouse earned income" Form 2441?