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posted Jan 31, 2026 3:42:54 PM

Delaware State Bug Report

There was a severe error in calculating Delawares exemptions that need to be fixed by the engineer team. For De PIT RES I had to delete my entire state and file elsewhere. Synopsis of problem below, compiled by Google Gemini because I couldn’t get through completion of DE PIT RES without it. 

Technical Bug Report: Delaware Form PIT-RES Logic Error

Issue: Software forced-entry error on Form PIT-RES, Line 27a (Personal Credits). Filing Status: Married Filing Jointly (Status 2). Error Description: When filing under Status 2 (Joint), the software incorrectly triggers a "Check This Entry" error for Line 27a, Column A (Spouse).

  • The Bug: The software forces a value of "1" into Column A and refuses to allow a "0" or a blank entry, stating "Value must be 1."

  • The Conflict: According to official Delaware PIT-RES instructions, Column A is reserved exclusively for Filing Status 4 (Married Filing Combined Separate). For all other statuses (1, 2, 3, and 5), taxpayers are instructed to enter the total exemption count in Column B only.

  • Impact: This error creates a "logic loop" that prevents e-filing. If the user complies with the software and enters 1 in Column A and 5 in Column B, it erroneously splits the personal credits, which risks a state rejection or manual review delay. If the user attempts to follow state law (6 in Column B, 0 in Column A), the software blocks the transmission entirely.

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Set Filing Status to Married Filing Jointly.

  2. Complete Delaware Resident interview with 4 dependents.

  3. Run "Review" / Smart Check.

  4. Observe the software demanding a "1" in Column A (Spouse) despite the Joint status.

0 1 5405
1 Replies
Employee Tax Expert
Feb 5, 2026 2:41:34 PM

I ran a mock return in the TurboTax download version for Delaware. 

 

I understand that you wanted to file Jointly rather than Married filing combined separate, so on the "About Your Filing Status" screen, I selected No to Married filing combined separate.

 

Like you, when I did the Smart Review, there was a "1" entered in for the spouse exemption field, but I was able to delete the 1 and leave that field blank to clear the error.

 

I did a similar mock return in the online version of TurboTax, and used the filing status of Married filing Jointly and had no errors for that.

 

It's possible that a subsequent update took care of this issue.