Do I use amount before child support was taken or what 1444 says?

[heathernw18]

My family was supposed to get $3900 in stimulus back in April. All but $76 was taken for child support my husband owed.  All I received was a letter from the treasury explaining that our payment was taken because of child support. In November I received a $1776 direct deposit and a 1444 with that amount. He now owes back support for that amount. This time around I’m just preparing in my head Incase we don’t get our stimulus before Jan 15. My question is for the rebate on taxes do I put that we received $3900 for our original stimulus before child support was taken or the refunded $1776 that the 1444 states?
 Thank you

[NCperson]

answer the question as it is asked...it asked what did you receive.....so it should match the 1444.

[AmeliesUncle]

While I could be wrong about what the program is asking for, I disagree with the answer above.

I assume the program is asking you that to determine if you qualify for more payment on your tax return.  You have already received $3900 in your name (even though part of that was sent to a debt that you owe).  So $3900 is what you should be entering, because that is you 'received' (again, part was sent elsewhere, but it is still a credit to you that you essentially received).

[NCperson]

@AmeliesUncle - the turbo tax question on the screen is "enter the exact amount received".  I would encourage you to review the screen (I am using the desktop version, in case the online version is somehow different)

it does not ask what were you supposed to receive. 

I submit that dismissing the TT instructions and assuming what TT is expecting can invalidate the guarantee should there later be the discovery of an error in the return.  This is what gets us into trouble: assuming and not following the question prompt.

That stated, the official IRS worksheet that supports Line 30 does ask 

"Enter the amount, if any, of the economic impact payment you received (before
offset for any past-due child support payment). You may refer to Notice 1444 or
your tax account information at IRS.gov/Account for the amount to enter here."

so if anything TT has a flaw in its process as it is not asking its customers the right questions. I would suggest the better approach is to alert whomever at TT accepts bugs or process flaws from users, but it is not up to the user to interpret what TT has asked for -  TT  is the expert and we are not which is why we buy their software. 

I stand by my initial post as it follows the process, right or wrong, that TT lays out and protects the guarantee that we purchased along with the product.  Make sense? 

[AmeliesUncle]

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@NCperson wrote:

but it is not up to the user to interpret what TT has asked for -  TT  is the expert and we are not which is why we buy their software. 

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It is OUR responsibility to file a correct tax return, not TurboTax.  WE are responsible for ensuring the tax return is correct regardless if a do-it-yourself program asks the correct questions or not.   Just because the company will hypothetically pay your penalties and interest if there is a program error does NOT mean that we should just go along with whatever the program says.

And TurboTax is NOT an "expert", the IRS is the expert based on the laws and regulations.  I am a tax professional and I am aware of MANY errors in TurboTax.

So the bottom line is this:  When you enter a number there, does the program calculate things correctly?  It should NOT be giving you additional credit if that portion was already paid by paying off child support.

As for the question of entering the amount "received", the amount "received" is the full $3600.  Part of the amount you "received" was forwarded to pay off a debt, but you are still considered to have received it.

[NCperson]

I am responsible to follow the TT prompts ; if I follow them and TT miscoded the software, and that includes prompts that cause me to answer incorrectly, then I am covered by their guarantee. 

if I make an assumption (which I am doing if I do not enter EXACTLY what I received because that us what TT is asking for), then it will invalidate the guarantee and if that results in an incorrect tax submissions that is on me. 

As stated, the TT question does not align to the requirements of the worksheet and I would not be surprised if that changes before the Filing window opens - either the IRS or TT is going to find it in their final audit of the process.