Scedule 8812 (Child Tax Credit) Error

[KrisD15]

That will be fine. 

Asking about Form 8812 for Taxpayers with no dependents is a safeguard for TurboTax to not let any Taxpayer who received Advance Child Tax Credit Payments to not "slip through" without reporting the payments. 

It would slow down the processing of that tax return. 

The IRS has the payments on record, and will not look for them reported on your return since they did not send you any payments. 

HOWEVER

The information the IRS has on record is not shared with TurboTax, so TurboTax asks. 

If it is irrelevant, Form 8812 is not generated. 

[zman0326]

You so called "tax experts" just don't seem to get it.  For many, taking the path through the "child credits" section of TT is an unnecessary, and unused section of TT.  As other's have said, if "All Tax Filer's" are "required" to answer the questions of Advanced Payments, then make it a stand-alone question, independent of the child credit section.  To find out via an "Error" is obviously confusing to many, otherwise this community thread would not exist, let alone be growing.  TT, you're very poor at communicating if it has to be shared via an "Error".

[kenofpr]

I experienced the same issue and thought I had entered something incorrectly. My work around was to go to the 8812 form and manually enter a 0. This cured the error.

[MSU-Fan1]

I also received the error, I must of answered a hundred questions in Turbo Tax. I didn't miss the question, so why is smart check catching it as an error. If I did miss it and was suppose to put a 0.0 and didn't why doesn't it give me the error there rather than wait till the end?  I think this is an error with the software.   

[xmasbaby0]

Everyone has to answer whether they received advance child tax credit payments.   If you did not receive any of those payments between July and December you need to answer that you did not receive any payments.

There are so many scenarios with those payments---like divorced/never married parents who have issues over who received the payments, who claimed the children, etc. --- the software has no way of knowing if any of that involves you---so you have to answer the questions about it. 

Please follow these steps to indicate you did not receive any advanced payments:

1. Click on the "Search" on the top and type "Child tax credit"
2. Click on “Jump to Child Tax Credit”
3. Continue through the questions until the "Tell us about any advance Child Tax Credit payments" screen and select "No".
4. Continue through the questions.

[Critter-3]

Unless you completely and willfully skip the deductions & credits tab  then everyone will see the CTC question be presented ... I have completed at least 10 fake returns and that question comes up every time.  

[kenofpr]

TurboTax allows us to "completely and willfully skip" parts of the deductions & credits tab and choose what to work on. The critics are correct (in my opinion) for suggesting the need for a stand alone question in TT if an error will be generated when skipping an IRS required answer.

[78grav-dorn]

Agree with this! I'm familiar enough with how TT works that I know to go through all of the questions even when I know my situation isn't applicable.

What tripped me up here was I thought I was going through all of the questions but they provided a separate "Visit All" option for this child credit section. I understand this organization is logical but also made it easier for me to skip past it when I was explicitly trying to go through all questions!

Also problematic that TT support is saying this is a "bug" when it is not in any way a bug, but can't really blame them it's got to be a tough job. This forum cleared up my confusion quickly enough. Thanks all!

[sglwilson]

Where can I mark that didn’t receive this?

[xmasbaby0]

@sglwilson

Everyone has to answer whether they received advance child tax credit payments.   If you did not receive any of those payments between July and December you need to answer that you did not receive any payments.

There are so many scenarios with those payments---like divorced/never married parents who have issues over who received the payments, who claimed the children, etc. --- the software has no way of knowing if any of that involves you---so you have to answer the questions about it. 

Please follow these steps to indicate you did not receive any advanced payments:

1. Click on the "Search" on the top and type "Child tax credit"
2. Click on “Jump to Child Tax Credit”
3. Continue through the questions until the "Tell us about any advance Child Tax Credit payments" screen and select "No".
4. Continue through the questions.

[pdlouis]

There is no combination of zeros or checkboxes that will get rid of this nag.

[xmasbaby0]

Everyone has to answer whether they received advance child tax credit payments.   If you did not receive any of those payments between July and December you need to answer that you did not receive any payments.

There are so many scenarios with those payments---like divorced/never married parents who have issues over who received the payments, who claimed the children, etc. --- the software has no way of knowing if any of that involves you---so you have to answer the questions about it. 

Please follow these steps to indicate you did not receive any advanced payments:

1. Click on the "Search" on the top and type "Child tax credit"
2. Click on “Jump to Child Tax Credit”
3. Continue through the questions until the "Tell us about any advance Child Tax Credit payments" screen and select "No".
4. Continue through the questions.

[Dragonh2o]

I agree.  I went through the questions twice carefully,  and these two questions were never presented to me.  Retired, no kids,  so perhaps that is why the question was never asked during the process?

I then got the form 8812 error.  I entered 0 in the fields,  but this was very concerning--popup said I still had to enter an amount of credits received.  

I call this a bug.

[JamesG1]

Virtually every taxpayer will answer the question about receiving the Advance Child Tax Credit payments.  Answer the questions whether or not you received an IRS Letter 6419 reporting advance payments.

There are reasons why a taxpayer who is not reporting children as dependents could have received the Advance Child Tax Credit payments in 2021.

@Dragonh2o

[Richman777]

I really have to wonder if people who keep spamming the same response are even understanding the problem.

We all understand you have to select no. I am using the program on a mac. I visit EVERY SINGLE SECTION on the deductions and credits. If you go through the deductions and click "Visit All" in the program, it will not take you through the last Child and Other Dependent Tax credit section. I just checked this myself.

Spamming an unhelpful response doesn't answer the question.

If you are using the program and not the website, go to Federal Taxes -> Deductions and Credits -> under "You and Your Family" the last section "Child and Other Dependent Tax Credit" click Start. Answer No.

I walked through each step of the deduction process and it did not take me through that last section. After selecting No here, the "Error" went away. I no longer have an 8812 error popping up.  Sorry but everyone saying TT tells you this is flat out wrong. It 100% skipped it for me from answering no on the first two sections of the family deduction section.