Turbotax UI Displays My Deadname Even Though I Changed My Account Name, Please Help!

[wendywildshape]

As a transgender woman, I legally changed my name this year. I filed my taxes for 2021 under my old name, and I will be filing my taxes for 2022 under my new name.

I have been going through and replacing my old name (deadname) with my current legal name on everything, and although it was easy to do so in TurboTax, I ran into a major issue.

Every time I log into my TurboTax account on my desktop, the first thing at the top of the page says "DEADNAME, your 2021 federal return was accepted!" even though I have already removed my deadname from the account and replaced it with my current name.

It seems that although my name has been changed on the account, for that one spot (which happens to be the first thing I see every time I log in) it is pulling the first name to display there from my tax return instead of from my account information.

I really hate being addressed my deadname, so every time I log in is very unpleasant. Is there any way that TurboTax could change the website so that it pulls the name for that section from my account information instead of from my old tax return? I'm sure I'm not the only transgender customer who has been negatively affected by this issue. There's no reason why the website should pull the first name to address me by from anywhere except the name I have in my account info! Should be a quick fix. If this issue isn't fixed, I will choose another service to help me file my taxes for 2022.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hello wendywildshape,

Thank you for participating in this Ask the Experts event. As to your question, I have no idea where TurboTax is pulling the name from but my guess is when you log into your account it will pull the name from your 2021 return because you are in the 2021 tax year still. My thoughts are that when you begin your 2022 return and have your new name entered into the personal information section that it will then begin using that new name. 

If I can assume that you have already filed your 2021 return with your previous name, then something you could try is changing the name in the personal info section of the 2021 return, but don't change anything else. If that works, you could verify whether or not your filed return still has your previous name when you download and view it. If so, no harm, no foul and you are good to go.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I just confirmed in my test account that it is pulling from the personal info screen for the tax year. So, my suggestion of changing it there will work for you. Once you do change it, you will have to log out and log back in for the changes to take effect.

[wendywildshape]

I had to "amend" my tax return and then "print the amended return to mail" (which I am not going to mail) but it worked!

Thank you for this workaround - the original issue hasn't been fixed, but at least I don't have to deal with the problem anymore.