How much of the return do I send for amendment?

[LUKE D]

I was notified by TurboTax that the government post-actively extended the tax credit for vehicle charging stations into 2018, and that I should amend my return. I re-opened my 2018 taxes in TT and went through the process for an amendment, and it generated a 1040-X along with 40 pages of documentation.

In the process it seems to have found other credits and deductions that weren't captured in my original filing, in addition to the specific credit I was looking for (e.g., the net change to credits on line 7 is $492, which exceeds the max credit allowable for the charging station, and there is a net increase in the amount of deductions).

I'm not unhappy about this, but I'm wondering how much of the return I need to send. Should I just send the entire 40 page thing? How do I fill out the explanation of changes in Part III if I don't specifically know what other things have changed? Many of the lines in column B are now non-zero...

[DavidS127]

You mail the 1040-X, and the complete "revised" Form 1040 that printed when you selected to print the return for mailing in the File section of TurboTax.  The forms that are printed for mailing in the File section only include the pages needed for the IRS, and exclude the worksheets that are meant only for your records.

For the explanation, you can enter "To claim the retroactive extension of the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit and related changes to the tax calculation".  Unless you made other changes while preparing the amendment, the other changes should be related to the recalculation of the AFVRPC.

[LUKE D]

Thanks David. I think that the confusion is that the print return button that is actually displayed at this point prints the entire 57 page tax packet, without providing the option to choose "All official forms required for filing." I guess this is par for the course with TT wizards which seem to be consistently wrong.

If I ignore this button and, as you suggested, go through the file→print menu then I have more options and it only prints 25 pages.

I have doubts about the correctness of your statement about the other changes. This is the first time I've opened this return since Feb, 2019, and the additional refund is (substantially) more than twice the maximum credit of $300 that the AFVRPC would supply.

Do you know of any way to get TT to produce an actual diff for those 25 pages it's having me include?

I can go through it line-by-line if necessary I guess.

[RobertG]

Here is what the IRS says in the Instructions for Form 1040X 

Assembling Your Return

Assemble any schedules and forms behind Form 1040-X in the order of the "Attachment Sequence No." shown in the upper-right corner of the schedule or form. If you have supporting statements, arrange them in the same order as the schedules or forms they support and attach them last. Don’t attach a copy of your original return, correspondence, or other items unless required to do so.

Attach to the front of Form 1040-X:

• A copy of any Form W-2, Form W-2c, or Form 2439, Notice to Shareholder of Undistributed Long-Term Capital Gains, that supports changes made on this return;

• A copy of any Form W-2G, Certain Gambling Winnings, or Form 1099-R that supports changes made on this return, but only if tax was withheld; and

• A copy of any Form 1042-S, Foreign Person's U.S. Source Income Subject to Withholding; Form SSA-1042S, Social Security Benefit Statement (Nonresident Aliens); Form RRB-1042S, Payments by the Railroad Retirement Board (Nonresident Aliens); or Form 8288-A, Statement of Withholding on Dispositions by Foreign Persons of U.S. Real Property Interests, that supports changes made on this return.

Attach to the back of Form 1040-X any Form 8805, Foreign Partner's Information Statement of Section 1446 Withholding Tax, that supports changes made on this return.

If you owe tax and you don’t want to pay electronically, enclose (don’t attach) your check or money order in the envelope with your amended return. 

[LUKE D]

Hi @RobertG. That TT form letter response doesn't add anything helpful to this discussion. If you know how to automatically figure out what TT changed as part of its amend operation so that I can describe it properly to the IRS that would be helpful.