How to stop Turbo Tax from changing my original tax return as I'm amending it?

[amac_red77]

Version: 2021 Desktop Turbo Tax

Question:

How do I stop Turbo Tax from making changes to the original tax return I'm amending as I add new information?

Background Info:

My previous tax preparer didn't add my second business, my stocks, and just added a bunch of wrong information.  Examples: he omitted my 2 of my 3 kids, used the wrong social for one of them, added a pension amount when I never had one, added employee compensations when I don't have any employees - even used my business address as my home address.

Now, to make sure I knew I was making the right amendment, I made two returns.  The first is made from scratch and it's the return as it should have been as per Turbo Tax.  The second is the one that copies what that tax preparer did.

I went to the amendment section to start changing things.  However, as I'm entering the changes I noticed the old return is being updated with the new information - as if it had always been there.  For example: the old report changed from 1 to 3 dependents.

Please help!  Am I missing something?  Should I just do the 1040-X by hand?

Thank you for any and all help!

I've been at this for hours and it just keeps changing the numbers on me!

[DoninGA]

Before starting to amend the tax return you need to save the tax return with a different name.  Click on File at the top left of the desktop program screen.  Click on Save As... and save the original tax return with a different name.  Then you can amend the return without changing the original.

[rjs]

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@amac_red77 wrote:

as I'm entering the changes I noticed the old return is being updated with the new information

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That's the way it works. As you make changes, the underlying tax return is modified to incorporate the changes. When you're finished with the amendment the tax return should match the return that you created "as it should have been." When you save a copy of the starting return with a different name, amend one copy and keep the other copy unmodified as your copy of the original return.