@jonneal66 wrote:
My son with me, my daughter with ex
Yes, you need to remove your daughter. Under these circumstances, when you run through the dependent interview, if you answer that your daughter lived with you less than half the year (6 months or less), Turbotax would not include the child at all unless you indicated that you were claiming the child with a signed dependent release form. By listing the child, even though the child tax credit box is not checked, you are indicating the daughter lived with you, and that will conflict with your ex's tax return.
Because you have another child who did live with you, removing the child will not change your head of household status, if you claimed it. You can't claim the dependent care (day care) credit for a child who did not live in your home more than half the year, so if you did claim that it needs to come off. If you did not claim the child care credit, then you might not actually be able to file an amended return to remove the child, because you can't e-file an amended return if it doesn't change your tax owed.
At this point I would try to amend and see if it changes your tax more than the $1200 adjustment that already happened. If the amended return does not change your tax, you probably can't file it.
Your ex needs to file by mail, because even if you do amend, that fact won't clear the e-file database before the October 15 deadline. But you and your ex might get IRS letters, so you should cooperate with that and provide the IRS any requested information (such as confirming the child lived more than half the year with your ex).
