Not here to ask a question but to post about my experience this year. i have used turbo tax for years never had a problem until this year and i feel something needs to be

[vonnievonnn]

not here to ask a question but to post about my experience this year. i have used turbo tax for years never had a problem until this year and i feel something needs to be said. 

i had my daughter last year , my boyfriend and i live together. he makes more so he was going to claim her. we have now discovered a flaw in turbo tax's questionnaire thats NEVER been fixed from what we discovered for OVER 2 years. in the questionnaire yes I PUT i have a dependent but the questionnaire continued to ask for my daughter SSN AFTER i had put that i am the one that's NOT claiming her. i now have to amend MY taxes (which taxes up to 16 weeks) and my boyfriend cant even e-file for the year or else he will be audited and has to fill his return by hand and also send it by mail. 

turbo tax was no help to us, no one even called us back. yes i will admit from what one of the customer service reps said i shouldn't of put my daughter at all BUT why is it that if i'm answering NO to claiming my child turbo tax is rewarding me with the EIC . i'm not a tax professional , this program is meant to help people like me who wants their taxes done quick and simple without having to pay an absurd amount of money to get them done when you know you're not getting  that much back anyways. 

so until turbo tax fixes this problem they have lost two customers. you have ALL this time to fix your software issues when tax season is over but you have yet fixed the problem. which is not ok, i hope THIS rant helps many like my boyfriend and myself and maybe this might draw some attention to get the problem fixed for the future tax filers to come. 

[macuser_22]

Why would you enter her on you tax return at all if the father (I am assuming that the BF is the father otherwise he cannot claim her at all) if he is claiming?

If you live together then only one parent can claim and should not be on the other parents tax return at all. 

There is no problem, you probably indicated that you have a custody agreement in the interview when no such agreement can exist because you are not separated parents.

If you both live with the child, you can agree who claims the child and all the benefits. The child can only be on one return and not on the other at all. The benefits cannot be split.

The dependent interview is confusing since it asks about custody without really explaining what that means. That can lead you to answer the questions in a manner that gives credits to both parents when they both live with the child which is not allowed. The child can only be on one parents tax return and not on the other at all.

*Only* divorced or separated parents that have lived apart for the last 6 months of the year can have a *custody* agreement. The parent that physically lived with the child is the custodial parent and the parent that did not live with the child the non-custodial parent. Under those circumstances the custodial parent can release the child's exempt to the non-custodial parent who did not live with the child with a 8332 form (which is a custody agreement).

When *both* parents live with the child, no such custody agreement can exist since both parents have equal custody and there is no non-custodial parent. The dependent and all the benefits can only be claimed by one parent.

[vonnievonnn]

you're stating is the obvious, I already admitted that I shouldn't of put her information at but that still doesn't fix the underlying issue that if someone is to put YES I have am agreement with the other parent and YES the other parent is claiming their software should NOT be prompting us to STILL put in the child's SSN .

either option you're promoted to put it in , when instead of could be an oh , oops you're not claiming you're child's information should not be on this return and this is why prompt that avoids this as well for the ones that are just honestly filling out the information that is being asked

"The dependent interview is confusing since it asks about custody without really explaining what that means. That can lead you to answer the questions in a manner that gives credits to both parents when they both live with the child which is not allowed. The child can only be on one parents tax return and not on the other at all."

your words not mine , it is confusing and their software shouldn't be giving credits to BOTH parents if it was answered that one ISN'T claiming

[macuser_22]

If both parents live with the child a "custody agreement" is not possible so it simply does not apply.

We (Superusers) have asked TurboTax for at least the last 3 years to change and clarify the wording on that screen to clearly state that it ONLY applies to parents that are divorced or separated and have not lived together at any time during the last 6 months of the year but it falls on deaf ears.  

Every year many unmarried parents that live together answer this wrong because TurboTax refuses to acknowledge that unmarried persons can live together and have children and the legal concept of custody is not apparent to the average user.

[vonnievonnn]

ok, so point proven their software needs to be fixed . done .

[macuser_22]

I could not agree more.