Does marital filing status effect eligibility for child tax credit

[ADMx2]

My wife and I filed our 2021 taxes with TurboTax by filing a joint return.  By filing this way we did receive the child tax credit but because of our joint income we were ineligible for the stimulus money.  After submitting our tax return I later read an article that stated some couples could still benefit from the stimulus and possibly come out with a higher return by filing separately if one of the couple's income was under the 50k~ stimulus threshold and that parent claimed the dependents.  With this thought planted in my head I logged into TurboTax and created a draft amendment for our joint return where changed the filing status to married filing separately and removed the wife and kids.  I then created a new return for the wife (married filing separately) and had her claim the dependents.  The overall return for this actually ended up to be about $1,800 higher between the two of our returns so I went ahead and amended the first return and submitted hers before the April deadline.  Fast forward to September, the IRS notified us they found an error with her return (submitted through TurboTax) and what we are now getting back is about $1,100 lower than had we filed jointly.  I immediately called a H&R block advisor so I could speak to someone in person about my situation and they are telling me that filing "Married filing Separately" makes you ineligible for the child tax credit and that's why the IRS reduced our return.  My question is, is this correct?  If so, why would TurboTax allow you to claim the child tax credit as Married filing separately if this is not authorized?  I am now stuck with a lower return had I left it alone and I am unsure how to proceed.  Any assistance/guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[EricE_CPA]

Hi ADMx2

Generally, married couples must file a joint return to take the credit. However, if you are legally separated or living apart from your spouse, you may be able to file a separate return and still take the credit.

If you are filing married filing separately to claim the child tax credit to be  eligible to take the credit if all the following apply.

1. You file a return apart from your spouse.

2. Your home is the home of a qualifying person for more than half the year.

3. You pay more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the year.

4. Your spouse doesn't live in your home for the last 6 months of the year.

With that said, when you amended your tax return to Married Filing Separate (claiming child tax credit) you were claiming to the IRS that you met the above 4 criteria.

The IRS in-turn found you didn't meet the criteria and as a result your tax liability is worse than if you just filed married filing jointly.

I recommend that you re-amend your tax return back to Married Filing Jointly.

[ADMx2]

I understand.  Now that I know I need to amend and resubmit them, I have a question on how to amend my wife's.  Re-amending mine should be pretty straight forward as I will just convert it back to married filing separately however, how should I amend my wife's from married filing separately to married filing jointly?  Do I amend hers, zero out all of the blocks and put a comment in there somewhere to refer to my re-amended return?

[ADMx2]

Additionally, for the record I believe TurboTax should prompt users to acknowledge that all four of those criteria apply to them when filing separately before the program allows you to claim this credit.  There was no indication given that would have made me think we were not eligible for this and it would have saved me a lot of heartache.

[EricE_CPA]

Original return:  Married Filing Jointly

Amended return:  Married Filing Separately (yours)

Amended return:  HeadOfHousehold MFS (your wife)

Re-amend ONE return as Married Filing Jointly noting in explanation the final amended return is for both of you

[SuziM]

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[xmasbaby0]

@ADMx2 The tax laws do not allow you to amend a joint return to separate returns after the April filing deadline.

If you filed separate returns you are allowed to amend one of the returns to file jointly.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1899507-how-do-i-amend-a-separate-return-to-married-filing-jointly