Form 5049 my husband and I did live together all year, but wants explanation we maintained seperate homesteads?? How do I fix this error?

[Jaredw19]

I too reside in MI, married filing separately. The system is not working right. I have done all the steps you say to fix the problem, answered all questions correctly. Can someone PLEASE pretend to be us and run through it to see the system has a glitch? I am very disappointed and may have to use another product if this not fixed. 

[zerotaxesplease]

Dear @KathrynG3 ,

Thanks for your help. I followed your advice with one caveat and it seems to have worked. The caveat is that before I follow your: 'Option 1: You do not need Form 5049', I deleted the Form 5049 manually from my Form view (Top Left Corner).

Again, not sure if it is because they fixed it with the updates (since my question is about 3 weeks old) or your advice combined with deleting the form did the trick.

For other people, I am going to add my situation. I believe this is the same situation people are describing in this specific thread/forum and the solution above worked for me:

- The form 5049 is for Michigan. This is the Form: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/taxes/5049_674639_7.pdf. 

- The form indicates: This form is intended to assist you to correctly calculate total household resources for the Homestead Property Tax Credit (MI-1040CR or MI-1040CR-2) or Home Heating Credit (MI-1040CR-7) when married, filing separately or divorced during the tax year.

- My wife and I are married.

- My wife and I are filing together.

- My wife and I own a home in Michigan.

- My wife and I lived in that home for the entire year.

- My wife and I paid for Property Taxes for such home.

- My wife and I do not qualify for any of these credits that is what this form is used for. That is, we do not qualify for the Homestead Property Tax Credit, nor for the Home Heating Credit due to various factors.

- My wife and I are using the latest and updated (as of Mar 24, 2020) TurboTax Not-Online Home & Business 2019 for MacOs.

- My wife and I do not want form 5049 appearing in the preparation of Michigan Taxes since it does not apply to us as indicated above. In addition, TurboTax indicates there is an error in the form since it However, for some reason, TurboTax was trying to and it is asking for an explanation why we maintained separate homesteads.

[KathrynG3]

Since you are still experiencing unexpected results, then it would be helpful to have a TurboTax ".tax2019" file that is experiencing this issue. You can send us a “diagnostic” file that has your “numbers” but not your personal information. If you would like to do this, here are the instructions:

For TurboTax Online:

• From the left menu, click Tax Tools>
• Tools>
• Share my file with agent click send
• There will be a pop-up with a token number

For TurboTax Desktop:

• On your menu bar at the very top, click "Online">
• Send Tax File to Agent click send
• The pop-up will have a token number

I'll be able to open TurboTax with your numbers but not your personal information. That may help diagnose the issue. 

@Jaredw19

[KathrynG3]

If you are still experiencing an error, I would like to record these unexpected results.

It would be helpful to have a TurboTax ".tax2019" file that is experiencing this issue. You can send us a “diagnostic” file that has your “numbers” but not your personal information. If you would like to do this, here are the instructions:

For TurboTax Desktop:

• On your menu bar at the very top, click "Online">
• Send Tax File to Agent click send
• The pop-up will have a token number

I'll be able to open TurboTax with your numbers but not your personal information. That may help diagnose the issue. 

@zerotaxesplease

[Jaredw19]

I have submitted the file, token # 628959. Thank you for your help. 

[CatinaT1]

Here is how you can connect with a Tax Expert.  We have no ability so see your tax return on this forum.

[Jaredw19]

I am following the steps you lay out in option 2, because I need form 5049. I live in MI filing separately, and need this form to put my income with my spouses. when following your instructions, I get all the way to your point "homestead property tax credit click no", once I click no, it takes me back to the "take a look at Michigan credits and taxes page. It completely skips your last steps of "total household income required click continue, click done with credits and taxes, married filing separate click yes, enter the dates you lived together and click continue, prorate your income on Form 5049 and click continue". I know I need to fill in the 5049 portion with my wifes income, but it won't let me, and I know the system is not showing me the right pages because when my wife did her taxes, it had her fill in my information in hers. I have tried completely deleting EVERYTHING and starting over, but I still can not get these last sets of questions to pop up for me.

[KathrynG3]

I have looked over your return and am getting the same results. But, going through it, I think it is because the property taxes are not showing. In fact, those details are entered in the Federal section.

Even though you will be taking the standard deduction, follow these steps to enter the taxes:

• From the left menu, select Federal
• Deductions & Credits
• Scroll down to Your Home
• Select Property Taxes and Update
• You may want to each do this so that together you total to the full property taxes paid, based on who paid what

Once this is in place, you should get to the next screen as described. 

If you continue to not see Form 1040CR and Form 5049, I would recommend TurboTax CD/Download. It is easier to see the income allocation screens in TurboTax CD/Download. 

Click the link for How do I switch from TurboTax Online to the TurboTax software?

From the 2019 Michigan MI-1040CR Instructions, page 4:

Thank you for your patience, @Jaredw19. Please post back and let me know the results of entering the property taxes before returning to the State Property Tax Credit section and going through that interview again.

[ewzimo79]

This still seems to be an issue. My wife and I file separately and cannot edit the 5049 form to add our respective incomes. When I try to submit, it wants me to explain why we lived in separate locations when we answer No to this question. 

I have tried deleting my whole return and starting over.

I have tried deleting/readding property tax information.

Please fix this issue or allow me to just edit this form, I should not have to download the program to fix.

[KrisD15]

That form is not supported by the TurboTax software: 

MI forms in TurboTax

[darthurbrown]

This is still a pretty egregious bug in TurboTax and a pretty unsettling oversight. It does not inspire confidence in the accuracy of the software.

And instructing people to download a separate App is not something everyone having this issue can or should do.

The problem:
1. Spouses live together for a whole year.
2. Both spouses accurately fill out TurboTax prompts in Michigan form.
3. TurboTax points to an error on Form 5049 that was never prompted for a reply and does not accurately reflect living situation.

That's a pretty big logical failure that needs an immediate fix.

More concerning is that TurboTax seems to be interpreting information inaccurately that the user never provided.... So, where is it getting that information from?

[Macarr]

I’m having this same issue with my state (Michigan) return

[ewzimo79]

Go do your taxes on TaxAct. I have had this problem every year with TurboTax, tried TaxAct this year and no issues. Much easier to use.

[Fb66]

FYI I was able to get around this by deleting the entire MI return and then answering “No” when it asked me if I owned or rented property in MI. It seems like if you go down the path of checking for that credit at all, you can’t get rid of the 5049. I hope this helps someone out there!

[Klye88]

I had the same problem with this 5049 form. I live in MI. Tried deleting the form like one response said, but the form regenerated on it's own. In the "Explanation" I put that my spouse and I shared the homestead all year and that this form was generated in error.

Hopefully TurboTax resolves this issue.