My parents adjusted gross income changed from last year, do i need to file an amended return?

[blindbrookabso]

i am a dependent and when i filed my return it asked for my parents income. now that amount has changed.

[Anonymous_]

@Critter-3 

[rjs]

What year is "last year"? Do you mean that your parents' 2021 income changed, and TurboTax asked for your parent's 2021 income for your 2021 tax return?

Is there a Form 8615 in your 2021 tax return? That's the "kiddie tax" form. If you are subject to kiddie tax, the amount of your tax depends partly on your parents' income. If the change in their income would make a significant difference in your tax, you will have to file an amended return.

The only way to know for sure if the change will make a significant difference is to recalculate your tax return with the new amount of your parents' income. Do not do that in TurboTax Online because it will change the saved copy of the tax return that you filed. Do a "what-if" tax return without modifying your actual filed tax return. You could buy a copy of the CD/Download TurboTax software for 2021, download your 2021 tax data file (the .tax2021 file), and use that to do your what-if. Or you could try preparing a what-if 2021 tax return using IRS Free File, but you would have to do the entire tax return from scratch. In either case, you're just doing the what-if return to see the resulting tax. You are not going to file it. (The what-if tax return is not an amended return.)

[blindbrookabso]

Yes it filled out the 8615. I used an estimated amount since my parents return wasn't done until later.  I don't think it's worth spending the money to download the software and i see online there's a cancel amendment option, can't i just do the what if online and if there's no difference in tax owed just cancel it?

[Opus 17]

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@blindbrookabso wrote:

Yes it filled out the 8615. I used an estimated amount since my parents return wasn't done until later.  I don't think it's worth spending the money to download the software and i see online there's a cancel amendment option, can't i just do the what if online and if there's no difference in tax owed just cancel it?

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Yes, if your parents income is different than what you entered on form 8615, you should recalculate your own taxes.  It might be your parents filed late and you didn't know their income, or it might be they filed an amended return.

Most of the experts here don't use the online program, we prefer the download and they are slightly different.  If the online program has a "cancel amendment" function (which would be a fairly recent addition) then yes, you can start to prepare an amended return, change the income figures, and if it does not change your tax, you can cancel the amended return and not file it.

However, before starting to amend, I would take the extra precaution of downloading a copy of your unmodified tax data file, and print or download the PDF of your unmodified tax return, in case the amendment cancelation doesn't work the way it's supposed to. 

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/import-export-data-files/save-turbotax-o...

[blindbrookabso]

thanks, I ran through it and it said i owe $2 more, does that warrant an amended return?

[Critter-3]

No ... do not amend for that small amount. 

[Opus 17]

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@Critter-3 wrote:

No ... do not amend for that small amount. 

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I agree, don't bother.

[rjs]

"Cancel amendment" only removes the Form 1040-X. It does not undo the changes to the tax return. You have to manually undo any changes that you made.