Turbotax is asking me to correct schedule 8812

[justin1956]

I have no children.  I tried to remove the form - it did not work.  I am using the CD/Desktop version of turbotax.

If I ignore smart correct - shall I just continue as is?

[Bsch4477]

If you had no advanced payments enter zero. 

[justin1956 · Accepted solution]

That did not work.  I do not have any children.

I ended up going back and filing out the entire family section to fix the error.  

this is a bug in TurboTax.

[gustof]

I have no clue what they are looking for. All my children are grown and have children of their own.

[Vanessa A]

You should be able to just answer no if you are seeing this in the final review section.  It is asking everyone if they received the advance child tax credit payments.  Some people who no longer have eligible children did receive the payments. 

You can also go back to Deductions and Credits>>Show More next to you and your family>>Start next to Advance Payments, Child and Other Dependent Tax Credits and answer no you did not receive any of the advance payments. 

[jdelmonte]

I went the Deductions and Credits route myself.    IMHO TT should make this mandatory to answer before you get to the end (error checking)

[DawnC]

If you go through TurboTax from beginning to end, you will get the Child Tax Credit (and advance payments) questions in the Deductions and Credits - You and Your Family section.   Most people that do not have dependents will skip this section.   TurboTax forces you to answer these questions in the review area only if you skipped over that section when you prepared your return.   

There are people who claimed dependents in 2020 but are not claiming those dependents this year.   They may have received advance payments for the dependents they claimed in the previous year.   They may have to pay some of that back, maybe not.   Worst case scenario, you received a payment, don't have to pay it back but did not enter it - if that happens, you are looking at a very long delay in processing.    To prevent tax returns being filed without this crucial piece of information and the long delays that will trigger, TurboTax requires everyone to answer those questions.     @jdelmonte

Child Tax Credit Info Center

[Shuuu]

Yup!🏆🍾 Had to do the same thing. Back to my personal info, still showed zero dependents, just re-saved everything. Problem automatically solved back at error check. A stupid program glitch that can take hours to solve. I just got lucky.

[Critter-3]

I have run more than a dozen test returns and I have had absolutely no issues with this question either by completing the complete interview screen by screen or jumping to the end and having to fix the errors in the review tab.  This is not a system failure but a user entry error.  

[justin1956]

I had no problem reproducing the problem and the solution.  My success rate is 100%.

It is clearly a bug in the program.  

Follow the “wizard “ / instructions and enter that you have zero dependents.  It will allow you to proceed to the next item of entry.

When you finally get to the check your return portion - it will state that you need to correct schedule 8812.  Which does not apply for those with no dependents/children.

To correct - go back and fill out the family dependent section even though nothing applies- just be sure to have entries.  Doing so eliminates the error at the check later on.