What is form 15111

[gennyharris]

I have been using Turbo tax for 5 years I have been a loyal customer, I'm a single mother of 3 making $27000. I received a letter from the IRS telling me I did not claim my Earned income credit, How can Turbo Tax make such a significant mistake? They advertise they are free but it never is, I was charged quite a bit for the taxes and now I get this letter, I trusted them to be diligent...

How do I fix this I cant even amend my taxes, I don't think I'll be using them again next year if I don't get some type of support. This is a big problem I see I'm not the only one by reading other posts.

[LenaH]

TurboTax will automatically calculate the Earned Income Credit to your return and guide your through the correct screens, if you qualify for the credit. There may have been a reason you did not qualify for the Earned Income Credit or something entered into TurboTax which prevented those screens from populating. Please review the requirements below (especially the bolded section about qualifying children). Based on your income level, your children must be considered qualifying children in order to be eligible for the credit. 

To qualify for and claim the Earned Income Credit you must:

• Have earned income; and
• Have been a U.S. citizen or resident alien for the entire tax year; and
• Have a valid Social Security number (not an ITIN) for yourself, your spouse (if filing jointly), and any qualifying children on your return; and
• Not have investment income exceeding $3,650; and
• Not be filing a Form 2555 or 2555-EZ; and
• File a return with the Single, Married Filing Jointly, Head of Household, or Qualifying Widower filing status, even if you're not required to file a return.

In addition, both your earned income and Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) may not exceed:

• $15,820 if you're not claiming a qualifying child ($21,710 if filing jointly);
• $41,756 if you're claiming 1 qualifying child ($47,646 if filing jointly);
• $47,440 if you're claiming 2 qualifying children ($53,330 if filing jointly);
• $50,954 if you're claiming 3+ qualifying children ($56,844 if filing jointly).

To count as a qualifying child for EIC, your child must have a valid Social Security number (not an ITIN).

She or he must also:

• Be your child (including legally adopted), stepchild, eligible foster child, sibling, half-sibling, step-sibling, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild or niece); and
• Be permanently and totally disabled or under the age of 19 as of December 31, 2020 (under 24 if a full-time student) and younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly); and
• Have lived with you (or your spouse, if filing jointly) for more than half the year in the United States (unless you were in the military); and
• Not file jointly with their spouse unless they weren't required to file but did so anyway to claim a tax refund.

If you qualified for the Earned Income Credit, based on the guidelines above, then you can follow the instructions on amending your 2020 return on the page How do I amend my 2020 return?.

​​​​​​​Once you elect to amend your return, you can search for the Earned Income Credit Section by following the steps below:

1. Open your return.
2. Search for EIC with the magnifying glass tool at the top of the page.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions. 

​​​​​​​If you amend your return to include the Earned Income Credit, there is no reason to send back IRS Form 15111. Form 15111 is a worksheet to help you determine whether you qualify for the EIC based on the dependents listed on your return. If you qualify, all the necessary information will be in your amended return. 

[gennyharris]

Well it clearly did NOT automatily calculate the EIC. I was notified that I was entitled to it and that I had not clamed it, I did everything your program told me to clearly it was not human error and I cant help wonder what else am I missing out on? The IRS contacted me to tell me that I'm am entitled to a significant larger return than your program said I was. Not to mention that you advertise that it is FREE but, it if not free there was not free filing available as an option. I have been using Turbo Tax for 5 years and if your program has made the same error every year? that means I have lost over $45,000.00 in tax returns. I'm a single mother of 4 making $30,000.00 I trusted that your program was reliable.

[gloriah5200]

Form 15111 is a US Treasury Form that is a questionnaire of the dependents on your return to see if they qualify for EIC.  This is an IRS Internal Form.  They should have sent it to you to complete if they wanted you to send it back to them.

IRS also uses it when more than one person has claimed the same dependent on a return to determine who is really entitled to claim the dependent on their return.

Refer to the information above to determine if you qualify to claim the children for EIC and how to be sure it is entered correctly in the return.  It could be that you did receive EIC on your return using your 2020 income, but maybe you would get more Earned Income Credit if you used your 2019 income.

If you share a custody agreement for the children, then entering less than 6 months living with you will cause you not to get earned income credit for them. 

Please look back at your return on Form 1040 line 27 to see if there is an amount of Earned Income Credit already on your return, but you might qualify for more, is why IRS has contacted you with the inquiry.

For this year's earned income credit you can calculate the 2020 Earned Income Credit based on the 2019 tax return or the 2020 tax return.  If you did not have the 2019 amounts handy at the time, you might check now with those amounts to see if you can get additional Earned income credit based on the 2019 return instead of using the 2020 return amounts. 

You will probably have to go into the return and amend it to do the calculations to see which year's amounts are more beneficial.

Yes, you can use your 2019 earned income instead of your 2020 income to compute the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit if your 2019 earned income was more than your 2020 earned income. 

Please wait until your original return has been processed before filing an amended return (Form-X). You can e-file your 2020 amended federal tax return, but most states require amendments to be printed and filed by mail. Please see FAQ How to amend a tax return for instructions.

Please see Where's My Amended Return? to check the status of your amended return.

Please follow these steps in TurboTax to calculate the Earned Income Credit with the 2019 earned income:

1. Login to your TurboTax Account 
2. Click on the Search box on the top and type "EIC"
3. Click on “Jump to EIC”
4. Answer the questions until you reach the screen "Do you want to use last year’s earned income?"
5. Note your current refund amount using your 2020 earned income at the top of the screen.
6. Click "Yes", enter your "2019 Earned Income" if the field is blank and click "continue".
7. Compare the new refund amount using your 2019 earned income with the previously noted refund amount using your 2020 earned income.
8. If your new refund amount is lower click "back" and then select "No" for the "Do you want to use your 2019 income to calculate this credit instead?" question.

You also may use your 2019 income for the Child Tax Credit:

1. Login to your TurboTax Account 
2. Click on the Search box on the top and type "Child tax credit"
3. Click on “Jump to child tax credit”
4. Answer the questions until you reach the screen "Do you want to use last year’s earned income?"
5. Note your current refund amount using your 2020 earned income at the top of the screen.
6. Click "Yes", enter your "2019 Earned Income" if the field is blank and click "continue".
7. Compare the new refund amount using your 2019 earned income with the previously noted refund amount using your 2020 earned income.
8. If your new refund amount is lower click "back" and then select "No" for the "Do you want to use your 2019 income to calculate this credit instead?" question.

Here is a link on how to amend your tax return to do that:

How to amend your return to use 2019 income for 2020 EIC

Here is a link to the US Treasury Form 15111 that you can fill out online and then print it to send back to IRS with the response from the letter they sent you and print a copy for your records.

IRS Internal Form 15111

[georginaabustill]

I Agree the same here turbo tax asked me has anything changed and I said no.. So this has been not only a headache but it's also an inconvenience I really could use that money I co11unted on. TurboTax never even helped with find form 15111 they gave me an excuse that was so ridiculous I will not use them no more and tell family n friends they can't be counted on. Sucks for me cause now I'm waiting 16 weeks really ill be on the street forsure by that time sucks.. I am struggling and paying the cost for TurboTax mistake. Thank you Turbo tax..

[arainuzzo]

I have also received the aforementioned notice which was sent recently and received yesterday although I have already completed my income tax about a month ago, what is going on with Turbotax, how can you be messing so much recently?. I am playing catch up with unpaid bills since I was unemployed for most of 2020 and I could well be using any extra money, after all I paid for all the "extra services" added to my "free" tax return advertised by Intuit/Turbotax

[02213140625]

I want a refund .. how can turbotax have the same mistake for all these people .REFUND REFUND

[cbowie17]

I also did not get this tax credit added this year and we’ve qualified every year for the past few years. So we’ve been missing almost $6k. Filled out the forms in March. Still waiting for the refund. Unable to get ahold of them. Sigh. Anyone else have any luck yet?

[imyraj]

I will also no longer be using TurboTax as other have said I also did not get an EIC I now have to go through all previous years that I used turbo tax.  

Thanks for making me waste $130.00 a year and still not get my full refund

[cbowie17]

Just an update, we actually did get a payment from the irs for the missed credit - we returned the paperwork in March and got it in November! With 40$ interest 🤣

[Jess930]

I received the same notice in the mail about 1 week after I filed my taxes for last year. I didn’t qualify for this at first but I had to amend my return last year and it qualifies me now. 

[maria_0637]

Where do you mail form 15111 to?

[DaveF1006]

To clarify, where do you live?

[Jess930]

I believe I sent it somewhere in Texas 

[Jess930]

I live in Illinois