Turbo Tax Cost me $8,000.00 because of incompetence!! Ona West Virginia

I did review them before I filed them. When I answered the question it clearly told me that my oldest daughter didn't qualify for EIC, which I expected. I did however have EIC for my youngest daughter. My ex has claimed my older 2 children for years even though we have a court order saying it's suppose to be every other year. Which btw he has yet to be audited after I have filed complaint after complaint about that. Anyway..after my meeting with the IRS they showed that I claimed EIC for both my girls. Which wasn't the case at all!! I have payment arrangements with the IRS and the lady told me that they wouldn't keep our taxes as long as I kept my payments on time. But reading other horror stories I'm questioning if she just said that or not. Someone changed who I claimed. Turbo Tax still has yet to call me back nor have they responded through email which is how they suggest you contact them. I'm at a loss and I'm irritated.

You may want to do a bit more research.

There are actually rules in place that do not always tie the EIC to the Dependent Tax Exemption. So it is possible that someone else could claim your kids as dependents but you can still get the EIC credit. It really depends on how you answered the other determining questions.

It is way too much to go into here, so you may want to spend a couple hundred dollars to consult a Tax Attorney. If TurboTax did make a mistake they could help you determine that, and then possibly go after TurboTax for the Penalties and Interest(you would still need to pay back any original credit) using their accuracy guarantee and audit assistance.

But TurboTax also gives you a summary and chance to review your taxes before submission. If you really thought checking that someone else could claim them as a dependent was a disqualification for EIC, then when the EIC showed up in your summary why didn't you question it at that time?

But one thing to be aware of with this arrangement you have with your Ex. If they are also taking the EIC every other year, realize that one "test" of the EIC is a residency requirement where the dependents must live with the person claiming the credit more than 50% of the year. The IRS may start to question both of you as to if your kids are actually living with the person claiming the credit more than 50% of the time. If they find that this "test" is not met then the one who is claiming the credit without the residency could be in some serious trouble.

As for "protecting" any refund you would get this year. With a delinquent balance with the IRS any refund will be captured and used to offset your balance. So short of getting the debt cleared before hand, there is nothing you can do legally to keep this from happening. If you are remarried, and it is your current spouse that earned most of the income(and got most of the refund back). If you filed as a Joint Return you may want to have them file for "Injured Spouse" status, it may not work but again something you may want to talk about with a Tax Attorney. You may want to revise your W-4 to have less withholding taken out each paycheck to the the money now instead of having to wait until you file your taxes. As any "refund" you get is money you overpaid them in the first place.

Good Luck