Client is divorced with 2 kids. She's not sure whether she can claim them or not, and whether her husband will be claiming them. I figured the tax both ways -- with the kids and without them. The refund is SMALLER if she claims the kids.

I thought, "That doesn't make sense." So I started to look at it.

Customer has marketplace insurance, and she didn't take any of the premium tax credit during the year. 

When I entered the information including the kids, it gives her $0 as a premium tax credit on her return. 

When I take out the kids, it gives her $5,784 as a premium tax credit.

In other words, a single woman with no kids gets a SIGNIFICANTLY larger credit than a head-of-household woman with two kids (who also qualified for EIC, CTC, etc.)?!?!?!?!?

I even right-clicked to see where it was pulling the information from. The pull says it should put $5,784 in that cell, but when I add the kids, it decides not to do that. When I take out the kids, it adds it back in.

Please tell me this is a software error, and not something actually written into our tax code? I mean, I know a lot of it is designed to screw poor people, but this would be beyond obnoxious.