Dependent care credit critical diagnostic MFS with dependent care benefits. Spouse still lives with taxpayer so not unmarried. Ref #51763

[brien-gregan]

Attempting to claim the dependent care credit exclusion for MFS taxpayer and receive critical diagnostic.  Taxpayer is not considered unmarried for dependent care purposes, but should be able to exclude the $2,500 of DCB received and still e-file.  How to address the critical diagnostic reference #51763

[itonewbie · Accepted solution]

Are you able to exclude the DCB?  If so, are you able to check off that diagnostic to e-file?

This is a known problem, at least with MFJ/MFS comparison on the PTO side (which uses Lacerte as the  since last year.  Haven't tried this on a return but it most likely is related.

Intuit misunderstood that the rules for dependent care credit would apply equally to the exclusion of DCB.  We had a protracted technical discussion with Intuit in November on FB because they (mis)applied that to the MFJ/MFS comparison and tried to defend their position based on the flawed logic.  We managed to put them on the right track but Intuit confirmed last week that the issue has not been fixed yet because their developers are "in the midst of deploying new forms and ensuring all tax reform changes meet IRS code."  Apparently, misapplication of existing tax code is less of a concern to Intuit.