Prior-Year Earned Income (PYEI) for EIC and CTC

[MBA_CA]

2019 Earned Income Election for EIC / CTC, Screen 38.2 doesn't seem to flow into the tax return.   Has this worked for anyone else?  Is Lacerte planning to make the calculation automatic?

[Karl]

Have you found a solution elsewhere? I just noticed that I'm having the same issue.  I sent my client file to tech support through Tools>Communications>LacerteEmail and am awaiting a response.

But I figured I'd engage your post to see if you had called or otherwise found another solution.

I tried overriding the EIC amount in the 38.2 window, but then it blocks e-file.

[Karl]

After an hour on the phone with tech support, the best they could suggest is overriding the EIC and paper-filing the return.  I (as politely as I could muster) told them to fix their software error. I guess I'm e-filing my return as-is and amending later when they fix it.

[Karl · Accepted solution]

So I'm an idiot this time around. My client is phasing OUT of the EIC.  2020 income was higher than 2019.  This election is for when taxpayers are phasing INTO the EIC at the lower end of the income range.

So my client isn't eligible for a higher EIC.  Would be nice if Lacerte could have done an informational diagnostic on that to save us all a whole lot of time.

Hopefully this helps save someone else some time.

[MBA_CA]

Hey, it's tax season.   Very few of us get everything right first time around with the plethora of new laws.