Yes, yes, yes! Thank you. And I knew that, dah.. it's amazing what my brain forgets or gets jumbled when I've been researching something way too long. 

And I also see Lacerte did NOT calculate the repayment protection correctly or at all for the nonclaiming spouse. She would not have to pay the $900 back (based on my calcs.  Their split income is only around $47,000 each.)  Of course, I can't tell what Lacerte did because when I made a copy of the joint return and split it, it only split off his and made another copy of the joint return instead of also splitting off hers... which is whole 'nother issue.