Tax Act allowed incorrect credit

[Randy Haynes]

I have a new client who filed using Tax Act online last year. She had no earned income, but the program allowed her to show a traditional IRA contribution with no 6% penalty and gave her the Retirement Savings Contribution credit to bring her amount due down to 0. Has anyone else seen TaxAct or any other software that does not flag this as an error? Since she is supposed to pay the penalty until that contribution is removed, do I need to file an amended return for last year to show the contribution, or can I just update the IRA information worksheet for this year and have her withdraw the excess contribution to correct the situation?

[qbteachmt]

Both. Everything about the 2019 filing was wrong, so you would amend it and take action for 2020 filing before its due date.