What is causing a federal tax return being rejected due to married filing separately with a child and dependent care expense Error F2441-022? Is this an IRS issue?

[Just-Lisa-Now-]

I didn't think MFS qualified for child care credit.

[JR34625]

It doesn't but you are allowed up to $2,500 in excludible benefits so long as your spouse has earned income

[Terry53029]

there are exceptions for MFS. from pub 503: Not legally separated.  You may also be able to claim the child and dependent care credit even though you aren't legally separated and you file a separate return. See the following examples. Example 1.  Amy separated from her spouse in March. She isn't separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance agreement and uses the married filing separate filing status. Amy maintains a home for herself and Sam, her disabled brother. Sam is permanently and totally disabled and unable to care for himself. Because Sam earns $5,600 in interest income, Amy can't claim him as a dependent (his gross income is greater than $4,150). And, because Amy isn't able to claim Sam as a dependent and she is still married as of the end of the year, she can't use the head of household filing status. Amy’s filing status is married filing separately and Sam qualifies as a qualifying person for the child and dependent care credit. Because of the following facts, Amy is able to claim the credit for child and dependent care expenses even though Amy uses the married filing separately filing status.

[rbynaker · Accepted solution]

My understanding is that this is an IRS bug that was supposed to be fixed on or before 3/17/19.  Best I can tell, it has not been fixed yet.  My guess is this is still an IRS problem.  I googled F2441-022 and Drake has the same problem.  From one of their KB articles:

https://kb.drakesoftware.com/Site/Browse/16081/20190219-Drake18-Update

"An EF message prevents reject F2441-022: Form 2441, line 25, “Excluded benefits,” contains a value greater than zero (“0”). Returns with a filing status of Married Filing Separately that have excluded benefits on Form 2441 are currently being rejected by the IRS. We expect this to be resolved around March 17, 2019. Once Drake Tax confirms with IRS that this issue has been resolved, a program update will be released that will allow this return to be e-filed."