If you used Turbo Tax in all of the previous years, you might have a bone to pick with them.

Technically, they offer a 100% calculation guarantee, and arguably this is a case where questions must be asked before they let you take a credit. See HERE for how to file a claim.

If all of your previous years were in TT, then the program SHOULD have had an exception to tell you you weren't eligible, IMHO.

Now, if you didn't use TT all of those years, then this is more of a gray area. I'm not going to fire up my old TT to check, but did the program ASK you if you were eligible and ask you questions to check?

To my way of thinking, TT should have a question there to tell you of the limit and ask if it's been claimed 4 times - at which point if you click through to take it anyway, it's on you.

IF their program didn't ask you anything but just willy-nilly let you take the credit, that's one thing (and I'd argue a serious problem on their part).

IF it asked if you were eligible, and you clicked yes, that's another (to my way of thinking, they should question this precisely, but there you go, you click yes, it's on you).

IF it had your records for the previous four years, knew you took the credit and LET you take it - well, that's just bad programming, and as far as I'm concerned, I'd still file for the accuracy guarantee in a minute.

As another example, once upon a time, I took the energy tax credit, which over the years has varied and has a life time limit. To my way of thinking, TT, which has my records for all of those years, should know that I have taken it and not let me take it again. Or it should at least ASK me if I've taken it before. Then if I clicked "take the credit", then it's on me. I honestly haven't checked in years to see if they are doing that, but they should.

(Disclaimer, back in the day, I beta tested for TT. I haven't for some years. I did not focus on this part of the program, however, testing boundaries, limits and exceptions was a particular thing with me.)