2018 Qualified Dividends Worksheet Not Included in Filing Packet

[jpjtarey]

I filed my 2018 tax in October 2019. Just got a notice that my refund was reduced a significant amount. I called IRS and it turned out IRS did not take into account the 15% reduced tax rate on my qualified dividends. IRS calculated my entire income using the tax table even though I listed qualified dividends on line 3a of my 1040.

As a result, I have to send a letter to contest IRS's miscalculation.

The agent said I should have included the "Qualified Dividends Worksheet" as part of my federal tax return. TurboTax did not include that worksheet as part of the "filing packet" that I generated when I submitted my return. It would have saved me a lot of time and energy.

[DoninGA]

Prior to early December 2019 the PDF download for the 2018 online editions only included the forms and schedules necessary to file a completed tax return.

The worksheets and other information only pages should now be included in the PDF download for 2018.  If you reported qualified dividends on your tax return then a Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Worksheet will be included in the PDF.

To access your current or prior year tax returns sign onto the TurboTax website with the userID you used to create the account - https://myturbotax.intuit.com/

Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and on the section Your tax returns & documents click on Show.  Click on the Year and Click on Download/print return (PDF)

[Critter]

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The agent said I should have included the "Qualified Dividends Worksheet" as part of my federal tax return. TurboTax did not include that worksheet as part of the "filing packet" that I generated when I submitted my return.

FYI ... the IRS is dead wrong ... worksheets are NEVER sent to the IRS not even if you mail in the return per the IRS regs.    So either you entered something in the program wrong  or  you mailed in the return and the IRS data entry clerk made a mistake.  

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[dmertz]

Because all of the information needed to prepare the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet has already been provided to the IRS on line 3a of 2018 Form 1040 and, if present, line 13 of Schedule 1, lines 15 and 16 of Schedule D and line 4g of Form 4952, this worksheet never needs to be sent to the IRS.   TurboTax faithfully prepares the worksheet using this same information.

As Critter suggested, I suspect that an IRS data transcriber made an error when transcribing your mailed tax return.  (This generally would not be a possibility if you e-filed.)

[jpjtarey]

You are correct - I did mail a paper return because I did not trust the Internet to protect my data. Now that I know it is more advantageous to efile, I will do so from now on.

I have been filing paper copies for over 35 years, and this is the first time I encountered a transcription error.

I wonder if the new "simplified" forms were just more confusing to the transcribers.

[Critter]

Data error rates for the overworked underpaid data entry personnel the IRS employs is 20% or higher ... so efiling (error rate of .0001% )   is always the better way to file if you can. 

[dmertz]

You can be pretty confident that the transmission of your tax return to the Intuit server and from the Intuit server and the IRS is at least as secure as the US Mail.  You'll want to obtain your 2018 tax return transcript to find the likely transcription error.  You can do it online (by secure connection) or by mail:

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript