What-if Worksheet - Wrong Tax Rates

[JSR62]

Dear TT, 

Your What-if form needs to be fixed to show 2022 Tax Rates. When the "Check box to use 2022 tax rates" is ticked (in any column), the tax rates don't change to 2022. Nor does the standard deduction.

If you could do it soon, it would be nice...I see another thread with a similar complaint going back quite a few months...

And to answer your question, I'm up to date - version [phone number removed], and Turbotax.exe says 2021.47.40.107

Thanks!

[Anonymous_]

This issue has been reported and escalated.

Thank you.

[JSR62]

Well, it might have been reported and escalated, but...  still no update to 2022 tax rates or standard deduction for What-if. 

Bigger problems, though. Still on the What-if page... this one's clearly an error, not a data update. 

Note that this all relates to 2021, not 2022.

Here's what happens:

I enter all my 2021 data into TT and complete my return with no errors.

I create a What-if form. I look at column 1. Everything matches up with the return data I entered, as I would expect. In particular, I'm looking at the figures associated with the Premium Tax Credit (form 8962). I scroll down and see that line 46 is blank, meaning that I don't have to repay any of the credit.  I scroll down to line 68, and it has an amount of $155, meaning that the credit was underpaid and I'm due back that amount. That's all correct.

At this point I haven't done anything but look at the What-if form.

I click on the box to copy column 1 to column 2 (I also tried column 1 to column 3 - same outcome). That's the only thing I do. No other changes anywhere, don't click anything, don't change tax years, don't change any other forms, etc.

But...when I scroll down, column 1 is unchanged, but in column 2 (and column 3) line 46 says I owe $300, and line 68 is blank. I click the boxes at the top to clear columns 2 and 3 and copy again from 1 to 2 and 1 to 3, and the same thing happens. Makes no sense.

I had been relying on the What-if forms to do some tax planning; fortunately I double-checked a few figures in Quicken and they were off. I'm just glad I figured it out before I completed any transactions based on what it was telling me. 

At least I now know not to rely on TT to do any tax planning, which is unfortunate.  And I'm not saying Quicken is the answer - it certainly has its flaws, but it does have the 2022 rates all set up in its tax planner... 

[NCperson]

@JSR62 - here is a quick workaround - since this is an estimate in any event, reduce line 44a by ~2% and place the result on Line 70.   is it exact? no. does it really have to be if it is an estimate only? 

otherwise, the result slightly overstates what you owe / understates a refund that would be due.

the 'what if' sheet for 2022 does reflect that there are no recovery rebate credits, the child tax credit is only $2,000, etc, so all the pandenic related tax breaks that have expired appeared to be reflected correctly in 2022 what if.

[JSR62]

@NCperson  - correct - we're not talking rocket science here, and that's obviously a workaround. And I'm not raising any issues related to the calculation of anything that's pandemic-related.

Let me clarify:

What I'm saying is that the What-if form has boxes above columns 2, 3, and 4 that one can tick if they want 2022 tax rates to be used for those columns. When one ticks those boxes, however, the column still uses 2021 rates and the 2021standard deduction.  The boxes are not grayed out, but should be, or there should be some kind of notification that 2021 rates are still being used, because someone unfamiliar with tax rates, etc. may not realize the error.

I agree with you - there are always workarounds; the standard deduction can be easily overridden to $12,950 for 2022, for example, but the tax rates are more problematic, as is the other problem I mentioned earlier with regard to the Premium Tax Credit (which is not pandemic-related, in case that's what you were suggesting). But again, one would have to be familiar with those things (and what the correct figures are) to be able to recognize them and make the necessary changes.

I hope that helps.