I am late to this party and have not been contacted by the IRS but after many years of simply trusting TT I decided to look into my credit. I did pay AMT between 2007 and 20012. A total of a little over $17k over 6 years. Based on the pdf I made of my 2007 return there was no Form 8801 filed with the return which makes sense to me based on the fact that it was the first year I paid AMT. My 2008 pdf does include a Form 88001. Line 19 is supposed to pull a value from the 2007 8801. Since there was no 8801 that year it should have been zero on the 2008. Instead TT appears to have pulled my 2007 AMT income from Form 6251 line 28. I only paid $597 in AMT in 2007, so I guess I should have notice this huge difference. I am learning not to trust TT.
So over the next 5 years (2008-2012) I continue to pay AMT and the credit amount carried forward only increases by $4. In 2013 I claim a $2408 credit and the amount carried forward decreased by that amount. That part makes sense. In 2014 I claim a $170 credit, but my carried forward amount increases by 2.5 times the 2013 amount. The 2014 Form 8801 Line 16 is supposed to pull 2013 Form 6251 Line 35. My 2013 Form 6251 Line 35 is zero. That is because I stopped paying AMT. TT pulled $276k from out of the blue and put it on 2014 8801 Line 16 which made my carryover credit huge.
Over the ensuing years 2015 to 2021 I have an average credit of $4308. The sum of credits for years 2018-2021 is $26566. Near as I can tell I have been underpaying at least since 2015.
Now I need to figure out how to stop taking this credit. Hopefully I can just delete 8801 from my return going forward.
