Red alert. $6000 was half your 401k contribution? You most likely did not have excess contributions.
The 401k contribution limit for 2022 was $20,500, plus $6500 if you are over age 50. Your employer may have lower limits but only if they fail certain testing procedures that they tell you about in the spring of the following year. Your employer is also required to block excess contributions. The only way to have an excess 401k contribution is to switch employers in mid-year so that the total contributed in both programs is more than your limit.
However, if you enter your 401k contribution in the "IRA" section of Turbotax, many bad things will happen. If you told Turbotax that you made $12,000 or more of IRA contributions when it was really a 401k, you would have been told you had a $6000 excess. A 401k is not an IRA, they are controlled by different laws and have different rules. An IRA is a private account you set up with a bank or broker of your choice, not through your employer.
A 401k is only reported on your W-2, no where else. If you tell Turbotax that you made IRA contributions when you really had a 401k at work, then you will be told incorrectly that you have excess that needs to be removed. You will also take an incorrect tax deduction for your contributions when they were already tax-free from your employer on your W-2.
Please review your situation and post back with more information. There are things you need to do to correct this, and some of them have time limits (60 days or less.)
